He sends for garbanzos, habas,
biscuit, soap, and many other things, which cost their weight in money;
and when they reach the islands, they are rotten and useless. Those
things can be provided in the Filipinas with great advantages; and
where your Majesty spends one thousand, they can be bought there
for one hundred. And, as above stated, there are many other articles
besides those I have mentioned--such as flour for the hosts, which
in the islands costs less per quintal than does the freight alone for
carrying it from the port of Capulco. He sends for preserves for the
sick, who never taste them. All the above can be very well avoided,
and it is enough to send money, and to order that these articles be
provided there. Your Majesty would have saved in these last eight
years more than five hundred thousand ducados; for those who have
the handling of most of those things profit greatly from them.
29 [_sic_]. _Item_: Inasmuch as some religious commit great excesses in
making repartimientos among the Indians for works that they invent for
the natives; and also take from them their fowls, swine, and other
food at a less price and inflict on the Indians great injuries and
vexations, not only in regard to food, but also to increase their
own profits:
He petitions your Majesty to order your governor, as protector [of
the Indians], to check those excesses--and the archbishop as well,
since he may have in this respect a better opportunity to check them;
for some of the religious cause more injury to the natives than could
be told here.
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