who have served here feel very indignant over it.  These things, and the obligation of my office, have constrained me to give this report, and to try to secure the remedy which the vassals of your Majesty hope for, when your Majesty shall cast your gaze upon this land which was so cared for and favored by his Catholic Majesty (whom may God keep!) which your Majesty is still caring for, with the great favors which your Majesty grants it for the spiritual and temporal good which is your object.

The royal [estate] in these islands is in debt for a large sum of money in gold, as your Majesty has been informed; on this account all those who draw salaries and stipends therefrom are in the utmost need—­so much so that we have not been able to pay this year the president, auditors, archbishop, bishops, prebendaries, or ministers of instruction and justice, not having the means to pay them.  Most pitiable of all has been the plight of the soldiers, who are suffering the utmost extremity, without there being any resources with which to aid them.  All this has been caused by the excessive cost of the galleys, and the great expenses incurred by some expeditions made with them without anything being thus gained.  In the interim, until your Majesty be pleased to order some provision, we shall take great pains to do what is most expedient so that these expenses may cease and the country be defended without them. [In the margin of this paragraph is written:  “No answer to be given.”]

This year it will be very necessary to appropriate a considerable loan of money from what comes from Nueva Spana—­because the viceroy of Mexico has not sent the usual aid, and it is impossible to get along without obtaining it from private persons—­that the land may not go to ruin; for I can assure you that it has come to this extremity.

Last year I advised you of the many offices which the governor had granted, and in this he has continued—­going so far that, observing the general complaint of all the meritorious persons, I have tried to restrain him.  At this he showed little inclination to favor my efforts, and offered me some affronts—­which I shall not mention, as they were of such a nature as to affect only me personally and not my office or its authority.  But, because it appears to me expedient to inform you concerning one such case, I shall do so, as it is a matter which touches the preeminence of the officers whom your Majesty maintains here, so that your Majesty, if you please, may order it to be set right. [On the margin of this paragraph:  “Concerning the offices which the governor has filled; join this relation which Don Antonio de Ribera sends to that which the governor writes concerning the offices, and have it all brought.”]