Chapter IX: Part 9

26. _Item_: We command that the president and auditors of our Audiencia shall be present on every day that is not a holiday, in the court-rooms, to hear the statement of cases [_relaciones_]--three hours on the days when cases are not heard [_no de audiencia_] and four hours on days when hearings are given [_de audiencia_], according to the rules of our audiencias of Valladolid and Granada. He who is absent without sending a sufficient excuse shall be fined half his pay for that day, by the person whom the president shall appoint, whose report in the matter shall receive faith and credit, so that no auditor shall hold or try the said cases in his own house without being joined with all the others, as has been said with regard to the said Audiencia, to hear and determine pleas and matters brought before it.

27. _Item_: No auditor shall sit when a suit is begun that will affect him, his sons, fathers, sons-in-law, or brothers, or when he shall be challenged. As regards the penalty for challenging our president and auditors, the ordinances of Madrid shall be followed, the fine contained therein being doubled.

28. _Item_: Our president and auditors shall have no authority to bring before our Audiencia in the first instance any suit of their own, of their wives, or of their children. The said suits shall be tried by the alcaldes-in-ordinary, and shall come on appeal before our council of the Yndias if the case involves a thousand pesos or upwards. If the other party to the suit desires to appeal to our Audiencia and not to the council, he may do so; but the auditor, his wife, and his children shall have no such right of choice.

29. Further: The said auditors shall not appear for others in the said Audiencia or in any other, nor shall they undertake to arbitrate cases that may come before them, except that cases already begun may be submitted to all the auditors of the Audiencia for arbitration, and except where our permission may be given--under penalty of being suspended from the Audiencia for thirty days and losing salary for two months.

30. Our said president and auditors shall have no share with an advocate or commissioner [_receptor_] in his fees or salary. Nor shall they have the right to receive anything but food from any corporation or individual, or other person, who shall have been interested in a suit within a year previous, or who shall expect to be so interested, and the same as to their wives and children--under the penalty for forswearing, besides loss of office, being rendered incapable of holding any other office, and being required to pay double for what they have taken. They shall take great care not to converse much or be very familiar with advocates or attorneys who are pleading cases.

31. _Item_: We command that our president and auditors shall not be engaged in military expeditions, or expeditions of discovery, without my express command. They shall have no income-bearing estates [_granjerias_] either in cattle or in arable land, or in mines. They shall carry on no mercantile business by themselves, or in partnership, or through intermediaries; nor shall they avail themselves of the services of Indians in procuring water or wood or grass, or for other purposes on pain of being deprived of their offices.

32. _Item_: There shall be appointed to no position as corregidor or other officer of justice the son, brother, father-in-law, son-in-law, or brother-in-law of any president, auditor, or fiscal of our audiencias; and if any one shall be so appointed he shall not perform the duties of the office, under a penalty of a thousand pesos of gold for our treasury.

33. _Item_: We command that when any person desires to bring any suit or action against any of our auditors he may do so before our said Audiencia, or before the alcaldes-in-ordinary, and he may appeal from the said alcaldes to the said Audiencia.

34. _Item_: We ordain that when any auditor is offered as a witness the Audiencia shall appoint a magistrate, in order that the rights of the parties may not be lost for want of evidence; and they shall give direction that he is to give his testimony, unless it shall appear that he is offered as a witness maliciously to prevent him from acting as judge in the case.

35. _Item_: We command that an auditor who goes on a tour of inspection shall receive no more fees than are ordained and commanded to be given him, and shall accept nothing from Indians or Spaniards except food, on penalty of repaying it fourfold.

36. _Item_: We command that our president of the said Audiencia shall try criminal charges against the auditors thereof jointly with the alcaldes-in-ordinary, notwithstanding the ordinance to the contrary.

37. Further, in case of inability of the president of the said Audiencia of such nature that he cannot carry on the functions of government, the Audiencia itself shall assume the government and do all that he had authority to do--the senior auditor filling the office of president, and taking charge of the other matters committed to the president until we make provision in some other manner.

38. _Item_: We command that our said president shall not have authority to give permission to the auditors of the said Audiencia to come to these realms without our express command.

_Affairs of government_

39. _Item_: We command that in our said Audiencia there shall be a record for affairs of government, in which our auditors shall register the votes that they give on affairs of government.

40. _Item_: We command that our president of our Audiencia shall send once a year to our Council of the Yndias an extended and detailed report, attested by his signature, of the salaries, payments, fees, and allowances paid in this territory from our royal treasury to all persons whatsoever, and shall state how much was paid to each, and for what reason. And he shall give a list of the corregidorships, stating in it to whom the appointment is given by our warrant [_cedula_], and to whom by order of our president and Audiencia, and for what reason; and he shall report on the qualifications and merits of each person, the amount of fees that each one receives, the amount of salaries in each corregidor's district, and the persons appointed in each district, and their qualifications. He shall also state the nature of their service, and how long it is since they were appointed to the said offices. The same reports shall be made by our fiscal and our officials of the royal treasury.

