Don Juan Cerezo Salamanca

Government affairs

Sire: 

I have given your Majesty an account on all occasions of my coming to these islands, and of the condition of affairs in them, although with limitations, and with the caution of a new arrival.  But now, after having governed them a year, I shall be able to discuss their affairs with experience and more freedom, so that your Majesty, having been informed, may enact what is most advisable for your royal service.

The disputes which generally arise between the governor and the auditors of this royal Audiencia are usually more prejudicial in these islands than in the rest of your Majesty’s monarchy, as these are the most remote; for their preservation lies in the governor being obeyed and respected, and in his orders being executed and entirely observed, without the auditors hindering him, or casting any doubt on his supremacy, as they are often wont to do.

The jurisdiction of this Audiencia is set at rest from the ecclesiastical fuerzas and the litigations of these inhabitants—­who, as is seen from the chart which I am sending under other covers, amount in all to 151 married men, 81 single men, 45 widows, and 160 children, besides fifty other men who live in other places.  All the rest are paid sailors and soldiers, with whom the Audiencia has nothing to do; and from that one can infer how few affairs of justice arise.  That is the cause of the disputes, and of the auditors actually deciding the affairs of government under pretext of appeals, without waiting until the governors grant or deny them, in accordance with law—­to the considerable discredit, of the authority that your Majesty has conceded to the government.  That results in nothing that is ordered being executed.  And although your Majesty has provided a remedy for these accidents with decrees, so that, in case of doubt, the governor may declare what occurs to him, and that the auditors may pass for this purpose into Philipinas, still that has not sufficed; for they take care to give the decrees a different meaning, and will not be subdued by any means that I have used.  In proof of this I cite the following examples.

Your Majesty has prohibited the Audiencia from trying causes concerning the Sangleys of the Parian, and ordered that they be tried only by the alcalde-mayor and the governor, reserving only the sin against nature to the Audiencia.  Nevertheless, they meddle by taking the [trial of] first instance from the alcaldes-mayor.

Your Majesty permits only four thousand Sangleys in these islands, but a greater number has been tolerated because of the advantage of the licenses that they pay, and in order not to disturb the trade with China.  In respect to these and many other troubles, the former governors have endeavored very earnestly to assure that nation, charging the justices to be very attentive in their jurisdictions, and not allowing them to grant