henceforth, in all of the provinces of these said islands, shall observe and cause to be observed the royal tariff of his Majesty and his royal Audiencia; and, in conformity with it, shall levy and cause to be levied the taxes to them appertaining, as also shall their notaries and officials—­levying on the natives a third less than on the Spaniards, according to the declaration thereof in the said tariff; and that each one of them shall have a copy of this tariff.  They shall neither use nor levy the said taxes by any other tariffs, under penalty of a fine of one hundred pesos for the treasury of his Majesty and the expenses of justice.  By this act they so provided, ordered, and decreed.

Don Francisco Tello Doctor Antonio de Morga The licentiate Tellez de Almazan The licentiate Zambrano

Before me: 

Pedro Hurtado Desquibel

Proclamation:  In the city of Manila, on the twenty-second of January, one thousand five hundred and ninety-nine, the president and auditors of the royal Audiencia of the Philipinas Islands, who signed their names to the above act, declared and proclaimed it in public session.

Pedro Hurtado Desquibel

An act decreeing that there shall be no suits without the filing of a sworn memorandum of the fees that the parties have paid.

In the city of Manila, on the seventh of January, one thousand five hundred and ninety-nine, the president and auditors of the royal Audiencia, Court, and Chancilleria of these Philipinas Islands declared that, whereas it has come to their knowledge that certain persons—­not only Spaniards, but Indians and Sangleys—­who bring suits in this royal Audiencia and outside of it, in the provincial and ordinary tribunals, complain of the large sums that are charged by the courts, in great excess of what they are ordered to charge by the royal tariffs; and that the notaries of the said tribunals, contrary to orders, send the appealed suits to this royal Audiencia, without placing at the end of them the fees they have paid; therefore, in order to remedy the aforesaid evil, and to put an end to complaints of similar acts of injustice, they ordered, and they did so order, both the officials of this royal Audiencia and the others in the provincial and the ordinary tribunals, and those outside of this city, now and henceforth, not to bring or send any suit to be reviewed in the court of this royal Audiencia, unaccompanied by a memorandum, signed and sworn to by the parties to the suit, of what they have spent thereon, and to what persons they have given the money; and not to bring any suit for revision in any other manner, under penalty of a fine, for each time when they shall disobey this order, of ten pesos for his Majesty’s treasury, to be equally divided between the treasury and the court—­to which, from that moment, they are considered as condemned.  By this act they so provided and ordered, and they signed the same.