the licentiate Don Antonio should fill the office of captain-general, under certain limitations which were set, while the governorship should remain as the governor Don Pedro had left it.  If it were necessary to carry out the decree, and if the chief command in military affairs should have to be given to the senior auditor, it ought not to be with limitations.  Likewise the Audiencia should assume the functions of the governor.  Accordingly, I give a statement of that which has happened, as I am looking to the future.  An explanation of the said decree is needed to determine whether, when the governor is absent from the city without leaving the jurisdiction, he shall have authority to appoint whomsoever he chooses, or if the decree must necessarily be carried out.  The decree states that, in case the governor thus fails to act, it is necessary to send a report of the facts to your Majesty, that you may take suitable measures; and it seems to refer to the event of death.  For deciding this question, it must be considered that it might happen that the abilities required for the conduct of military affairs would be lacking in the senior auditor, while they might be found in the one whom the governor should appoint.  From this it will be clearly seen that for the conduct of military affairs—­especially in the condition in which these islands and the new conquest of Maluco at present are—­it is undesirable not to be provided in this jurisdiction with a person of much distinction and experience in the conduct of war.

Since your Majesty is at such a distance, and the remedy for these difficulties must come so slowly, there is no one to correct certain ecclesiastics.  Their superiors sometimes pay very little attention to the complaints made against them, and hence there have existed and do exist serious acts of impropriety, especially among the religious.  Since there is no one who has authority to investigate their cases or to write reports regarding these, matters are in a most lamentable condition, and mainly to the injury of the Indians.  The religious make assessments on the natives under the name of benefactions, and employ them at their will, without limit.  I have striven to find means to correct this, and have entered suit against the agents whom they employ to carry out their plans; these are called fiscals, and are cruel executors of the will of the religious.  I offered my plea, and accordingly the Audiencia decided that none of them should have the right to hold Indians in service or should collect any contributions; and a certain amount of abatement of this unjust practice seems to have resulted.  Those who are most notorious in this matter, and who are worse than all the others, are the members of the Order of St. Augustine.  They are practically incorrigible, on account of having as provincial Fray Lorenco de Leon, a friar of much ambition and ostentation.  He left these islands to ask your Majesty for bounty, and now he is striving