be taken against the weapons, horses, or anything else needful and peculiar to the military.
Whenever you shall send any captain with men upon any commission or duty that may arise, you shall order that his privileges be observed also—namely, what pertains to his ordinary power and requisite authority to order and punish inferiors, and to regulate all other military matters. You shall see that these privileges are conceded to them, and that they exercise them, but shall declare that their jurisdiction extends solely to their soldiers. You shall charge them to treat the Indians well, and to fulfil their command in such a way that the Indians receive no injury. You shall exercise great care to punish openly any excess in this direction.
It is my will that you have a retinue of twelve halberdiers as a bodyguard; the said halberdiers shall draw the same pay as soldiers, and shall have a chief or captain, who shall draw fifteen pesos monthly. Although their principal duty must be to act as a retinue, and this is done and ordered on account of what pertains to the authority and dignity of your offices, you are advised that they must likewise perform military service whenever occasion demands.
Inasmuch as I have been informed that many of the soldiers sent from Nueva España to the said islands are lads, mestizos, and some Indians; that they have no weapons; and that a portion of them are pages and servants to the captains and other persons, who, together with their masters, under the pretext and name of soldiers draw their pay—I charge and order you, now and henceforth, not to receive or admit as soldiers any Indians from Nueva España. On the contrary, the viceroy [of New Spain] must be in-
