applied to the fund from averías, thus swelling the fund from which all shippers benefited, and to which they were supposed to contribute to make the trade possible; see the chapter on "Averías," in Leyes de Indias. The foregoing statements suggest a reason why the royal authority was opposed, in this Manila trade controversy, to having the composition of the duties, and of the penalties which the merchants had incurred by past violations of the rules, regarded or considered as an "indult," and not as a "regulation" or rule specifying a lump sum to be paid as duties. This indult might (by this and other laws) have had to go into other funds; though I know of no fund for averías in the Manila trade, yet the Spanish mere desire for uniformity of legislation and practice might explain this strenuous objection to considering this regulation as an indult or grace of the sovereign (in the special sense that had been established for this sort of favor) in the galleon trade with the West Indies.--James A. LeRoy (now [1906] U.S. consul at Durango, Mexico). [71] The Duke de Alburquerque took possession of his office as viceroy of Nueva España on November 27, 1702; his term of office lasted a little more than eight years. Little of importance occurred therein except several raids by pirates (among whom was Captain William Dampier) in Mexican waters. Alburquerque was succeeded (January 15, 1711) by Fernando de Alancastre, Duke de Linares, who was an able, vigorous and benevolent ruler, and spent or bequeathed the greater part of his fortune for the benefit of the poor--whose number and sufferings were enormous at this time, through unusual calamities of floods and earthquakes, famine and pestilence. Linares's term of office expired on August 15, 1716, and he died in June of the next year; he was succeeded by Baltasar de Zúñiga, Marqués de Valero. (Bancroft, Hist. Mexico, iii, pp. 278-290.) [72] Spanish, harrieros, "muleteers;" for goods and silver were transported across Mexico by pack-trains of mules. [73] That is, the present attempt by Linares to inquire into and settle past irregularities; for it gives those who are suspected an opportunity to compromise the affair. [74] That is, not only because money can (speaking generally) easily open the way for a settlement in such case, but because, in this specific matter, it is a fair supposition that large speculations cannot be carried on with small capital--and indeed most of these Mexican transgressors are too poor to pay the penalties incurred by their past infractions, if these were strictly adjudged against them. [75] Barracan is a woolen fabric impenetrable to water, about half a vara wide, of which rain-cloaks and other articles are made; picote is a coarse, rough fabric made from goat's hair (Dominguez). [76] At fol. 40 verso of the Extracto, elefantes are defined as "linen goods of that country [i.e., Filipinas], having no durability, and but little valued in that kingdom [i.e., Mexico]."