41. _Item_: We desire that one of our auditors, each in his turn, shall make a visit of inspection once a year to the villages of the district of the said Audiencia, and to the inns and, apothecaries' shops, seeing to it that the inns shall have fixed lists of rates. The medicines and other things in the apothecaries' shops which he discovers to be spoiled he shall pour out and not permit to be sold. On the same visit to the provinces of his district he shall inform himself as to the nature of the soil, the amount of the population, and the best means of supporting the churches and monasteries required. He shall observe what public buildings arc needed for the good of the towns and the better traveling of the roads. He shall find out whether the natives perform the sacrifices and commit the idolatries to which they are accustomed, how the corregidors perform their duties, and whether the slaves that go to the mines are instructed in doctrine as they ought to be. He shall ascertain whether the Indians support themselves, or whether they are made slaves, contrary to that which is ordained. And he shall inform himself in a compendious manner with regard to everything else requiring his attention. The said auditor shall have warrant to attend to matters in which delay would be dangerous, or which are of such a nature that they do not require greater deliberation. He shall remit to the Audiencia the other cases to which he is not obliged to attend. For the acts aforesaid shall be given to the auditor the warrant of the decree dealing with inspections.

42. _Item_: We command that our said president shall grant no fee, office, corregidorship, or other source of profit by which means of support may be gained, to any man who has Indians in encomiendas.

43. _Item_: Our said president and auditors shall suffer no merchants to set upon their wares prices higher than those by us ordained and commanded.

44. Further: Whensoever the citizens and inhabitants of the district of our Audiencia shall be summoned by the said Audiencia they shall obey the summons in peace and war, as by our president and auditors shall be commanded; and they shall do and fulfil all that on our behalf they say and command, and they shall give them all aid and comfort which they desire--under penalty of infamy, and the other penalties incurred by vassals disobedient to their king and lord.

45. _Item_: Any person who desires to petition us for any favor for services not performed in our Yndias shall first make his declaration before the Audiencia in whose district he may be, and the Audiencia shall make an official report of the services performed, and of his character. This report, folded and sealed, with their opinion at the foot thereof, shall be sent in duplicate to our council, without being shown to the person interested. And if the person interested desires to make a report for himself, they shall receive and transmit it.

46. _Item_: We command that in each and every case when any towns or individuals of their district appear before our Audiencia to petition for license to make repartimientos, the Audiencia shall grant the license which seems to them due, but only so far as concerns suits pending before the said Audiencia, and for public works for which no other maintenance is provided, and for no other purpose. The said license in the aforesaid cases shall be granted, if such towns have no endowments [_propios_].

47. _Item_: When any one shall petition for an assignment of any town lots or agricultural lands in the city or town where our Audiencia shall reside, then after conference in the cabildo, notice of the judgment of the cabildo shall be given to our president, by means of two regidors deputed therefor. And when they have made their examination, that upon which the president together with the two deputies shall determine, shall be carried out, being attested by all in the presence of the clerk of the cabildo, that he may record it in the council-book. Petitions for assignments of lands and waters for machinery shall be presented before the president, who shall transmit them to the said cabildo that they may confer thereon. They shall return them by a regidor, who shall report their conclusions, so that after examination the president may determine that which is fitting.

48. _Item_: Our said president and auditors shall cause to be made a record-book in which shall be entered the names of citizens of this territory, the service performed by each one, and the reward received by him, either in money, by way of fees, or in other ways, or by appointment, and to what offices. The said record shall be kept with great care, together with the record of votes, so that when any person makes a statement of services before them they may report their opinions in his case.

49. _Item_: We command that our Audiencia, at the end of the two months during which the two regidors appointed as inspectors of weights and measures have served, shall receive from them an account of their service.

50. _Item_: We command that our Audiencia shall have authority to order the execution of the ordinances made for the provinces under their jurisdiction, after being filed by them, and during the time while they are being sent to us for confirmation.

51. _Item_: That an auditor every year by turns, beginning with the most recently appointed, shall audit the accounts rendered by the cabildo of the city where our Audiencia shall reside.

52. Further: When the president and auditors shall be about to allot the lands, waters, watering-places for cattle, and pastures of any town, city, or village, among the persons who are to be settled therein, they shall do so with the counsel of the cabildos thereof, taking into consideration that in such allotments the regidors shall be preferred, provided they have no other allotments of arable lands or dwelling-lots. Let such allotments be made without prejudice to the Indians, retaining for them their arable lands, gardens, and pastures, so that all shall be cared for.

53. _Item_: We command that our president and auditors shall appoint no administrative or notarial official, or fill any other permanent office, even if it be vacant by resignation; nor shall they make such appointments in the interim before we appoint.

_Ecclesiastical cases_

54. _Item_: We ordain and command that our auditors of our Audiencia, in cases of unlawful procedure on the part of ecclesiastical judges [48] shall follow the procedure by and according to which in these our realms the audiencias of Valladolid and Granada proceed, without extending it further than is practised in our said audiencias.

