ty in this regard, as well in what concerns your royal
conscience as the good of the country, a separate memorial is required.

_Item_: As to the manner of governing them and collecting their
tributes, as has been seen by experience, the religious have done
a great deal of harm by preventing the Indians from paying tributes
on the fruits which they harvest; because the religious have not the
inclination or sense to leave many things free--as will be seen in
the account I shall give your Majesty in regard to this, all of which
has been taught by experience.

_Item_: Finally, it is very necessary that your Majesty should consider
that that country is very new, and that your Majesty should desire
its growth; and because, likewise, it was not so much in need of your
Majesty's protection and favor in the beginning as it is now--when so
few wish to go there on account of ill-treatment, many misfortunes,
and the fear of enemies--your Majesty should protect it so that they
may be encouraged to go there. For this your Majesty should command
your ministers to give those who wish to go a comfortable passage. For
if in early days the king our lord, the father of your Majesty, who
so greatly favored and loved that land, not only furnished a passage,
but likewise the necessaries for their journey, to those who wished to
go, and even freed them from duties and imposts, that aid is much more
necessary today; and at least they should be given some exemptions,
and should not be treated with such harshness as they now are. This
I can affirm as an eyewitness, that when we arrived at the port of
Capulco, after having been on the voyage five months, and a great many
of our people had died, and God had brought us through such boundless
hardships and dangers to the place where we were to refresh ourselves,
they treated us worse, indeed, than they did the Dutch; for to the
latter they gave food there, and sent them away satisfied, and to
us they acted as they should have done to the Dutch. Since a proper
remedy for what happened at the port of Capulco, which I am bound to
suggest to your Majesty, and for many other matters concerning your
royal service, cannot be suggested in this place, I shall give it in
other memorials.

_Item_: The encomiendas which your Majesty used to grant were formerly
for three lives; and a short time ago your Majesty ordered by a
royal decree that they should be, and it should be so understood,
for two lives. This