145th. Of clause 145, that which has to do with the Indians is not observed any more than the foregoing in regard to reserving the chief villages for your Majesty. Your islands are not like Nueva España, where there is a chief village with many others subject to it. Here all are small villages, and each one is its own head. The governors, interpreting this law more literally than is good for the service of your Majesty, have added to your royal crown some very small maritime villages; and the advantage has been given to whomsoever they have wished—whether justly or not, it is not for me to decide. I can assure your Majesty that it is very little in way of tributes that finds its way into the royal chest, although there is much need that your Majesty should have money here to provide many necessities, which others cannot supply if your Majesty cannot. I also say that, according to accounts current here, no Indians are harder worked or less free than those apportioned to the royal crown. There are many other reasons which might be given to make this clear, which are very patent to us here. One is that, as the officials do not go out to collect the tributes, the governor sends one of his servants whom he wishes to favor, to collect them. He collects for your Majesty what they owe, and for himself whatever he desires; and this is most certain, as well as the method of collecting. Your Majesty’s Indians undergo greater oppression than do the others. Those encomenderos visit their Indians, and once in a while they cannot help taking pity on them; but for those of your Majesty, there is no one to grieve and no one to care. I even hear it said that many soldiers, when without food, take it from the Indians, under the pretense that they serve your Majesty and are given nothing—saying that, as it belongs to your Majesty, they may do so.
146th. What is contained in clause 146 is the thing which would most attract the Indians to receive our faith if it were observed. But there is nothing which more impedes the conversion of these barbarians than that, from the very outset, the Spaniards go among them and compel them to become subjects of another and a foreign king whom they do not know; and without more ado demand tribute from them, which is the thing that they most unwillingly acquiesce in. Certainly it is a very great pity and a cause for much grief that such covetousness is found among us, that—through not knowing how to deal with these barbarians, through not having patience with them that they may understand the good which comes with us to them, and through greed for what they now pay us—we may be the cause of thousands of them remaining unconverted, and of those who are converted becoming so more through force than choice. I am certain that if this clause had been observed, all of these islands would be converted, and that not as a pretense, but in all sincerity. From this your Majesty may see the harm done by those who do not observe what your Majesty commands with respect to the pacification of the Indians. And—in order that you may know how these Indians feel about paying the tribute—when my arrival was made known among them, and it was said that I was captain of the clergy, as the governor was of the laymen, they asked if I had come to force on them any tribute, a thing which they so much fear. In the instructions which the governor, Don Gerónimo [sc. Gonzalo], recently gave to Captain Juan Pablo de Carrión, who made the expedition to Cagayan, there is a clause stating that “tribute shall not be demanded from them for one year”—which marks the beginning of some respect for your Majesty’s orders; and I hope to God that it is to be one of much importance, in order that those Indians, who three or four times have been so wronged and scandalized, may now have peace.
147th. Clause 147 is quite forgotten, nor can those who govern be persuaded that this so holy manner of preaching the gospel be tried; besides, your Majesty leaves no authority to the bishops or to other prelates to attempt the apostolic preaching of the gospel, but all the authority is given to the governors, or is assumed by them. If this clause were to be observed, the bishops and not the governors would have to reform whatever is needed. The preachers go either alone or with an escort; hence it is that the governors attempt more than the conversion of the Indians. They never find place for the fulfilment of this clause. It is without doubt a shameful thing, and unworthy of one who professes such a law as ours, that we should not trust in God, for sometimes the preachers would do more alone, unaccompanied by arquebuses and pikes; and, although I do not deny that this may be lawful and sometimes necessary, it would not be a bad plan that this be tried the other way, at some time. But it will not be done if your Majesty does not order otherwise.
148th. It is very necessary to observe clause 148 in this country, since the Indians are thinly scattered, and are settled amid rivers and marshes where they are found with much difficulty. Hence it is very desirable that the encomenderos do as they are here commanded, and not wait for the religious or ecclesiastics, who can not do it with the same facility as can the encomenderos. Moreover, since the removal of the Indians from their former homes is a thing very odious to them, and they change their homes very unwillingly and with much hardship, it would be better that they be vexed with the encomendero than with the minister—who has to teach them, and through whom they have to learn love, and who in all things strives for their good. The same is true of building the churches and monasteries.
Relation of what concerns the Sangleys
The commerce with the Sangleys has always been considered very important for the supplies and trade not only of this city, but of those who come here to invest their money, and for what is expected from it in the future. For it might be that by this means we shall get a foothold in that great realm, which of all things is so much desired. This trade has been so harassed and injured this year that we are in great dread lest those who come here, or many of them, will not return, or that they will not be willing to sell their merchandise at former prices, because of the bad treatment that they have received and the lack of order here.
