Pedro Ponce de León, 1596 
327 
manner in which my other governors and captains-general of such pro¬ 
vinces and lands do and have authority to do. 
And I give you permission to divide and give in encomienda among the 
soldiers who may accompany you in the said exploration, pacification, 
and settlement, and those who may afterwards go to take part in it, the 
Indians of all those provinces, for three generations according to the law 
of succession, in the form and manner that is contained in one of the arti¬ 
cles of your contract, and in article 58 of the ordinances of new settlements 
and discoveries, leaving for me the ports and chief towns. By this my 
decree or a copy of it, signed by the public clerk, I order the councils, jus¬ 
tices, councilmen, knights, squires, officials, and notable men of all the 
cities, towns, and villages that may be settled and that you may settle in 
the said provinces, and the officials of my exchequer that you may name, 
that, after you, the said Don Pedro Ponce de León, shall have taken the 
oath, with the ceremony that in such a case is required and is your duty 
to use, at the hands of the justices of the first town that may be settled, 
they shall receive and hold you for my governor and captain-general, and 
that they shall allow you as such to govern all the said lands and provinces, 
and at the same time to exercise the said office of captain-general in matters 
of war and pacification, and that they shall obey you as such and respond 
to your calls, reviews, and musters, being always ready and obedient in 
executing your orders in military affairs and in maintaining the peace and 
quiet of the land with their arms, and horses and servants, as though I 
myself had ordered it. And they shall do likewise with regard to your 
lieutenants, maestres de campo, captains, and other officials. This shall be 
the same by sea as by land, if the districts that you explore extend to the 
South or the North Sea. They shall permit you freely to hear, pass sen¬ 
tence on, and try all the lawsuits and cases, civil as well as criminal, that 
may occur in the said provinces, in which you are authorized and it is your 
duty to hold and take and receive all and every inquiry and report in the 
affairs of the said provinces that you consider to be necessary for my 
service, the execution of my justice, and the good government of the said 
provinces. They shall permit you and your said lieutenants to collect the 
fees belonging and pertaining to the said offices, and in order to use, 
exercise, fulfill, and execute my justice, all shall yield to you, with their 
persons and people, obey you, respect you, give, and cause to be given, 
to you all the favor and assistance that you may ask or need from them, 
and they shall not put in your way, nor even consider it, any obstacle or 
interference whatever. By the present decree I receive, and hold you as 
received, in the said offices and the use and exercise of them, and I give 
you power and authority to use them in the practice of such cases as you 
may not have received power for, by them or any one of them. Moreover 
it is my will and I order that if you, the said Don Pedro, consider that 
it is to the advantage of my service and the exercise of my justice that 
any person residing in those provinces during the time of your govern¬ 
ment shall leave them and not return to them and shall appear before 
me, you shall have the power to order them in my name to leave there, in 
accordance with the edict that speaks about this, informing the person 
