The main object of your Majesty’s royal decrees, provisions, and orders given to your governors of these islands, is the prosperity of the citizens thereof; for in that way they become established and settled and the islands populated.  The governors have not always attended to this as they should, for they have regarded this, which is their principal obligation, as accessory and dependent upon their private interests in order that they may become rich with what the citizens are to gain, as is already well known.  And so little is the profit, and so poor the subsistence, of those who live here, and so much is their living interfered with by the governors, and the relatives and dependents whom they bring with them, that, as a result, so little is left for the citizens that they cannot in twenty years make the profit and gain which is acquired in a few years by some of those whom the said governors bring with them.  This has often been experienced.  For the remedy of this I suggest the following things.

The lading of the ships which go to Nueva Espana, the allotment of space in them, and other matters touching this, should be conducted according to, and after the manner directed by, clause five of the letter which accompanies this, regarding matters which concern the royal exchequer.  No cloth should be laded except that which goes according to the allotment; nor should the governor have any authority therein, because, as the superintendents of lading are persons appointed by him and in his confidence, with letters and orders which he gives, much other cloth is laded after the allotment is made.  For the most part this belongs to persons who are underlings, kinsmen, or creatures of the governor, and must necessarily occupy space belonging to the cloth of the citizen, who is thus obliged to give up his cargo.  What I describe is the ordinary way that things go.

[In the margin:  “This is provided for in the same clause; and let the governor be charged particularly with the remedy of this.”]

In the appointment of offices and means of gain, both of justice and of war, and other offices in the country, the said governors should observe what your Majesty has ordered in so many commands and royal decrees—­namely, that “they shall be given only to citizens; and if he appoints to them his creatures or kinsmen, or those of the auditors or fiscal, or of their wives, the royal Audiencia shall check him without any reserve or hesitancy.  The fiscal thereof shall oppose him, and take all possible measures to this end.”  This should be charged upon the consciences of all; and the government notary should be ordered to put upon all commissions of offices of justice or war, or of encomiendas of Indians, or of any other positions of profit whatsoever, which are to be received, the reason therefor, so that the said fiscal may know and understand whether there is any objection to giving the said commission.  If any such objection is