Note 2 — The Audiencia of Manila Reëstablished

The archbishop of Manila, in a letter to the king dated August 15, 1624, makes the following interesting observation on the state of affairs in Manila after the suppression of the Audiencia: “The principal motive that influenced Philippo Second, our sovereign, to reëstablish, in the time of the governorship of Don Francisco Tello, the royal Audiencia in these islands, which had been suppressed some years before, was that, in districts Page 182nso remote and distant from his royal presence, the governors might not be so absolute, but that there might be a superior arm to check them, and not allow extortions upon an innocent people.”