of the more occasions for war and other emergencies. I assure your Majesty that it is a well-known and evident fact that there are in this city honored knights and persons of excellent qualities, merits, and abilities, worthy of esteem. I assure you that it is also true that almost all of them came attached to the persons who filled the said offices, and attracted by their promises and expectations, whereby this country was greatly distinguished. This could not have been said if such persons had not come here, but we would already be very destitute of nobility without them, and would even have forgotten the way to carry on and fulfil their duties. That the sons and descendants of conquistadors and original settlers should be preferred to those who are more recent and have not rendered greater services is a just and holy thing, especially in the peaceful countries of the Indias. But if this preeminence in life and in the favor of your Majesty is granted to them in consideration of the services which their ancestors have rendered in their conquests and pacifications, and on occasions of wars which were there carried on, it also appears just that present services which are being rendered in this land on occasions of war here and upon these seas, ought not to take their position behind those of the ancestors. For it is certain that the services of today are more important, on account of the greater need which there is for them, and because the creole sons and descendants of conquistadors or colonists claim the favors entirely in consideration of this (although there are not many who show their deserts by continuing their services), going so far as to demand that those who served Terrenate should have no recognition in granting the favors and encomiendas of this country, as if there were anything to provide them with in those islands. I beseech your Majesty to command that your royal will be declared in this matter--although, for my part, I have understood that it is those whose services are the greater, whether in the present or the past, who should have the first or greater reward, considering the quality of those services, the rank of the persons, and their abilities and character.