,
terrorizes, and despises them. And I am sure God will execute justice and
exact vengeance for all this. It would be well if Your Highness would
order a salary to be paid some man who would act as their lawyer in the
House, commanding all necessary authority to be attached to his office,
and that the officials should help him in it. If it is necessary to
consult His Majesty for this, do not let these poor wretches suffer for
want of protection as they have always done. There is a porter in this
House, a good man who, according to what I have seen and the officials
told me, has repeatedly taken pity on them, and I beseech Your Highness to
grant me and all the Indians the favour of ordering him to be appointed as
protector of all the Indians in this Kingdom and of their affairs in this
House, authorising him to report all the happenings of any importance to
Your Highness and to the Royal Council of the Indies. Let this power be
given to Diego Collantes, porter of the said House; and to ensure his
using it the more faithfully until Your Highness pleases to grant him a
salary, I will pay him twenty ducats yearly, so that he may do his duty in
the said office. The truth is, that although he is a good man, the
position needs a man with much more authority but for the present he would
suffice. Juan de la Quadra, who was secretary to the licentiate Gregorio
Lopez while he was here, spoke to me about these matters. He seems to me
an honest, upright person and one who feels deeply the crimes committed in
this city against the Indians. He is writing to Your Highness on the
subject and I beseech Your Highness to order some remedy provided for the
actual necessities. He informs me that he is writing in the sense of what
I said above.

The licentiate Bartolome Ortiz did not bring his Indians to be registered
within the period intimated to him and says that he protested against the
sentence before this Royal Council, also with regard to other Indians whom
he held as slaves, despite the fact that they were free. Amongst these
was an Indian woman who was beyond question free, and had been declared
free by Gregorio Lopez, who left orders for her to be sent at the
licentiate's expense to the island of Cuba from whence he brought her.
Ortiz also appealed from this decision. As I asked that she might now be
given the letter and order of Your Highness permitting her to return with
this fleet, Ortiz presented a statement showing th