Diego de Ibarra , 1582 
111 
decrees, the first thing is to inform your Majesty that the Indian natives 
of the province pay an excessive tribute to the persons who hold them in 
encomienda , and those who administer justice to them do not defend them 
from these injuries. The truth about this is that all the natives of that 
country are so wretchedly poor that they have almost no recognizable 
property with which they can pay tribute, and what they are charged with 
I have determined that they shall give in personal service, and that they 
shall do this with so little trouble that no one comes to serve more than 
three weeks in the entire year, and this is done only so that they may not 
lose communication and intercourse with the Spaniards and the protec¬ 
tion of the religious of the Order of Saint Francis who administer the 
sacraments to them. The justices do not charge them anything, as they 
have reported to your Majesty, for it would be going contrary to your 
Majesty’s royal wish and your royal decrees, and the said justices depend 
on the salaries that you have granted them, which are very small, for the 
expenses of justice. 
By the second decree your Majesty orders me not to allow the negroes 
in the said province to hold any communication with the native Indians, 
because of the many difficulties that result from it and the injury to the 
natives from the ill treatment which they receive from them. In regard 
to this your Majesty should know that the negroes in the said province are 
separate and apart from the settlements of the natives, for the Spaniards 
employ them in the working of the mines, where they have placed their 
mills and houses, and where they live; but, notwithstanding this, in the 
future great care will be taken to carry out your Majesty’s order to 
prevent the negroes from ill-treating the natives, and heavy penalties will 
be imposed for it. 
In the third your Majesty commands me not to permit lawsuits and 
disagreements to arise among the said natives, as they only serve to 
exhaust and destroy them, besides the injuries they do each other in con¬ 
sequence of the said lawsuits. Concerning this, what I have to say is to 
inform your Majesty that up to this time I have not heard of a lawsuit 
among the natives of that province and district. This results from their 
being few in numbers, widely separated from each other, and having no 
property, which, as I have said, is the origin of all lawsuits. Within these 
last eight months many silver mines have been discovered in that district 
in which the ore is both rich and fusible, and from which your Majesty 
will make a good profit in tithes and royal duties. It will be a universal 
benefit to all this New Spain, and above all it is thought that our Lord 
will be served, for, in the district where these mines are situated there are 
at present more than four hundred Spaniards, and a moderate population 
of native Indians who have not received the light of the faith, which with 
this discovery they will have, for I am taking steps to send religious to 
them to preach the holy gospel. 
These mines of which I speak are in the interior, forty-five leagues to 
the north of the town of Durango, where the royal treasury and the pro¬ 
prietary officials of your Majesty are, and, although it is somewhat distant, 
they are provided from there with food and other necessaries until the 
country shall be settled and crops planted. 
