Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 11).djvu/100

aggrieved; and that their object should be the cultivation of crops and other things which the land bears; and that for this purpose the tribute should be paid in kind, and the valuation should be as equitable as possible. Whatever they may resolve in regard to this matter, the governor shall cause to be executed, and advise us as to what he does, seeing to it that the Indians labor and are not idle."]

7. With the reëstablishment of the said royal Audiencia, the expenses of the royal treasury have been increased by more than sixteen thousand five hundred pesos in the salaries of four auditors and one fiscal. Wherefore it would be well, were your Majesty so pleased, to command that the encomiendas or repartimientos of Indians which may in the future be vacated, up to the amount of ten thousand pesos, be placed under the royal crown, as an aid to the payment of the said salaries; and that, until these are so placed, the governors shall not be able to assign any person an encomienda or repartimiento of Indians.

[In the margin: "Have the governor and Audiencia send an information in this matter, and the archbishop a separate one."]

8. I have understood that the governors have been accustomed to assign encomiendas in this country in a manner to suit their own purposes. Thus, if any person possesses an encomienda which ends with his life, they add a reserve in such wise that they make the encomiendas hereditary and perpetual for their relatives, so that they may resign them, and allow the governor to assign them to whomsoever they will. On the other hand, they have an agreement with the governor that he shall assign it to the person designated by the one who resigns it. That this matter