ral at Manila has not yet been paid, as the
royal treasury there is so poor. Salazar comments on certain recent
decrees by the king: that the friars should not leave the islands
without permission from the authorities; that tithes be remitted for
twenty years to new settlers in the islands; and that the processes
of justice be simplified, and pecuniary fines abrogated. The bishop
reiterates his complaint against the cruelty and injustice with which
the Spaniards collect the tributes from the natives, and the dearth
of religious instruction for the latter; he feels responsible for this
instruction, yet cannot provide it for lack of religious teachers. If
more priests can be sent, great results can be achieved. The spiritual
destitution of that region is so great that "of the ten divisions of
this bishopric, eight have no instruction; and some provinces have
been paying tribute to your Majesty for more than twenty years, but
without receiving on account of that any greater advantage than to be
tormented by the tribute, and afterward to go to hell." If religious
teachers are supplied, it will be comparatively easy to complete
the pacification of the Indians who are now hostile; then the royal
treasury will receive, from the increase in the tributes, far more than
it would now expend in sending out the missionaries. The bishop asks
that, as he is now appointed by the king the protector of the Indians,
he may have also funds for the expenses and assistants necessary for
this office; also that the same protection may be extended toward
the Chinese, who need it even more than the Indians. A royal decree
(July 23, 1590) orders that the trade with China shall be confined
for six years to the inhabitants of the islands.

Next follows a long document, a collection of papers (bearing
various dates in 1591) relating to the collection of tributes in
the islands. The first is a memorandum of the resources and needs
of the hospital at Manila; the former are so small, and the latter
so great, that the institution is badly crippled. A short letter
by Bishop Salazar (dated January 12) classifies the encomiendas
according to the amount of religious instruction given therein,
and lays down the conditions which ought to govern the collection
of tributes. He declares that the encomendero has not fulfilled his
obligations to the Indians under him by merely reserving a fourth
of the tributes for building churches; and advises that the small
en