The encomenderos and soldiers of this country, who have grown old
and married here, say, whenever I summon them for certain matters in
your Majesty's service--whether for actual service, or only to confer
with them--that they are old, that they have served sufficiently, and
that they are embarrassed with wives and children. Thus I find them
disinclined to any service; but, if I do not summon them, they assert
that I give them nothing to do, and do not consult them at all. The
worst of it all is that they all imagine themselves capable of giving
counsel. Those who are capable know very well that I employ them,
and consult them in matters about which I think they have something to
say. For those who would complain, I leave the door open, so that they
may present their arguments in regard to the mistakes made hitherto.

Having ascertained very carefully the extortions and injuries
inflicted on the Indians by the encomenderos and their collectors,
in the collection of their tributes, I have thought that it might be
a good plan to have the tributes of all the encomiendas collected
in your Majesty's name, and placed in the royal treasury; then
they could be paid out from it to the encomenderos. By this method
innumerable acts of tyranny and insolence would be avoided, which
can not be remedied, especially in encomiendas distant from here one
hundred, one hundred and fifty, or two hundred leguas. Not one case
of punishment has occurred in these encomiendas, although there are
wrongs. We must go there with the authority of the law. Thus all the
encomiendas would have but one master and true proprietor--namely,
your Majesty. The collectors would be appointed by one person, and
would be men of merit, and conscientious and moral. The estate of
the temporal [12] encomenderos would be managed for them at less cost
than they themselves would incur therein, and all the tributes would