this reason and because there have always been foreign ships here, I have delayed effecting settlements until we have more people. I have attempted to send leaders and men through those districts, so that the land might be made peaceful; and for this purpose have sent one troop to Çubu, another to Camarines, and another to Ylocos. We are always busy.
105. According to the accounts of the royal exchequer, your Majesty will see that Guido de Lavesares and Legazpi have been in the habit of allowing gratuities and other free sums from the royal treasury. I have not continued these, but have closed the door on all this, in order not to give them. However, as the friars insist that it be given and spent in sermons, I have, without consulting them made a decree to the effect that only the needy poor should receive alms, and the gift must be for their support. I ordered a list of the poor to be made and rice to be given them, as is given to others who are supplied with rations from the royal treasury. Thereupon some persons came, and have received alms. Those who begged only for gaming and other like purposes are ashamed to take that alms, and wish nothing but encomiendas. I have stated all this to your Majesty so that you may be pleased to send me special instructions concerning these charities and gratuities, so that in a just case actually seen, and in certain necessities and calamities, attested to before notary and witnesses, I might be empowered to furnish aid of weapons and clothing—always prohibiting the giving of money even for once, or the income from the chest with three keys, for this is harmful.
106. When an encomendero dies in Nueva España, his Indians are allotted to the royal crown of
