The
reason for that abuse is that the officials appropriate the largest
storerooms of the ships.
23. _Item_: That slave women be not conveyed in the ships, by which
many acts offensive to God will be avoided. Although that is prohibited
by your royal decree, and it is also entrusted to the archbishop to
place upon them the penalty of excommunication and to punish them,
this evil has not been checked; and many sailors--and even others,
who should furnish a good example--take slave women and keep them as
concubines. He knew a certain prominent official who carried with him
fifteen of these women; and some were delivered of children by him,
while others were pregnant, which made a great scandal.
24. _Item_: That no sailor, and no passenger unless he be a person of
rank, be allowed to take more than one male slave; for they load the
ships with slaves who eat the provisions, and steal whatever they lay
hands on, besides the risk that is run of a plague being started by
them. He also petitions your Majesty that the fifty pesos paid as duty
on each slave be moderated, and that these imposts be paid according
to the tariff in Espana; and that these duties be paid in the port
of Capulco--where by selling the slaves, their owners may have the
wherewithal to pay the imposts; for it is a great inconvenience to
pay them in Manila. For that reason, great deceits are practiced
on the royal treasury now; for they take the slaves without being
registered, because of the high amount of the duties, and are allowed
to take them off at the port [of Acapulco] for twenty pesos.
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