necessities,
which others cannot supply if your Majesty cannot. I also say that,
according to accounts current here, no Indians are harder worked or
less free than those apportioned to the royal crown. There are many
other reasons which might be given to make this clear, which are
very patent to us here. One is that, as the officials do not go out
to collect the tributes, the governor sends one of his servants whom
he wishes to favor, to collect them. He collects for your Majesty
what they owe, and for himself whatever he desires; and this is most
certain, as well as the method of collecting. Your Majesty's Indians
undergo greater oppression than do the others. Those encomenderos
visit their Indians, and once in a while they cannot help taking pity
on them; but for those of your Majesty, there is no one to grieve and
no one to care. I even hear it said that many soldiers, when without
food, take it from the Indians, under the pretense that they serve
your Majesty and are given nothing--saying that, as it belongs to
your Majesty, they may do so.

146th. What is contained in clause 146 is the thing which would most
attract the Indians to receive our faith if it were observed. But there
is nothing which more impedes the conversion of these barbarians than
that, from the very outset, the Spaniards go among them and compel
them to become subjects of another and a foreign king whom they do
not know; and without more ado demand tribute from them, which is the
thing that they most unwillingly acquiesce in. Certainly it is a very
great pity and a cause for much grief that such covetousness is found
among us, that--through not knowing how to deal with these barbarians,
through not having patience with them that they may understand the good
which comes with us to them, and through greed for what they now pay
us--we may be the cause of thousands of them remaining unconverted,
and of those who are converted becoming so more through force than
choice. I am certain that if this clause had been observed, all of
these islands would be converted, and that not as a pretense, but
in all sincerity. From this your Majesty may see the harm done by
those who do not observe what your Majesty commands with respect to
the pacification of the Indians. And--in order that you may know how
these Indians feel about paying the tribute--when my arrival was made
known among them, and it was said that I was captain of the clergy,
as the governor was of t