And inasmuch as I have ever exercised especial care in maintaining all the kingdoms and provinces subject to me in peace, tranquillity, and justice, for this same purpose and object I established an audiencia in that said city and province, in order that everything might be governed by means of it, and justice administered with the universal equality, mildness, and satisfaction desirable. After its establishment I ordered it to be suppressed, as experience proved it to be unnecessary in a land so new and unsettled. In its place I sent a governor; and although his administration was excellent, yet, inasmuch as that community has grown and, it is hoped, will continue to grow, I have thought it advisable to found and establish the said Audiencia again. Accordingly, after having appointed you in the place of Gomez Perez, your predecessor, I have determined to establish the said Audiencia again. It shall be located in those districts, in order that their government may be similar to that of the other kingdoms under my dominion. I have appointed for it persons as auditors, a fiscal, and other officials. I have renewed the former ordinances [35] by which that said Audiencia was founded. You shall examine those ordinances, in order to have them observed and obeyed with the exactness that I expect from you. You shall mamtain the necessary peace and harmony with those acting as auditors, so that your government may be all that is needful and as I desire for the consolation, relief, and happiness of that community, and of its inhabitants, and my vassals therein. You on both sides [governor and Audiencia] shall administer the government with care, understanding--especially those of you who might be the cause of disturbing the peace, harmony, and friendly relations with which you, on both sides and jointly, must carry on the government--that I shall consider myself well served in the accomplishment and execution of this. I charge this upon you, and expect you to accomplish it with the good example that is due from you in everything. You shall exercise great care not to send judges on special commissions except in necessary and unavoidable cases, in order to avoid the harm that they generally cause to communities. This must be avoided there, chiefly because that community has been settled so recently. It is advisable to act with greater caution in this matter, as in everything else, for the better conservation and increase of that community. You shall exercise the same and greater care to maintain thorough harmony and unity with all the ecclesiastical dignitaries, both secular and regular, and with all the ecclesiastical estate; for many consequences, very important for the general and individual good of all that land and all those provinces, can be expected from the good example resulting from this. At Toledo, on the twenty-fifth day of May, in the year one thousand five hundred and ninety-six. _I The King_ By order of the king, our sovereign: