The ship, having a Captain appointed by the Governor of Manila, was furnished by the King, by whom likewise all the expenses of the voyage were defrayed, and for whose reimbursement a duty of thirty-three per cent. was levied at Acapulco on the value of the cargo there. The persons who had the privilege of loading the ship were the Captain, to a certain extent; the pious establishments; the widows of officers, counsellors, &c. members of government, and merchants: the portions of each from a quarter of a ton upwards, the Captain having from forty to fifty tons. Exclusive of the right which the pious establishments thus enjoyed of occupying tonnage, they lent their money to the adventurers on a respondentia interest, as will be mentioned in a future note. This trade may most probably, at this period, be conducted upon a different principle, and partake of that relaxation which it has been found necessary to countenance through the whole of the Spanish settlements, in consequence of recent political events. Note V.--Page 78. It is not possible to produce a stronger proof of the inefficiency of the Spanish colonial system, than the treatment of this disinterested and honest servant of the crown exhibits. Note VI.--Page 83. The determination of this question by the Royal Audience in favour of the pious establishments, was unquestionably conformable to the admitted principle of respondentia; and the reversal of it by the council of the Indies is a sufficient proof of the unsettled state of mercantile law in Spain, on a point which seems elsewhere generally and definitively adjusted. The liability of the respondentia lenders seems to be so ill defined, that even in case of nearly total loss, their full demand is awarded them, the loss thus falling on the borrower, instead (on the received respondentia principle) of the lenders being entitled only to the proportion of what is saved; for the premium of twenty-five per cent. which they receive, may be presumed adequate to the interest and insurance on such a voyage. It ought not, under these circumstances, to create wonder that the merchant adventurers borrowing from these establishments should, with a view to their own protection, take due care that a partial shall, by one means or other, be converted into a total loss.