Chapter 11

10. The bishop founds his opinion on clause 32 of my instructions. This treats of the encomiendas which are disaffected or have never been pacified; and orders that I try to correct the excesses in the collection of the tributes of such encomiendas as are without instruction. From this the bishop formed his opinion, or merely on account of his office of bishop--which, he thinks, makes him master of everything. He commenced his argument by saying that, as the Indians had no instruction, nothing could be collected from them, nor from the obstinate infidels living among those who have instruction, and who refuse the faith, even if instructed. He contends that, if anything had been collected, it should be restored. Also, that in the encomiendas where there is justice or other temporal benefit which tends to the spiritual, the third part of the tributes in the large encomiendas could be collected, and in small ones, the half thereof. This sum would be for the support of the encomendero, and is even placed under certain conditions imposed by the bishop. He says that from the encomiendas which do not have sufficient instruction no tribute, or at least very little, can be collected; and, even then, it must be under the same obligation to restitution of the sum collected or to be collected by his Majesty and encomenderos, as well as certain royal officials, collectors, and others who order, permit, or consent to the same. This in substance is the content of the twenty-five conclusions of the bishop, or the greater part of them. As I said, the bishop at the beginning spoke with me personally in regard to these matters, and then gave his opinion to me in writing in the letters, treatise, and conclusions which I am sending now to your Majesty. He preaches thus to the encomenderos from the pulpits. Inasmuch as it seems difficult for me--whose duty it is to give orders for the collection of the tributes, and correct the excesses in this regard, in the name of your Majesty--to put his theories into practice, I represented to the bishop verbally, at various times, the reasons that I had for making no innovations until after informing your Majesty and awaiting your Majesty's order and resolution. Setting forth many reasons, I tried to persuade him in the letter which accompanies this; I wrote to him explaining that, even in the never-pacified and rebellious encomiendas, your Majesty commanded that something be paid, as a token of recognition of authority. If there are justices and other benefits useful to the Indians, such as instruction in the faith, teaching them to live decently, and attracting them by kind treatment to receive instruction, when it should be furnished, then all the tribute could be collected except the portion due for instruction. If neglected, the Indians would become intractable and all would be lost. If tribute is never exacted from the infidels, they will never become Christians. This tribute should be collected with all possible gentleness, avoiding violence and wrongs to the Indians. The furnishing of instruction is not delayed by the encomenderos, for they urgently ask for it; but it is not given them because of the lack thereof. It seemed to me that, for the said reasons and others, it is better to make no innovations now; but that an account of everything be given to your Majesty so that you may order the necessary provisions. In the meanwhile, collection will be allowed of at least three-quarters of the tributes belonging to the encomenderos. If their support is taken away, these men would leave the land, and everything would be lost. In that case, even if there were instruction there would be no one to receive it; and the Indians would have to be conquered anew. In particular some arrangement should be made so that the Indians shall receive benefit and profit from us, by introducing justice where none has existed, and continuing commerce, so that they will conceive love and affection for us and will be disposed to receive the faith whenever there may be anyone to teach it. Thus, I told the bishop, the least troublesome way was for affairs to remain in the same condition until after your Majesty had been consulted. Otherwise the land would be lost if the encomenderos should abandon it, which would without doubt come to pass if they could not be supported therefrom. Moreover, in accordance with these conclusions of the bishop your Majesty would be obliged to make restitution of more than one hundred and fifty thousand pesos, and there would be lost every year more than thirty thousand pesos of income. As for the encomenderos, there was not enough property in the world for restitutions, nor would there be greater cause for pity than that an encomendero who has spent so many years in conquering this land should be deprived of the bread for his sustenance therein. Furthermore, in that letter I said to the bishop that, although it is true that your Majesty commits to him only the arrangements for the disturbed encomiendas and those unpacified (and these are the only ones in doubt), nevertheless, it was necessary in that case for us to meet, in order to discuss them all and give our opinions regarding them. Moreover I told him that, even though his opinion and advice were right and proper, yet, in carrying them out there were inconveniences and difficulties which endangered this land. For that reason I did not agree with him, and was of another opinion. Being unable to agree, it was better to advise your Majesty and await your consequent commands. As we had already waited so long, we could wait a little longer for the resolutions of your Majesty.

