To proceed informally [de plano], without insisting on legal technicalities [sin llegar a tela de juicio], and not to impose pecuniary punishments in the suits which occur in these regions, is a most holy and necessary practice.  I desire greatly that in the tribunals of your Majesty this be observed; in mine I have so provided, and this practice has been observed and henceforth will be observed with greater rigor.

He who informed your Majesty of the disorderly manner in which have been collected the tributes of the encomiendas which are not fully pacified, and how poorly the ordinances of your Majesty have been observed, spoke the truth in this matter.  The excess in this has been so great that it has been the cause of all the riots and the revolt of the Indians, and of the deaths which have occurred among the Spaniards.  I have given your Majesty news of this, grieving for the evils which have sprung from it.  For the Indians of this province, in those places where the name of God has never entered, nor that of your Majesty, must feel resentful where they have seen neither ministers of instruction nor of justice; but only see that each year a dozen of soldiers with arquebuses come to their houses to take their property away from them, and the food upon which they live, although their all is little enough.  These collectors afflict, maltreat, and torment them, and so leave them, until they return another year to do the same.  What else can these natives think of us, but that we are tyrants, and that we come only to make our gain out of their property and their persons?  And this will be very difficult to remedy, so distant from the rest are some of the encomiendas, with water between, and so little fear of God have those who make the collections.  It may be that with the arrival of the new governor there will be much improvement in this; although if he does not bear an order from your Majesty to change some measures which up to the present have been in force, I have no hope of betterment.

In the next to the last clause of this letter your Majesty says that to remedy the present lack of instruction is my own special obligation, which I confess; and I have so appreciated this that, seeing the great present need of instruction and the little help which I can offer, I am so disturbed and so filled with anxiety that, if I were able to leave the bishopric, I would try to flee from it.  But if, inasmuch as your Majesty declares to me my obligation, and puts in my charge what is lacking, you should give me, together with it, authority to right affairs, your Majesty would be relieved of responsibility, and I of anxiety, other than to make progress in learning my obligations.  If I do not have authority and power to remedy this, I must live all my life in anxiety and perturbation of spirit, because every year I see them collect tribute from a race that is never given to understand why it is collected; nor is there any