Note 3 — Letter from Fajardo to the King

I once more beg your Majesty to have examined and considered what this city so often requested from you, for a long time before I came here, in regard to releasing them from the Audiencia—although, as I have said in other letters, I shall not enjoy this relief from the burden which is resting upon and is, in every way, irksome to all the people. I shall refrain from bringing forward this claim again, but I assure your Majesty that the Audiencia does more harm than good, as is manifest from the many arguments adduced in regard to this matter; and there is justice there for no one, except when it suits the pleasure or convenience of some auditor or auditors, because the more care is exercised to make them administer justice, the more they pervert it when they wish to, using the freedom to vote which belongs to them. On the occasion of the unfortunate event which happened to me on the night of the [147] twelfth of May past3—and it was so important and serious an affair, as your Majesty already knows, or will learn by the judicial record and papers regarding the matter, which I despatched by way of Nueva Spaña and am now despatching via India—they made (although I am their president) no more demonstration against the agents, go-betweens, and apologists who were guilty in this affair than if it had concerned the most wretched and degraded of the Chinamen who go about here. As it was my own case, and as I was satisfied in regard to the principal matter that concerned me (thanks be to God), I did not wish to exercise my authority in the case; but it may be seen to what lengths the blindness of their desires and passions leads them.