3d.  That all residents in these islands, who still possessed Indians, were bound to conform strictly, in their treatment of them, to the ordinances for their protection previously promulgated.

Antonio de la Gama was charged with the execution of this decree.  He sent a list of non-residents, February 15,1521, with the number of Indians taken from each, his Majesty himself heading the list with 80.  The total number thus liberated was 664.

These dispositions created fierce opposition.  Licentiate Figueroa addressed the emperor on the subject, saying:  " ...  It is necessary to overlook the ‘encomiendas,’ otherwise the people will be unable to maintain themselves, and the island will be abandoned.”

However, the crown officers ascribe the licentiate’s protest to other motives than the desire for the good of the island.  “He has done much harm,” they wrote.  “He has brought some covetous young men with him and made them inspectors.  They imposed heavy fines and gave the confiscated Indians to their friends and relations.  He and they are rich, while the old residents have scarcely wherewith to maintain themselves.”

But Figueroa had foreseen these accusations, for he concludes his above-mentioned letter to the emperor, saying:  " ...  Let your Majesty give no credence to those who complain.  Most of them are very cruel with the Indians, and care not if they be exterminated, provided they themselves can amass gold and return to Castilla.”

Martin Fernandez Enciso, a bachelor-at-law, addressed to the emperor a learned dissertation intended to refute the doctrine that the Indians were born free, maintaining that the right of conquest of the New World granted by the Pope necessarily included the right to reduce the inhabitants to slavery.

And thus, in spite of the philanthropic efforts of Las Casas, of the well-intentioned ordinances of the Catholic kings, and of the more radical measures sanctioned by Charles V, the Indian’s lot was not bettered till it was too late to save him from extinction.

“The Indians are dying out!” This is the melancholy refrain of all the official communications from 1530 to 1536.  The emperor made a last effort to save the remnant in 1538, and decreed that all those who still had Indians in their possession should construct stone or adobe houses for them under penalty of losing them.  In 1543 it was ordained by an Order in Council that all Indians still alive in Cuba, la Espanola, and Puerto Rico, were as free as the Spaniards themselves, and they should be permitted to loiter and be idle, “that they might increase and multiply.”

Bishop Rodrigo Bastidas, who was charged to see to the execution of this order in Puerto Rico, still found 80 Indians to liberate.  Notwithstanding these terminant orders, so powerless were they to abolish the abuses resulting from the iniquitous system, that as late as 1550 the Indians were still treated as slaves.  In that year Governor Vallejo wrote to the emperor:  “I found great irregularity in the treatment of these few Indians, ... they were being secretly sold as slaves, etc.”