A little while ago, God took away the eldest child of Don Luis and Doña Rosa, after a tedious and lingering illness with diarrhoea. They are exceedingly grateful to your Grace for your expressions of kindness, which they very cordially reciprocate; and Don Luis places at the disposal of your Grace [whatever he can do for you in] the new office which he holds, that of chief notary (in proprietary appointment) of the cabildo of this city, with accompanying rights of privilege therein. In order to secure this purchase (which he made here from the crown), he was aided by a schedule of properties which he owns in this same city, [amounting to] some twelve or fourteen thousand pesos, for the post cost him that amount. Although it is certainly an excessive price, it is compensated by the advantageous circumstances attending it: he has authority to select a deputy who can exercise the office in his name, as is the case at the present time--the latter to be paid, according to what they say, 3,000 pesos each year--and it is a place of much honor and esteem, just as it is in all the cities of these kingdoms. These advantages he had borne in mind, for without them he would not have undertaken this office, even if it had been worth much more; [another consideration was], that whenever he may choose to quit it he can do so, assured that he will find some one else here to whom he can make it over, at very nearly the same amount which it cost him, since that office is sought for by many persons.