possession of them, which is the principal object at which they aim. It is represented to me that, if that commerce flourishes, my duties in Nueva España on the merchandise will amount to about 300,000 pesos, with which was provided the amount which I ordered to be sent back as returns to Manila, for the purposes and preservation of those islands; and that now all that source of income has fallen at a blow, and the loss has recoiled upon my royal exchequer, since it is necessary that the amount of money which is conveyed every year for the succor of those islands be supplied from my royal treasury of Mexico to that of Manila, out of the silver and the fifths from the mines. And not only is this loss occasioned, but all the capital with which commerce was carried on from Mexico to Philipinas (to which the duties gave rise) has ceased to exist; for in the year 1638, when no ships save one patache came [to Acapulco] the dues from it amounted to [only] 4,000 pesos, and in 1639 another 4,000 pesos were collected from the almiranta which arrived at Acapulco. As the citizens of Manila had no means to lade merchandise, not only the patache but the almiranta came without registers--as also did the capitana, which had to go back to port. According to what the governor writes, he will not send ships in the year 1640; with this, in three years I shall have lost 900,000 pesos in duties--the same amount which was extorted as composition, against all reason and justice, by Don Pedro de Quiroga; and it is he who has caused, by his severe measures, these so irreparable losses, not only to my royal exchequer but to the commerce. [Don Juan Grau] entreated me that, since all the above matters are worthy of such careful attention, I would be pleased, in order to place a speedy check on these losses--which recoil upon my royal exchequer, as he represented to me--to furnish a plan for the said commerce, without entrusting the matter to any judge or official visitor, or waiting for reports on a matter which is so thoroughly explained and well understood, in which even one year's delay is enough to render relief impossible, to judge by the condition in which those islands now are. [He asks that,] in case this is impracticable, I command that for six or eight years the usage that has prevailed in regard to the registration and the appraisement and all the rest be followed, without making changes in anything, punishing those who transgress the regulations and orders that have been established by royal decrees; and that this may and shall be understood without prejudice to what must and shall be decreed after the documents, reports, and other papers which shall be demanded or sent have been examined. [He asks that] I immediately despatch a decree to this effect, since, if a decision on this point be not at once sent, the commerce will be ruined in one year more--which, added to what has been already lost, will be the total destruction of the said islands. This subject has