city of Manila, on the twenty-first day of the month of January,
one thousand five hundred and ninety-nine, the president and auditors
of the royal Audiencia and Chancilleria of the Philipinas Islands
declared that, whereas so many suits involving twenty pesos or less
are wont to be begun, and as much time is consumed therein as if they
were affairs of greater magnitude, whence there results to the parties
concerned great harm and damage by reason of the great cost and expense
wasted therein, beside the long and tedious delays in the collection
of their debts: therefore, to remedy that, they agreed and ordered
that, now and henceforth, no trial shall be made of cases amounting to
twenty pesos or less, unless they are briefly and summarily disposed
of; and that the notary before whom they are brought shall not take
for his fee more than four reals only from each party, even if they
make many investigations in the matter--under penalty that all that
they take above that sum they shall return to the parties concerned,
together with four times as much for his Majesty's treasury. By this
act they so provided, ordered, and decreed; and the notaries whom
its fulfilment concerns shall be notified.

Before me:

_Pedro Hurtado Desquibel_

_An act concerning the order that the alcaldes-mayor are to follow
in trying Indian suits._

In the city of Manila, on the twenty-first of January, one thousand
five hundred and ninety-nine, the president and auditors of the royal
Audiencia of these Philipinas Islands declared that, whereas his
Majesty has ordered, in his royal decrees and ordinances, that the
suits of the Indians shall be treated summarily, and that processes
issued within the limit of the law shall not be so conducted that
the said Indians waste their substance by incurring too heavy costs:
therefore, in order that the royal will of the king our sovereign
might be exactly fulfilled, they resolved and ordered that the
alcaldes-in-ordinary and the alcaldes-mayor and other magistrates and
notaries, in suits of the Indians, shall observe their instructions
and the following articles.

First, when any Indian--whether man or woman--shall enter suit for
liberty, or any other matter, against another Indian without giving
a _traslado_, [3] the said magistrate shall order the Indian sued
to appear before him and take oath as to the truth of the demands
of the plaintiff. If he shall confess it, justice shall be done by
sett