Don Juan Nino de Tavora

[Addressed:  “To his Majesty.  Cavite, 1629.”] [Endorsed:  “Governor Don Juan Nino de Tavora.  Treasury.  Seen and decreed in the margin, July 11.  Take it to the fiscal.  In the Council, November 23, 630.”]

[The findings of the fiscal]

1.  The fiscal says that he has read this letter.  In regard to the first point, concerning the ship which is to take the cloves, he thinks that if affairs move with the security and ease which the governor ascribes to them, the profit is a matter of considerable moment, and that the governor should be ordered to undertake it.  But, inasmuch as many things enter into that question which pertain to the Council of War, he requests that the matter be examined and discussed by them before any resolution be taken.  He also thinks that it will be necessary that a copy of what concerns the Council of Portugal be given that body, on account of the relations which the execution of this measure have and may have with Goa, Malaca, and other points of Eastern Yndia which fall within the demarcation of the said Council.

2.  In regard to the second point, concerning the cultivation of the land, he thinks that it ought to be accepted; for the amount of money risked is little, and will be spent to establish a known gain.  He only stops to consider that, in order to carry out this measure and the preceding one, the governor requests further increase in the situado which is generally given from Mexico to those islands; and he does not know whether the royal treasury of that city is at present able to furnish that increase, because of the loss which his Majesty’s incomes have sustained from the inundation [5] and other troubles which have come upon them, and the heavy burdens of the said treasury.

3.  In regard to the third point, concerning what is owed to the fund of the goods of deceased persons—­a sum which exceeds forty thousand pesos, because the governors have used it on various urgent occasions that have arisen and have not repaid it—­the fiscal recognizes how just it is that an effort be made to repay and satisfy those funds, but he finds this unadvisable at present for the royal treasury; for it is first necessary to liquidate the accounts and investigate how all that sum was spent, and whether it could have been avoided, and why the governors have not always made it up from the situado which has been sent to them all these years.  That must depend on the investigation which shall be made in the inspection which has been ordered to be made of the governors, auditors, treasuries, and royal officials of those islands.  This point must be set down in writing, as it is so essential, so that the inspector who shall be appointed may have it well in hand.  After knowing the result and report of the inspection, orders will be given as to what shall be just in regard to the payment and integrity of the said fund of the