no innovation to be made in this regard, in consideration of the
welfare and conservation of those provinces and their natives, and
so that the choice of paying in money shall not occasion any lack of
products and cause sterility." Felipe II, San Lorenzo, August 1589;
Felipe III, Zamora, February 16, 1602.

[209] The following law regulates supervision of the accounts of this
fund: "Inasmuch as, when any encomienda of the Filipinas Islands
happens to be without instruction, the fourth part of the tribute
collected by the encomendero is deposited in a box with three keys,
in order that it may be converted into benefices for the Indians;
and as it is advisable that that ordinance be executed sensibly and
properly, and that we should know the amount of it and how it is
apportioned: therefore, we order our presidents, the governors of the
Filipinas Islands, that whenever they deem it advisable to examine
the account, they shall appoint for that purpose one of the officials
of our royal treasury of those islands--the one most suitable for
it--who shall examine them. The fiscal of our royal Audiencia shall
investigate them before they are finished; and shall ask and see that
they are executed with the care that the matter requires in regard
to their items, charges, articles, and balances, and whatever else
is advisable. He shall advise our president and governor of it all,
so that he may assist him in what may be necessary, and advise us of
the result." Felipe III, Madrid, June 4, 1620, in _Recopilación de
leyes_, lib. i, tit. xiii, ley xiv.

[210] The bull here referred to was issued by Gregory XIV, and dated
April 18, 1591. The seventh section reads as follows: "Finally,
since, as we have learned, our very dear son in Christ, Philip,
Catholic King of the Spains, on account of the many deceits wont to