be pacified
in many years. They are very poor, and beset with afflictions; and
it grieves me to be unable to assist them. Although I have supplied
several with temporary positions, I have been careful not to give
them to any follower or relative of mine. There are many who are
unfortunate, and the thousand pesos which your Majesty was pleased
to command to be granted every year, with the condition that the
additional pay given from it should not exceed ten pesos annually,
is not used for that purpose. This is because there is no one to take
the money, for it yields but seven reals a month, which can do no more
than buy food for one day. The provisions in this land are as dear as
those in Castilla. If your Majesty were pleased to have these thousand
pesos and another thousand--which can be obtained from charges laid
upon the vacant encomiendas--divided by the governor among twenty or
thirty unemployed captains and deserving soldiers, they would then be
enabled to buy food; and many very great excesses committed by them
in trying to obtain food among the Indians would be avoided. As these
are caused by their extreme necessity, they are to a certain extent
excusable, for no one is willing to be left to die of starvation. This
point is worthy of much consideration. I entreat your Majesty to have
the goodness to examine it and provide what is most needful.

Although by right of my office I can proceed to punish the captains
and soldiers of the land, and do so, there are, mingled with the
good men, so many who are vile and vicious that the majority of
the men are constantly informing on one another. This vice, as
well as that of writing defamatory libels and letters, is very
prevalent. This is a state of affairs very unfortunate for this
land, and one by which our lord is very ill served; and great and
serious misfortunes follow. If your Majesty were pleased to charge
each of the auditors here, in turn, privately to investigate these
cases and give the offenders exemplary punishment, a great part of
the present difficulty might be remedied. I assure your Majesty,
that one of the things which make me most dissatisfied and anxious
to leave the country, is the matter above stated. Therefore I have
petitioned your Majesty to grant me favor and license for it, as I
hope for it from your royal clemency. Many times I have considered
and been brought face to face with the great evil that is done in
this land by the marriage of elde