Note 91 — The Pardo Controversy

I have no other request or greater desire than to leave this place; and although (for since I arrived in these islands I have written to you at every opportunity) I have sufficiently wearied you regarding this, I cannot cease continuing [my efforts to go away]—without urging any fixed and assigned place, or where or how it shall be accomplished. For every day, Don Diego, I find myself more disconsolate, and I would by this time be desperate if I could not trust in the good opinion that I have of you; and therefore, hoping for your protection and stationed at your feet, I entreat you with the utmost earnestness [for a change in my position], without heeding whether or not it be a promotion. For me the best promotion will be to go away, wherever it may be; and if it cannot be accomplished in this way, [please] endeavor to secure for me permission, for such time as may seem proper to the Council, to pass over to Nueva España, in accordance with what I wrote last year, as there was no room for either of these expedients to secure my departure. I send a special power of attorney for you to make in my name surrender and renunciation of this post, for the causes and reasons which I will allege in the Council, either personally or by my attorney; I do not do so now, on account of the damage and risk which thus may be occasioned to me because I do not desire a post in which there is so much corruption as there is in this. And more, I would almost rather go to get a living by some petition or commission than to be auditor of Filipinas; and this, Don Diego, is the truth. Here there is no liberty for anything; there is no authority, no respect, and, above all, not an atom of profit. Then, what is such a post good for? It is only fit for ruining honor and reputation, and for this it is notorious. In case I shall get away from here by any of the aforesaid ways, you will ask that a judge of residencia may be appointed for me, so that he may take it before I shall go; for I do not wish to leave behind these sorrapas. You will previously challenge Don Diego de Viga and Don Esteban de la Fuente y Alanis; for these two gentlemen, each in his own way, are very malicious, and have very little affection for colleagues. I know them well, by experience of what they have done to other persons; and I do not wish that they do the same to me. It is also necessary to obtain for me a royal decree, so that I may not be hindered by the governor or any one else, that all the persons in my household, and those who came with me to these islands, may return in my company; and that I may be assigned a small room for storage of my provisions for the voyage. For here it is not the same as in the north,91 where there are general accommodations for the passengers; but each one furnishes his own provisions; and, unless a place is assigned in which these may go, the transportation charges cost more than one thousand pesos; but, as those who ship bales pay for them at the rate of twelve and fifteen pesos, they have many advantages [over the rest].