marry poor Spaniards. Offices should not be sold; and encomiendas should be made large enough to pay their necessary taxes and other expenses. The Indians should not be obliged to pay the royal share of their gold; and their lawsuits should be despatched in the courts with simplicity and promptness. Tribute should not be collected from them by force, and without giving them religious instruction; and the boundaries of some encomiendas should be changed. A "protector of the Indians" should be appointed, who should not be also the royal fiscal; he should, besides, have charge of the Chinese. The soldiers are compelled to serve, yet are allowed no pay, from which many evils ensue; the troops have become demoralized; and the very existence of the colony is thus endangered. A regular paid force, of about three hundred and fifty men, should therefore be maintained; they should not engage in trade, or serve the officials; the officers should be clothed with suitable authority; and those sent from Nueva España should be soldiers, not boys and pages. Urgent request is made that the city of Manila be strongly fortified; this will inspire respect among their neighbors, and keep in awe the natives and the Chinese, who are liable at any time to revolt. Luzón is menaced with invasion by the Japanese, Malays, and English; and forts should be erected at various points for its defense. The coasts should be protected against pirates by a small fleet of light, swift vessels. It must be understood that no confidence can be placed in the natives, who kill Spaniards at every opportunity. The conquests hitherto made by the Spaniards should be further extended; and the districts and islands in which the natives are disaffected should be subdued and pacified. These will employ and reward the poor Spanish soldiers, and will afford protection to the converted natives, who are continually harassed and raided by their heathen neighbors. The regions that should be subdued range from the Liu-Kiu Islands to Borneo. The governor should be authorized to make such conquests, and even "to entrust them, by contract, to other Spaniards." The king is called upon "to aid in atoning for the wrongs inflicted on the Indians by the first conquerors," for which the latter are held responsible by the church, which refuses to absolve them from sins until payment for these wrongs be made to the Indians. This the conquerors are unable to do, and request for it aid from the royal treasury. The king is asked to compel the encomenderos to give religious instruction to their Indians. The abuses that prevail in the collection of tributes from the Indians are enumerated; in some places the natives are revolting, because treated so unjustly. Some Spaniards still hold Indians as slaves, in defiance of royal edicts; moreover, the natives themselves hold many slaves; and the priests are unwilling to grant absolution to either unless they release these slaves.