During the past year and the present one the ill feeling has increased, because at first they paid nothing; but later anchorage dues were levied upon them—more by way of securing acknowledgment than for gain; while last year and this they have demanded three per cent from the Sangleys, from which many injuries to the latter have resulted. The first is, that they all were ordered to live apart, in one fenced-in dwelling made this year, whither they have gone very unwillingly. There the shops have made them pay higher prices than goods would cost them outside. A warden has been appointed for them, with judicial authority to punish them; and, according to report, many wrongs and injuries are inflicted upon them. Indeed, for very trivial causes they are put in the stocks, and pecuniary fines exacted from them. Sometimes they have been fined for going outside at night to ease the body, or for not keeping their place clean.
Under the pretext that they must pay taxes to your Majesty, a penalty was imposed upon the sale of any article without its previous registration; but at the time of this registration the best of their merchandise was taken from them, and that at the price which the inspector or the registrar chose to set. Some pieces of silk were therefore hidden by the Sangleys, either to sell them to better advantage or to give them to persons to whom the goods had been promised. For this they were punished with as much rigor as if the penalty had been required from them for many years, instead of being, on the contrary, only the first or second time when they had heard of it. Among other things, I know that because a Chinese merchant sentenced him to one hundred lashes and a fine of seventy-five tostóns. A brother of his came to me to ask protection for him, and at my request they remitted the lashes; but he paid the tostóns before he could leave the jail. Of these and of other wrongs to individuals so many cases occur that I have been greatly troubled. For some would take the goods from the Sangleys by force, and keep them; others would not give them what the goods were worth; others would give them written orders [Span. çédulas][8] (which are much in use among them), and afterward repudiate these. Thereupon they would hasten to me; and, as I could not secure reparation for these wrongs, I was greatly afflicted. The confusion and lawlessness which prevailed in taking the goods from them was so great, that in order to get these better and cheaper, those who had authority in this matter would not allow the Sangleys liberty to sell to those whom they might prefer. But these of whom I speak took all the goods. Then, after having selected what they desired, at whatever price they might choose, they would give the rest to their servants, friends, and associates. In consequence, although twenty ships have come from China—and so many have never before been seen in this space of time—nothing of all that comes from China has been visible this year. On the contrary, Chinese goods have risen to such excessive prices that a piece of satin formerly worth ten or twelve tostóns here, has been sold at forty or forty-five, and yet could not be found, even for the church, which is so needy that it has not been able to obtain silk to make a single ornament. The same is true of all other Chinese goods, which were formerly hawked in vain through the streets. Who may have been the cause of this, what has become of these goods, or where they may have gone, it is not incumbent upon me to say. What devolves upon me is, to represent to your Majesty the condition of this country, which can not last long volves upon me is, to represent to your Majesty the will insist upon knowing whose is the guilt, and upon providing a remedy for your vassals who are so greatly in need of it.
From this condition of affairs has resulted very great harm, which must be the reason why the trade of this city has ceased. That is, since all the goods have this year come into the possession of a few persons, the traders who came here on the strength of reports of the good trade in this country have not spent their money; or else those who have spent it have bought very little, and at so high prices that they will do well if they get back their money. The evil does not stop here; for these traders are compelled to perform sentinel-duty, just as the soldiers do, and in order not to leave their goods to be stolen, they pay a soldier who does this for them, and collects the money. Thus every week they have to pay one tostón (the equivalent of four reals) for the services of a sentinel.
These same merchants were summoned for an expedition which was going to Iapón [Japan], and a fleet was made ready to sail thither; and in order to avoid going they paid as much as thirty and forty pesos each. Thus, in many ways, trade has been unfortunate this year. The latest injury—that which most harassed the Chinese, and most succeeded in irritating them—was that, in sending a galley on the expedition to Iapón which I mentioned, twenty or thirty Sangleys who had come this year to remain here were seized, and compelled to row. Many have come to me to complain, saying that they had come here to earn a living for their children; and asked that, since they were not allowed to accomplish what they came for, they might be permitted to return to their own land. But it profited neither them nor me to say this, for they went on that expedition and have not yet returned. From this another injury has come to us all. For since those who went in the galley, and others sent afterward, were fishermen, the fish that formerly was sold in the streets in great quantities, and for a trifling sum, now cannot be obtained at a high price. Next, they sent another vessel, loaded with rice as provision for the fleet, and ordered a like number of Sangleys to accompany it. In order to avoid going, each hunted up whomsoever he could find; and he who had no slave to send gave ten pesos to some other man to act as his substitute. These and other wrongs have caused two hundred Sangleys, who came this year to settle here, to return; and of those who were living here two hundred and more have gone away. There used to be a very prosperous settlement of them on the other side of the river, but now there appears to be almost no one—as your Majesty will see by the letter written to me by the vicar of the Sangleys, who is an Augustinian friar.