Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 06).djvu/192



1. That his Majesty should aid in atoning for the wrongs inflicted by the first conquerors. First: His Majesty should be informed that, as this country has been recently conquered, the majority of the first conquerors are still alive, who inflicted great injuries in their expeditions; and that as either the Indians on whom they inflicted them, or their heirs, are likewise living, or at least the villages and provinces remain, the confessors refuse to absolve these conquerors unless they pay, each one the whole amount in solidum, or all together unite to pay it. This they can never do, as it is a vast sum, and because many are dead, or gone, or poor, so that those remaining are but few; and an exceeding great sum is assigned to them, which they refuse, or are unable to pay, except with great injury to themselves, and many of them being left poor and in their former condition. They beg that, since these wrongs were inflicted in gaining the country for his Majesty, and as they remain but little or no richer thereby, and because these are damages inflicted in the act of conquest, his Majesty will aid them with a certain sum of money—in order that with what the conquerors are prepared to give, the Indians may be recompensed, and they themselves may be confessed and at peace with themselves and the ecclesiastics; or, at least, that his Majesty write to the pope to grant a bull for the adjustment of this matter. This he may concede, so that each one may comply by paying what wrong he thinks he has done, and not the whole; and they request that what they have restored hitherto at the