[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 / 

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 / 

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.