11. After several days the bishop replied to this letter by another of great length. He still insisted on the observance of his conclusions, saying that it was unnecessary to await new orders from your Majesty, as your Majesty had already remitted them to him and to me. He proceeded to interpret the aforesaid clause of the instruction after his own manner. He declares that your Majesty commands the payment of a small portion, as token of recognition of authority; and that three-quarters of the tribute is not a small part. He does not take into consideration that your Majesty does not treat therein of the encomiendas pacified, and under administration of justice, order, and other benefits, but of those never subdued or rebellious. The difficulties which I encounter in the execution of his projects he passes over with some generalities, as that God will preserve the faith which He has planted here; and that the encomendero will have enough for his support from the share assigned him--namely, the third of the large encomiendas and the half of the smaller. He also claims that the encomenderos will not abandon the encomiendas, as they are not deprived of all, but of only a part of them--and that only for the brief period until your Majesty declares what is to be done (and this period will be very brief); and it is to be noted that this declaration will be, beyond doubt, that the encomenderos and your Majesty shall not collect the tributes. The time intervening until the declaration comes from your Majesty seems to him short. As to leaving things as at present and collecting the tribute without any innovation therein, until after your Majesty has been consulted, the time appears to him long; and he thinks that orders and corrections will never cease coming from España, and that instruction will never be obtained in this manner. He enjoins upon me, the city, and the encomenderos to make every endeavor and use all diligence to supplicate your Majesty for said instruction. He declares frankly that if the infidels do not become baptized because they see that tribute is levied after such baptism, it is of no account that such are not converted. He supports himself by the reasons given in his letter, which are characteristic of one who does not have at heart the perpetuity and preservation of this state; and who does not see, in the distant future, the trouble which its loss might cause. He declares, moreover, that even though I should wish to do so I could not correct the excesses of the encomenderos and the injury which they inflict on the Indians. For the latter there are punishments, but none for the Spaniards. To establish more justice in the land would be to ruin it, as the officials do not do their duty, but rob the Indians. At this, the bishop returns to the subject of the restitutions in which he becomes engrossed; and declares that he is finishing a treatise or declaration in respect to them. With this he closes the letter in which he gives his opinion of what I should have done--concluding by advising that, before allowing the encomenderos to collect the tributes, I should investigate or make inquiries about their good or bad treatment of the Indians and how they treat, caress, and regale them. As soon as I should ascertain the truth, I should either give or deny the permission according to the results of the investigation. Then he makes a clever deduction, namely, that in the same manner he and the other confessors shall not absolve the encomenderos without first having made a detailed investigation and inquiry in respect to their treatment and good disposition toward their tributarios, so that they could grant or deny absolution accordingly. Thus he constitutes himself judge, in the exterior court, of encomenderos and their property.

12. While these letters were passing between us, and during several days after--which were wasted in persuading the bishop to make no innovations until after consultation with your Majesty; and, although our opinions do not coincide, we should however agree in giving account to your Majesty of what was happening--the encomenderos came to me sorely troubled, saying that in the pulpits, sermons, and confessional, they were being greatly harassed and many obstacles were being imposed on the collections in their encomiendas; and that they were being ruined, and were being prohibited now from collecting more than the third or the half of their tributes. They were also constrained to make restitutions of past payments. Thus they are so afflicted and ruined that, if this continues, they will have to be allowed to leave their encomiendas and to go to serve your Majesty nearer the royal person, where they may gain a livelihood--since after having served so many years with bloodshed and services which deserve merit and obtain it, these scruples are imposed. They ask me in the accompanying petition [7] if your Majesty would not issue some order declaring what must be paid.

