Hernán Pérez, 1545 
151 
in the name of your Majesty take heed of it, it will assure them better 
treatment and care than are received by the vassals of Castile, especially 
since what we are asking for is for the good of the natives, for the reasons 
which we have stated in this article and which appear in the reports. 
We beg that these be examined and read, and that in whatever seems 
doubtful your Majesty will be pleased to order us to be called and heard, 
so that this great matter may be well understood; for we came in the name 
of this celebrated province of the world, and have [sufficient] experience 
in its affairs to speak of them with that freedom and truth which ought 
to be shown before such an exalted presence, so that your Majesty, being 
informed of all, may take such measures as are most suitable to your 
service. 
Alonso de Villanueva.— Gonzalo López — [Signed with rubrics .] 
[On the back is written: “ In Valladolid, June 9.”—F. R. B.] 
Copy of the opinion given by Doctor Hernán López 8 of the Council of 
the Indies on the matter of their perpetuity [in the year 1545]. 
Sacred Catholic Imperial Majesty: Partly because of the importance of 
this business and my small experience in such affairs, and partly because 
at the time when your Majesty ordered me to serve in this capacity the 
question upon which your Majesty wished to be informed was already 
fully reported, I excused myself from speaking about it. But as my excuse 
was not accepted, I was forced, with the little information that I could 
collect in so short a time, to give my opinion, although it now serves for 
nothing except to fulfill the task which your Majesty was pleased to give 
me. No one doubts that for the advancement and conservation of that 
land Spaniards are necessary, and as little is doubted that the best way to 
keep constant those who are there and to invite others to go is for your 
Majesty to grant them something perpetual, so that they take root and 
acquire love for that land and forget that which they had for this. The 
sole difficulty is to know what means of perpetuity will be most to the 
benefit of your Majesty and to the increase of your royal patrimony, for 
the greater contentment of the Spaniards, and for the profit and advantage 
of the Indians, in their bodies as well as their souls, of which your 
Majesty has always taken and still takes so much care. 
In this there have been three opinions. The first is that for the present 
the matter be suspended and more information be sent from there. I do 
not agree to this, not only because it seems to me important that the 
remedy should be prompt and sure, but also because those who receive 
it there will wrongly think only of making themselves secure, and with 
the thought that they are to be taken away, they will advantage themselves 
to the great prejudice of the Indians, and this, I understand, has already 
been running in their minds for many years. 
The second remedy, which is to give them perpetual contributions, ap¬ 
pears to me no more desirable, for, as the owners of them would have no 
