ont to be
committed by some of the religious who have Indian missions in their
charge; and by the alcaldes-mayor, corregidors, deputies, and other
magistrates, and the encomenderos of Indian repartimientos--is that,
at least every two years, an auditor of the royal Audiencia of these
islands, commencing with the oldest of them, should make a visitation
over all the country in his jurisdiction, as is provided by the
ordinances thereof, and in the form which I wrote to your Majesty in
July of the past year, ninety-eight. Although the auditors oppose this,
it is to avoid the great labor, expense, and danger to health, by sea
and enemies, which they must undergo and pass through. Accordingly,
if your Majesty pleases, a reasonable allowance for their expenses
might be made, and soldiers given them to accompany and guard them,
with good vessels, at the expense of the royal exchequer, if the
cost should not be covered by the penalties inflicted during the
visitation. Your Majesty will be pleased to order in this what is
most expedient.

[_In the margin_: "Write to the governor to have this visitation
carried out in the pacified country, and where there is no obstacle,
conformably to the ordinance. And have him see to it that they do
not send soldiers with the auditor, and that he does not take people
who would be oppressive to the Indians; and let him take care that
this visitation be effectual--for which purpose let him command to
be built, and furnished to the auditor, a vessel of suitable size,
to go outside of the island of Luzon, at his Majesty's expense. As
to the reimbursement which ought to be made beside what is conceded
to them by the ordinance, and the decrees of his Majesty, let him
inform us of his opinion." "Have sent a duplicate of the last decree
despatched in regard to this visitation."]

The main object of your Majesty's royal decrees, provisions, and orders
given to your governors of these islands, is the prosperity of the
citizens thereof; for in that way they become established and settled
and the islands populated. The governors have not always attended
to this as they should, for they have regarded this, which is their
principal obligation, as accessory and dependent upon their private
interests in order that they may become rich with what the citizens
are to gain, as is already well known. And so little is the profit,
and so poor the subsistence, of those who live here, and so much is
their living in