An itemized statement of the “annual receipts and expenditures of the Philippine government” (August 18, 1608) enumerates these. The receipts comprise the tributes, by encomiendas; the royal tenths of gold, and the ecclesiastical tithes; customs duties; and fines from the courts. All these sources of income amount to over one hundred and twenty thousand pesos. Then are mentioned, in order, the expenses: for salaries of government officials, alcaldes and other local magistrates; wages of government workmen, pilots, sailors, and others; supplies in the ship-yards, etc., and purchases for various purposes; salaries of ecclesiastics, and other expenses for churches and missions. To these are added “extraordinary expenses:” the cost of embassies to neighboring rulers; salaries paid to collectors of tribute, and others; expenses of the soldiers and their officers; and salaries to the wardens of forts. All these expenses amount to over two hundred and fifty-five thousand pesos a year, more than twice as much as the income.
Felipe iii writes to Velasco, the viceroy of Nueva Espana (September 27 1608), regarding the proposed way-station for Philippine vessels. After summarizing a letter on this subject from Velasco’s predecessor, Montesclaros, the king approves the latter’s advice to choose, as such way-station, the islands called Rica de Oro and Rica de Plata (afterward found to be fabulous) instead of Monterey; and orders Velasco to see that a port and settlement be established there, the enterprise to be conducted by Sebastian Vizcaino. Another decree (May 3, 1609) states that, as Velasco has not carried out this order, and advices have been