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57. Item: I grant to you, if you should die before the said expedition 
is finished, the power to name at the time of your death the person who 
shall continue it, in accordance with what is ordered in article 56 of the 
said ordinances of new discoveries, provided that he shall possess the 
abilities required. 
58. And because Viceroy Luís de Velasco, in virtue of a decree of 
mine, made a contract and agreement with Juan de Oñate with regard 
to the said expedition, which was afterwards confirmed by the Count of 
Monterey, and I, by another decree, sent an order to the Count of Mon¬ 
terey to suspend the said contract and agreement, and, in case the said 
Don Juan de Oñate had commenced the expedition, to detain him and 
not permit him to continue it, informing him also of the agreement made 
with you, I will order that you be given the necessary warrants so that this 
agreement may be kept and fulfilled, notwithstanding the state in which 
the fulfillment and execution of the said pacification, settlement, and 
exploration may be, or that it may have been commenced, for it is my 
royal and determined will that you and no other person whomsoever shall 
undertake the said pacification, settlement, and exploration, or if it has 
been commenced by another that you shall continue and finish it. 
59. Item: I will order that you be given permission, if within six years 
you have pacified and settled the said provinces and kingdoms, to come 
away, leaving in your place a person suitable and satisfactory to the vice¬ 
roy who is now or may be then governing in New Spain, until I shall 
provide and order otherwise. 
60. Item: I will order that you be given permission to take from these 
kingdoms to those provinces all the arms, offensive and defensive, and 
powder and munitions that you wish. 
61. I will also order that you be given permission to take fifty negro 
slaves, free of duties, not only of the thirty ducats for the license but 
also of any other that may belong to me in the Indies, except the hundred 
that I reserved for my disposition yearly in the contract with Pedro 
Gómez Reynes. 
62. I will likewise order that you be given my decree that if you have 
need of more powder than the forty quintals abovesaid they shall give 
you in the City of Mexico, at the same price that is agreed upon, whatever 
is necessary for the affairs of my service. Finally, if you, the said Don 
Pedro Ponce de León, carry out what is contained in this agreement in 
such manner as you have promised, besides the order given that in consid¬ 
eration for your services you shall receive favor commensurate with their 
character and your person, I promise and assure you in the present decree, 
by my faith and royal word, that what is offered you on my part I shall 
order to be carried out, and that no step whatever be taken against it, 
provided that, if you do not fulfill what in conformity with this agree¬ 
ment you are under obligations to do, not only will what is promised you 
not be kept but you will be set down as having failed in your duty and I 
shall order that proceedings be taken against you. For your protection 
I order that you be given the present decree, signed by my hand, dated at 
San Lorenzo, September 25, 1596. I the King. By order of the king, 
our lord, Juan de Ybarra. 
