[49] For the "Demonstration" here cited, see VOL. XLVIII, in which it is the final document. In the library of Edward E. Ayer, of Chicago, is a MS. book containing copies of letters by Viana written in 1767; the first of these (dated January 5) is addressed to the Marqués de Esquilace, and mentions the despatch to him and to the king, in the previous year, of copies both of the "Demonstration" and of the present statement of "Financial affairs of the islands." He also relates how he has been actuated in his official duties by his zeal for the royal service, and has always upheld the rights of the crown; and in consequence he has been the mark for the hatred and enmity of all those who live by plundering the royal treasury, and who desire a fiscal who will allow them to do so without any opposition. The above-mentioned documents have, he says, "raised a furious tempest, the anger of those who fear the loss of their own profits, on which loss depends the rightful increase of his Majesty's interests, and the saving of iniquitous expenditures." Of the religious orders in the islands, he says: "They have great power, and much wealth which is acquired through what they unjustly collect from the royal exchequer and the Indians. No one dares to incur the hostility of the religious, for all fear the direful results of their power; and under pretext of a false piety, painted with the bright colors of the true, they have been wont to obtain whatever they have claimed. For this reason they have, ever since the conquest of the islands, burdened the royal exchequer with the increasing and numerous expenses occasioned in behalf of the said religious orders, instead of securing economies for it." He claims "the glory of being the first one who, by dint of close application, has discovered the 'philosopher's stone' for the enrichment of these islands and the royal exchequer."