of concluding this despatch, and I shall answer them at the first
opportunity. May God keep the Catholic person of your Majesty, as
Christendom has need.

From the port of Cavite, July 8, 1605.

_Don Pedro de Acuña_

[_Endorsed_: "August 2, 1606. Examination and decree within"]


Sire:

Many are the labors of this charge, both bodily and spiritual,
and almost without surcease must be the cares of him who holds, on
his own account and for your Majesty, the protection, defense, and
preservation of a kingdom and provinces so far from your royal person,
and amid so many nations, so great in numbers and so powerful, who have
so extraordinary tendencies, laws, and customs. From these we promise
ourselves, in time, with the help of God, excellent results for His
greater glory and the increase of His church. No one of these things
has given me so much anxiety as the conduct of the licentiate Don
Antonio de Rivera Maldonado, auditor of this royal Audiencia. This man,
with his temper, his haughtiness, and lack of understanding, has given
and is giving so many occasions for annoyance to the people, to me, and
to his companions--and particularly to the soldiers, and the military
and royal officials--that I have had more ado to moderate, adjust,
and set right his affairs than all others in my charge. His arrogance
is terrible. The citizens, even the most powerful of them, fear him,
for they realize that in his position as senior auditor he has the