fficient
result to warrant the paying of the tribute; and that neither the king
of Castilla nor his officials have any greater power in the Indias than
that given by the church, although the church does not have so much
authority as this with the infidels. He still insists that your Majesty
entrusted to both him and me equally the settlement of this matter;
and that bringing justice into the land is like bringing firebrands:
[_Marginal note_: "Answer him with what has been decreed in this."]

15. To this letter I replied by another which your Majesty will
please to have examined, in which I answered his assertion that
without giving instruction to the Indians we can collect tribute;
for he said that where there is justice, three-fourths of the tribute
can be collected, as this is a temporal good which tends to spiritual
benefit and which prospers, directs, and administers equally justice,
government, and good order. It is not my intention to leave things
thus as the bishop points out, until your Majesty has been consulted
in regard to furnishing or providing other means of instruction,
since you have therefor so great care and holy zeal. Moreover, the
tributes are so moderate here that each Indian pays eight reals,
whereas in Nueva Espana he pays twenty-four and thirty-two. For we
see that since the Spaniards went to the Pintados, although without
then providing instruction, their communication and example, and the
blessing of justice, alone have caused hostilities, and the razing
of towns among the natives to cease; as also the wars by land and
sea waged among them; this is no small gain. This assertion that
the ministry of instruction is more important and noble than that of
justice and other good works, I admit; but justice and its ministers,
and the other necessary means for the preservation and defense of the
Indians, are of greater cost and expense than that for instruction--to
which is allowed one-fourth, and which is reserved and kept for the
Indians; thus in respect to the cost of each ministry its stipend must
be given, as I prove in my letter by many arguments. As to his saying
that your Majesty ordered me to remedy, with his help, these excesses
in the collection of tributes, I responded that, only as regards the
disaffected and never-pacified encomiendas, your Majesty orders me to
communicate and confer with him, in these words: "I have heard that
there has been and is disorder and misappropriation in the c