With this consideration [i.e., his own advantage], and in order to find the goods of the master-of-camp Don Esteban de Higuiño (whom he had kept a prisoner since the beginning of August), he gave orders that the chief notary of the municipal council of this city should demand, at the end of September, the official records of a notary-public who had taken refuge in my cathedral on the same day when the arrest of the said master-of-camp occurred. The consultation which he held and the petition which he presented to the ad interim fiscal of the Audiencia were merely formal; the matter was referred to the royal Audiencia, without stating whether it was by a consultory or a decisive vote; and the papers were considered in the royal Audiencia, which was composed of only one official, who had for associate judge the counselor [asesor] of the government. This auditor was commanded to despatch officially a royal decree for the surrender of those notarial records; and I was notified of this on the twenty-sixth of September, and the papers offered to me with a view of the decree of August 11, in which the said auditor was qualified for [transacting] the business of the Audiencia--a copy of which decree I send with this. There were various difficulties in regard to the fulfilment and observance of this decree [49] on account of the serious injuries which might result to the administration of justice in the ecclesiastical estate, and to the sheep of my flock. Obliged as I am in conscience to attend to their relief, I conferred regarding these doubts with persons in whom I had confidence, and with the [heads of the] two universities of this city--in whose opinions I tried to find ground for the decree which enabled this single auditor to have his abode in the royal hall [of justice]; because for this he had exchanged the imprisonment in which he had remained in the fort and castle of Santiago. Their uniform reply to me was, that I ought not to consider the Audiencia which was formed in this manner as a royal Audiencia, or the decree which was issued [by it], with the royal name and the seal of his Majesty, as a royal decree. I did not [at once] come to a decision in a matter so important, and on which so many things depended; and moreover, in order to show my profound veneration for the royal prerogatives of his Majesty and my earnest desire for the public tranquillity--to which I have given attention from my first entrance into this archbishopric, as also to the amicable relations which I have maintained with the royal officials of his Majesty (especially with the governor of these islands), since this contributes much to the service of God and of his Majesty--I presented my doubts, with a copy of the replies given by the universities, to the said deceased governor, at a conference which was held on the seventh of October. I charged him as his friend that, considering these questions with the