also if it
were known who and what they are, and if the country could be settled
with honest people.

I had agreed with those settlers that they should pay the third of the
gold, and the tenths, and this at their own request; and they received it
as a great favor from their Highnesses. I reproved them when I heard that
they ceased to do this, and hoped that the Commander would do likewise,
but he did the contrary. He incensed them against me by saying that I
wanted to deprive them of what their Highnesses had given them; and he
endeavored to set them at variance with me, and did so; and he induced
them to write to their Highnesses that they should never again send me
back to the government, and I likewise make the same supplication to them
for myself and for my whole family, as long as there are not different
inhabitants. And he together with them ordered inquisitions concerning me
for wickednesses the like whereof were never known in hell. Our Lord,
who rescued Daniel and the three children,[378-1] is present with the
same wisdom and power as he had then, and with the same means, if it
should please him and be in accordance with his will.

I should know how to remedy all this, and the rest of what has been said
and has taken place since I have been in the Indies, if my disposition
would allow me to seek my own advantage, and if it seemed honorable to me
to do so, but the maintenance of justice and the extension of the
dominion of Her Highness has hitherto kept me down. Now that so much gold
is found, a dispute arises as to which brings more profit, whether to go
about robbing or to go to the mines. A hundred castellanos[378-2] are as
easily obtained for a woman as for a farm, and it is very general, and
there are plenty of dealers who go about looking for girls; those from
nine to ten are now in demand, and for all ages a good price must be
paid.

I assert that the violence of the calumny of turbulent persons has
injured me more than my services have profited me; which is a bad example
for the present and for the future. I take my oath that a number of men
have gone to the Indies who did not deserve water in the sight of God and
of the world; and now they are returning thither, and leave is granted
them.[378-3]

I assert that when I declared that the Commander[378-4] could not grant
immunities, I did what he desired, although I told him that it was to
cause delay until their Highnesses should receive information f