As for the means of collecting this rice, the alcalde-mayor or his deputy divides among the chiefs two, three, four, or more taes of gold (which is a certain weight worth five pesos), and orders that so many gantas of rice be collected for one toston.  Afterward they send, to collect this rice, men without piety; who, with blows, torture, and imprisonment enforce compliance with the rate of three hundred and fifty gantas for a toston; and, in other years, one hundred of wine, and this year, sixty.  It is a fact well established, for I have learned from the very persons who collect it that it often happens, that the Indian, not having so much rice as is demanded, is obliged to go to buy at the rate of fifty gantas for a toston, and fifteen gantas of wine; and from him, as is said, they take two hundred and fifty of rice and seventy of wine for one toston.  If this occurred only with respect to rice, which is necessary for the expense which your Majesty incurs in this city, it would be but half a wrong, although I do not know what law permits them to invent one price for your Majesty and another for others.  However this may be, I will pass on.  But the real evil is that the governor, master-of-camp, alcaldes-mayor, your Majesty’s officials and other persons to whom these wish to give it, all consume it at this same price, and they also collect it at this price for the hospitals of the city.  Although the governor, in the orders which he gives for the hospitals and for other persons, such as alcaldes-mayor, does not name the number of gantas to be given for a toston, yet the rate is not higher than for your Majesty.  He is at fault, in that—­knowing that they collect at this price—­he neither causes what has thus been taken to be restored, nor punishes him who transgresses in this matter; thus many dare to take rice from them at these same prices, knowing that they will not be punished.  I know that many alcaldes-mayor, having orders from the governor to buy from the Indians of their districts three hundred fanegas from each single man and five hundred from each married man, take it at the aforesaid price, and even much more than they are permitted to take, and sell it again at the current price.  I know that they also go to collect, at the price fixed for your Majesty, for themselves and their friends, much more rice than they have a right to take according to order.  The same is true in regard to cutting timber.

They compel the Indians to work at tasks in the service of your Majesty, paying them but little, and that irregularly and late, and often not at all.

I do not mention the injuries which the Indians received from the Spaniards during the conquest, for from what happened to them in other parts of the Yndias can be inferred what would happen here, which was not less, but in many places much more.  I speak of what has happened and now happens in the collection of the tributes, so that your Majesty may see if it is right to overlook or tolerate things which go so far beyond all human justice.