Note 4 — ROYAL COMMUNICATIONS TO AND CONCERNING LEGAZPI
Reading edition
Report has been made me on behalf of the conquistadors of that country that many slaves have been made there by the natives of those islands. I have been entreated to grant permission to those conquistadors to purchase them and hold them as slaves in the same manner as the said natives hold them. Inasmuch as I desire to be informed of the custom in this matter and of what it is advisable to do, I order you to submit a report of the causes why slaves are made in that country—whether slaves are made mutually among the natives themselves; whether the Moros who wage war upon the said natives are made slaves; or whether there are various sects among them, so that they wage and maintain mutual warfare among themselves and make slaves mutually of one another. You shall report on the other characteristics of that race in so far as they touch this matter; and when the said report is ready you shall send it to our Council of the Indias, so that, after they have examined it, the most advisable measures may be taken in accordance with justice.4