[110] Ibid., ii, p. 297.
[111] Comyn: State of the Philippine Islands, pp. 83-97.
[112] Estadismo, i, p. 272.
[113] Zúñiga, i, p. 274.
Le Gentil remarked that as the Spaniards in Manila had no landed estates to give them an assured and permanent income, they were dependent upon the Acapulco trade, and had no resources to fall back upon if the galleon were lost. Money left in trust was often lost or embezzled by executors or guardians, and it was rare that wealth was retained three generations in the same family. Voyage, ii, pp. 110-112.
[114] Of the commerce with China it is not necessary to speak at length, as a full account of it is given in Morga. It was entirely in the hands of the Chinese and Mestizos and brought to Manila oriental textiles of all kinds, objects of art, jewelry, metal work and metals, nails, grain, preserves, fruit, pork, fowls, domestic animals, pets, "and a thousand other gewgaws and ornaments of little cost and price which are valued among the Spaniards." (Morga, p. 339.) Besides the Chinese, that with Japan, Borneo, the Moluccas, Siam, and India was so considerable that in spite of the obstructions upon the commerce with America, Manila seemed to the traveler Careri (p. 444) "one of the greatest places of trade in the world."
[115] Documentos Inéditos del Archivo de Indias, v, pp. 475-77.
[116] It would be vain to guess how many hundred people there are who are familiar with the denunciations of Las Casas to one who knows anything of the more than six hundred laws defining the status and aiming, at the protection of the Indians in the Recopilacion.
[117] Cf. Jagor: Reisen in den Philippinen, p. 31.
[118] Voyage de La Pérouse autour du Monde, Paris, 1797, ii, p. 347.