In confirmation of the above, see the same historian, book iii, folio 426, in which, treating of the arrival of Governor Santiago de Vera, he says: "He brought very strict orders from his Majesty [94] to correct the great excesses which had come to his royal notice, and which had been committed by the encomenderos of the Indians--who, losing shame before God and the world, had descended to such dishonorable acts (perhaps for lack of punishment in the first encomenderos), which transgressed their obligation." Leaving aside the truth of so great excesses and of the medium by which they came to his royal notice (which if investigated thoroughly must have been, without doubt, through the fathers themselves) it is a fact that a decree was despatched at Lisboa, March 27, 1583, in favor of the Indians, and against the excesses of the encomenderos. The above-mentioned historian continues, and says that the governor deprived Bartolomé de Ledesma, encomendero of Abuyo, of his encomienda, as also others whom he found more guilty in similar crimes--whose names he omits, as it is not his intention to reveal or point out other persons who at present behave as they should; but he will not neglect to give the royal decree. In fact he gives the decree literally, and in truth the crimes of the encomenderos are so atrocious that they become incredible. But granting their certainty, because the decree so says, one must wonder that the father inserts it so exactly after he has just said that he omits those excesses because it is not his intention to describe them. That being a manifest contradiction, proves that the mind of the fathers has always been, and will always be, to defame and make odious the Spaniard to the Indian, the council, and the king, in order that the fathers may be masters of everything, without opposition or witnesses. The same historian concludes the matter on folio 427, with the following words: "But Doctor Santiago Vera made such judicious arrangements in regard to the evil doing of the encomenderos, that, from the time of his government, that matter began to take better shape, and through the Infinite Pity is at present in better condition." [95] This condition of affairs is what the fathers wish, for it has been many years since there has been any encomendero or Spaniard in the provinces. That has been their sole desire, and, having obtained it, he openly avows that the matter is at present in a better condition through the Divine Pity, because they are alone, absolute, and without rival.