act shall have been made known to them, under penalty of a fine of
six pesos of common gold; and anyone incurring this penalty shall
pay this sum immediately--half of which shall be set aside for the
poor in the prisons, and the other half for the Spanish hospital in
this city--beside incurring and undergoing the penalties contained
in the said royal ordinances. By this act they so provided, ordered,
and decreed.

Before me:

_Pedro Hurtado Desquibel_



_An act decreeing that within four months the royal officials shall
close up the accounts held by the royal treasury._

In the city of Manila, on the twenty-first day of the month of January,
one thousand five hundred and ninety-nine, the president and auditors
of the royal Audiencia of the Philipinas Islands declared that,
whereas it has come to their knowledge that in the royal accountancy
of the king our sovereign there are, at this very day, many accounts
to be balanced and closed of individuals who owe the royal treasury a
large sum of gold pesos, and others to whom money is due--whence has
resulted, and results, the lack therein of the system and management
which should be observed in the said royal exchequer: therefore,
in order that on this account no losses may result, and that the
matter may receive its due consideration, they ordered, and they
did so order, that the official judges of the royal treasury of
the king our sovereign, in these islands, within the four months