traffic. By the methods above described, there can be no obstacle which prevents them from receiving the highest profits. Your Majesty will command orders to be given in this matter as is most beneficial.
The troops of this land, old and deserving soldiers, are in great need, for the encomiendas are in rebellion, and they cannot be pacified in many years. They are very poor, and beset with afflictions; and it grieves me to be unable to assist them. Although I have supplied several with temporary positions, I have been careful not to give them to any follower or relative of mine. There are many who are unfortunate, and the thousand pesos which your Majesty was pleased to command to be granted every year, with the condition that the additional pay given from it should not exceed ten pesos annually, is not used for that purpose. This is because there is no one to take the money, for it yields but seven reals a month, which can do no more than buy food for one day. The provisions in this land are as dear as those in Castilla. If your Majesty were pleased to have these thousand pesos and another thousand—which can be obtained from charges laid upon the vacant encomiendas—divided by the governor among twenty or thirty unemployed captains and deserving soldiers, they would then be enabled to buy food; and many very great excesses committed by them in trying to obtain food among the Indians would be avoided. As these are caused by their extreme necessity, they are to a certain extent excusable, for no one is willing to be left to die of starvation. This point is worthy of much consideration. I entreat your Majesty to have the goodness to examine it and provide what is most needful.
