hose sent from Nueva Espana
should be soldiers, not boys and pages. Urgent request is made that
the city of Manila be strongly fortified; this will inspire respect
among their neighbors, and keep in awe the natives and the Chinese,
who are liable at any time to revolt. Luzon is menaced with invasion
by the Japanese, Malays, and English; and forts should be erected at
various points for its defense. The coasts should be protected against
pirates by a small fleet of light, swift vessels. It must be understood
that no confidence can be placed in the natives, who kill Spaniards at
every opportunity. The conquests hitherto made by the Spaniards should
be further extended; and the districts and islands in which the natives
are disaffected should be subdued and pacified. These will employ and
reward the poor Spanish soldiers, and will afford protection to the
converted natives, who are continually harassed and raided by their
heathen neighbors. The regions that should be subdued range from
the Liu-Kiu Islands to Borneo. The governor should be authorized
to make such conquests, and even "to entrust them, by contract,
to other Spaniards." The king is called upon "to aid in atoning for
the wrongs inflicted on the Indians by the first conquerors," for
which the latter are held responsible by the church, which refuses to
absolve them from sins until payment for these wrongs be made to the
Indians. This the conquerors are unable to do, and request for it aid
from the royal treasury. The king is asked to compel the encomenderos
to give religious instruction to their Indians. The abuses that prevail
in the collection of tributes from the Indians are enumerated; in some
places the natives are revolting, because treated so unjustly. Some
Spaniards still hold Indians as slaves, in defiance of royal edicts;
moreover, the natives themselves hold many slaves; and the priests
are unwilling to grant absolution to either unless they release these
slaves. Request is made for regulation of the system of slavery among
the Indians. Complaint is made that the friars go from the islands
wherever and whenever they please; thus they neglect their duties,
arouse ill-feeling among the Chinese and other foreigners, and in many
other ways do harm. This evil should be corrected by forbidding all
Spaniards to leave the islands, or to give assistance to the friars
in doing so, except by special permission from the authorities.

Then follows a curious scheme