13. Having investigated their grievance and affliction, and seeing that the bishop was reading his conclusions in the pulpit and was quite determined to have his way, and was even giving orders that absolution should not be granted to the encomenderos acting contrary to what he thought proper; inasmuch as the bishop declared in his conclusions and treatise that that was the universal determination and sentiment of all the theologians of this bishopric, I determined to communicate and confer with the superiors and religious of the orders themselves. Thus they might thoroughly and conscientiously consider what could and ought to be done in regard to this matter, and ascertain (if it were a fact that all held and thought alike) whether some regulation could be made; and if not, to advise your Majesty of everything. I acquainted them, in detailed information, with the reasons for making no innovations until after reporting to your Majesty, and for not restricting the poor encomenderos to such an extent. I discovered that three-fourths of the number of theologians and religious were of a different opinion, one quite contrary to that of the bishop. Although it is true that the Dominicans (of which order he is a member), but not all, hold that his doctrine is good, the Franciscans think differently; for, singularly enough, they have another opinion with regard to the payment of the quota and reject the bishop's opinion respecting the infidels. The Augustinian fathers, however, who are three times more numerous than the Dominicans, and with the Augustinians the fathers of the Society [of Jesus]--these two orders, I say, hold (in entire agreement, _nemine discrepante_) that the encomenderos can, with good conscience, collect the entire tributes from the encomiendas which have instruction, from both the believers and the infidels. Where there is justice, but no instruction, they may collect three-fourths of the payment, the remaining fourth being left to the Indians, the believer and the infidel paying equal shares. From the encomiendas which have neither instruction nor justice, nor other spiritual or temporal benefits, nothing whatever should be collected; nor from the encomiendas disaffected or unpacified, except in case of those disaffected without cause and through their own fault, which would accordingly pay the part justly collected by way of acknowledgment. All the aforesaid facts your Majesty may consider at greater length by means of the opinions which I send. It may be seen how many there are which vary from that of the bishop and his friars, who alone follow him. I saw fit to reply to a note in which he inquired what resolution I thought of taking, and what order must be given to the encomenderos for their collections. I declared therein that if he did not wish to wait until the return of our ships in two or three months, in which the remedy for all would doubtless be sent, I had resolved to give orders to the encomenderos according to a paper which I sent him, wherein my opinion was upheld in every respect and agreed completely with that held by the said fathers. [_Marginal note_: "Have this opinion brought, so that after consideration the contents of this letter may be replied to from clause nine to this point; also all the papers which are here acknowledged by the governor, and those of which mention is made in the following clauses as far as the twenty-first."]

14. At this juncture, the bishop came to see me in these royal houses of your Majesty; and among other discussions in regard to my assertion that the clergy must not have preeminence over me in every respect, as they have done heretofore, he replied that he had directed his clergy that no one, not even your Majesty, had any rights here, and other things to this same effect. To this I replied that I would not interfere with his clergy, as far as punishing them is concerned, nor with his jurisdiction; but that the boat-service which they took from the Indians without payment, and a thousand other injuries committed by them under the pretext that they are fathers of instruction, ought not to take place; and that he had misunderstood me. It is true that I said he was very peevish; and I begged him to speak plainly for if we could not come to terms this time and disagreed again, I could discuss the subject no longer. While replying to me on this point and others, he rose from his chair at the beginning of the discussion, very wrathful and choleric. Several days later, on the fourth of March, he wrote me a letter as long as it was good-humored and free from anger--as may be seen, if your Majesty wishes. Nevertheless (not to discuss what concerns myself), it contains nothing new, except many arguments by which he still defends his opinion. Among other statements, he declares (and rightly) that the encomenderos are so loyal vassals of your Majesty that they would not leave their encomiendas nor the country, as if I had denied their fidelity and loyalty in thinking that if they could not be supported by their encomiendas, they would leave them, and, having abandoned them if they could not be supported therefrom, try to seek their fortunes elsewhere. He says also that although a Franciscan father is placed in every province, there is not sufficient result to warrant the paying of the tribute; and that neither the king of Castilla nor his officials have any greater power in the Indias than that given by the church, although the church does not have so much authority as this with the infidels. He still insists that your Majesty entrusted to both him and me equally the settlement of this matter; and that bringing justice into the land is like bringing firebrands: [_Marginal note_: "Answer him with what has been decreed in this."]