Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 08).djvu/161

 there is justice, but no instruction, they may collect three-fourths of the payment, the remaining fourth being left to the Indians, the believer and the infidel paying equal shares. From the encomiendas which have neither instruction nor justice, nor other spiritual or temporal benefits, nothing whatever should be collected; nor from the encomiendas disaffected or unpacified, except in case of those disaffected without cause and through their own fault, which would accordingly pay the part justly collected by way of acknowledgment. All the aforesaid facts your Majesty may consider at greater length by means of the opinions which I send. It may be seen how many there are which vary from that of the bishop and his friars, who alone follow him. I saw fit to reply to a note in which he inquired what resolution I thought of taking, and what order must be given to the encomenderos for their collections. I declared therein that if he did not wish to wait until the return of our ships in two or three months, in which the remedy for all would doubtless be sent, I had resolved to give orders to the encomenderos according to a paper which I sent him, wherein my opinion was upheld in every respect and agreed completely with that held by the said fathers. [Marginal note: "Have this opinion brought, so that after consideration the contents of this letter may be replied to from clause nine to this point; also all the papers which are here acknowledged by the governor, and those of which mention is made in the following clauses as far as the twenty-first."]

14. At this juncture, the bishop came to see me in these royal houses of your Majesty; and among other discussions in regard to my assertion that the clergy