ishment, or confiscation of
property to any or all transgressors, according to the degree of
their guilt. This you will execute inexorably, under penalty that,
besides considering you lax in your duty, I shall have you punished
with all rigor--and this infallibly, since you know my wish; and in
these scrupulous matters the peace of my conscience rests upon your
discharge of duty. In order that proper means may be taken in these
matters you will meet with the archbishop and the newly-appointed
bishops, and the superiors of the orders; and you will consider the
measures to be taken to satisfy the injuries inflicted, and whether the
tributes collected from the infidels contrary to the said ordinances
can conveniently be restored. And if this cannot be done without
great difficulty you will advise me thereof; and in the interval while
advising me and while I am providing what appears to me to be best,
everything shall remain in the same condition, with the peace and
propriety with which I hope that you are governing both spiritually
and temporally--as I charge you all to do, each in what concerns
him. Likewise you will confer with the said superiors and religious,
and bring it about that they shall undertake to remedy by love all
which shall be found to have been done through force and fear; for,
according to what the bishop tells me of these Indians, they are well
disposed (not only in spiritual but in temporal matters), freely to
render me submission. Done at Madrid, on the eighth day of the month
of February in the year one thousand five hundred and ninety-seven.

_I The King_

By order of the king our lord:

_Joan de Ybarra_

In the city of Manila, on the fifth day of the month of August in the
year one thousand five hundred and ninety-eight, the above-contained
decree was proclaimed by Francisco Rodriguez, public crier, in a loud
and clear voice, many persons being present, at the regular session
of the Audiencia. I certify this.

_Gaspar de Acebo_

In the city of Manila, on the fourth day of the month of August in
the year one thousand five hundred and ninety-eight, the governor
and captain-general of these islands, Don Francisco Tello, in
accordance with the royal decree of his Majesty, dated at Madrid,
the eighth of February of the year one thousand five hundred and
ninety-seven--which treats of certain difficulties suggested by
the bishop of Cagayan [34] in the Council of the Yndias and to the
royal person