the watch everywhere, making Terrenate our center.

By the first section of the orders which your Majesty was pleased to
command to have sent to me for this expedition, it appears that the
captains who come on the expedition receive sixty ducados a month
and the privates eight, whether they were recruited in Hespaña or in
Nueva Hespaña. I was commanded that if this rate of payment for the
soldiers might be moderated in view of what is paid the soldiers here
who are of the same rank, I should reduce it, but with fairness. I
have to state that the pay of a private in this garrison is six pesos
a month. This is little, in view of the fact that the country is
incomparably more expensive than when their rate of pay was fixed,
as I have previously written your Majesty. The eight ducados which
the soldiers of the expedition receive is high pay; and accordingly,
in my judgment, it would be well to pay the infantry in both forces
at the rate of eight pesos (of eight reals) a month, in addition
to the thirty ducados of extra pay which are allowed every company
in Hespaña and other regions. I should advise that the captains of
both forces should be paid at the rate of fifty pesos, the ensigns
at twenty pesos, and the sergeants at the rate of ten, as they are
now paid here. The captains here receive only thirty-five pesos,
while those of the expedition are paid sixty ducados, which amount to
eighty-two pesos and six reals. Your Majesty will give such commands
as you shall be pleased to issue. Until we receive the decision of
your royal will in this matter, the accounts of the members of the
expedition will not be closed. May our Lord keep the Catholic and royal
person of your Majesty, as Christendom has need. Manila, July 1, 1605.

_Don Pedro de Acuña_