re responsible
for all the injuries and evils referred to in the said conclusion,
if through their fault there are not ministers to do what should be
done. The minister or ministers, moreover, are responsible if, when
they have in their care so many Indians that they cannot properly
minister to them, they shall be unwilling to receive or to look for
other ministers to help them.

Fifteenth conclusion: The number of ministers required for each
community cannot be readily determined, since there are not in all
the encomiendas the same conditions existing; in some, the people live
closer together than in others; and where they are more scattered, or
more difficult of access, more ministers will be needed than when they
live nearer one another. When they are thus near, and well disposed,
five hundred Indians are a sufficient number for one conscientious
minister to take in charge; and when we shall have an abundant
number of ministers, they should be stationed in each encomienda,
in that ratio.

Sixteenth conclusion: If through lack of ministers enough cannot be
placed in each encomienda to give adequate instruction, such as can
be obtained at the time should be employed, and the encomenderos
shall remain under obligation to deduct from the tributes what has
been stated in the seventh conclusion.

Seventeenth conclusion: All that the Indians have expended in erecting
churches and houses for the ministers, and in their maintenance,
through the unwillingness of the encomenderos to pay therefor, the
latter are obliged to make good--the entire amount expended, for the
maintenance of the ministers; and of that expended for churches and
houses, their share.

Eighteenth conclusion: In order that, from this time forth, the
encomenderos who do not maintain religious instruction may collect from
their encomiendas the portion which is stated in the second conclusion,
the following conditions shall be observed: (1) They shall endeavor,
most assiduously and earnestly, to establish religious instruction
in their encomiendas, that such establishment shall not be delayed;
or, if it be not made, so that the lack cannot be imputed to their
negligence and indifference. And, inasmuch as we have not here
the requisite number of ministers, the encomenderos shall inform
his Majesty how great is the lack, and supplicate him promptly to
send ministers hither--offering, if it shall be necessary, to pay
a part of the expenses to be incurred in