22. Item: Upon your arrival at the land you shall report to us the events of your expedition and the manner in which you shall be received, also what you ascertain and discover of the said land, and everything else of which you think we should be advised. You shall accompany it with your opinion of what you think ought to be done, so that we may better order what is necessary for the service of God and our own service; and you shall do the same whenever you deem it necessary.
We charge and order you to observe and perform the above inviolably, for if the contrary be done we shall consider ourselves disserved. Given in Madrid, August xxviii, one thousand five hundred and sixty-nine.
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.
[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. [↑]