If any one should make bold to put the bell on the cat, as the adage says, who would make him comply with it?
By no means the royal Audiencia.

At one time when I was petitioning for the execution of a royal decree of your Majesty there, an auditor, a friend of mine, said: "You should not do this; for, besides not accomplishing anything by it, you will get yourself into difficulty with him." With this in view, it is very important to forbid these offices to persons who are under obligations, which induce an insatiable greed and presumption; and, to fill that yawning void, the wealth of all the Indias is insignificant.

The worst is, that they pervert a man, and lead him astray by their influence.

If I were to recount here in detail all the difficulties which they occasion, I should have to take twice the space.

In short, everyone there is lamenting; and these people come in smiles, and even negotiating for the honors which belong to others, with crass insolence; and, worse yet, it seems to the governor that his own people alone deserve all there is, and the rest are of no account.