[Addressed: "To my cousin Señor Don Lorenso de San Tistevan."]
[On the margins of pp. 28 and 29 of the MS. appears the following,
evidently a postscript to the letter:]
Cousin and Sir:
When your Grace may write to the relatives [Spanish, Pa--, the rest
blotted; the context would indicate parientes], I trust that you
will grant me the favor of explaining that, for the reason which I
have already stated, lack of time, it is not possible for me to write
until another opportunity (which I will try to do); and will your Grace
please say the same to the mother of Doña Rafaela (whom may God keep),
and convey to all of them, in my behalf, my affectionate remembrances.
This packet--of which I will send another copy by the galleon,
being uncertain whether this may be lost on the way--is going by
way of one of the colonies which in this part of Asia belong to the
foreign nations, such as Francia, Inglaterra, Olanda, and Portugal. By
this route letters usually go very expeditiously to that kingdom
[of España], as also those come here which are sent thence by these
routes, employing the method which I described in detail to your Grace
in the years 723 and 24--a fact which many persons here have learned
by experience, in the case of the letters which by these lines are
sent to them from the court there, by the correspondents whom they
have in it; for one, the governor obtained this satisfaction soon
after his arrival in these islands, in receiving various letters,
among which was the commission as warden of the castle of Santiago
in this city, for a nephew whom he had brought, who in España had
been an alférez of the Guards.
From the maternal grandfather of Doña Maria Josepha the authorities
seized here 102,000 or 106,000 pesos--a sum which, as it had been sent
from these islands to Nueva España as an investment by Don Fernando
Bustillo Bustamante, the former governor of the islands, was therefore
by order of the viceroy of that kingdom [of Nueva España] placed in
the royal treasury of Mexico; as also another considerable amount,
which the aforesaid governor had sent, was obtained from various other
seizures which the viceroy had made. Although the executors of the said
grandfather of Doña Maria Josepha obtained a decree that they should
be repaid for the amount seized, there has not thus far been any way
in which that could be done--either because there was a lack of funds,
or because the person to whom this commission had been entrusted in
the aforesaid city of Mexico was inefficient. The greater part of
the amount thus seized belongs to the aforesaid Doña Maria Josepha;
in order to ascertain what is legitimately hers, some measures have
been taken in order to secure the division of all the goods; and if
(as I hope is the case), this effort shall have succeeded [in time]
for the despatch of the galleon, I will then send word to your Grace
of the result, in order that your Grace and friend Arze may be so kind
as to ask for a new decree in which the viceroy shall be commanded
to see that the most prompt satisfaction be given for the aforesaid
amount. With this and a strong letter of recommendation from the
secretary for the affairs of Indias in the general office of state,
addressed to the present or future viceroy, there will be no doubt
that the collection of this money will be facilitated, as is necessary
and desirable--and all the more if this order shall arrive at the time
when, as I trust, [an appointment to] a governorship being received,
I should go, as would be necessary, to that kingdom [of Nueva España],
even though it might be for [an office in] that of Peru.