The words are crossed out where is read _poner, a, y, queste de_; and
corrected where is read _hacienda, tostones_, and _come_; and _de_
has been inserted between the lines. I, Luis Velez Cherino, court
clerk of the royal Audiencia established in this city of Manila,
have written this and caused it to be written; and here I affix my
signet to such document, in witness of the truth.


Luis Velez Cherino.



Letter from Melchior Davalos to Felipe II


Royal Catholic Majesty:

It was through divine inspiration, we may believe, that your Majesty
appointed a president and auditors for this extremity or beginning of
the world; for at the very time when Governor Don Gonzalo Ronquillo had
just died or was about to die, in this city of Manila, the Council,
more than four thousand leagues from here, resolved upon and decreed
the foundation of the royal Audiencia in Manila, and we came hither--as
president and governor, Doctor Santiago de Vera; I, who was living
quite neglected in Mexico, as first auditor; the licentiate Rojas
as second auditor, and the licentiate Ayala as fiscal. It is said
that another auditor, the licentiate Bravo, remained in Castilla;
all of us excepting him came here. We set sail from the port of
Acapulco on the ninth of March, according to the new computation of
time which your Majesty, by order of the supreme pontiff, commanded