before the Captain, I gained my point by giving him advice; telling him
in my remarks that he should consider that in that first public act lay
the success of the rest, so that it was of great importance for him to
carry into effect the justice which the two pagan Indians asked for;
and I asked this for many reasons, the first;--because it was the
service of God, law and reason and in conformity with the charity which
we ought to show towards our neighbors and with the good example which
in the present case we ought to set.... The next reason is, if we show
them justice, it would follow, that, even if some of them fled, they
would proclaim the good deeds of the Spaniards, and the rest of the
people of the towns which we should come to in the future, would not
run away; and if they did not flee, they would serve with me as
messengers, so that through spreading the report of the good treatment
which had been shown them, the other townspeoples would not refuse to
surrender."

The Royal Decrees are Mentioned by Avendano. "The last thing which I
placed before him was the large number of decrees which His Majesty
(may God guard him) had despatched, and those which his predecessors of
eternal memory had despatched, which affirm the same thing which I
asked him, as in the case of the first instructions, which were given
(by the mandate of our Catholic King) to the Admiral Christopher
Colon....

"The same thing was urged afterwards by the same Catholic Kings,
in the year 1501, upon the Commander, Nicolas de Ovando, when he went
to govern the island of Santo Domingo, and this decree reads as
follows:--that he should arrange with great vigilance and care that all
the Indians of Espanola should be free from slavery, and that they
should not be molested by any one, but that they should live as free
vassals, governed and guarded in justice and that they should arrange
so that they be instructed in the holy Catholic faith; since his
intention was that they should be treated with love and kindness,
without permitting that any one should do them harm; so that they
should not be hindered in receiving our holy faith and so that they
should not hate the Christians for their deeds, etc.'

"And many other decrees were issued thereafter for the same purpose,
the same thing being repeated and urged by an infinite number of
decrees and ordinances of the Emperors, Charles V, Philip II and III
and up to Philip IV...."

Paredes Promises