Volume 22 — Letter from Felipe IV to Tavora
Reading edition
The King. To Don Juan Niño de Tavora, my governor and captain-general of the Filipinas Islands, and president of my royal Audiencia there: Six letters which you wrote me—five on the twentieth of the month of July, and the other on the twenty-second of the same month last year (1626)—dealing with the wars, have been received and considered in my Council of War for the Indias, and you will be satisfied on all points.
In your advices, the said Pedro de Heredia wrote also that it would be to our great advantage to send him the lord of Terrenate, who is in this city, in order to bring about some agreement between him and the king of Tidore, which will be of considerable value. Your orders in this matter have already been sent you.
I am advised by you that three of the enemy’s ships were in the port of Malayo, and that it was understood that a fleet would arrive in May, 1625; I am also advised of the ten ships which the said Pedro de Heredia had.
I have considered the number of galleons and pataches with which you are provided, and the galleys which were in process of construction. I confide in your zeal and care to provide for the defense of those islands, as I expect from you, doing on your part all that you shall find possible. You will have assistance from here, and I have written to my viceroy in Nueva España regarding the measures to be taken therefor. He and my royal officials have now been ordered to send at the first opportunity to these kingdoms six thousand ducados, on account of the usual situado that goes to those islands. The money will be sent on a separate account to the House of Trade in Sevilla, to buy the arms that you ask for; when it arrives there, these will be forwarded to you.
You say also that because the Order of Saint John was the heir to the estate of the said Don Geronimo, you ordered that whatever property might be found should be deposited in the probate treasury, and that the landed property should be administered by the courts. You also notified the said order, that it might decide what course to take, and that any debts of the said Don Geronimo must first be paid. The matter has been considered, and you and that Audiencia will take such measures as are just, in case the estate is any further indebted.
You say also that the office of sargento-mayor was held at first by alférezes, and afterward by captains—who drew, however, only the pay of captains; and that sixty-five escudos of ten reals were assigned to Don Fernando de Silva by the treasury council that was held in that city—which sum you understood was paid everywhere to captains ranking as sargentos-mayor—on condition of obtaining my approval, which has not yet been presented, and you ask me to approve it because it seems just that if captains and the master-of-camp receive what is elsewhere received by the sargento-mayor, who has more arduous duties, the latter should receive a salary accordingly. It has seemed unwise to me to make any change. You will give orders, then, that the payment of this salary [136] shall proceed no further; and that no person filling the said position of sargento-mayor shall receive any more than the salary formerly paid; and you will cause the increase to be collected from those who have obtained it, or ordered it, or from their bondsmen, so that the amount shall be immediately deposited in my royal exchequer. In order that this be more exactly fulfilled, I have had decrees to this effect sent to the inspector of that Audiencia and the officers of my royal exchequer in that city. This must also be understood in the case of Don Juan de Quinones, whom you appointed to this place.
In conformity with what you wrote regarding the sentence which Doctor Don Alvaro de Mesa y Lugo issued against Captain Miguel de Villegas (who had been a captain in the infantry, and was a substitute in your personal service), of three hundred lashes and ten years in the galleys, I have sent a decree that the said sentence shall not be executed. The said sentence is overruled; and the said Don Alvaro is to send to my said Council an official copy of the proceedings, and the reasons which he had for giving that sentence. In the future military customs must be observed, and no such punishments imposed, as you will see by the said decree, which is sent to you with this letter.
In regard to your request that it be proclaimed that the shipmen who serve in those islands—such as pilots, masters, and other officers—need not pay the tax on their salaries in virtue of the decree which I commanded to be sent, ordering the collection of dues on all the grants for offices, incomes and gratuities that are conferred, I think it well that the said shipmen—mariners, pilots, masters, or other persons [137] who draw pay on the rolls—shall be excused from paying the said salary tax; but it must be collected from all other officers holding commissions or decrees in which our favor is declared. You will cause the said decree to be executed in conformity with this.
I The King Countersigned by Don Fernando Ruiz de Contreras. [138]