Bernardo Díaz del Castillo, 1566 
67 
great labor and risk to his person and life, all at his own cost and main¬ 
tenance, as a loyal vassal and servant of ours, until the said city and all 
the rest of the said New Spain was placed under our dominion and royal 
crown. Afterwards, he went to conquer and pacify the provinces of 
Guazacualco, 42 Yucatán, Tabasco, Honduras, and many other parts of our 
Indies, where he has also served us very well, as was most clearly made 
manifest to us by certain reports and other documents both from him 
and from his father, which he presented to our Council of the Indies. 
In consideration of these, and of the fact that he was the son of such a 
conqueror, poor, and in need, our former viceroy of that land, Don Luis 
de Velasco, commanded that he be given in our name a gratuity of one 
hundred and fifty dollars in common gold, to be paid for a year from the 
proceeds of removals and vacancies. He having only this quantity, which 
was small, and no other goods nor estate whereby he might sustain himself 
in accord with his qualities of person, it has occurred to us in our Council 
of the Indies to obtain information and report the superior qualities of his 
service in order that we might in recompense therefor command that 
they should be approved and he be given a living in that land. The above- 
mentioned reports and other documents presented by him having been seen 
by the members of our Council, and we having been convinced of the 
truth of the foregoing, we have thought well to command that the said 
one hundred and fifty pesos in common gold which were given to him by 
our viceroy for the time stated shall be given and paid to him during all 
the days of his life, and in addition another one hundred and fifty pesos 
gold or a total of three hundred pesos gold, to be paid from the said 
proceeds of removals and vacancies. 
Notwithstanding that he has received this favor, he supplicated us that, 
in view of the fact that the favor itself was small and the expense of main¬ 
tenance was so excessive in that land that he could not support himself on 
the grant according to his rank, we should command that he, as a son of 
such a conqueror of the said New Spain, should, notwithstanding the pen¬ 
sion, be appointed and preferred above any other person for one of the 
corregimientos and positions existing within the territory of the said 
Audiencia, and that is, in the provinces of Tlaxcala, Tepiacachalco, 
Cholulu, Xilotepeque, or to any other position which is very good, honor¬ 
able, and profitable; and that, so long as he should give a good account of 
his office, it should not be taken from him nor should he be removed from 
it until some other order should be issued by us providing a contrary 
arrangement, or whatever my grant might be. 
And because, as you know, in the new laws and ordinances made by the 
emperor my father, of glorious memory, for the good government of 
those parts and the good treatment of the natives of them, there is a para¬ 
graph the tenor of which is as follows: “ Because it is right that those 
who have served in the discovery of the said Indies and also those who 
aid in the settlement*of them and have their wives there, should be pre¬ 
ferred in official appointments, we command our viceroys, presidents, and 
oidores of our audiencias to prefer, in appointments to corregimientos 
or any other offices, the first conquerors, and after them the married 
settlers who are qualified for such positions, and until all these are pro- 
