Luís de Velasco , 1595 
221 
In Havana there was a failure of provisions by the middle of Novem¬ 
ber; a barrel of flour came to be worth more than a hundred ducats, and 
a quintal of biscuit more than thirty. But in the latter part of the same 
month ships began to arrive with provisions despatched from here in 
great abundance which were sold to them at moderate prices. Care is 
always taken to provide them and to see that those who make contracts 
with the commanders for the provisions for the fleet and ships fulfill 
their agreements, as they in fact do. 
In order to put into execution the tax on the lands and on foreigners 
I have given a commission and order to Doctor Antonio Maldonado, 
oidor of this royal Audiencia —a man of good sense and discretion in 
any sort of business—and he is arranging to begin its introduction and 
will endeavor to do it with the mildness and suavity required, in con¬ 
formity with what your Majesty has ordered me in regard to this. 
I wrote to your Majesty in a special letter of the twenty-sixth of last 
October that, having contracted for the completion of the pacification of 
New Mexico with Captain Francisco de Urdiñola, information was given 
me of certain serious crimes which he was said to have committed. I gave 
account of this to the royal Audiencia of Guadalajara, so that it might 
inform me of what it knew about this, and it, being in his district, ordered 
him to be arrested and his goods sequestered. But when an attempt was 
made to arrest him the inquisitors ordered it to be stopped, saying that 
he was one of their attachés. There is thus a conflict of jurisdiction 
between the two tribunals which will cause the business to be delayed 
and the expedition to New Mexico to be suspended, for, as I have said 
in the same letter, I do not find a man in this kingdom who may be 
charged with doing it as is required for the service of God and your 
Majesty and the good of those natives. What is especially required of 
the person who is charged with it is that he shall take it up with such 
earnestness that he will be compelled to pursue it to the end, so that the 
undertaking may not be a failure in case he does not encounter riches in 
mines of gold and silver, which is what they most earnestly seek; [failing 
to find them] they immediately desist and return to their homes, abandon¬ 
ing the land and the conversion of the Indians and leaving many children 
baptized, who, as there is afterwards no one to instruct them, remain in 
their heathenism, all of which is very objectionable. And when they 
come out they commit outrages and assaults upon [the Indians] and even 
kill them in order to make them give what they do not have, in which way 
they irritate and offend them and make odious and hateful the name of 
Christians, as has been the experience in other explorations. Therefore I 
am endeavoring to find in this business the best means that may offer, trust¬ 
ing in God that He will give it, as the One who knows how and can give 
it when He may be pleased to do so. 
In a letter of April 6, 1594, paragraph 3, I gave account to your Maj¬ 
esty of the importance, for the conservation of the commonwealth, of 
the partition of the Indians who aid in the personal service by which the 
mines are worked, the crops planted, and the public works of churches, 
monasteries, and the pueblos of the Spaniards and the Indians themselves 
are constructed, and by which this kingdom is preserved and increased. 
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