Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 11).djvu/63

and payment of collections that have been in their charge.

In the city of Manila, on the twenty-seventh of January, one thousand five hundred and ninety-nine, the president and auditors of the royal Audiencia of the Philipinas Islands declared that, whereas it has come to their knowledge that the official judges of the royal exchequer of the king our sovereign, in these said islands, grant commissions to certain collectors to make collections from the encomiendas that pertain to his Majesty's royal crown, who, by virtue thereof, make the collections; and that it often happens that, without their rendering any account and payment of them, the said officials again grant them commissions to make the collections, to the great harm and prejudice of the royal exchequer, from which many difficulties may result: therefore, in order to correct the aforesaid evil, they ordered, and they did so order, that the official judges, now and henceforth, shall under no consideration grant commissions to any collectors to make any collections for the royal exchequer and crown, without their having rendered account and payment of former collections entrusted to them—under penalty of paying out of their own pockets what such collectors shall appear to owe the royal estate, as soon as such is evident, besides undergoing and incurring a fine of two hundred pesos of common gold (this fine to be applied to the royal treasury of the king our sovereign), to which sum, from that moment, they declared that they condemned, and they did so condemn, any one who should disobey this decree. By this act it was so provided, ordered, and affirmed.