Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 05).djvu/277

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1582–1583]
FOUNDATION OF AUDIENCIA
275

one of our royal audiencias which sit in the town of Valladolid and the city of Granada of these our realms, and the other audiencias in our Yndias: now therefore we order to be made and sent to the said island our royal seal, with which are to be sealed our decisions which are made and issued by the said president and auditors in the said Audiencia. Moreover, as to the course of procedure which they are to follow in the performance of their duties, we have ordered certain rules to be drawn up, as follows:

House of Audiencia

1. First, we ordain and command that in the said city of Manila there shall be a house of Audiencia, where may sit and reside our said president and auditors, and where our royal seal and register may be kept, and in which shall be the prison and its warden, and the smelter for precious metals. If there should, however, be no accommodation for living in the said house, the auditors shall lodge in other houses, which they shall occupy with the consent of their owners, paying them rent; and the Audiencia shall be held in the house where the president dwells, and therein shall be the prison and its warden.

2. It is our will and desire that the said Audiencia shall have as its district the said island of Luçon and the other Filipinas islands of the archipelago of China, and the mainland of the same, whether discovered or yet to be discovered.

Jurisdiction of the President and Auditors in Civil and Criminal Cases

3. We ordain and command that our aforesaid