these and all other matters, according to his pleasure. Upon the
first occasion that offers itself there shall be sent on my part
and that of the encomenderos of this commonwealth, to his Majesty,
a detailed and careful account of what is here decreed and ordered,
as well as what the lord bishop suggests and advises; so that his
Majesty, having examined both sides of this question, may make such
provisions and so direct our course that God and his Majesty may
be best served, and all may have the same object. Done in Manila,
on the twenty-eighth of February in the year 1591.

Letter from the Bishop to the Governor

[Evidently as the result of a dispute between these two dignitaries,
Salazar writes (March 4) a letter to Dasmarinas, deprecating any
hostility between them, defending his own position, ascribing the
differences between them to intermeddlers, and prophesying evil to
the country if Dasmarinas maintains his present purposes in regard
to the tributes. He criticizes the governor's decree in various
points--the permission to collect three-fourths of the amount levied;
the appointment of more officials (in most of whom the bishop has no
confidence); and the importance attached therein to the administration
of justice in the encomiendas, as compared with the provision of
religious instruction.]

Since your Lordship cares so little for these arguments, know that the
reason which induced his Majesty to command that in Nueva Espana there
should be no fiscals was, that they wrought injury to the Indians;
... and yet he had not so much certainty of the evil deeds committed
by the fiscals as he has of those done by the alcaldes-mayor and
the deputies. ... Among other decrees which, I am told, Doctor
Vera brought when he came here as president of this Audiencia, is
one commanding him to be very cautious in creating alcaldes-mayor,
on account of the injury thus occasioned to the country. ... You say
that you do not dare to make changes, lest the encomenderos abandon
their encomiendas, or become disaffected; and yet you know that all the
inhabitants of these islands, whether or not they possess encomiendas,
have been and now are faithful and loyal vassals to their king; and
that nothing which could occur, even to the injury of their property
or lives, would prevent them from rendering obedience to his Majesty's
commands. This is one of the things in which the inhabitants of these
islands can take most pride, and