In the city of Manila, on the twenty-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 it has come
to their knowledge that the official judges of the royal exchequer
of the king our sovereign, in these said islands, grant commissions
to certain collectors to make collections from the encomiendas that
pertain to his Majesty's royal crown, who, by virtue thereof, make the
collections; and that it often happens that, without their rendering
any account and payment of them, the said officials again grant them
commissions to make the collections, to the great harm and prejudice
of the royal exchequer, from which many difficulties may result:
therefore, in order to correct the aforesaid evil, they ordered,
and they did so order, that the official judges, now and henceforth,
shall under no consideration grant commissions to any collectors to
make any collections for the royal exchequer and crown, without their
having rendered account and payment of former collections entrusted
to them--under penalty of paying out of their own pockets what such
collectors shall appear to owe the royal estate, as soon as such is
evident, besides undergoing and incurring a fine of two hundred pesos
of common gold (this fine to be applied to the royal treasury of the
king our sovereign), to which sum, from that moment, they declared that
they condemned, and they did so condemn, any one who should disobey
this decree. By this act it was so provided, ordered, and affirmed.

_Don Francisco Tello_

The other honorable auditors signed the above.

Before me: