_Fray Bernardo De Santo Catalina_,
commissary of the Holy Office.

_Memorandum, in order that his Majesty may see why it is not advisable
to have an Audiencia in the city of Manila._

Many great disadvantages result from having an Audiencia in the
Philipinas Islands. Only those that appear to be the worst are
mentioned.

1st. As to the first, it has been seen by experience that, since the
arrival of the royal Audiencia, many more suits occur than before. The
jails are full of prisoners; that of Manila contains usually more
than one hundred prisoners. Some of them are there for a considerable
time, even for many years, because the auditors do not attend to their
duty. A Sangley infidel of those imprisoned during the war was seven
full years in prison. After that, for want of galley criminals, he
was placed in the galleys, while his case was being investigated. He
was one of those who afterward mutinied in the galley, and killed the
captain, after which he and his companions went to China. There is
at present an Indian woman of La Panpanga imprisoned in the Manila
prison. She was incarcerated there when a girl, for she was said to
have been accomplice in a murder. She has grown up in the prison, and
is now a woman in years; and her case is still to be investigated. In
conclusion, it is an open fact that those imprisoned at the order of
the governor or alcaldes are generally let out of prison quickly,
and their affairs are soon concluded. But those imprisoned by the
royal Audiencia either have no hope of leaving, or else they leave
the prison only after a long period.