this country to make the profit, for they will take the offices very willingly without any salary, for the honor of the office and the advantage to their goods—­both in having a place to load them, and in making a profit from them in Nueva Espana.  Thus will be saved some salaries for captain, assistants, and other officers; and to give them salaries is more of a means of profit to those who fill the posts than an advantage or necessity, since we have citizens, as has been said, who will accept them without salaries.  For these positions to be given in such a way that respectable people may come to this country, it is necessary that these officials remain in service here, instead of coming simply for their own interest and a right to space and cargo on the return voyage, in a country of so much worth, and so advantageous, but so hurtful if there is a lack of respectable people.

And in order that the vessels may sail in a proper state of preparation, and so that it may not be necessary to lighten them (as ordinarily happens, to the great loss of the poorest and most needy, as above said), it is especially important that the assessments and charges for lightening be divided proportionally among all the goods carried in the said vessels, [10] so that, the losses thus being general, they will strive to avoid incurring them; and if some goods are more valuable the losses may be shared among all, so that they may be less oppressive and hurtful to the poor.

[On the back is written:  “I entreat your Majesty, for the service of our Lord, and your own, to be pleased to read this paper and letter throughout; for it is important for the reasons I have adduced, and for many others.  Will your Majesty pardon my boldness and prolixity, which are entirely born of an earnest desire, and of the necessity of bringing forward some considerations and arguments which bear upon these matters.  Hence I was unable to shorten it, as I wished and ought to have done.”]

Reception of the Royal Seal at Manila

This is a good and faithful copy of several instruments drawn in regard to the reception of the royal seal of the royal Audiencia and chancilleria, which the king our lord has lately commanded to be reestablished in the city of Manila of the Philipinas Islands; they are set down in the book wherein is recorded the establishment of the said royal Audiencia, and their tenor is as follows: 

In the city of Manila of the Philipinas Islands, on the eighth day of the month of June of the year one thousand five hundred and ninety-eight, Don Francisco Tello, knight of the Order of Santiago, governor and captain-general of these islands for the king our lord, and president of the Audiencia and chancilleria which was ordered to be established there, said that immediately upon the arrival of the last ships from Nueva Espana in this present year, on which came the honorable