but that, after all, matters but little for the truth of the affair. As
I stated in the opinion which your Lordship has in your possession,
all that I might afterward say is contained therein. However, in
order that your Lordship may have a clearer statement of what I sent
in that document, and of all else that I have to say, it has seemed
expedient to send to your Lordship another paper, which accompanies
this letter; therein are contained twenty-five conclusions, in
which there is a summary of all that may be said in relation to the
encomenderos of these islands, concerning both the collection of the
tributes, and the obligations of the encomenderos towards the Indians
of their encomiendas. Further, I have stated therein the duties of
the governors in respect to their treatment of the Indians and the
collection of tributes. I thought it best to state those conclusions
in the same order as before, since I shall place them in that order
in proving them.

I fully realize that for those who are accustomed to collect tributes
with no other care for the Indians of their encomiendas than to
obtain their money and then leave them to bear their afflictions,
those conclusions must of necessity appear very severe; but, although
the truth always hurts those whom it chastises, it should not on
that account be suppressed--for, as St. Gregory says, one should not
be hindered by any obstacle whatever from uttering the truth. The
difficulty of this affair, moreover, does not consist in knowing what
the truth is (for that is perfectly evident); but in the fact that
unrighteous custom favors the powerful, and is hostile to those who,
although they can do little, are unwilling to submit to what those who
are in power choose to command. But the weak have given thanks to God,
who has moved the heart of our most Christian king to order that a
remedy be applied to so many and so great disorders and excesses, which