The city of Segovia, in the province of Cagayan, is a newly-settled city.  The offices have been filled by the governor with the early conquerors; it will therefore be convenient for his Majesty to confirm them, in order that the community may become permanently settled.

Concerning the office of alcalde-mayor in the villages and provinces of the Indians, the following method is carried out.  The alcalde-mayor, who goes there for a year or two, takes with him his own alguacil and clerk, appointed by himself.  The lawsuits which take place before them are seldom made public; and they can keep the fines forfeited to the royal treasury—­which are not slight, for they fine the natives even for treading the ground.  They keep neither archives nor record of anything, so that his Majesty is ill served in their office; the natives suffer, and the officials condemn themselves.  In view of all this, it would be better for each province of Indians possessing the office of alcalde-mayor to have a permanent alguacil and clerk appointed by his Majesty; for if they are not appointed by the alcalde and are not his servants, they will not conform so thoroughly to his will.  Thus light would be shed upon the legal proceedings, of which an account would be kept; and the fines forfeited to the royal treasury would not be lost, together with the expenses of justice.  Finally, if they are appointed permanently, they will aim at the preservation of the Indians for their own benefit, and will not plunder and then go away, as they do now.  The three most important provinces in which an alcalde resides are:  the province of Pampanga, which is the most fertile region of these islands, and which has about thirty thousand Indians; the province of La Laguna de Bai, with a like number of Indians; and the province of Bombon, Balaian, Mindoro, with about twenty thousand Indians.  I believe that in these three provinces the offices of alguacil and clerk will be of no less value than they are in Spanish communities.  In the other provinces, these offices are of little importance at present.

DOCUMENTS OF 1583

Complaints against Penalosa.  Gabriel de Ribera; [1583?] Affairs in the Philipinas Islands.  Fray Domingo de Salazar; [1583].  Instructions to commissary of the Inquisition.  Pedro de los Rios, and others; March 1.  Foundation of the Audiencia of Manila.  Felipe II; May 5.

Sources:  These documents are obtained from MSS. in the Archivo general de Indias, Sevilla—­excepting the third, which is from the Archivo general at Simancas.

Translations:  The first and third documents are translated by Alfonso de Salvio, of Harvard University; the second, by Herbert E. Bolton, of the University of Texas; the fourth, by Henry B. Lathrop, of the University of Wisconsin.

COMPLAINTS AGAINST PENALOSA