55. _Item_: We command that our said Audiencia, governors, and other magistrates of their district shall ascertain and know if in those regions there are any persons who have letters of authorization or apostolic bulls to take possession of the property left by the archbishops who may die in those regions, or of the vacant bishoprics. When it is known who has them, let him cause them to be brought accordingly. First of all, let them appeal from such persons before his Holiness, nor give nor allow opportunity for them to be used in any manner, nor for possession to be taken of the said property or vacant bishoprics. They shall not do, or permit to be done, any other acts in prejudice of the rights and usages with regard to bishoprics to which we are entitled with respect to this matter, or in prejudice of the immemorial custom that possession shall not be taken. And such authorizations and bulls thus obtained you will send in their entirety, in the first ships, to be presented before the members of our Council of the Yndias, together with the appeals which shall have been taken with regard to the matter.

56. _Item_: When there shall be doubt with regard to the signification of anything in the contents of an ecclesiastical appointment, or as to the requisite collation at the hands of the bishops of benefices for the clergy whom we present, let the president of the Audiencia decide it.

57. And when in our said Audiencia the aid of the secular arm is asked for by the prelates and ecclesiastical judges, let them plead by way of petition and not of demand.

58. _Item_: Our Audiencia and the other magistrates of our said district shall see to it that in the towns which are not populated by Spaniards no bulls shall be published. They shall not permit Indians to be compelled to hear the preaching of them, or to receive them. Those which are published from the pulpit shall be published in the Spanish language. We also give the same command to the commissaries of the holy crusade. [49]

_Royal treasury and its officials_

59. _Item_: We also ordain that the suits of our royal treasury be examined and decided before any others that shall be before the Audiencia; and that our fiscal shall take care to prosecute them, and to report to us what is done therein.

60. _Item_: Our president with two auditors at the beginning of each year shall audit the reports of the officials in charge of our royal treasury for the previous year; and the said officials shall finish them within the months of January and February. When they are completed they shall send a transcript thereof to our Council of the Yndias. We also command that at the end of the said two months, if the said accounts are not completed, the officials of our royal treasury shall receive no salary until they finish them; and each of the auditors who shall thus be ready to receive the said accounts shall have as a fee twenty-five thousand maravedis.

61. _Item_: The judicial settlement [_remate_] made with regard to auctions by our royal treasury must not be made without the consent of the majority of those appointed therefor, even when the auditor who shall be present desires it. Further, at such sales and settlements shall be present our fiscal with said officials, who shall sell nothing in his absence.

62. _Item_: We command that at the time when the auditing of the accounts of our royal exchequer by our president and auditors shall begin, in conformity with the decree given thereon, they shall go first of all to our royal treasury and weigh and count the gold and silver and the other things therein. They shall make a record thereof, and immediately begin the accounts; and when they are completed the balance shall be collected within the time required by the said decree, and shall be placed in the chest of the three keys, orders being given that the balance of the preceding year shall not be made up by the collections received during the auditing of the accounts.

63. _Item_: When the officials of our royal exchequer shall have need of absenting themselves from the city where they reside, they shall not have authority to do so without license from our president, who shall give it for a short time, to a destination within those regions, and no more. There shall be designated, in the place of the official on leave, a person suitable therefor in the judgment of the said president. And if the said official absents himself in any other manner he shall lose his position.

64. Further: At the time of the making up of the accounts of the tithes, for distribution according to the ecclesiastical appointments, there shall be present thereat an auditor.

65. _Item_: We command that no salary be paid from our royal exchequer, or from fines, to the judges in cases of residencia, or to criminal judges [_pesquisidores_] commissioned by our Audiencia.

66. _Item_: We desire that there shall be a record of all the suits and transactions of our royal exchequer; and that every Thursday in each week (and if that shall be a holiday, on the day before), after dinner, the senior auditor with our fiscal and the officials of our exchequer, and one of the clerks thereof, shall discuss article by article the said suits and transactions by means of the said record, considering the state in which they are and how the decisions reached at previous meetings have been carried out.

67. _Item_: We command that our president and auditors shall have no authority to direct the payment of any money from our royal exchequer, or to expend anything from it, without more express license and command--except when cases occur in which the delay required to submit them to us for consultation would cause irreparable injury. In such case, when it shall seem advisable to our president and auditors and the officials of our royal exchequer they shall expend therefrom that which they all jointly shall regard as requisite, and shall make expenditures in no other manner. The warrant which they shall give for this shall be signed by them all, on penalty that what is expended contrary to the tenor hereof shall be paid from their own property. They shall immediately report the amount thereof, the purpose and manner of the expenditure, and the necessity for which it shall have been made.

_Fines paid into the royal treasury_

68. _Item_: We command that our treasurer shall receive all fines, in whatever manner they shall be applied by our auditors, whether to our treasury, or to court rooms, or to other expenses. Our alguazil-mayor shall take charge of the enforcement of them. The amounts so received by the said treasurer shall be immediately brought before the officials of our royal exchequer, who shall deposit them in the chest of the three keys, and enter in a record everything thus collected from the said sentences. They shall keep separate the fines for the treasury and those for court rooms; and our said president and auditors shall supervise the care thereof taken by the treasurer, who shall at the end of each year, on account of the said sentences [_condenaciones_] and the receipt thereof, send to our Council of the Yndias a condensed report thereof, attested by his signature and that of the officials, and a certificate from the clerks of the said Audiencia as to the sentences given.

