Santiago del Riego, 1596 
373 
How will he succeed in providing it with four or five thousand head of 
cattle which must be taken ahead for food, unless he wishes to enter by 
robbing the Indians in their poverty? How will he provide four or five 
thousand quintals of biscuit which will be needed for the road and the 
interval until they begin to cultivate and work the land? How will he 
provide fifty or more carts with the awnings 44 which will be needed for 
the trip, and other things that are necessary for such a long journey, and 
at the least more than twelve hundred oxen which will be needed to draw 
them? Not one of these oxen will cost less than twelve pesos, and are 
not to be found at this price, and no iron-shod cart, as is necessary for 
such a long journey, will cost him less than 150 pesos. How will he pro¬ 
vide iron for shoeing such a large troop of horses without which it is im¬ 
possible to make the journey? All this, not to speak of much expense for 
an infinite number of other things which will be needed, cannot be provided 
for 100,000 ducats by any one who comes from those kingdoms with 
people for whom he is obliged to make provision of what is necessary. 
Such is more easily done from here, and therefore the expeditions that 
have been made from here have been brilliant successes, as, for instance, 
that of Hernando Cortés, that of Marquis Francisco Pizarro, and others. 
If this is necessary for such expeditions, as all those who have had experi¬ 
ence in affairs of the Indies will say, what gentleman from those kingdoms 
would be able to undertake it, or if he should be able, what time would he 
need to prepare and put in order the souls of those heathen for whom he 
will be responsible who might die in this interval, which time, with 
prompt action, might be found ? Leaving this apart, although it is in my 
opinion what ought to be chiefly considered, with what justice can the 
expedition be taken away from the one who made the contract and agree¬ 
ment with two viceroys who represented the person of your Majesty? 
What he spent in virtue of this agreement, which must be a very large 
sum, he must lose, and the viceroys, who make the contract in the name 
of your Majesty, must cheat their liegemen, which does not seem to be 
just, or according to reason, from which I believe that the best judgment 
always springs. Your Majesty ought to order that this expedition be 
continued, in accordance with the contract, and that there shall be no more 
delay in the redemption of those souls whom our Lord God redeemed with 
His precious blood. 
From the city of Los Angeles, 45 where, by order of your Majesty, I 
inspected forty workshops, I gave account to your Majesty how—although 
I held other commissions from your Majesty, won by petition of the natives 
of Tlaxcala, and others from the viceroy and Audiencia, which I specified 
in detail, and, as they are so many, I do not mention them but refer to my 
former letter for them—I abandoned them all. For, in view of the fact 
that I was restrained and cut off from administering justice by the civil 
and criminal courts, my stay was fruitless; therefore I came to this city to 
serve in my office, as I have served and am serving, notwithstanding the 
leave that your Majesty has granted me, reserving it for greater necessity 
and a better opportunity. The order which I left and the ordinances that 
I made for it, which the viceroy Don Luís de Velasco qrdered should be 
published, have only been published in the city of Los Angeles, by which 
