Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 07).djvu/309

faith have received from it very little benefit. [Salazar urges the governor to meet this responsibility, and with him to determine the amount and methods of collection of the tributes. He remonstrates with the latter against his intention of collecting the whole or most of the tributes from the pagan Indians. Salazar says:] You state that the encomenderos will not desire the encomiendas, since they will obtain from them so little advantage, but will abandon their holdings; that the Indians will become unmanageable, and it will be necessary to pacify them anew, in order to have them instructed; and (which would be still worse) when the encomenderos can not be supported it will be necessary to abandon the country, and the faith will be ruined. This is certainly a very great difficulty, and would be the greatest which could befall us. But God, who has established here the faith, will not permit it to be so easily destroyed. Accordingly I maintain, first, that what is assigned to the encomenderos is not too small to support adequately any one of them whatsoever—not with the opulence and abundance that they desire, but as the extreme poverty and wretchedness of the Indians allows, and as the little that they have accomplished and are doing requires. For, if the encomienda be of good size, the encomendero can support himself very comfortably with the third part of the tribute, if it is expended in the same encomienda, where goods are held at lower prices; and if the encomienda be small, he may, by way of equity—although by the letter of the law he should take no more than does he who owns a large one—be allowed to collect the half of the tribute, since it would seem that he could not support himself with less. If they must have