“Item. We ordain and command that from now and henceforth no Indian may be enslaved because he has fought, nor for any other reason, whether because of rebellion, or for purposes of ransom, nor in any other way, and we desire that they shall be treated as our vassals of the Crown of Castile, for such they are.” “No one may press the Indians into service by way of naboria or tapia(51) nor in any other manner against their will. And since we have ordered that from henceforth the Indians shall not be made slaves, we likewise ordain and command that in the case of such as have been heretofore enslaved contrary to right and justice, the Audiencias shall summon the parties, and without process of law, but promptly and briefly upon the truth being known, shall liberate them. Nor may the Indians be unjustly enslaved in default of persons to solicit the aforesaid [procedure]; we command that the Audiencia shall appoint persons who may pursue this cause for the Indians and that such persons shall be conscientious and diligent men and shall be paid out of the fines of the Exchequer.” Neither the spirit nor the provisions of these laws differ from those of the various ordinances and cedulas which the Spanish sovereigns from the reign of Isabella the Catholic had from time to time promulgated. So true is the saying of Dr. Johnson that wisdom may make laws but it requires virtue to execute them. The Spanish sovereigns were more humane than their subjects, but the latter were ready with expedients for evading laws whose execution would have hindered their avaricious undertakings in the distant colonies, while venal officials lent their connivance to these violations, instead of administering the laws in the spirit in which their authors had conceived them. The statute books of the worst despotisms are adorned with the wisest and most liberal ordinances. From the iradés of the Ottoman Sultans and ukases of the Russian Tsars, those empires might be easily shown to possess ideal systems of government, under whose enlightened and beneficent sway happy and prosperous peoples have enjoyed the delights of religious and political liberty. The most important article of the New Laws concerning the encomienda system provided as follows: