nothing but poverty.  Hence they lament with reason that their salaries are not paid to them.  This is a reason that the soldiers are wretched and poor, some of them going about begging for alms.  An attempt will be made to correct this when new officials of your exchequer enter their offices; and more certainly your Majesty will provide relief in this direction, so that the soldiers’ pay may not fall into arrears.  If the Audiencia had not assumed authority to set apart in the treasury the money which came [from Mexico] during the preceding year, one thousand six hundred and five, for persons who had died in previous years in the war with the Sangleys and in other conflicts, to be used to pay the soldiers, it would have been a very great misfortune.  With this the matter was set right, and the pay has been kept up; but your Majesty has been obliged to remain in debt for the sum which was taken for this purpose.

The president and the auditors have likewise suffered in their salaries, which are at the present time due them for more than a year.  Although for these salaries certain specified encomiendas had been set apart, the returns from these have been mixed with other funds.  During the term of the former Audiencia, your Majesty commanded that for this purpose certain encomiendas should be assigned to the crown; but no more than six thousand pesos was thus realized.  Since the number of encomiendas above referred to will have to be vacated, your Majesty can decree that some shall be set aside for this purpose; then the treasury will be in a somewhat easier condition.

One of the most important institutions possessed by your Majesty in these islands and in this city is the seminary of Santa Potenciana, in which care is taken of orphaned and poor girls, the daughters of conquistadors; there are in it more than a hundred.  The seminary prevents many evil results.  The girls leave it, when entering the married state, respected and instructed; and the seminary also serves as a shelter for other women during the absence of their husbands, and for many other good purposes.  Your Majesty is its patron, and hence, ought to remember it.  During Easter week the house, which was very well built, and roofed, was burned to the ground, and its inmates were dispersed.  Since it was under the patronage of your Majesty, and on account of the good work that it was doing, the archdeacon of this diocese and I determined to ask for subscriptions in order to rebuild it.  The city zealously entered into the work, and we collected about two thousand five hundred pesos, with which we immediately began to build the structure.  God was pleased that by the feast of Pentecost we were able to have the greater part of the inmates sheltered, within narrow quarters but under a roof.  The work has been continued ever since, and I hope that soon it will be established in its previous condition.  Still the institution is very poor, and is in great need.  I trust that your Majesty will command that some Indians be assigned it, or that some grant be made to it; for great service is done to God by this institution, through its good works and by preventing the evil which would result in the community if its inmates were left without shelter.