[A rubric, apparently that of the said judge, is at the foot.]
Before me:
Agustin de Valencuela, notary-public.
Then the said judge immediately summoned Bartolome Martin, an
artilleryman, to appear before him for the said investigation, on the
said day, month, and year. From him was taken an oath in due form of
law before God and with the sign of the cross, under which obligation
he promised to tell the truth. Being questioned in accordance with
the said act and head of the process, this witness declared that he
knows Captain Juan Dominguez; and that about twenty days or so ago,
he called to this witness and told him to come to see him, as he had
some business to talk over with him. Thereupon this witness went to
his house that night, and found him there with Christobal Romero and
other persons. This witness waited until they had gone, and then asked
the said captain what he wished from him. He replied that he had made
arrangements with the fathers of St. Domingo and some other persons
(whose names he did not declare) to go in a champan from here to
Malaca, and from Malaca to Goa, in order to take some letters from
the archbishop and orders of the city of Manila to Espana, written
against the governor and captain-general of these islands about
the affairs of the judge-conservator. He was to take two friars of
St. Domingo in the said champan, who were giving him more than four
thousand pesos for that enterprise. He asked the witness whether he
did not wish to leave so wretched a country, since the governor was
acting so harshly toward the men of his calling, whose wages he had
cut down. This witness answered that he did not wish to go with him;
and that he was not a deserter, nor in debt, nor was there anything
else that should lead him to absent himself. He said that he was now
about to go to Terrenate, and that opportunity would not be lacking
for him to go to Espana on his return; and then he would not have
to go secretly and at such a risk, which might cost him dear. And he
went to recount the occurrence, just as it had happened, to the chief
gunner Daniel Alvarez (who cites him in his deposition), as they are
friends. This is what occurred and is the truth, on the oath that
he has taken, on which he affirmed and ratified it. He said that he
was competent to act as a witness, and that he is thirty-one years
old. He affixed his signature, and the said judge signed it.