which I had granted for
the settlement of the port of Monte Rey Dated at San Lorenzo el Real,
on the third of May of the year one thousand six hundred and nine.

_I The King_

Countersigned by Juan de Civica; signed by the members of the Council.

Letters from Felipe III to Silva

_Personal services from the Indians_

The King: To Don Juan de Silva, my governor and captain-general of the
Philipinas Islands, and president of my royal Audiencia of Manila;
or to the person or persons in whose charge that government may
be. Having been advised from various parts of the Yndias, of the
great vexations suffered by the Indians who pay tribute to their
encomenderos in personal services, I have despatched decrees to all
the viceroys, presidents, and governors of the Yndias, commanding
that the encomenderos, judges, or commissaries of assessment shall
not commute, or be paid in personal services, the tributes of the
Indians. This same is my wish and my will, and is to be observed
and executed in all provinces that are or may be under your charge;
and you will not tolerate the said commutation, from the abuse of
which have resulted so great evils and complaints as was the case
when personal service was maintained; it must be entirely done away
with in that region. For this good object you will immediately give
official notice to the Indians who now pay their tributes in this
form; and whatever they are to pay shall be received from them in
produce that they possess and gather from their own lands, or in
money, as may seem the least oppressive and most convenient for the
Indians. For the same end, if any encomendero shall violate in any
manner any of the provisions of this clause, he shall incur the loss
of his encomienda; and any royal official who shall be guilty of this,
or of concealing it, shall be deprived of his office. At Aranjuez,
on the twenty-sixth of May, of one thousand six hundred and nine.

_I The King_

Countersigned by Juan de Civica; signed by the members of the Council.

_Proposal of Dominicans to found a college_

The King: To Don Juan de Silva, my governor and captain-general, and
the president and auditors of my royal Audiencia of the Philipinas
Islands: The bishop of Nueva Segovia wrote to me in a letter of June
20, 1606, that he and the former archbishop had discussed the founding
of a college there, where there could be as many as twenty collegiate
students of theology and the arts.