[In the margin:  “With this report write to the new governor to call together the Audiencia, the ecclesiastical prelates who are present in Manila, and the superiors of the religious orders; and have him communicate with those who could not conveniently go there, getting their opinion in writing; and have all of them confer as to what is expedient and ought to be done in this matter—­taking into consideration the fact that the Indians should not be annoyed or aggrieved; and that their object should be the cultivation of crops and other things which the land bears; and that for this purpose the tribute should be paid in kind, and the valuation should be as equitable as possible.  Whatever they may resolve in regard to this matter, the governor shall cause to be executed, and advise us as to what he does, seeing to it that the Indians labor and are not idle.”]

7.  With the reestablishment of the said royal Audiencia, the expenses of the royal treasury have been increased by more than sixteen thousand five hundred pesos in the salaries of four auditors and one fiscal.  Wherefore it would be well, were your Majesty so pleased, to command that the encomiendas or repartimientos of Indians which may in the future be vacated, up to the amount of ten thousand pesos, be placed under the royal crown, as an aid to the payment of the said salaries; and that, until these are so placed, the governors shall not be able to assign any person an encomienda or repartimiento of Indians.

[In the margin:  “Have the governor and Audiencia send an information in this matter, and the archbishop a separate one.”]

8.  I have understood that the governors have been accustomed to assign encomiendas in this country in a manner to suit their own purposes.  Thus, if any person possesses an encomienda which ends with his life, they add a reserve in such wise that they make the encomiendas hereditary and perpetual for their relatives, so that they may resign them, and allow the governor to assign them to whomsoever they will.  On the other hand, they have an agreement with the governor that he shall assign it to the person designated by the one who resigns it.  That this matter may be the better understood, I shall relate a case in which it happened.  A certain captain, Juan Maldonado Borrocal, one of the conquerors of these islands, holding a repartimiento as an encomienda, went from here to the court in Spain; and there married a widow, and returned with her to these islands.  He died, and conformably to the law of succession, the wife succeeded to the encomienda.  The latter had a son by her former husband, and as, on her death, the said encomiendas would remain vacant, she resigned them, and the governor assigned them anew to the son, who was a boy.  Neither he nor his father had served in these islands.  It is easy to imagine how this pleased the old soldiers who had shed their blood on the said encomiendas to conquer them, and some were eager for that repartimiento.  Accordingly it is easy to see how much remedy there was left, when the governor granted the said encomiendas contrary to what your Majesty has ordered.  To correct this, it would be fitting that your Majesty order that such resignation should not be made in any manner; and that in such cases the governor cannot assign any repartimiento of Indians.