The King. To Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera, knight of the Order of Alcantara, my governor and captain-general of the Filipinas Islands, and president of my royal Audiencia resident therein, or the person or persons in whose charge their government may be: Don Juan Grau y Monfalcon, procurator-general of that city, has informed me that that said city has been granted, for its fortification, the proceeds of the income from the monopoly on playing-cards and other articles, and that the money that has been received from those sources was always paid into the fortification fund; but that, in violation of that, Don Juan Nino de Tabora, my former governor of those islands, ordered that the said sums be placed in my royal treasury, as was done. On that account, the money that is so necessary for the different works, the repairs, and fortifications that arise daily, is lacking. He says that the city having petitioned the governor to have the sums that belonged to the said fund returned, he refused to comply; but on the contrary ordered that the city furnish, from its communal property, all that was thus placed in my royal treasury. He petitioned me to be pleased to have my royal decree issued ordering that no room be given for such innovation, that the city and its council might spend and distribute their communal funds freely, as they have always done, since that pertains to the city; and that the kinds of income that have been customary in the past be placed therein and in no other fund. The matter having been examined in my royal Council of the Yndias, I have considered it fitting to give the present, by which I order you to cause to be observed and fulfilled exactly the orders that were given and commanded in this regard before the said Don Juan Nino de Tavora made this innovation. Madrid, September 9, 1634. _I the King_ By order of the king our sovereign: _Don Gabriel de Ocana y Alarcon_