[9] “Item: That the governor be warned to endeavor to avoid, as far as possible, the injuries inflicted upon the natives in the cutting of wood and in personal services; for they sometimes draft them in the planting season or at harvest, so that they lose their fields, as I have seen. In addition to this, many times they do not pay the Indians, because there is no money in the treasury, which is continually short of funds. This often arises from the fact that they do not estimate and consider the needs of the Indians with the amount of money that is available; and consequently all the Indians complain. Finally, when the said Indians are paid, it is done by the hand of the chiefs or cabezas de barangay, who generally keep the money.” (Reforms Needed in Filipinas, by H. de los Rios Coronel.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 18, pp. 315–316.)
[10] “The loss of so many ships caused us great sadness of heart. The greatest hardship fell to the Indians, for they cannot live without ships. When one is lost it is necessary to build another, and that means the cutting of wood. Six or eight thousand Indians are assembled for that task, and go to the mountains. On them falls the vast labor of cutting and dragging the timber in. To that must be added the blows that are rained down upon them, and the poor pay, and bad nourishment that they receive. At times, religious are sent to protect and defend them from the infernal fury of some Spaniards. Moreover, in the timber collected for one ship there is (actually enough) for two ships. Many gain advantage at the cost of the Indians’ sweat, and later others make a profit in Cavite, as I have seen.” (D. F. Navarrete, O. P.; 1676, from his Tratados Históricos.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 38, pp. 42–43.)
[11] ”* * * I must remind your Majesty that the islands are at the end of their resources, as far as the Indians in them are concerned; for it is they who bring the timber from the forests for the said shipbuilding. I have thought of an expedient for this, in order not to complete the destruction of the Indians; it is, to ask the viceroys of your Majesty in Nueva España and Pirú to send vessels here. * * *” (Letter to Felipe IV, by Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera, Cavite, July 11, 1636.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 26, p. 289.)
[12] “Item. That it be ordered that the common seamen who serve in the said ships, who are always Indian natives, be all men of that coast, who are instructed how to navigate; and that they be made to wear clothes, with which to shelter themselves from the cold; for, because they do not, most of them die in high latitudes, of which he (the writer) is a witness. Inasmuch as the factor enrolls other Indians who live in the interior, and who do not know the art of sailing, and as they are a wretched people, they are embarked without clothes to protect them against the cold, so that when each new dawn comes there are three or four dead men (a matter that is breaking his heart); besides, they are treated inhumanly and are not given the necessaries of life, but are killed with hunger and thirst. If he were to tell in detail the evil that is done to them, it would fill many pages. He petitions your Majesty to charge your governor straitly to remedy this.” (Reforms Needed in Filipinas, Hernando de los Rios Coronel, 1619–1620.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 18, pp. 299–300.)
[13] “This has been the cause of tumults and insurrections, such as that of Palapag in 1649, and that of the province of Pampanga in 1660; and, in the time of Governor Don Juan de Silva, that of 1614, because of the considerable felling of timber which was occasioned by so much shipbuilding as was caused by the undertaking against the Dutch. Then, most of the provinces of these islands mutinied and almost rose in insurrection; and there was danger of a general outbreak, had not the religious who were ministers in the provinces reduced the minds of the natives to quiet; for they, overburdened by so heavy a load, were at the point of desperation.” (Casimiro Diaz, O.S.A.; Manila, 1718, Conquistas.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 37, p. 212.)
[14] “Those islands have so few natives, that if your Majesty does not expressly order no vessels to be constructed in them, not any of their people will be left, for as a result the events that have happened in those islands for the last eight years, both murders and captivities, many of those who have been left, who are constantly coming to Nueva España, every year as common seamen in the vessels that regularly sail, remain in Nueva España. In the galleon Espíritu Santo which came last year, six hundred and eighteen, were seventy-five native Indians as common seamen, but not more than five of the entire number returned in the said galley. If your Majesty does not have that corrected, the same thing will occur every year, and should your Majesty not correct it, the following things will occur. The first is the great offense committed against our Lord, for many (indeed most) of those native Indians of the Filipinas Islands who come as common seamen are married in those said islands; and, inasmuch as they are unknown in Nueva España, they remarry here. Another wrong follows which is very much to the disservice of your Majesty and your royal treasury, which is caused by the said Indian natives of the Filipinas Islands who come as common seamen and remain in Nueva España; and if it is not checked in time, it will cause considerable injury to these kingdoms. This consists in the fact that there are in Nueva España so many of those Indians who come from Filipinas Islands who have engaged in making palm wine along the other seacoast, that of the South Sea, and which they make with stills, as in Filipinas, that it will in time become a part reason for the natives of Nueva España, who now use the wine that comes from Castilla, to drink none except what the Filipinos make. For since the natives of Nueva España are a race inclined to drink and intoxication, and the wine made by the Filipinos is distilled and as strong as brandy, they crave it rather than the wine from España. Consequently it will happen that the trading fleets (from Spain) will bring less wine every year, and what is brought will be more valuable every year. So great is the traffic in this (palm wine) at present on the coast of Navidad, among the Apusabalcos, and throughout Colima, that they lead beasts of burden with this wine in the same way as in España. By postponing the speedy remedy that this demands, the same thing might also happen to the vineyards of Piru. It can be averted, provided all the Indian natives of the said Filipinas Islands are shipped and returned to them, that the palm groves and vessels with which that wine is made be burnt, the palm-trees felled, and severe penalties imposed on whomever remains or returns to make that wine.
“Incited by their greed in that traffic, all the Indians who have charge of making that wine go to the port of Acapulco when the ships reach there from Manila, and lead away with them all the Indians who come as common seamen. For that reason, and the others above mentioned, scarcely any of them return to the said Filipinas Islands. From that it also results that your Majesty loses the royal revenues derived from those islands, inasmuch as all those Indians are tributaries there, and when absent pay nothing.” (Ships and Shipbuildings, by Sebastian de Pineda, 1619.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 18, pp. 183–185.)
[15] Antonio de Morga, Sucesos de las Islas Filipinos, Chap. 8.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 16, p. 108.
[16] Relación de las Islas Filipinas, Miguel de Loarca; Arévalo, June, 1582.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 5, p. 73.
[17] Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas, Antonio de Morga, Chap. 8.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 16, p. 96.