Indians
as are left neither slaves or freemen and all who are bound in any way,
would be to oblige their owners to exhibit a receipt of the sale: because
it is clear to every one, save to those whose perceptions God has allowed
to be weakened by their malice, audacity, and ambition, that there has
never been a war in all the Indies for which there was any real authority
given by His Majesty or by his royal predecessors. The royal instructions
on this point have never been heeded, as I have seen and on my conscience
affirm, and as all those violaters admit. Consequently, as there was
never just cause, it follows that all the wars were unjust and that no
Indians could have been justly enslaved: all the more so since the
Spaniards attacked them in time of peace and captured millions of them.
This being the real truth, Your Highness should order that all such owners
be obliged to prove the title of him who sold any such Indian, and so on
back till the first one who stole or treacherously captured him is
unearthed. In the meantime the Indians should be taken from them and
placed as above indicated, all of which should be done within a limited
time, so that the legal proceedings would not last eternally; and when
they are finished the said Indian should be declared free.

But what I would take on my conscience and would answer for to God on my
deathbed is, that Your Highness should proclaim throughout this kingdom
that all the Indians here must be free--because in truth they are just as
free as I am. In this Casa de Contractacion, outside its judges and
officials such as the treasurer, accountant, and agents, who seem to me to
be those I have mentioned above, and some few minor officials, I see there
is little zeal or kindness for the Indians, and I observe such
disinclination to accomplish anything in their favour, that however small
may be the pendulum, they work it with as much effort as though it were a
tower they had to move.

Truly I think Your Highness must order everything to be done gratis and
willingly;--or if not, then pay somebody who will do it. There is very
great need here for somebody to help these poor Indians, being as they
are, in great want and more than miserable, because they do not know how
to ask for justice. They have been so intimidated and thrust down into the
very abyss that they dare not complain. I do not find a single man who
will take pity on them: but on the contrary, every on persecutes