In respect to the first the province of Tuy commences, as the documents state, and as Gomez Perez Dasmariñas declares, as one goes from La Pampanga to the said province from the end of the Çanbales to the beginning of the Tui River; thence following its course to the villages of Datan, Lamot, and Duli to the end of the province of Tui, and the commencement of that of Cagayan; and, cutting this line, by a cross-line from the end of the province of Pangasinan to the sea, on the coast opposite Manila.
As to the second, the encomiendas which shall be within the confines of the said province and shall have any part in the province of Tuy—that the encomenderos retain what they have thus far held and collected by the register, quietly and peacefully, without exceeding the number of natives assigned to them; and in such case they may remain in the province of Tuy and be distributed according to the conditions and agreements. In case that any one’s concession and title indicate a greater number of natives than he possesses, he must keep only those whom he himself has conquered, pacified, and had instructed, and no more; for it is not right that he enjoy those who were hostile when the concession was given him, those conquered or instructed here later, if others have shed their blood in the conquest of these, and they have been won at his Majesty’s expense.
4. Item: We believe that the condition stated in the first clause of the first [agreement] can be emended, granting that authority is to be given to Doctor de la Vega to be able to appoint the alcaldes-mayor of the provinces of Cagayan, Ylocos, and Pangasinan, and take their residencias. This gave opportunity to the governor to complain that, inasmuch as none of this pertained to Doctor de la Vega, a part of his [the governor’s] office was being taken from him. This was necessary for the proper accomplishment of his Majesty’s service; but in order not to give any occasion for ill-feeling in the other affairs that will arise daily with the governor, it seems a sufficient remedy to give the said Doctor de la Vega commission, so that these alcaldes-mayor be subordinate to him, as all the justices in the adelantamientos[9] of Castilla [are subordinate]. Also the said Doctor de la Vega and his deputies should be authorized to try the causes, as stated in the first clause herein cited of the first conditions, leaving their appointment and the taking of their residencias to the governor, or to whom that may pertain; and the said Doctor de la Vega should have full power, in case that they do not exactly fulfil any orders sent them, to punish them, and to execute upon them the penalties to which he shall condemn them, even to suspension or exile. For if they know that that can be done, they will act more carefully, in order to give no occasion for such action.
By decree of his Majesty, it is ordained that the inhabitants of this city may export the products of the country without formal allotment in the lading. We beseech his Majesty to be pleased to allow the cakes of wax possessed by the volunteer soldiers who shall go to serve and who actually do serve in this expedition, to be exported; and that our certification and that of each one be sufficient for the official laders to stow it in the vessels as soon as they, or anyone in their name, may arrive, under severe penalties. The same we beseech for the piezas of the cargo which should be given to them, when it shall likewise appear, by certification, that they are engaged in this expedition.
Doctor Juan Manuel de la Vega
[1] The route of this expedition was evidently up the Rio Grande de Pampanga, northward through the present provinces of Pampanga and Nueva Ecija; the headwaters of this stream are separated by the ridge of Caraballo Sur from those of the Rio Grande de Cagayan. Crossing these mountains, the Spaniards found themselves, at the southern end of Nueva Viscaya, at the sources of one of the two great branches of the latter river, the Magat River—the one which is named Tuy in our text. It joins the main stream of the Rio Grande de Cagayan, a few miles above Ilagan, in the province of Isabela, and the united streams flow northward through the entire length of that province and of Cagayan, falling into the sea below Aparri, on the northern coast of Luzón. See the short account of this expedition given in Vol. VIII, pp. 250, 251.
[2] A species of orange-colored agate, of great beauty.
[3] This city is no longer in existence; it has been replaced by the town of Lalló, formerly only a district of that city.
[4] In the MS., cabra; but this may be only a copyist’s conjecture for an illegible word.