in
the said Audiencia, after some questions and answers, it was ordered
by an act lately issued, on the first of August the past year, six
hundred and twenty-two, that the said decrees be observed and obeyed,
and that notice be given to the president, governor and captain-general
of the said islands and to the said archbishop, as was done, so that
they might investigate on what was ordered and charged to them. The
determination in the said cause was sent to my royal Council of the
Indias. Until other provision should be made, there was to be no
innovation and the execution of the said edict was to be suspended,
as was evident and appeared by the testimony of the records, which was,
in accordance with the above said, presented and examined in the said
my Council. I was petitioned to order that the commands of the said
decree of June eleven, five hundred and ninety-four, and its reissue
of May six, six hundred and fourteen, above inserted, be executed; and
that, in accordance with them, the said archbishop and bishops should
appoint and name the said fiscals--as pertains to them, in accordance
with law--and try judicially the crimes and causes of the said Indians;
and that the said religious, who arrest and punish them, as appears,
[should not do this]. Having been examined by the members of the said
my Council of the Indias, it was agreed that I ought to order this
my decree to be given. Therefore I desire, and it is my will, that
the above decrees, above inserted (of June eleven of the said year
five hundred and ninety-four, and May six, six hundred and fourteen),
be observed, obeyed, and executed exactly according to their contents
and declarations, notwithstanding the contents of the said decrees
of March sixteen of the said year six hundred and fourteen, ordering
that the said archbishop make no change in the usual practice in the
appointment of fiscals, and that the said governor investigate. And,
since this is necessary, I render those decrees to be null and void,
and without effect. I order the president and auditors of my royal
Audiencia of the said islands not to violate or exceed the contents
of this my decree, or consent that they be violated or exceeded, now
or henceforth, and in no manner. On the contrary, they shall give
the protection and aid that may be necessary for its execution and
observance. This I shall regard with approbation. Given in Madrid,
August thirty, one thousand six hundred and twenty-four