Five decrees of your Majesty came to me this year of ninety in the ship "Santiago," which arrived at this port on the last of May. They are all dated at Madrid, four on the twenty-third of June of the year eighty-seven, and the fifth on the eighteenth of February of eighty-eight. After perusing the contents of the said decrees, I can truly not restrain my surprise that there can be men in the world who dare to say and declare things which are not certainly proved to be the truth, much less to give such information to their king. To report to one's sovereign the contrary of what happens, or to affirm what one is not certain is the truth, is a most grave offense, worthy of all punishment and chastisement. Such persons may properly be called destroyers of their countries, because, in not giving information in accordance with the principles of truth, they fail to remedy the evils and provide the good which is necessary for the preservation of the land. As this commonwealth is so far away from your Majesty, it has to be governed, not by what your Majesty sees and knows, but by the information received by him regarding it. This must be according to the good or bad intention of the informer. Consequently, this commonwealth is subjected to many hardships and misfortunes, by the fault not of your Majesty--with whose most holy zeal and desire for the welfare of this land we are well acquainted--but of us here who send information. There are but few of us who, oblivious of our own interests and pretensions, now fix our eyes on the common good alone, and seek only this; but the most of us seek only our own interests, our informations and reports are shaped by these, as appears by the increase of the tributes which your Majesty commands to be made. As this is discussed, however, in another letter, I will go to no greater length than to say that, if your Majesty were present here, no orders would be given to increase the tributes of these miserable people, but rather they would pay less. But he who informed your Majesty that more tribute can be paid has already accounted or will account to God also. I am affected in part by these hardships and dangers, as it is now two years since your Majesty wrote me a reprimand, as if I were the man to blame for the dissensions of the Audiencia. God knows, as do all in this community, that if I had not made peace, the dissensions between the president and auditors would have lasted until today. The same I say of the five decrees which I received this year. Among them are several which show that he who informed your Majesty did so in an account entirely malicious and totally contrary to the truth. Others show that, although the informer told something of the truth, he did so in an entirely different manner from the way in which things happened, concealing what he ought to say, and affirming what he should not. This will appear by my reply to each decree--not as an excuse for myself, as I consider myself to be