Note 11 — EVENTS IN FILIPINAS, 1668

As so much property had been seized from Don Diego,11 especially in jewels and gold, there was occasion for temptation to the most upright man when the inventories were made; and, after it was placed in the royal treasury, for cunning schemes to acquire many ducados with this wealth.12 The first scheme, which was adroitly planned by the usurper’s confidant General Figueroa, was that all the gold which had been seized should be sold—alleging the pretext that if it were kept for a later time it would depreciate in value, and his Majesty would incur great loss; for at this time, as the foreign ships were here which came to procure gold, it had [a greater] value. Without any one’s understanding the matter, all the gold whether wrought or not was sold at auction to the said General Figueroa at the rate of fourteen pesos a tael (which is a weight of ten silver reals) for the wrought gold, and thirteen pesos a tael for the unwrought; but he had previously bargained with the foreigners to take all the gold, at seventeen pesos a tael for the wrought and fifteen for the unwrought. [This was done] so that the usurper might divide up the surplus with a profit of more than 14,000 pesos, the proceeds on the quantity of six thousand taels (counting wrought and unwrought) which was placed in the royal treasury. As I remonstrated that this baseness had been committed against God and the king, they were fearful and reopened the auction on the following day, saying that the usurper was unwilling that all the gold should be sold to one man only—as if it would be difficult for craft to arrange that the gold should be divided up among ten or twenty persons, all tending toward the same end, that of their selfishness and greed. Recognizing their object, I alleged that—granted that their intention is that all the gold should not be sold to one citizen only, for which reason the sale of the preceding day was annulled—after I asked the price of the gold, I desired to obtain 1,000 taels of the unwrought gold, offering on the spot fourteen pesos a tael for the said gold, and saying that, if I were allowed to carry away all the unwrought gold at that price, I would take it. They showed surprise and were annoyed at me, but finally concluded the sale at the said price of fourteen pesos. Only some 1,400 [taels] were sold, leaving the rest for other auctions; and it was not certain, [to judge] by those that afterward were held, whether all the remainder of the gold was sold at the same price of fourteen pesos; for some lots were knocked down at thirteen pesos.