_Pedro Hurtado Desquibel_




_An act decreeing that the clerk of court who receives the bonds
of suitors shall accept only reliable bonds, and at his own risk;
and that his residencia in regard to the said office shall be taken._

In the city of Manila, on the seventh of January, one thousand five
hundred and ninety-nine, the president and auditors of the royal
Audiencia of the Philipinas Islands declared that, whereas in the
suits that are brought and considered in this royal Audiencia it
is sometimes necessary to order the parties to give bonds, which
are accepted by the clerk of court of this royal Audiencia, without
his knowing whether they are good or not: therefore as some trouble
and annoyance might result from this, and it is expedient to avoid
this, and, where bonds are concerned, to require the residencia, they
ordered, and they did so order, that now and henceforth the said clerk,
in all suits in which bonds are ordered to be given, shall accept only
honest, reliable, and valuable bonds, under the penalty of having them
charged to his own account and risk if they are not so. He shall give
reliable bonds therefor, and shall likewise undergo the residencia of
his said office; and shall pay whatever is adjudged and decided against
him, and any public demands which shall be lodged against him, as he
is obliged to do by law. Thus it was provided, ordered, and decreed.

_Don Francisco Tello_
_Doctor Antonio de Morga_
The licentiate _Tellez Almazan_