Although the dispatch of title generally defined the governor’s duties and responsibilities and specifically set forth his emoluments, this document had little importance. Far more significant in controlling the governor’s activities was the constant flow of cedulas (royal orders in Council) arriving in Saint Augustine from Spain. These cedulas regulated the governor’s every move. All colonial questions, large and small, fell within the scope of these decrees. Whether orders-in-Council granted a few pesos to a hard-pressed widow or set forth plans for a military offensive against an enemy stronghold, they were the governor’s chief guide in making decisions. Cedulas issued to his predecessors also bound the governor. Before 1681 these laws could be found in the convenient Recopilacion de leyes de los reynos de las Indias. This monumental work, a compilations and condensation of the cedulas issued since the discovery of America, contained the most important laws governing the conduct of colonial officials. It became (or should have become) the governor’s handbook, setting down specific rules to follow. He was expected to furnish a notarized inventory of his wealth to the audiencia nearest the area in his jurisdiction. He had to deposit a guarantee or bond in the treasury of the province where he exercised his authority. He could not marry without license from the crown, nor could he leave the colony without the king’s permission. He had to live in the governor’s palace, never with residents or friends. He could not leave until his successor arrived, nor could he depart without completing the judicial review (residencia) of his predecessor’s administration. A mass of laws also covered such areas as the subsidy, defense, Indian relations, religious affairs, administration of justice, slavery, regulation of inns and taverns, trade, and a multitude of other questions with which the governor had to deal. The laws regulating colonial officials aimed at centralizing of Spanish colonial administration. Ideally the king hoped to direct and control the actions of all colonial functionaries from the august viceroy in Mexico City to the lowliest constable in the most out-of-the-way provincial hamlet. The agency supervising colonial affairs in Spain, the Council of the Indies, was the king’s vigilant overseer. From its reports the king drew up the laws and cedulas prescribing the behavior and policies of administrators all over the New World. In this way the monarch hoped to insure absolute conformity with his will and secure personal control over his domains. Such a policy of centralization was neither practical nor possible. The king simply could not foresee the sudden crisis or emergency that often forced colonial administrators to act on their own initiative without explicit royal directions. Since the king and the Council were neither prophets nor seers, they could not legislate for every contingency. Distance from the colonies and slowness in communication also kept the system from operating as the monarch desired. Spain was an ocean away. Colonial officials could not wait a year or more for the superiors’ decisions on matters demanding immediate attention. In practice colonial administrators exercised wide discretionary powers, no matter how closely their activities seemed to be regulated under the law. The governor in Saint Augustine, for example, could not wait to obtain the king’s permission to purchase food illegally from Carolina traders. His starving colonists had to eat to live, and he was responsible for their welfare. If he waited until approval came from Spain, his colony would perish. Only the most sycophantic or naïve administrator expected to abide completely by the letter of the law or planned to adhere strictly to the wishes of his superiors. Such a policy would have meant the complete breakdown of administration everywhere in the Indies. (Tepaske GSF)