145th.  Of clause 145, that which has to do with the Indians is not observed any more than the foregoing in regard to reserving the chief villages for your Majesty.  Your islands are not like Nueva Espana, where there is a chief village with many others subject to it.  Here all are small villages, and each one is its own head.  The governors, interpreting this law more literally than is good for the service of your Majesty, have added to your royal crown some very small maritime villages; and the advantage has been given to whomsoever they have wished—­whether justly or not, it is not for me to decide.  I can assure your Majesty that it is very little in way of tributes that finds its way into the royal chest, although there is much need that your Majesty should have money here to provide many necessities, which others cannot supply if your Majesty cannot.  I also say that, according to accounts current here, no Indians are harder worked or less free than those apportioned to the royal crown.  There are many other reasons which might be given to make this clear, which are very patent to us here.  One is that, as the officials do not go out to collect the tributes, the governor sends one of his servants whom he wishes to favor, to collect them.  He collects for your Majesty what they owe, and for himself whatever he desires; and this is most certain, as well as the method of collecting.  Your Majesty’s Indians undergo greater oppression than do the others.  Those encomenderos visit their Indians, and once in a while they cannot help taking pity on them; but for those of your Majesty, there is no one to grieve and no one to care.  I even hear it said that many soldiers, when without food, take it from the Indians, under the pretense that they serve your Majesty and are given nothing—­saying that, as it belongs to your Majesty, they may do so.

146th.  What is contained in clause 146 is the thing which would most attract the Indians to receive our faith if it were observed.  But there is nothing which more impedes the conversion of these barbarians than that, from the very outset, the Spaniards go among them and compel them to become subjects of another and a foreign king whom they do not know; and without more ado demand tribute from them, which is the thing that they most unwillingly acquiesce in.  Certainly it is a very great pity and a cause for much grief that such covetousness is found among us, that—­through not knowing how to deal with these barbarians, through not having patience with them that they may understand the good which comes with us to them, and through greed for what they now pay us—­we may be the cause of thousands of them remaining unconverted, and of those who are converted becoming so more through force than choice.  I am certain that if this clause had been observed, all of these islands would be converted, and that not as a pretense, but in all sincerity.  From this your Majesty may see the harm done by those who do not observe what your Majesty