en thus far collected ought to be restored to them in full, as
having been unjustly and unrighteously exacted. In the encomiendas
which, although once pacified, have since rebelled, a small amount
of tribute should be collected, not to maintain the encomendero,
but to meet the expenses of restoring order and obedience therein. In
other cases, where the encomendero fulfils his obligations in other
respects, but fails to provide religious instruction for the natives
through lack of ministers, he is entitled to collect only part of
the tribute designated--that is, what remains after deducting the
amount due for the support of ministers (estimated in proportion to
the number of the people), and for the erection and maintenance of
churches. In short, the natives should pay only for such benefits as
they actually receive. The amount to be paid should be based on the
amount expended by the government and the encomenderos in providing
those benefits.] In these islands the number of five hundred Indians
(and in some places even a smaller number) has been assigned to
each minister as sufficient for his charge; and to each minister
of religion has been given a hundred pesos and a hundred fanegas of
rice, all which is worth at least one hundred and twenty-five pesos;
this is the fourth part of the five hundred pesos which the five
hundred Indians are worth to the encomendero. It is then a fair rate
of taxation, and usually the most exact, to deduct, when religious
instruction is lacking, the fourth part of the tribute. [If the
encomienda is governed with justice, its holder may in reason collect
the other three-fourths. The fathers remonstrate against the proposal
to allow the holder of a small encomienda to collect more than he may
who has a large one, as unjust and dangerous. If the fourth part is
to be withheld from the encomendero, they think that it should be at
once returned to the natives from whom it was taken. They recommend
that the governor give orders that the administration of justice be
everywhere established in the encomiendas, and then three-fourths
of the tributes may be collected. For this, however, they advise
the appointment of deputies directly by the governor, to inspect
the encomiendas regularly--a duty which will not be satisfactorily
performed by the present alcaldes-mayor, or by deputies whom they
would appoint; and these persons should be given adequate salaries,
to obviate the possibility of their defraud