Part 25

The stewards of the said ships, and those making any other voyages from these islands, shall receive one hundred and fifty pesos per year, besides the usual ration, while sailing in the same manner as above; but when they reach land their pay or ration shall not run on.

The guards of the water on the said ships, and those making other voyages, shall receive one hundred and fifty pesos per year, and their ration while sailing in the above manner.

The office of the controllership of the royal exchequer must be held by such a person as that office requires. For in that office, not only is he under obligation to examine and review the transactions in all the other offices--the paymaster's, the factor's and the chief office [of the exchequer]--but it is instituted from their beginning, and must keep an equal number of books, which must agree with them and be made as they. He exercises the duties of the paymaster, of the factor, and of the chief official of the said exchequer, in order that the despatches made in the said offices may be collated and compared with the duplicates which he shall have made at that same time in his office of the controllership. Finding that they conform, those pay-checks and payments will be despatched more properly. He shall be given two clerks to help him, at a salary of ninety-six pesos per year, without anything else. He who shall exercise the said duties of the controllership shall receive two hundred and fifty pesos per year, without anything else.

In the pay-office of the infantry, in the accountancy of the treasury, there shall be a chief official, who shall receive three hundred pesos per year, but nothing else. This is the same sum that he has received and is receiving in the said office.

In the said pay-office and accountancy, there shall be a subordinate official with an annual salary of two hundred and fifty pesos, without anything else, which is the sum that he has been receiving.

There shall be two clerks in the said office, so that they may become experienced in the management and handling of papers; they shall succeed to the others who shall be employed in the other higher places; and they shall work there and aid them, because of the press of matters there, as I have been informed. Each of those clerks shall receive one hundred and fifty pesos per year, without ration.

In addition to the chief clerk and the sub-clerk at present employed in the office of the factor of the exchequer, at the pay that they receive, there shall be another clerk; so that he may help them, and so that he may become experienced in the office for the future. He shall receive a salary of one hundred and fifty pesos, without anything else.

In the chief office of the exchequer, there shall be, in addition to the chief clerk and the other sub-clerk, who shall receive the salaries that they have been receiving, another clerk to help them, and to render himself useful in the office. He shall receive one hundred and fifty pesos, but nothing else. The said clerks in any of the said offices shall be Spaniards.

No powder shall be wasted in salutes for the commandants of the presidios when they enter or when they go out of them, with a fleet or without it, or any other things, in any of the redoubts and forts of this city or in the others outside it--except on the day of the Resurrection and on Corpus Christi. It shall be done with moderation on those days. If they wish to fire salutes on the days of the patron saints of the city of Manila and other places in these islands, it shall be at their own cost; and they shall pay his Majesty for the powder and other things that are used.

Furthermore, after the said day the standard-bearers of the alférezes of all the companies of this city, and of those outside the city, shall receive only the half of what they now receive. They were receiving ninety-six pesos of eight reals, the half of which is forty-eight pesos; and they shall receive that sum, and nothing else.

Furthermore, the standard-bearers of the companies of the Pampango nation shall only receive, from the said day and thenceforth, the half of the sum paid to a soldier of that nation, and no more, and the pages of the said nation shall be dismissed.

All the above shall be observed and obeyed and executed, without any violation of it by any other meaning and interpretation that might be given to it in any circumstance, under penalty of being punished as disobedient to the royal commands, so long as there is no change made in them by his Majesty, by myself, or by any other person in his royal name. The said royal officials, in order that they may so understand it, shall enter this order in the royal books, and shall despatch the necessary orders to the places where that is advisable. The royal officials are to note that the salaries and other payments made in this city, in any manner, must be authorized and paid by decree of the government, as is ordered to them; and not in any other manner, by issuing pay-checks and payments in form. The auditor of accounts shall also take note of this order, so that, in accordance with it, the payments that shall have been made shall be placed in the accounts of the royal estate that he shall audit which shall have been administered not only by the said royal official judges, but by those of Terrenate and the island of Hermosa, and by the alcaldes-mayor, overseers, ship-masters, and all others who in any manner have to do with his Majesty's revenues, and in no other manner. Given in Manila, September four, one thousand six hundred and thirty-five.

Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera

By order of the governor: Francisco de Ortega

Also, from the said day and thenceforth, the common seamen who shall come in the ships from Castilla, who shall not be necessary and indispensable in the port of Cavite, shall be dismissed. The same shall be done in the ships that sail to Terrenate and the island of Hermosa, when they shall have returned to Manila. The pay of the said common seamen shall not run any longer than the day on which they pass muster after they shall have anchored. If the said galleons shall be needed for the voyage, they shall determine what common seamen shall be necessary, a fortnight before the ships sail.

Furthermore, the clerk of the magazines at the said port of Cavite shall not receive, from the said day and thenceforth, a greater sum than one hundred and fifty pesos of eight reals per year, and nothing else.

Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera

From the said day, the first of October, and thenceforth, all the artillerymen of this city, the port of Cavite, and all the others in all places outside this said city, shall receive one hundred and seventy pesos of eight reals per annum, and no more; and the sum of two hundred pesos that they received before shall cease.

All the corporals of all the companies outside of this city shall receive and enjoy the same pay and additional pay as those of this presidio of Manila, and no more.

The corporals from the nobility, who have been in the forts of Terrenate hitherto, and who have received more pay than the other corporals of the companies, shall be dropped and removed, as they are unnecessary.

Furthermore, all the companies which shall be serving in the said forts shall each receive thirty ordinary escudos of ten reals, the same as is received by the companies of this presidio; and they shall cease to receive the thirty ducados of eleven reals which they had before.

The corporals of the companies of the Pampangos throughout these islands shall receive and enjoy no additional pay for their office.

The pay of captain, alférez, and sergeant of the Pampango nation shall be understood to be, for all those who serve in these islands, the amount that is assigned in the articles of this revision, and no more.

Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera

Collated with the original act and revision of pay and rations made by the governor and captain-general, Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera y Mendoça, who sent it to the official judges of the royal estate of these islands so that it might be put in force. I obtained it from them, in order to set it down in his Majesty's books in this auditing department of the royal exchequer, and to make these copies. Then I returned it to them and they have it now. Given in Manila, June four, one thousand six hundred and thirty-six.

Juan Bautista de Çubiaga

Juan Bautista de Çubiaga, auditor of accounts and results of the royal estate of these Philipinas Islands, shall certify at the end of this decree the salaries and wages, and the rations, that have been paid from the royal treasury and magazines to the persons who have served in any naval or military post, or in any other capacity, both in this city of Manila and outside of it, and in its presidios, in former times and until June twenty-five, one thousand six hundred and thirty-five, when I assumed the government of the islands. He shall also make a copy, signed with his name, from the revision which I made general, in the month of September of the said year, of the paid positions in which certain wages and rations that they enjoyed were lessened and reduced, because they were so large. He shall do it all distinctly and clearly, so that the saving that has been made for his Majesty's royal estate may be seen, in order that it might be evident in his royal Council. Given in Manila, May twenty-four, one thousand six hundred and thirty-six.

Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera