Note 2 — LETTER FROM FRANCISCO DE ORTEGA TO THE VICEROY

As for the government of the new governor, Guido de Lavezaris, I shall discuss or say nothing; for your Excellency can learn about it there from the people who go [there] from here, and by the letters which will be written. Only I beg your Excellency not to take your information from Joan Pacheco alone, for, according to his statement and opinion, because of his obligation to the governor, and his affection and friendship, and the things that the governor has done for him, he will say that he is fit to rule and govern the kingdom of Napoles and the state of Millan. It is no wonder that he says that, for the governor has given him more than four thousand Indians in repartimiento, so that there is not a better encomienda in this region, though Pacheco is but a private soldier, and one of those who has seen least service in this country. He has done nothing but act as sentinel for the adelantado—may he be in glory—and that not for very many years, though he is a man of wealth and of noble birth, as your Excellency will have heard. Your Excellency may obtain specific information regarding him, and that from father Fray Diego de Herrera2 who is on his way to inform your Excellency and his Majesty of affairs in this country and of the events therein. He deserves great faith and credit on account of his great goodness and devotion, for without anger or bias or self-interest, he will tell your Excellency truthfully and with a zealous Christian heart desirous to serve God and his Majesty, the state of affairs here. He will give you a particular account of the small favor in which the religious and the ministers of God are now held here more than ever, and how insulted and little regarded they are by the governor and his followers and allies and by those who have any command and power here now. He will tell you how little is done for them, and how little aid and favor is given to the instruction and the things of God, and also how little favored and protected are these natives and how oppressed and molested they are ordinarily. He will also inform your Excellency how under color of sending his Majesty a very rich present from everything brought from China by the Sangleys, he has demanded a loan in the camp of more than four hundred taes, taking from one ten, and from another twenty, and from another fifty, in accordance with what he is sending, and what each one possessed. I do not understand how the judge who receives loans as gifts or pledges from those whom he must punish, can rightly judge and enforce justice. He will also inform your Excellency of the many revolts and riots, the factions and enmities which arise among the people here, how much complaint all have in general to make of the new governor, and how they are irritated by his policy and government and murmur at it, and how well known he is to have a passionate temperament, as is manifest by those whom he is sending to that country under arrest, which will appear in the records of the process. He is also known to be very biased and partial, and that not to the older, the more prudent, and leading persons in the camp. For his companions he has an open door and has always time to spend three or four hours talking with them, while his door is shut to the religious and to the minister of God and to the poor soldier who has any occasion to do business with him, and he has no time to listen to the poor Indian about the wrongs that have been done to him, or to the Spaniard who comes to state his complaints and troubles, or to listen calmly and kindly to what is affirmed and declared regarding a demand for justice. Upon these and other matters of the same kind and quality one might say much and might write a long document. This I do not do, but refer to those who are going there to tell your Excellency that never have the forces in this camp been so disturbed and divided as at present. In almost nine years during which the good old man now departed—may he be in glory—governed us, there were not so many dissensions and disturbances, nor so much discontent, as there have been and are during the nine months in which Guido de Lavezaris has been governing us. On this account, and since he is now more than seventy years of age, and I think desires quiet, it is necessary to provide a remedy; and that is for your Excellency to send from there any person soever that is suitable for such a duty and fit for the present necessity. For I believe before God and my conscience, casting aside all bias and partiality, which in this matter have no control over me, that this is desirable for the service of God our Lord, and of his Majesty, the good of the natives, and the pacification and preservation of this country. Believing this with honest purpose and with a Christian heart desirous of the common welfare and of the service of God and of his Majesty, I give your Excellency this advice, so that, as a pious and most Christian prince you may, with your great prudence and liberality, quickly provide the remedy. If your Excellency does not see fit to send another new governor, it would be desirable in my judgment for your Excellency to send an auditor of that royal Audiencia and some person learned in the law, a man of character and a good Christian, to visit and inspect this country and to undeceive your Excellency with regard to some matters which have been written to you there with perverse reports. It will be better to send a rich advocate than a poor knight who as is suspected is pledged by gifts and by the grant of a good repartimiento. This last point, however, I know only by hearsay. If it is true, your Excellency will ascertain it there and will judge if it is right that the encomienda should not be given to those who have been here in service nine years pacifying the country, and that it should be given to a man who came and goes back again with a good salary without having been engaged in the pacification and without any of the labor of conquest. At the same time I think it is necessary that your Excellency in the name of his Majesty, or his Majesty in person should confirm the repartimientos and grants which the new governor has made without having had special permission therefor and without special command from his Majesty. Your Excellency will also decide if the regranting in encomienda of the villages which became vacant, and were in his Majesty’s hands, has been proper. All that I know of this is that the adelantado (may he be in glory) was often importuned to have this done, but never could it be brought about because he said that he had a command from his Majesty to the contrary. What the other, in his great prudence and matured wisdom did not do, he who now governs us has done with great promptness and liberality. The cause which I believe has moved him to this is the lack of Indians to be given in encomiendas to the soldiers; if this is true, it is very clear and may easily be perceived and understood that there is not in these islands the population which has been reported to your Excellency by letter, though there has been no lack of Indians for him and for the officials of the king, contrary to his Majesty’s prohibition.