Note 1 — LETTER FROM DIEGO DE HERRERA TO FELIPE II

When I saw that the affairs of this land had no permanent settlement and no hopes of one, and that the natives were very much molested by the Spaniards, and that so far as I could see God was being served but little in this region because of the great license which men have here for evil and the lack of justice, and that very little service was being rendered your Majesty, since they are ruining excellent lands here for you: I determined last year, sixty-nine, to go to Nueva España in order to give advice of what was passing here in order that some reform might be instituted in this, and to discuss the matter with the viceroy in order that he might relieve the condition as much as he could and give notice of the other things to your Majesty.1 [I determined] that if the viceroy thought that I ought to go to España to discuss the matter with your Majesty, I would also do so. When I reached Nueva España and discussed this matter with the viceroy, and its great necessity for reform, and the extremely ruinous condition of affairs, he thought that I ought to return and give notice of it to your Majesty. Accordingly he told me that I would be fulfilling the service of God and of your Majesty if I would immediately return to these districts on the first ships. He gave me to understand that until the remedy was specified he could reform some of the evils. Although that order was very grievous to me as I had reached Nueva España ill and worn out by the sea, since the service of two so great lords as God and your Majesty was placed before me, I considered it fitting, and accordingly reëmbarked for these islands on the ninth of March of this year one thousand five hundred and seventy. I reached this island of Panay where the governor is established, on the twenty-second of July. All the people were overjoyed at the reenforcements that your Majesty orders sent them, and with the concessions of the petition made from this land. I found the country in a most ruinous condition and such that more has been destroyed in this one year here than during the past five years. Your Majesty owns so many islands in this district that one is surprised at the number.2 They are all very rich and fertile and contain many gold mines, pearls, and wax, while some of them have cinnamon. They are thickly inhabited and the people promise better than those of Nueva España. But since your Majesty does not provide anyone permanently and prescribe the manner of living, and protect and defend the natives, and keep justice for them, and power to punish whoever injures them, all will be lost in a very short time, for the policy employed with the natives could last but one year here if there is much greater violence. That consists in robbing them, burning their villages, and enslaving them. If this is not done it is affirmed that it is impossible to find support. This is false, for on the contrary, it is impossible to find support in this manner, for everything is being destroyed [by this manner of acting]; and the natives are becoming so exhausted because they are not left for an instant. However, they all desire peace in an extraordinary manner and to live under the protection of your Majesty and to pay the tribute. They would give the sum asked of them, if they thought that no evil was to be done them. But today they are made friends and on the morrow they are robbed. Many of them have been killed and many villages burned. I am writing this in general although not going into details in anything, in order, not to trouble your Majesty. I wrote more at length to the viceroy of Nueba España in order that he might inform your Majesty, for he can easily ascertain whether these things are so from those who come here. This fleet came here at the beginning greatly in need of people who knew how to govern, and the same is true of war, for besides the master-of-camp here, who has died, all the rest know but little as was evident in the war with the Portuguese in Çubu. At that time although the Portuguese were so few, they caused so great extremity that some captains advised the abandonment of the site and retirement to another part; and if the Portuguese did not cause the abandonment while they were there, they caused it when they left, and the strongest site and best port in all these islands, so far as has yet been seen, was abandoned, and we came here to establish ourselves in Panay along the swampy and very poor shore of a river. It will be very much less strongh than Çubu and has no port, while it is hot and unhealthful. If your Majesty do not appoint some one to govern, this colony will daily become less, and will fall entirely into destruction. If we are not more firmly established, we religious cannot treat of the conversion of these natives with zeal and care nor with so much fruit as if the land had peace and security.