that kingdom to pass by there, without the enemy being able to hinder them (their fortress being very well fortified by nature).  You were married in those islands to Dona Maria de Salazar, granddaughter of one of the earliest and most prominent conquistadors and settlers of the islands, and your father-in-law was the first Spaniard born in the said islands; [7] and, in commemoration of the services which the aforesaid performed, the encomienda of Butuan and Oton was given to them, which they enjoyed.  I conceded the favor of prolonging to the said Dona Maria de Salazar, your wife, the same encomienda for one generation more, by a decree of February twenty-four, six hundred and twenty-two; and to it shall succeed the person to whom it shall belong and pertain according to the law of succession.  You went to the said islands solely for the purpose of serving me in the said duties, and incurred many expenses on the voyage, and enjoyed only slightly more than one year’s salary.  You have a desire to continue in my service, petitioning me that, in order that you may be able to do so, and in remuneration of the forbears of your wife, I employ you without the prohibition imposed on absentees, ordering that they may not enjoy the income from their encomiendas of Indians, preventing you therefrom; and [that you be allowed] to appoint a representative [of the encomienda] to the satisfaction of my governor of the said islands as is the usual custom.  The matter having been examined in my royal Council of the Indias, I have considered it proper to give the present.  By it I give permission to you, the said Don Fernando de Silva, to be absent for the space of eight years from the said encomienda, together with all your household and goods, in Nueva Espana or in any other part where I may employ you, provided that you leave the representative and all the rest to which you, as an encomendero, are obliged, to the satisfaction of my governor of the said islands, to whom and to my royal Audiencia of the said islands, I order no obstruction to your voyage to be placed.  During the said eight years, which are to run and be reckoned from the day on which you leave the said islands in order to make your voyage, they shall not take away from or deprive you of the said Indians; and shall allow you to enjoy freely the income from them and the other things which you shall possess in the said islands, notwithstanding any royal orders or decrees given to the contrary.  Such orders and decrees, I do for this time, and so far as they touch this case, dispense with.  Given in Madrid, October two, one thousand six hundred and twenty-seven.

I The King

By order of the king our sovereign: 

Don Fernando Ruiz de Contreras

I copy this transcript from the original, which was in possession of the treasurer, Alonso de Santoyo, knight of the Order of Santiago, at whose request it was drawn.  It is a faithful and true copy.  Mexico, March twelve, one thousand six hundred and twenty-nine.  Witnesses were Hipolito de Santoyo and Geronimo de Marquina, inhabitants of Mexico.  I seal it in testimony of the truth.