First Blacks in The Americas

[fo. 125v.]

The city of santo /
Domingo /

 
                                         The Queen  / 

president and oidores of our royal audiencia /
and [chancellorship ] of La Española island /
Sebastián Rodríguez in the name of the city /
of santo Domingo of that said island has sent me /
a report  [saying] that since some of villages that /
were adjacent to the said city have depopulated, /
which were the villages of Buena Ventura and Santa/
Cruz de Aycagua, its lands as a result have expanded /
very much, so that there are places /
that have more than forty leagues and thus in those /
there are plenty of river banks and populated valleys where /
there is congregation from gathering in some of them more /
than one hundred Spaniards and six hundred Blacks and /
Indians, and this without the sugar mills  /
in each of which at least more than  /
one hundred and fifty Spaniards and Blacks and other/
peoples reside that arrive [in them] from the nearby areas /
out of respect for the clerics that reside in them.  /
[He also reported] that/
it has been evident and each day is evident how convenient it is /
that the said city has authority to provide /
alcaldes for its districts  so the latter look into /
the things that in those ingenios, river banks and/
settlements may occur in civil trials and in the /
criminal trials, so that they may conduct the inquiry and /
capture and proceed against the culprits until /
determining the causes, in so far as it is not a case that includes / 

blood letting nor mutilation of a limb /
nor lashes,  and that things of this nature and more /
serious they should submit them with the inquiries /
and detainees to the ordinarios.  This as to the Spaniards,  /
but for the Black slaves they should have full jurisdiction /
and these alcaldes must be appointed at the beginning of each year./
And that it seems that it would suffice that there were two  alcaldes / 

[fo. 126r.]

                                                                                       126 /

for all the districts, / and [he] implored that I be pleased to mandate for it to be so done /
or whatever my desire was, which after being seeing by those of our council of the Indies it was agreed that I should mandate to issue this my letter for you.  And I deemed it good, and thus I /
mandate you to become informed and to learn about the need /
there is for the said alcaldes to be appointed, and whether  /
it may [not] be convenient to have them for the administration of justice in those districts where there may be a gathering of Spaniards /
or Blacks or Indians. You must act on it in the way see fit /
so that those people may be held in justice/
and the damages and crimes that might occur may be avoided. /
And if you were to agree to appoint persons to be in charge /
of the administration of justice, be aware that they must /
be among the same that were to reside in the said settlements /
and that they use the posts for the time and with /
limitations that you were to grant them, and provided that the appeals /
introduced by them  or the submissions they may do /
arrive at that audiencia immediately.  Issued in the village of Valladolid on eight days of the month of April of MDXXXVIII years. /

I the Queen. Signed and certified by the said ones.