collecting the tributes from their encomiendas, when they might just as well do so, is to deprive them of their very property, and give them permission to collect from those who do not owe tribute, and to free them from obligation to the Indians. Thus the entire responsibility would fall upon those who might express their opinion; consequently, it has been necessary, as I have already said, to consider the matter most carefully. This I have done by consulting persons who know and thoroughly understand the point at issue; and by comparing therewith what I have seen and know from experience, and from my knowledge of the law.
Such are the contents of the conclusions which I herewith send your Lordship. I trust that you will be pleased to read them and will expect from me no other opinion than the one therein contained; for I have, and shall have, no other, and there is not a right-minded person in the bishopric who dares maintain the contrary.
Two points should be especially noted among those which I here set down. The one concerns the second conclusion wherein I make the following statement: From the small encomiendas may be collected half of the tributes even where there is no instruction, if the encomendero fulfils his duties; and from those of average size a third part of the same. Although there is, in strictness, no reason why one-half should be collected from the small encomiendas and only a third part from the others, yet after careful consideration, it has seemed to us both equitable and reasonable that, in a very small encomienda, the encomendero should collect from each inhabitant somewhat more for his maintenance than if the inhabitants were
