done, because of your Majesty's commands not to enslave
any of the inhabitants of this archipelago and island. This would he a
temporary slavery, and by it much or all of this evil described would
be corrected; and the expense which it causes would be prevented. The
same thing happens in the mountains of Yllocos and in other regions,
for every day the mountaineers attack and murder members of the tribes
at peace--who, as they have no permission to kill them and no hope
of making use of them, permit them to return and harass them.

In this matter of slavery there has recently arisen anew a great
problem. This is that among these Indians there is a custom that while
[in Spanish law] the child follows the womb, among them it likewise
follows the father by half. Thus the son of a free mother and a slave
father was half slave, like the son of a slave mother and a free
father; so there were slaveries of the fourth and eighth part. The
former Audiencia, regarding this as absurd, commanded that the rule
should no longer be observed, and that the son of a free mother should
hereafter be free. This decision, being accepted without difficulty,
produced no opposition, and many were in the enjoyment of liberty who
had been married as freemen, and were such. But now, in a late case,
the Audiencia has decided that the old custom shall be observed. Hence
much disquietude has resulted; for, in addition to the infinite number
of suits as to freedom, there is now much trouble as to marriages. This
race is very fickle in that matter; and some who were married as
freemen are already talking of having their marriages annulled by
saying that they are slaves. Since in all these years there has been
no disturbance regarding this matter, I trust that your Majesty will
ordain that the disposition of the former Audiencia may stand.

On the death of Francisco Sarmiento, who held the office of government
secretary of these islands, and on the renunciation of it by Gaspar de
Azebo, who bought the office in the time of the former Audiencia, the
governor, Don Pedro de Acuna, granted the office to Antonio de Ordas,
who acted as his secretary. This was at a time when your treasury
was in very great need, and suffered most urgent demands upon it,
especially for the building of a ship to go to sea that year. The
governor planned to sell this office, and for that purpose the said
Antonio de Ordas surrendered it; but when they set about executing
the gover