21.  A sequestration of property is very injurious to a person, especially in the Indias, where all the value of property depends upon its management.  The commissary ought not therefore, in any case, to do this; on the contrary, the arrested person shall permit suitable provision for his property, according to his own preference, entrusting it by means of an inventory to some person in whom he has confidence.  The latter shall bind himself, in due form, to be the depositary of such goods as the prisoner may leave in his charge on account of his arrest; and in such manner that it may not seem to be a deposit or a sequestration by the Holy Office, but simply a contract between two parties.  This accomplished, the commissary shall obtain very minute information about the station of the prisoner, his mode of life, and the means and property that he may possess.  If he has any reason to suspect that either the prisoner or the person to whom he has entrusted his property on account of the arrest, is endeavoring to hide, or squander, or alienate the property, he shall be careful not to allow such alienation or any other mismanagement of the property; until the Holy Office, having examined his offense, shall make suitable provision for a legal sequestration:  for in punishing a crime, the property of the guilty person is always regarded as an accessory element, to be used in behalf of the person to whom it shall belong after the culprit is released from prison.

22.  Money for the prisoner’s food, for the expenses of his journey, according to his station, and for his bedding and clothes, must be taken entirely from his estates; and if he has none, let such of his goods be sold as will inflict least damage upon him, to the amount necessary, at a public auction before a notary or a royal scrivener.  No officer or agent of the Holy Office shall take anything from the said sale, either personally or through agents—­a command which is general in all cases when goods are sold by the Holy Office, whether they are sequestrated or not.  To better ascertain which of the goods would cause him least damage, it will be advisable to consult the opinion and desire of the interested party.

23.  All that has been said thus far concerning the acceptance of denunciations, and the reference of cases, prisoners, and proceedings to the Holy Office, does not apply to the Indians—­against whom the commissary shall not proceed for the present, but shall leave them to the jurisdiction of the ordinary. [42] Cases involving them are not to be referred to us.  All other cases, in which mestizos, mulattoes, and Spaniards, of all classes, are involved, shall be tried exclusively by the Holy Office rather than by the ordinary courts, as specified in the fourth clause of these instructions.