Indians, and matters relating to them

71. Item:  Our said president and auditors shall always take great care to be informed of the crimes and abuses which shall be committed, or have been committed, against the Indians who shall be under our royal crown, or against those granted in encomiendas to other persons by the governors or private persons.  The said president and auditors shall make inquiry as to the manner in which the ordinances and instructions given in regard to this matter have been and are observed, punishing the guilty with all rigor, and providing means to bring it about that the said Indians shall be better treated and shall be instructed in our holy Catholic faith, regarding them as our free vassals.  This must be their chief care; it is that for which we have chiefly to hold them accountable, and that in which they are chiefly called on to serve us.

72.  We command that our said president and auditors shall take great care to give no opportunity that, in the cases in which Indians shall be plaintiffs or defendants, orders shall be granted on ex parte motions [procesos ordinarios] or that the suits shall be long continued without prompt decision.  Our said auditors shall preserve the usages and customs of the Indians when they are not plainly unjust, and shall take care that the same are preserved by the inferior judges.

73.  Let our said Audiencia and the bishop see to it that in every village there shall be a person appointed to give instruction in doctrine to the Indians and blacks who serve without going into the field, every day one hour; and to those who go into the field, on Sundays and feast-days.  And let the Audiencia and the bishop compel their lord to bid them go and learn the doctrine.

74. Item:  Let no judge of first instance in the district o our said Audiencia meddle with depriving the caciques [50] of their caciquedoms for accusations brought before the said judge, on pain of removal from office and a fine of fifty thousand milreis to our treasury.  Let the decision of the case in dispute be reserved for our Audiencia, for the auditor who shall next inspect the said villages.

75. Item:  When a suit is brought against Indians, the plaintiff may make his complaint before our Audiencia, in whose district they are; and an order shall there be given the parties that within three months, which may be extended to not more than six, each one shall present his testimony.  After the testimony of every twelve witnesses is taken, the report shall be sent, folded and sealed, without other publication or formal conclusion of the preliminary proceedings, to our council, that it may decree justice.  And our auditors, before they send the record, shall cause the parties to be cited to come and appear before the said council in pursuance of the said action, within the term assigned them, with warning that if they do not appear, the case will be decided in their absence.