69. _Item_: There shall be in the possession of our president a record in which every clerk shall enter in his presence, every week, the sentences passed in presence of the said clerk, on pain of being obliged to pay them from his own property. When the president and auditors shall have need of anything, they shall give a warrant for it on our treasurer on account of those moneys collected under judicial sentences passed for similar objects.

_Probate matters_

70. Further: We command that our Audiencia shall audit the accounts of the administrators of the estates of deceased persons, and shall see if they have observed the ordinances and decrees given with regard thereto. These accounts shall be audited in the month of January, on pain of loss of salary for two months, to be taken from that due the first third of the year, unless they show that they have audited the said accounts in the said month. We command further that, for the good administration of the estates of deceased persons, our said Audiencia shall appoint each year an auditor who shall be judge of such administration, and may try the matter as if the whole Audiencia were to try it.

_Indians, and matters relating to them_

71. _Item_: Our said president and auditors shall always take great care to be informed of the crimes and abuses which shall be committed, or have been committed, against the Indians who shall be under our royal crown, or against those granted in encomiendas to other persons by the governors or private persons. The said president and auditors shall make inquiry as to the manner in which the ordinances and instructions given in regard to this matter have been and are observed, punishing the guilty with all rigor, and providing means to bring it about that the said Indians shall be better treated and shall be instructed in our holy Catholic faith, regarding them as our free vassals. This must be their chief care; it is that for which we have chiefly to hold them accountable, and that in which they are chiefly called on to serve us.

72. We command that our said president and auditors shall take great care to give no opportunity that, in the cases in which Indians shall be plaintiffs or defendants, orders shall be granted on _ex parte_ motions [_procesos ordinarios_] or that the suits shall be long continued without prompt decision. Our said auditors shall preserve the usages and customs of the Indians when they are not plainly unjust, and shall take care that the same are preserved by the inferior judges.

73. Let our said Audiencia and the bishop see to it that in every village there shall be a person appointed to give instruction in doctrine to the Indians and blacks who serve without going into the field, every day one hour; and to those who go into the field, on Sundays and feast-days. And let the Audiencia and the bishop compel their lord to bid them go and learn the doctrine.

74. _Item_: Let no judge of first instance in the district o our said Audiencia meddle with depriving the caciques [50] of their caciquedoms for accusations brought before the said judge, on pain of removal from office and a fine of fifty thousand milreis to our treasury. Let the decision of the case in dispute be reserved for our Audiencia, for the auditor who shall next inspect the said villages.

75. _Item_: When a suit is brought against Indians, the plaintiff may make his complaint before our Audiencia, in whose district they are; and an order shall there be given the parties that within three months, which may be extended to not more than six, each one shall present his testimony. After the testimony of every twelve witnesses is taken, the report shall be sent, folded and sealed, without other publication or formal conclusion of the preliminary proceedings, to our council, that it may decree justice. And our auditors, before they send the record, shall cause the parties to be cited to come and appear before the said council in pursuance of the said action, within the term assigned them, with warning that if they do not appear, the case will be decided in their absence.

76. _Item_: We command that when anyone by his own authority shall deprive another of the possession of the Indians whom he shall have, our Audiencia, prohibiting the said violence and doing justice, shall restore matters to the state in which they were before the act was done.

77. _Item_: Let the president and auditors not permit any cacique or chief to come to this country from those regions without our license.

78. Further: Our auditors, on two days in the week and Saturdays, if they have no suits of poor persons before them, shall hear cases of Indians against Indians. We command that the auditor who shall go on a journey of inspection through the country shall have power to try cases with regard to the liberty of the Indians, making report before the Audiencia. Likewise the auditor who shall inspect the prison of the Indians shall examine the witnesses by personal examination, and not by report.

79. _Item_: Our president and auditors shall appoint a judge to allot the waters to the natives for the period during which need thereof may continue, whenever it may be necessary to do so, and no one shall be permitted to molest them therein. The said judge shall come to the Audiencia to give an account of what he shall have done, and he must not come at the cost of the Indians. Our said auditors shall take great care not to send a notary to take testimony [_receptor_] for light causes, to the Indians' villages or elsewhere, except in a matter of importance, and one in which there is great advantage in sending them.

_Fiscal_

80. _Item_: We command that our fiscal attorney of the said Audiencia shall have no authority to appear as an advocate in any case; and that he shall give his whole attention to what concerns us, our exchequer [_camara_] and treasury [_fisco_]; and he shall swear accordingly before our president and auditors. He shall serve in person, except when he shall absent himself for some just cause for a short time, with the permission of our president, and with his authorization for cases prosecuted at a distance from the seat of our said Audiencia. Our said fiscal shall take great care to see whether the decrees given and the ordinances made are carried out, especially those dealing with the instruction, conversion, kind treatment, and protection of the Indians.

