difficulty laid aside when conscience itself accuses, that these rebels came armed to capitulate, concealing by the submission that they tendered the cunning with which they acted. Many things have to be tolerated in an enemy when there are certain expectations of gaining one's end. The governor overlooked their being armed, and granted what they asked; and his efforts succeeded in allaying the fears of those people. He commanded the chiefs to make the people go away, so that they might resume their industries; and, in testimony of the fidelity which their authority guaranteed in the common people, he ordered them to continue sending the men necessary for the timber-cutting for the galleons, the only source of life for these islands. The multitude gladly took their departure, and the governor, although he was victorious and armed, did not choose for that time that the chiefs who had incited the rebellion should make amends for their fault; instead, he granted them all that they asked, and afterward talked with them quite familiarly--endeavoring to convince their minds, although he saw their strength conquered at his feet. To the chiefs who were humble and repentant he said: "I cannot deny that in demanding the payment of what was due you, you asked what was just; but as little can you deny that you did not ask it in a just way. Not only because, when the manner in which you act must be so costly both to yourselves and to the king, he who solicits justice by such means is the aggressor, more cruel than is justice, perverting peace and introducing war (in which this virtue [of justice] is always lacking), but because in war all the wealth that one had intended to increase is destroyed; and it is more cruel than kind to employ, in order to show anger at the wealth which recognizes a debt, what will cause the ruin of property and lives. Who has ever grown rich through war? and who has not lost in war that which in peace he held secure? Many are they who with the wealth that they possessed had not yet been able to attain the success at which they aimed; and those who had attained it were subjected to a lamentable misery--the villages burned, the countries depopulated, and their customs trampled under foot. It is not, then, justice to bring in general ruin as the price of so limited an expectation, which vanishes through the very means by which it is secured. If this mode [of obtaining what you demand] is so harsh, your purpose is no less unjust. You make an arrogant demand upon the king, when you know that he cannot pay you; and in order to expedite it you oblige him to incur greater expenses, thus doing more to render his efforts impossible. Ignorance may serve other provinces as an excuse, but not you, whom our continual intercourse with you has rendered more intelligent. You know very well the scantiness of the relief which has come from Nueva España during my term of office; and you are not ignorant of the unavoidable expenses which this