at his case was at
present in appeal before this Royal Council.

I beseech Your Highness not to permit these appeals and delays in cases
which are favourable to the liberty of the Indians and of everybody in the
world, because there will be no end to them nor will a single Indian ever
obtain his liberty. I beg that Your Highness will order this Indian woman
and the others to be liberated and allowed to return to their country.

It is indeed a great weight on my conscience to leave the Indians in this
country, because, as they only mix with servants and other unmanageable
and vicious persons and see the taverns full of loose people, without
order or restraint, and other public places full of bad examples, it must
happen that they, being human, will follow the example of their
companions. In their own country, on the contrary, they live much better
than here, even if there are not so many Christians. I beseech Your
Highness to issue such orders that not one man of them may remain here.

It would also be well if Your Highness ordered an explanation of the
proclamation that you commanded to be published throughout all the Indies,
prohibiting the officials of India House from receiving Indians into this
kingdom: also instructions as to what they must do to forbid this traffic,
under penalty of death, to ship captains and sailors, so that no one would
dare to bring an Indian, nor allow one to be brought here. Let them know
that they are forewarned in such cases.

Thinking there was nothing doubtful in the cedulas Your Highness sent for
the departure of these religious I did not care to exhibit the cedula
until the very end, in case we took besides the forty, an excess of
stores, etc. Now that I have shown it to the officials, they maintain
that, as it does not expressly state that those above the number of forty
should be provided for out of the funds of the dead, but from the money in
the charge of the treasurers, they do not intend to provide for more than
the forty, lest they should have to pay out of their own pockets. I
beseech Your Highness graciously to order this settled at once, so that we
shall not be forced to leave behind the religious we hope to embark, in
addition to the forty. And let this be done soon, for we are only waiting
for good weather. The heavy rains which have fallen daily have prevented
the launching of two or three of the vessels. To-day the river from its
source has abated. Our Lord pro