Note 67 — Chapter III · THE JUDICIAL FUNCTIONS OF THE AUDIENCIA

The laws of the Indies (Recopilación, 6–19–6) authorized the governor of the Philippines to assign encomiendas ad interim for the period of six years (promulgated August 25, 1646). By the laws of May 1, 1774, and June 8, 1792, the period was made five years in all the colonies except Perú; in the latter it was six years (note to Recopilación, 8–22–1). We have record of the extension of an encomienda in the Philippines to the Hospital of San Juan de Diós for four years by Governor Marquina on July 10, 1789. The cofradía had held this encomienda for ten years, and on its petition the governor made this additional concession, subject to royal confirmation (A. I., 107–5–18). The above episode is at variance with the statement of Bancroft (History of Central America, I, 264) that the encomienda system came to an end in 1721. Helps states that the encomienda system “remained in full force until the reign of Charles The Third of Spain, at which period, it appears, it was annulled.”—See Helps Spanish conquest, IV, 240.