_Expenses which have been incurred in war_. Section 2. By your Majesty's decree, the offices of clerk of the exchequer and of the governor's office were sold, for some five thousand odd pesos; and, although this sum was to have been sent on a separate account to the officials in Nueva España, and thence to the House of Trade at Sevilla, it was absolutely necessary to spend it on a fleet to operate against the Japanese pirates, who are in the habit of plundering the coasts of these islands; and also on a ship, which is being built for this navigation [between New Spain and the Philippines], in order that traffic should not be stopped; for the despatch of your Majesty's fleet to Nueva Spaña; and for various other matters. This could not be avoided, because there is no more money in the royal exchequer with which to relieve these distresses, as your Majesty will see by the accounts which the royal officials are sending.
_Concerning the twenty-two thousand pesos in salaries for the Audiencia_. Section 3. Your Majesty has ordered that from the repartimientos of Indians that are now or shall become vacant, twelve thousand pesos de minas shall be assigned to the royal crown, to pay the salaries of the Audiencia. We have informed your Majesty, in our letters, of the great difficulties that would arise from the execution of this order. For the soldiers, expecting to receive encomiendas, and that some day good fortune would come to them, have for many years served your Majesty, and are now serving, in war at their own cost. Now the fruit of their labors is taken away from the men who have conquered and maintained this land, while they are without the hope that they may be rewarded in any other manner; and, seeing themselves thus deprived, they become disheartened, desert service, and abandon the land, thus depopulating it beyond all remedy. It seems to us that, if such should be your Majesty's pleasure, it would be best that you command money to be sent from Mexico for the salaries of the Audiencia; and to assign the Indians who are or shall be without owners as repartimientos and encomiendas to those who have served, and have merited such reward, as has been the custom hitherto. Since the conservation and increase of this land is so important for your Majesty's service, may you be pleased to order for its succor, and for the aid of the ecclesiastical and secular estates, the sum of twenty-five thousand or thirty thousand pesos, to be provided annually from the royal exchequer in Mexico. This sum is quite necessary for the expenses incurred in armed expeditions, in aid for this land and its defense, and in what is done almost every year for Maluco.