81. _Item_: We command that our said fiscal shall sit on the right-hand bench, taking precedence of all the advocates; and at the inspection of the royal prison he shall sit in the court-room behind the auditors; and the same at the inspection of the city prison, the judges of first instance taking precedence of him; and in all other cases he shall take the best place after the auditors and after the alguazil-mayor of the Audiencia.

82. _Item_: We command that our said fiscal shall take care to assist and favor poor Indians in the suits they are carrying on, and to see to it on their behalf that they are not oppressed, maltreated, or wronged--acting in conformity with our laws and ordinances.

83. _Item_: We ordain and command that our said fiscal shall assume the charge and conduct of the cases concerning the execution of our justice, when appeal shall be taken from the corregidors or other judges.

84. Further: We command that our said fiscal shall bring no charges without waiting for a complainant, except when the fact is notorious, or when judicial inquiry has been made.

85. _Item_: It shall be his duty to concern himself, and he shall concern himself, with notorious immorality, and with the defense of the royal authority; and to this end he shall perform all necessary legal acts.

_Alguazil-mayor and his deputies_

86. _Item_: We command that our alguazil-mayor of our Audiencia shall be maintained in all the honors and dignities which are observed in the case of the alguazils-mayor of our audiencias of Valladolid and Granada, and that he shall take the place and seat taken by our said alguazils-mayor.

87. _Item_: We command that our said alguazil-mayor shall not farm out his office; and that he and his deputies shall observe the laws that deal therewith, and the oath that they take when admitted to office.

88. _Item_: We command that our said alguazil-mayor shall have authority to remove from office his deputies and jailers whenever he sees fit, and that he shall have authority to appoint and shall appoint others again, first presenting them before the Audiencia.

89. _Item_: We ordain and command that when our Audiencia shall depute any judge or commissioner of inspection [_visitador_] who shall need to take an alguazil, he shall take the deputy designated by our alguazil-mayor therefor, and shall employ him and no other--unless in some special case the contrary shall be approved by our Audiencia, for just cause.

90. _Item_: We command that our alguazil-mayor or his deputies, whensoever they shall be directed to arrest any person, shall do so and act accordingly without delay, concealment, or negligence--under a penalty of forty pesos for every occasion on which they do the contrary, in addition to the damage and concern of the parties, and of that which has been adjudged and decreed.

91. _Item_: We command that if a malefactor be found committing a crime they may and shall arrest him without a warrant. If it shall be in the day-time, they shall take him immediately before the Audiencia stating the cause of his arrest; if at night, they shall put him in jail, and without delay on the following morning shall produce him before the Audiencia, as aforesaid. They shall not venture to take any property from the person whom they arrest, on pain of being required to repay double what they have taken, for our treasury.

92. _Item_: We command that our said alguazil-mayor shall not tolerate forbidden games of chance or notorious immoralities; and if in the performance of his duty he shall meet with resistance, let him immediately come and declare the same to the said Audiencia, and on Saturday of each week let him come and give an account and review of what he has thus done, under penalty of being required to pay four pesos for the poor of the prison in each case.

93 _Item_: The said alguazil-mayor shall present before the Audiencia the two alguazils whom he shall appoint for himself, that they may be approved by us; and they shall not perform their functions until, after being thus presented before the said Audiencia, they shall swear in due form that they will well and faithfully perform their duties, observing the laws, decrees, and ordinances dealing with the same; and that they will not promise or give, and have not promised or given, for the sake of those offices, or for the profits thereof, or for anything else, the services of themselves or their men; and that from the income and profits of the said offices they have not given or promised anything. The same oath shall be required of the alguazil-mayor who shall present them, and likewise from the substitute alguazils--under the penalty prescribed for forswearing, and of dismissal from office.

94. _Item_: We command that they shall not take gifts or gratifications from the prisoners or from others for them, or for this cause lighten imprisonments or release prisoners. And they shall not make arrests without warrant, except in _flagrante delicto_, on pain of dismissal from office, of, being incapacitated for future employment, and of being required to repay fourfold what they have thus taken, to our exchequer.

95. _Item_: Our said alguazil-mayor shall appoint no jailer without first presenting him before our Audiencia, that it may be seen whether he is fit and able, and that he may be approved by our president and auditors--on pain of losing the right to appoint for a year. And the appointment shall be made by my said president and auditors.

96. _Item_: We command that he shall have no authority to take fees for executions without the previous payment of the party in interest, under the penalty prescribed for forswearing, and the other penalties contained in the laws and ordinances dealing herewith.

97. _Item_: Our said alguazil-mayor and his deputies shall be present at the sittings of the Audiencia, under a penalty of two pesos for every day of absence, for the poor of the prison.

98. _Item_: Our said alguazil-mayor or his deputies shall be obliged to make their rounds by night, on pain of being condemned to pay the damages resulting from their fault or negligence, and four pesos for the court-room of our Audiencia, for every night when they fail to do their duty.

99. _Item_: We command our said alguazil-mayor to be present at the inspections of the prisons of our said Audiencia, under a penalty of two pesos of gold for every time of failure, for the poor thereof.

100. _Item_: We command them to do and execute that which is commanded in the ordinances made or to be made for the good administration and government of the city or town where our Audiencia sits.

