Note 5 — Two Letters from Guido de Lavezaris to Felipe II
Reading edition
Juan de Ledesma and Valmaseda, your Majesty's secretaries, sent to this your camp three of your royal decrees, in which we are ordered not to fill again the office of purveyor-general or any other office in these islands; and that from the gold, silver, and jewels discovered, the royal fifths shall be taken.5 This will be heeded and carried out according to the orders of your Majesty. I am also ordered to send a report concerning the slaves of these islands, how and for what reasons they are enslaved; and also concerning the Augustinian religious who are here. In fulfilment of the latter command, I say that at present there are only ten religious of the said order in these islands. As to the slaves, I am sending to the members of your Royal Council of the Indies the report which your Majesty orders me to make, and in which I explain the conditions and causes of their slavery.6 Page 253