should not be sold; and encomiendas should be made
large enough to pay their necessary taxes and other
expenses. The Indians should not be obliged to
pay the royal share of their gold; and their lawsuits
should be despatched in the courts with simplicity
and promptness. Tribute should not be collected
from them by force, and without giving them religious
instruction; and the boundaries of some encomiendas
should be changed. A “protector of the
Indians” should be appointed, who should not
be also the royal fiscal; he should, besides, have
charge of the Chinese. The soldiers are compelled
to serve, yet are allowed no pay, from which many evils
ensue; the troops have become demoralized; and the
very existence of the colony is thus endangered.
A regular paid force, of about three hundred and fifty
men, should therefore be maintained; they should not
engage in trade, or serve the officials; the officers
should be clothed with suitable authority; and those
sent from Nueva Espana should be soldiers, not boys
and pages. Urgent request is made that the city
of Manila be strongly fortified; this will inspire
respect among their neighbors, and keep in awe the
natives and the Chinese, who are liable at any time
to revolt. Luzon is menaced with invasion by
the Japanese, Malays, and English; and forts should
be erected at various points for its defense.
The coasts should be protected against pirates by
a small fleet of light, swift vessels. It must
be understood that no confidence can be placed in
the natives, who kill Spaniards at every opportunity.
The conquests hitherto made by the Spaniards should
be further extended; and the districts and islands
in which the natives are disaffected should be subdued
and pacified. These will employ and reward the
poor Spanish soldiers, and will afford protection to
the converted natives, who are continually harassed
and raided by their heathen neighbors. The regions
that should be subdued range from the Liu-Kiu Islands
to Borneo. The governor should be authorized
to make such conquests, and even “to entrust
them, by contract, to other Spaniards.”
The king is called upon “to aid in atoning for
the wrongs inflicted on the Indians by the first conquerors,”
for which the latter are held responsible by the church,
which refuses to absolve them from sins until payment
for these wrongs be made to the Indians. This
the conquerors are unable to do, and request for it
aid from the royal treasury. The king is asked
to compel the encomenderos to give religious instruction
to their Indians. The abuses that prevail in
the collection of tributes from the Indians are enumerated;
in some places the natives are revolting, because
treated so unjustly. Some Spaniards still hold
Indians as slaves, in defiance of royal edicts; moreover,
the natives themselves hold many slaves; and the priests
are unwilling to grant absolution to either unless
they release these slaves. Request is made for
regulation of the system of slavery among the Indians.
Complaint is made that the friars go from the islands
wherever and whenever they please; thus they neglect
their duties, arouse ill-feeling among the Chinese
and other foreigners, and in many other ways do harm.
This evil should be corrected by forbidding all Spaniards
to leave the islands, or to give assistance to the
friars in doing so, except by special permission from
the authorities.