101. _Item_: They shall not take weapons from those who carry them at nightfall or after candle-light, or from those who rise early to go to their labors and tillage.

102. _Item_: They shall take no fees for the executions which it shall be their duty to levy, or which they shall levy, on the property or goods adjudged, or which shall be adjudged, to our treasury.

103. _Item_: We command them not to take the money of those who are found gambling, except when they exact from them the legal fine, which they have authority to put in safe-keeping when they find them engaged in the said gambling.

104. Further: Let him take care to go by nigh and day through the public places to prevent disturbances and quarrels, on pain of suspension from his offices.

105. _Item_: Let him take no fees for executions more than once for one debt, even when the party at whose instance the execution is made allows delay or continuance to the person against whose goods the said execution is made--on pain of being compelled to pay the excess of the fees fourfold, to our exchequer.

_Clerks of the Audiencia_

107. We ordain and command that the clerks [_escribanos_] of our Audiencia shall have no authority to appoint deputy clerks, administrative or judicial, in the cities, towns, and villages of the district of the said Audiencia, nor shall they employ therein such deputies.

108. _Item_: The clerks of the said Audiencia shall be appointed by us and by no other person; and in all matters relating to the examination of witnesses they shall follow the rules of the audiencias of these our realms.

109. [Amount of fees for clerks, seal, and register must be endorsed on all documents. Penalty: two pesos to the court-room.]

110. [Official reporter's [_relator_] fees must be endorsed and shown to party. Penalty: loss thereof.]

111. [Clerks to take testimony in person. Regulations as to substitutes acting when clerks are prevented, and as to collection of fees.]

112. [Clerks' and notaries' records to be annually inspected by an auditor.]

113. The said clerks shall enter in one order of court all the official positions which are provided for a village [_i. e._, of Indians], and on account thereof they shall receive no excessive fees. Their fees shall be paid by the superintendents [_calpiscas_] of the villages.

114. _Item:_ No Indians shall be granted in encomiendas by repartimiento to the clerks of our said Audiencia. If they are so granted, the said clerks shall have no authority to keep them.

115-120. [Section 115 provides that appeals from the decision of the inspector of weights and measures of the city where the Audiencia sits are to be given preference. Sections 116-120 contain provisions for promptitude and accuracy in the business of recording--among others, that the pages of the record of a case shall run with serial numbers, and that notice of the number of pages and parts of pages be given to the parties. The penalty for violation of each of these sections is two pesos for the court-room of the Audiencia.]

121. [The registers must be marked with a cross at the end of each year, under a penalty of thirty pesos to the exchequer.]

122. [If there is a supply of clerks, complaints must not be made before a clerk who is brother or cousin to the plaintiff.]

123. The said clerks shall not ask or accept fees for the ecclesiastical cases conducted before the said Audiencia at the suit of the corregidors or judges of residencia, with regard to matters relating to the defence of the royal authority; or for the proceedings transacted before the said officers and the decisions rendered with regard thereto--under penalty of a fourfold fine to our exchequer; and we command that our fiscal attorney shall attend such hearings with all diligence.

124. Further: They shall not write with abbreviations, putting "A." for "Alonso" or "c" for "ciento," under a penalty of thirty pesos for our exchequer.

125-138. [These sections direct accuracy and promptitude in various kinds of cases, with penalties for negligence. They also give directions for avoiding extortionate or illegal fees. Fiscal cases are exempt, as are cases involving any royal rights. The penalties are two pesos for the court-room, for minor negligences; heavier fines for more important ones; damages to the party injured; compensation to the exchequer; a fourfold fine to the exchequer for wrongful fees; suspension or removal from office. The most important section is the following:]

131. The clerks and relators of the said Audiencia, in cases civil and criminal, shall receive the fees belonging to them, in conformity with the fee-list; and that this may be attended to and fulfilled accordingly, we command that henceforth the aforesaid and each of them shall enter on the record and documents in the case the fees that they are to receive from the parties, or from their attorneys or agents, both for the examination of the record of proceedings and the rest, stating specifically the amount that they are to receive and the items of charge. This they shall attest with their signatures, jointly with the party in interest, or his attorney or agent, who is to pay the said fees, in such manner that both shall attest that which they are thus to receive for the said record of proceedings and pleadings. If he who pays the said fees shall not be able to sign his name, let another sign for him. When the case or affair is finished, the said clerk or relator, and the party, or his attorney or agent, shall swear that they have not accepted or given more fees for that case or affair than that which is there entered and signed; and that, if they shall accept or give more, they will enter and sign it as has been said. The penalty of the first offense is a requirement to repay fourfold to our exchequer that which is taken otherwise than as herein ordained; for the second, the same penalty and dismissal from office; and if the party or the attorney shall give information that he has given moneys to the said clerk, and they shall not be endorsed as aforesaid, let him be believed on his oath as to the amount that he shall have given.

139. [Clerks and commissioners are to undertake no official investigations without signed warrant from the court. Penalty: two years' suspension and a hundred pesos for the first offense, and dismissal for the second.]

