The official correspondence of the governor following immediately upon the administration of an audiencia is always valuable as showing the state of affairs under the preceding rule. That of Fernando de Silva coincides closely with the correspondence of Governor Fajardo in charging the audiencia with many misdeeds, chief among which were the abuse of the appointing power and the concession of encomiendas without authorization. Silva, on his accession to the governorship, also found the finances of the colony in a bad condition, great waste having been incurred in their administration. There had been neither peace nor order; the oidores had quarreled among themselves, and residents were leaving the city as a consequence of this turmoil. The oidores had, without cause, dismissed all the officials appointed by Fajardo, filling their places with their friends. [625] The following account of the excesses of the audiencia was given by Silva: Under pretext of the arrest and removal of Don Geronimo de Silva, Licentiate Legaspi, ... exercised the office of captain-general, carrying the staff of office and making them lower the banners to him, and address him as "your Lordship," and his wife as "my lady." He immediately appointed his elder son to the post of sargento-mayor of this camp, and his younger son to a company, while another company was assigned to a relative of Auditor Matias Flores y Cassila (also an oidor). Others were assigned to brothers of the said Don Matias, the fiscal, and other auditors, except Don Albaro (Messa y Lugo), who refused to have anything given to his household. Upon seeing the illegality of these appointments, I issued an act declaring them vacant and restoring those posts to those who had held them before. [626] That the king had not entirely lost confidence in the audiencia, notwithstanding the above complaints, is attested by the instruction issued by the Council of the Indies to Francisco de Rojas y Ornate, royal visitor to the Philippines. [627] This communication, which was dated August 17, 1628, approved the stand which the audiencia had taken in insisting that all money obtained from Chinese trading-licenses should be put into the royal treasury and accounted for by the oficiales reales before it was spent. It appears that the governor had hitherto used this money as an extra fund upon which to draw for the expenses of the colony. The king also approved the attitude of the audiencia in denying to persons in New Spain the right of using the Manila galleon for the shipment of their goods, and in refusing to allow money sent by them to the Islands to be invested in the Chinese trade. Silva contended that the audiencia had no right to intervene in either of the above matters, but in this Silva was not sustained, Rojas y Ornate being instructed to see that Governor Tavora respected the action of the audiencia in the two particulars referred to. [628]