Pedro Ponce de León, 1596 
335 
The King. Don Pedro Ponce de León ... in the contract . . . 
there is an article by which I give you permission to give lands and lots 
to the persons, their children and descendants, who may go with you on 
the said exploration, and may aid you in it, and that those who shall have 
settled and resided for a period of five years in the said provinces shall 
hold it in perpetuity. I further order that no tax shall be levied upon 
those who shall have erected sugar-mills and maintained them with slaves, 
either upon themselves, or the said slaves, tools, and equipment with which 
they work, as is more fully stated in the said article, which runs as fol¬ 
lows : . . . Same date. 
The King. Count of Monterey, my relative, viceroy ... I have or¬ 
dered a contract to be drawn with Don Pedro Ponce de León, said to be 
from the town of Bailón . . . notwithstanding that I have heard that 
the viceroy Don Luís de Velasco had made an agreement there for the 
same purpose with Don Juan de Oñate in virtue of a decree of mine 33 and 
of which you wrote to me. Although as soon as your last letters were 
received I ordered a decree to be sent in which I ordered you not to go 
ahead with the arrangements and that, if, in virtue of them, Don Juan de 
Oñate had begun the expedition he should be detained and made to desist 
from it—inasmuch as I had already accepted the offer of the said Don 
Pedro Ponce de León —it has since been learned that Don Juan de Oñate 
had commenced the expedition. It is my will that he shall not do it, and 
I command that as soon as you receive this you shall take measures to 
cause him to desist from this expedition and not go forward with it, stop¬ 
ping in whatever part he may be when he receives your order, in which 
you will send enclosed this my decree, so that, having learned my wish, 
he will stop and return, releasing the people that he may have with him, 
and understanding that his contract is broken, for by these presents I 
revoke it and hold it as void. You will see that he be warned of the pun¬ 
ishment for his disobedience if he fails to do this promptly, as well as of 
the damages, costs, and losses that will ensue to the said Don Pedro Ponce 
de León. I order that a copy of his contract be sent to you with this, so 
that you shall be informed of all that has been arranged here and shall 
know how it is to be carried out, and I likewise command my royal Audi¬ 
encia of Nueva Galicia and any others of my justices in all those provinces 
to keep and carry out this my decree. Done at San Lorenzo, October 19, 
1596. I the King. Countersigned by Juan de Ybarra. Etc. 
The King. Inasmuch as you, Don Pedro Ponce de León, whom I have 
appointed as my governor . . . have petitioned me—in order that the 
citizens of the said provinces shall take part with more spirit and zeal in 
the settlement of the towns that may be founded there—that I should 
grant you the power to give titles to the said settlements as towns and 
cities, and this having been approved by my Council of the Indies, I have, 
in view of the aforesaid, decided favorably upon it, and by these presents 
I give power to you, Don Pedro Ponce de León, to give in my name titles 
of towns and cities to the settlements that you may found in the said 