140. [More than one demand [_peticion_] in appeals is not to be accepted from either party. Penalty: two pesos.]

141. [Abbreviations or numbers in dates are not permitted, for fear of fraud. Penalty: damages of the parties and twenty pesos for the exchequer and court-rooms.]

142. [Memoranda of testimony in criminal cases must be given to the fiscal for correction. Penalty: four pesos.]

143. [Clerks in all depositions are to put questions as to age and the like, to avoid fraud. Penalty: two pesos to the court room.]

144. They shall accept no food, fowls, or other things in satisfaction of their fees, on pain of being required to repay fourfold what they thus accept, to our exchequer.

145. [No fees are to be accepted from a defendant who swears on preliminary examination that he owes nothing, in case the plaintiff does not prove his case on judicial examination. In such case, the plaintiff is to pay the fees.]

146. [Copies of decisions are to be promptly given to the party requesting it. Penalty: two pesos to the court-room.]

147. [Notice of fines and penalties must be sent to the fiscal weekly. Penalty: two pesos to the court-room.]

148. [Evidence of poor suitors is to be taken with care and promptitude.]

149. [Notifications of hearings in cases concerning small amounts are to be sent to the parties. Penalty: two pesos to the court-room.]

150. [Personal presence is required at examinations in criminal cases and the execution of sentences. Penalty: suspension from office.]

151. [Lists of fees allowed by law must be posted in their offices, as well as in the public hall of the Audiencia. Penalty: five pesos to the poor of the prison.]

152. [No fees may be taken for keeping or looking for records. Penalty: fourfold to the royal exchequer.]

153. [Copies of penalties and memoranda of fiscal cases must be sent to the fiscal every week. Penalty: six pesos to the royal exchequer.]

154. [Examinations are to be dated by the time of examination, and not by that of taking the oath. Penalty: four pesos to the exchequer.]

155. In inquisitions and examinations which they shall make they shall put thirty lines on a page, and in every line ten parts [_i.e._], words divided by spaces]; and they shall write a good hand and shall place at the foot of each inquisition or examination the fees to be received therefor, under a penalty of eight pesos to our exchequer for a violation.

156. [Fees for single documents are not to be augmented because other documents are incorporated within them. Penalty: fourfold repayment to the exchequer.]

157. [Cases affecting the treasury, in which no party appears therefor, are to be brought to the attention of the fiscal.]

158. [Fees are not to be charged to poor suitors; if the poor suitor's opponent is condemned in costs, the fees are to be paid by the poor suitor and added to the costs.]

159. [Fees for permitting an examination of records are not to be charged, unless the examination is made by the party or his representative. Fourfold penalty to the exchequer.]

160. [Copies of essential documents are to be included in the record of a case without extra fees. Penalty: twenty pesos to the court-room of our Audiencia.]

161. [Unsigned interrogatories are not to be accepted. Questions must be put only by the counselor of the Audiencia.]

162. [Cases requiring to be divided by assignment among various clerks shall not be accepted without immediate reference to the official whose duty it is to assign cases. Penalty: loss of cases for two months, and loss of the case in question.]

163. [Records and documents must not be committed to the care of any but attorneys or counselors, and to them only on their giving a receipt. Fines are imposed for delay in returning them.]

164. [No record is to be kept of a case of twenty pesos or less, and no fee of more than half a peso from each party is to be taken in such case. Fourfold penalty to the exchequer.]

165. [No fees are to be taken for a view of the records, in cases appealed from ecclesiastical courts, on the ground of violence to law [_fuerza_], if the case is referred back to those courts. Penalty: fourfold fine to the exchequer.]

166. [Fees are to be charged only for the record of such judicial acts as are actually before them, although the whole record is transmitted therewith. Previous penalty.]

167. [Charges of violation of their oath are to be preferred by the fiscal in the event of failure to attend on him with the weekly fines, or of making excessive charges.]

168. [Clerks must be present half an hour before the court convenes; and petitions must be handed in before the president and auditors take their seats in court. Penalty: two pesos of gold paid to the court-room.]

169. [They must affirm with their signatures the sentences given after review by the president and auditors, and written in a book kept in the president's room, before the third day next following. This is done so that the sentences may be known, and to avoid fraud, as the sentences are pronounced after review. Penalty: double the amount in question to the exchequer.]

170. [They must write the decisions of the court by their own hands, especially in affairs of importance, as secrets would not be safe with minor officials. Penalty: six pesos to the court-room.]

171. [The clerks of the said Audiencia or of the criminal court shall levy no fees on the cases pleaded before the said president, auditors and alcaldes, to which the fiscal attorneys are a party, even if the decision is for the said fiscals, with judgment of costs against the other party; and they shall not put them on the record, nor collect them from the condemned persons. P.: forty pesos for the chamber of this Audiencia, and payment of twice the amount collected to the exchequer.]

_Official reporters_

172-202. [These sections give directions with regard to the duties and emoluments of the reporters [_relatores_], as minute and precise as those for the clerks, with similar penalties. The following sections may be specially noticed:]

176. [Relators are not to ask for cases, but to await the assignment of the bailiffs [_porteros_].]

