aid bishop and a portion of
the religious would impose upon us, the necessary result will be that
we cannot support ourselves, or even live; and his Majesty will be
unable to meet the costs and expenses necessary for the preservation
of the land--although our aim now as always, is to live and die in
the service of his Majesty like faithful and loyal vassals.

We therefore entreat and supplicate your Lordship--inasmuch as the
royal presence is so distant, and his authority is delegated to
you in order to preserve us in peace and justice--to decree, in the
name of his Majesty, as the person from whose hand we possess these
encomiendas, that orders and explicit statements be given us as to what
extent and in what manner we are to collect the aforesaid tributes, in
order that with definite knowledge and freedom from misunderstanding,
and without this present trouble and confusion, we may collect them
by virtue of the order which your Lordship may give us to make such
collections. And so likewise do we entreat your Lordship to command
that his Majesty be informed as promptly as possible of what your
Lordship shall order and decree, so that he may confirm and approve it,
and determine what plan shall be pursued in this matter; and so that
we may know and abide by it, and thus be delivered from these scruples
and anxieties. In case the above should not be done as we petition,
we would be deprived of part of the little that we possess; and,
if compelled to make our collections in conformity with the ideas of
the bishop and some of the religious, we shall not be able to support
ourselves. We therefore entreat your Lordship, inasmuch as we do not
depart from or fail in what we owe to the service of his Majesty as his
loyal vassals, to give us permission to depart for Spain, where we may
serve his Majesty in what he shall command us to do, and where he may
favor us in proportion to the quality of the services of each one of
us; thus we shall receive grace and justice, which is what we request.

_Francisco Mereado Dandrade_
_Pedro Davalos y Vargas_
_Juan de Moron_
_Diego de Castillo_
_Juan Pacheco Maldonado_
_Don Francisco de Poca y Pendara_
_Hernan Gomez de Cespedes_
_Don Luis Enriques de Guzman_
_Antonio de Canedo_
_Alonso Garrido de Salcedo_

[The remaining documents on tributes are presented partly in full,
partly in synopsis, because of the repetitions and diffuseness which
are frequent therein. Such parts as are thu