be sent, sometimes it is not brought, and at other times it is lost, thereby causing the sailors to die of starvation. Therefore the sailors serve half-heartedly, and desert; and there is great negligence in the despatch of the fleets. The only remedy for both these evils is from the exchequer of your Majesty. If it is to be spent therefor, it would be best for your Majesty to have the amount of the freight-charges on the property sent from these islands in the said ships granted annually to this royal treasury up to the sum of three thousand pesos. Thus the needs here will be met without taking from the treasury of Mexico. [Marginal note: "A decree in accordance herewith. Meanwhile order shall not be given that the ships of this line shall sail at his Majesty's cost."]
I have already reported to your Majesty the removal from these forts of a quantity of artillery, for the security of the two ships which I despatched to Nueva España last year, eighty-eight. That carried by one of the ships is paid for by the merchants, as well as the powder, arms, and ammunition; and that on the other was at your Majesty's expense. Part of the money received I sent to the kingdom of China in order to buy what metal could be obtained. Thence they brought me one hundred and twenty-five picos[1] (about five arrobas) of copper, at thirteen pesos and eight rreals. With this artillery is being cast; to take the place of the pieces carried by the ships, I had
- ↑ The following table of Chinese weights is given in Clarke's Weights, Measures, and Money (N. Y., 1888): 10 mace = 1 tael; 16 taels = 1 catty or kan; 2 catties = 1 yin; 50 yin = 1 pecul or tarn. The catty = 1⅓ lbs., or 604.8 grammes. Hence the pecul = 133⅓ lbs. The shik is a weight of 160 lbs. In China almost everything is sold by weight.