179. [Relators are not to buy or sell cases from one another, on pain of dismissal from office.]

189. [The words of witnesses in criminal cases are not to be reported at the public statement of the case, for they are to be seen by the auditors alone, without being entrusted to anyone else. Penalty: thirty pesos to the exchequer.]

192. [Relators and other officers are to live near the Audiencia.]

195. [No gifts may be accepted. Penalty: double the amount to the exchequer, condemnation as forsworn, and loss of office.]

_Assigners of cases_

203. [Fees of the official who distributes the cases [_repartidor_] among the clerks are to be two tomines for each case, [51] except from poor suitors and others exempt.]

_Taxing of fees and costs_

204. [Records of cases transferred to the council of the Yndias are to have their fees taxed by a special officer.]

205. [In case of complaint against the taxation, the auditor for the week shall decide.]

_Advocates_

206-214. [These sections give minute directions as to procedure, fixing the time and manner in which documents are to be presented, filed, and demanded, regulating the manner of taxing advocates' fees, and enumerating certain duties of advocates in the conduct of their cases.]

215. Counsel shall swear that they will not give their assistance in unjust causes, or counsel the parties to injustice; and that as soon as they discover that their client is not suing for justice they will abandon the case. If it shall happen that through the negligence or ignorance of the counsel, deducible from the record, the party whom he assists shall lose his right, we command that the said counsel be held to pay his client the damages resulting, together with the costs; and the judge before whom the case shall be pending shall oblige him to pay without delay.

216. [Counsel shall not dare to abandon a case once undertaken, except because of injustice. Penalty: loss of fees and damages to the client.]

217. [Counsel is not to repeat allegations in documents; documents are to be signed by known counsel; two pleas only are to be accepted.]

218. No counsel shall dare to make a bargain with his client for a part of the property to which he lays claim; [52] and, if he shall do so, he shall have no authority to act in the said office for him or for any other.

219. [Advocates are to be examined and approved by the president and auditors, and entered on the list of advocates; no one without a degree may appear in a court, except the party in his own behalf. Penalties graduated.]

220. [Advocates must use care and diligence in behalf of their clients, and conduct their cases honorably. Penalty: suspension, in the judgment of the court.]

221. _Item:_ We ordain and command that the advocate or advocates shall, in cases of first instance and on appeal, pay the parties double the damage resulting from their malice, fault, negligence, or want of skill; and that justice be done promptly in this matter.

222. [Advocates must agree as to their fees before examining the documents of the parties.]

223. [Advocates who have pleaded on one side of a case may not plead later on the other side of the same case.]

224. _Item:_ We command that the said advocates shall be obliged, at the beginning of the suit, to obtain from the party a complete report in writing of everything pertaining to his right--so that, when it shall be necessary to call for an account, if they have not, through the client's fault, done for him what they should, they may be able to prove the same, in order to take advantage thereof. This report they shall take, signed by the party in interest, or, if he cannot read, the person to whom the party shall entrust the duty.

225. [Advocates must not betray secrets, or advise both parties, and must swear to obey the laws--on pain of fines, and of being removed from the office of advocate.]

226. [Advocates are to take precedence in order of the seniority of their admission. Penalty: suspension for one year.]

227. [Irrelevant questions are forbidden. Penalty: ten pesos to court-room.]

228. They shall sign the powers of attorney of their clients; and shall not frame their interrogatories in the second instance of a case exactly as on the first hearing, or exactly opposite, under a penalty of six pesos to the court-room; and therewith shall cease the examination of the said powers and interrogatories required from our auditors, in conformity with the new laws and ordinances made by us.

229. [Bachelors may not plead or sit with the doctors and licentiates. Penalty: forty pesos to the court-room.]

230. [Clerks of advocates are not to charge clients fees. Penalty: double the fee, to the exchequer.]

_Attorneys_

231. [Attorneys must be examined and licensed by the court.]

232. [Attorneys and counselors must not agree to prosecute cases at their own expense. Penalty, fifty thousand maravedis.]

233. [The number of attorneys is to be fixed and usual.]

234. [Attorneys must enter no pleadings except for default, conclusion of preliminary process, and the like; and must sign their papers.]

235. [Attorneys must not retain money sent to pay fees and court costs, and must transmit documents to counsel within three days.]

236-241. [These articles deal with the conduct of attorneys in court, and the procedure necessary to institute actions.]

242. [Attorneys must be present to inspect the taxation of costs.]

243. [Petition for a decree is to be assigned to the next meeting of the Audiencia.]

244. Attorneys who ask for documents beyond what the interests of the parties require shall pay six pesos to the court-room, and be imprisoned at the judgment of the president and auditors. This provision shall be valid against all officials.

245. [Names of attorneys of both parties must be entered on all judicial acts and documents.]

246. [Money sent to attorneys for costs must be immediately deposited with the clerk, who shall keep a record.]

247. They shall accept no more fees than shall be regulated by our president and auditors, especially in cases where Indians are plaintiffs or defendants, under a penalty of twice the amount, for our exchequer.