about events of former days, occurring in their heathen
condition, and regarding their ancestors; these may be either civil
or criminal. And these are not summary cases, but are conducted with
all the preparation made in a chancilleria of Espana; and as the
ministers of justice and their assistants are so many (and as there
are so many alguazils, attorneys, secretaries, reporters, summoners,
notaries, clerks, and servants of all these--_Madrid MS._), and the
Indians are so poor, ignorant, and cowardly, the latter spend their
entire substance (all they have is quickly consumed--_Madrid MS._),
and they are left without any property or any conclusion to the suit,
which keeps them frightened and uneasy. The encomenderos and ministers
of instruction, who see the spiritual and temporal scandal occasioned
to the Indians, desire that his Majesty remedy this; and the same
is desired by the president and auditors--although one says that,
without an order from his Majesty, no summary process can be conducted,
but that justice must take its ordinary course.
Chapter tenth. Of the advice necessary to the religious who come to
Manila and go to other countries
1. _That the religious leave the islands for other countries without
orders from the governor or bishop._ First: His Majesty should
be informed of the disorder in these islands which arises from the
religious being allowed to leave them whenever they wish, and for any
place where they choose to go, and that they have gone four times,
without permission of governor, bishop, or any other authority in
the islands--saying that, by the full power given them by the pope,
whosoever shall hinder them will be excommunicated. By these departures
they have caused and are causing many losses, and are gathering no
harvest of souls.
2. _The injuries caused by the departures of the religious._ Second:
The injuries on the part of the islands are, that the religious, whom
his Majesty sends from Espana at so much cost to himself, declare,
as soon as they have arrived here, that they do not come for the
islands, but for China; and therefore they do not give themselves to
the language of the Indians, or intercourse with them--but rather,
to give color to their own acts in traveling farther to satisfy their
curiosity and see new lands, they speak evil of the natives and of
the country, thus giving it a bad name, in speech and by letter. They
prevent religious, soldiers, and settlers from
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