commission to make the expeditions and pacifications that I think best
for the service of God and his own, and likewise to give license and
commission for making them. By reason thereof, he also commissions me
to make covenants and agreements with explorers and pacifiers who are
willing to bind and pledge themselves, at their own cost, to make such
expeditions and pacifications. Moreover, the island of Mindanao is
so fertile and well-inhabited, and teeming with Indian settlements,
wherein to plant the faith, and of so great circumference--namely,
three hundred leagues--and distant two hundred leagues from this
island of Luzon; and is rich in gold mines and placers, and in wax,
cinnamon, and other valuable drugs. And although the said island has
been seen, discussed, and explored (and even in great part given in
repartimiento), no effort has been made to enter and reduce it, nor
has it been pacified or furnished with instruction or justice--quite
to the contrary being, at the present time, hostile and refusing
obedience to his Majesty; and no tribute, or very little, is being
collected. And the assignment into encomiendas made there has been
null and void, as being made contrary to his Majesty's ordinances
contained in his instructions and articles on "New Discoveries," as
the land must be first entered and entirely pacified, and its rulers
and natives must be reduced to the obedience of his Majesty, and given
to understand the evangelical instruction. Besides the above facts,
by delaying the pacification of the said island greater wrongs, to the
offense and displeasure of God and of his Majesty, are resulting daily;
for I am informed that the king of that island has made all who were
paying tribute to his Majesty tributary to himself by force of arms,
and after putting many of them to death while doing it; so that now
each Indian pays him one tae of gold. I am also told that he destroyed
and broke into pieces, with many insults, a cross that he found, when
told that it was adored by the Christians; and that in Mindanao, the