[207] The encomienda
lasts, according to the royal laws and decrees, and by the regular
order and manner of succession to them, for two lives; but it may
be extended to a third life, by permission. After it becomes vacant,
it is again assigned and granted anew.
The tributes paid to their encomenderos by the natives were assigned
by the first governor, Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, in the provinces of
Vicayas and Pintados, and in the islands of Luzon and its vicinity;
they were equal to the sum of eight reals annually for an entire
tribute from each tributario. The natives were to pay it in their
products--in gold, cloth, cotton, rice, bells, fowls, and whatever
else they possessed or harvested. The fixed price and value of each
article was assigned so that, when the tribute was paid in any one
of them, or in all of them, it should not exceed the value of the
eight reals. So it has continued until now, and the governors have
increased the appraisements and values of the products at different
times, as they have deemed advisable.
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