Note 1 — Report of Appointments Made by Governor Tavora
Reading edition
Captain Francisco de la Haya was granted the encomienda of natives at Lobo and Galban, and their dependencies, in the province of Balayan, which was vacated by the demise and death of Don Joseph Arnalte. It has three hundred and eighty-three tributarios, each one paying every year ten reals, two for the royal revenue, and eight for the encomendero. Four reals of these are in kind—sixty gantas of rice in the husk, fit for sowing and cooking; and one fowl for one real; and the other three reals in money, two of which are given to the minister who instructs them. If they are paid in white cotton blankets, of the ordinary size of three baras and a half in length and three quarters of a bara in width, these are to be counted at two reals apiece; and if they are of soyol, [206] which are fine, at four reals; and if hand-worked for altar cloths, at five reals. The grant was made him in conformity with the law of succession, on account of his meritorious acts and services which he has rendered to your Majesty during the twenty-five years past, having enlisted as a soldier in those kingdoms, in the company of Captain Don Fernando de Silva. In that company he came to these islands, where he continued to serve, being present in such occasions for service as occurred. In particular he was present at the battle which was fought by Governor Don Juan de Silva against the Dutch enemy in Playa Honda, in the year six hundred and ten, where he received a wound, a musket-ball traversing his right thigh. Afterward he accompanied the said governor in the fleet which he took to the ports of Terrenate. He was at the capture of Sabugo.1 He was alférez in the company of Captain Antonio de Morga. He was present with Governor Don Juan de Silva in the fleet which the latter took to the strait of Sincapura; and afterward was likewise in that of General Don Juan Ronquillo, who fought against the said Dutch at the said Playa Honda, he being present on the admiral’s galley. He was a second time made alférez in this camp, and resigned from service in the infantry to embark in the fleet which Governor Don Alonso Fajardo prepared to oppose that of the Dutch, in the year six hundred and nineteen, where he served as a soldier in the company of Master-of-camp Don Geronimo de Silva. The next year he was in the fleet of General Don Luis Fajardo, for the protection of these coasts; and in the said position [207] of soldier he served three years, one hundred and eighty-four days, until he was advanced to fill the place of adjutant sargento-mayor of this camp. Serving in this capacity, he went in the fleet which left in the year six hundred and twenty-five to oppose the Dutch who were upon this coast, having as commander the said Master-of-camp Don Hieronimo de Silva. Finally he was captain of infantry in this camp, and during this time has rendered other services, as appeared more at length by his papers which he presented before me. On the said encomienda there was levied and exacted from him fifty pesos of pension each year which were to be paid to Alférez Juan Gomez, which are a part of the hundred which he holds as a pension from the encomienda of Yguey and its dependencies, belonging to Captain Juan Baptista Perez de Helquerra, by a grant which was made to the said Alférez Juan Gomez by the royal Audiencia of these islands, while the government was in its charge through the death of the said Governor Don Juan de Silva. I have taken the said fifty pesos from the encomienda of Yguey, so that the said Captain Bautista Perez may be free therefrom, as the tributarios which he has are few; and I have imposed it upon this said encomienda so that the said Alférez Juan Gomez may enjoy it, comformably to the grant which was made him. The said Captain Francisco de la Haya is bound to secure a confirmation thereof from your Majesty inside of four years reckoned from the day of sailing of the first vessels which are despatched from the islands for Nueva España, as is ordered by the said two royal decrees cited, and under the penalties there provided; and likewise he must send special power of attorney [208] to petition for and secure the said confirmation; and when he shall send for it he must remit to that court the amount of his monthly income, failing which the said confirmation will not be given him, as is provided in the said royal decrees cited. I sent him the commission on the twenty-ninth of October, one thousand six hundred and twenty-seven, having previously posted edicts in public places in this city for a reasonable length of time, for the benefit of those who may have claims on the said encomienda, as is ordered by another said royal decree cited. I have ascertained by investigation that it does not come under the provisions for the appointment to encomiendas and offices in the form therein provided.