The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898—Volume 34 of 55, 1519-1522; 1280-1605 / Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century

by Antonio Pigafetta

MIGUEL LOPEZ DE LEGAZPI. CONCESSION OF TWO THOUSAND DUCADOS

The King. Our officials of the Western Islands, whose colonization we have entrusted to General Miguel Lopez de Legazpi: Know that in consideration of the services of the said Miguel Lopez, past and present, in his expedition, and the loss that he has received to his property in a caravel which sunk, I have after consultation with the members of my Council of the Indias, considered it fitting to concede to him, for one time, as I do by this present, a gift of two thousand ducados (a sum equivalent to seven hundred and fifty thousand maravedis). I therefore order you that from whatever gold or silver or any other kind of property you may have in your possession and which may be in charge of you our treasurer, you give and pay to the said Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, or to whomever shall have his powers of attorney, the said two thousand ducados of which we thus make him a concession for this one time for the abovesaid reason. Deliver and pay them to him, and take his receipt, with which and with this my decree, I order that the said two thousand ducados be received from you and placed on your accounts. Given at Madrid, August twenty-nine, one thousand five hundred and seventy.

I the King

---

[1] These must be the letters dated July 15 and 23, q.v. VOL. II, PP. 233–239. The error in the month in the present document could easily arise through carelessness of the royal secretary or clerk. [↑]

[2] See VOL. II, pp. 157–160. [↑]

[3] By a decree dated at Burgos, February 22, 1512, Fernando orders that no encomendero may have more than three hundred Indians; for if they have more than that number, “they cannot be well treated, aided, maintained, or instructed in the matters of our holy Catholic faith, as would be proper.” In the Philippines, encomenderos had sometimes as many as one thousand two hundred natives. See Doc. Ined. Amer. y Oceania, i, pp. 237–241, and Census of Philippine Islands, i, p. 423. [↑]

[4] See Lavezaris’s report on slavery in the Philippines, VOL. III, pp. 286–288; also the memoranda of Augustinians, post, pp. 273–285; and Rada’s letter, post, pp. 286–294, where the king’s order is mentioned. [↑]