the processes of justice be simplified, and pecuniary fines abrogated.  The bishop reiterates his complaint against the cruelty and injustice with which the Spaniards collect the tributes from the natives, and the dearth of religious instruction for the latter; he feels responsible for this instruction, yet cannot provide it for lack of religious teachers.  If more priests can be sent, great results can be achieved.  The spiritual destitution of that region is so great that “of the ten divisions of this bishopric, eight have no instruction; and some provinces have been paying tribute to your Majesty for more than twenty years, but without receiving on account of that any greater advantage than to be tormented by the tribute, and afterward to go to hell.”  If religious teachers are supplied, it will be comparatively easy to complete the pacification of the Indians who are now hostile; then the royal treasury will receive, from the increase in the tributes, far more than it would now expend in sending out the missionaries.  The bishop asks that, as he is now appointed by the king the protector of the Indians, he may have also funds for the expenses and assistants necessary for this office; also that the same protection may be extended toward the Chinese, who need it even more than the Indians.  A royal decree (July 23, 1590) orders that the trade with China shall be confined for six years to the inhabitants of the islands.

Next follows a long document, a collection of papers (bearing various dates in 1591) relating to the collection of tributes in the islands.  The first is a memorandum of the resources and needs of the hospital at Manila; the former are so small, and the latter so great, that the institution is badly crippled.  A short letter by Bishop Salazar (dated January 12) classifies the encomiendas according to the amount of religious instruction given therein, and lays down the conditions which ought to govern the collection of tributes.  He declares that the encomendero has not fulfilled his obligations to the Indians under him by merely reserving a fourth of the tributes for building churches; and advises that the small encomiendas be combined to form larger ones.  This letter is followed by twenty-five “conclusions” (dated January 18) relating to this subject, which express the opinions of bishop and clergy on the collection of tributes from the Indians.  These define the purposes for which this tax should be collected, the restrictions under which collections shall be permitted, and the respective duties in this matter of the encomenderos, ministers of religion, and governors, They declare that restitution should be made for all tribute unjustly collected from the natives—­which includes all that is taken from pagans who have not been instructed, or from any Indian by force.  Another letter by the bishop (dated January 25) accompanies this document.  He states that he does not desire to forbid the encomenderos from personally collecting the tributes.  He advises