as much as these magazines need. [_In the margin_: "Let us be informed whether any of the expenses of those islands have been reduced." "Bring the memorandum of the reduction that was made in the year 618."] The gain that will accrue to your Majesty from that will be to relieve your Majesty from the expense of fifty thousand pesos, and the Indian natives from the assessment and allotment of fifty thousand fanegas, which, as aforesaid, is the greatest relief for the islands, and for this royal treasury. The risk that will be run of the money that will be advanced to the Chinese so that they may settle and equip their farms (in which, although it is given with confidence, there is, of course, always some risk that some will run away and others will die), will all, however, be of little importance, in view of the profits that are seen to result in the estates which the religious and inhabitants are equipping. It would be advisable for your Majesty to decree this to be carried out without any opposition; and that you order the viceroy of Nueva Espana, in order to facilitate it, to send five thousand pesos separately, and in addition [to the usual situado] in order that I may continue with capital what has been begun without it and (with what I have lent to the treasury from my own funds) make the experiment and take possession of the lands, ordering wheat to be sowed in a portion of them. I am told that it has been shown by experience that wheat bears well. This undertaking can not be accomplished in one or two years. Your Majesty holds these islands for many years through the Divine favor, and your successors as long as the world shall last. Consequently, the future must be considered, in order that these lands may not remain behind; but if this be done in all parts, in what pertains to your Majesty's revenues, the treasury will not remain in so backward a condition as at present. _Third point of the letter_ Your Majesty's royal treasury owes to that of the goods of deceased persons more than forty thousand pesos, as appears from the memorandum and certification which I enclose herewith. For since the relief which is sent from Nueva Espana is so meager, and the expenses here are so great, the governors my predecessors were obliged to take, by way of loan, all that sum on different occasions. For the same reason I have not been able during my term, to repay it, nor do I hope to be able to do so, unless your Majesty order that sum to be sent from or paid in Nueva Espana on a separate account, in consideration of the fact that it is property of parties who are suffering, and, most of all, the goods of deceased persons. I give this information to your Majesty, as to the master and sovereign of it, and for the relief of my conscience. _Fourth point of the letter_