Protector de Indios

The office charged with defending the Indians in the colonial courts. By 1591 every city with an Audiencia was to have a salaried lawyer and a procurator to run the Indians' lawsuits, forbidden to take a fee from them; in New Spain the service was paid for by a half-real levy. The same laws that built it also record, in the crown's own words, that the officials paid to defend the Indians were fleecing them.