The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 18 of 55 / 1617-1620 / Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of the Catholic Missions, as Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century

by Unknown

Item: That inasmuch as the kitchens where the food is cooked are not located in the first part of the forecastle, as is seen in [ships on] these seas, but in the waist; and inasmuch as at the first storm the sea carries them away, after which each one cooks his food in his messroom where he can make a fire (and it is a miracle from God that the ships are not burned)—he petitions your Majesty to order your governor to remedy that, since he is so excellent a sailor. The reason for that abuse is that the officials appropriate the largest storerooms of the ships.

23. Item: That slave women be not conveyed in the ships, by which many acts offensive to God will be avoided. Although that is prohibited by your royal decree, and it is also entrusted to the archbishop to place upon them the penalty of excommunication and to punish them, this evil has not been checked; and many sailors—and even others, who should furnish a good example—take slave women and keep them as concubines. He knew a certain prominent official who carried with him fifteen of these women; and some were delivered of children by him, while others were pregnant, which made a great scandal.

24. Item: That no sailor, and no passenger unless he be a person of rank, be allowed to take more than one male slave; for they load the ships with slaves who eat the provisions, and steal whatever they lay hands on, besides the risk that is run of a plague being started by them. He also petitions your Majesty that the fifty pesos paid as duty on each slave be moderated, and that these imposts be paid according to the tariff in España; and that these duties be paid in the port of Capulco—where by selling the slaves, their owners may have the wherewithal to pay the imposts; for it is a great inconvenience to pay them in Manila. For that reason, great deceits are practiced on the royal treasury now; for they take the slaves without being registered, because of the high amount of the duties, and are allowed to take them off at the port [of Acapulco] for twenty pesos. If the said duties were moderated, and paid in the port, no one would take them without registering them, especially since the said slaves serve and aid the sailors in their necessities, and your Majesty gives them no allowance of either food or water. Consequently in no part of the Indias is so large a duty paid.

25. Item: Inasmuch as the good treatment of the sailors is so important, in order that they may be inclined to go there, since there is so great need of them, he petitions your Majesty to order that good treatment be shown them, and they be given leave to take away their boxes in which they carry their clothing and certain small wares freely, without having to open them. For in this matter the guards practice many extortions on them, and take away their little possessions, and harass them so that many refuse to return, and many acts of oppression are practiced.

26. Item: Inasmuch as the officials of the vessels, such as commander, master, boatswain, etc., lade a quantity of merchandise beyond the share given them, and overload the ships by occupying the place of the ship’s stores in the storerooms and magazines; and inasmuch as this cannot be checked, as has been seen: there is no other remedy unless your Majesty order the clerk of the register not to receive on the register more than only the allotment of shares that your governor makes; for he proportions the cargo which the vessel can carry, in accordance with its need, and anything more only overloads the ship. But if these goods were not admitted to register, the officials would not dare to lade them, because of the great risk of their being seized as smuggled goods. Consequently great losses would be avoided by proceeding in the above manner.

Item: That neither your governor nor auditors and fiscal be allowed to act as godfathers to the citizens; for that involves very great annoyances, as that kingdom is so new, and as all make claims.

27. Item: That it is the practice or abuse that fowls are given to your governor, auditors, and other officials of the royal Audiencia at lower prices than are current; and that the governor of the Chinese is ordered for that purpose to allot the share of all [the Chinese], and each one is obliged to give weekly so many fowls at a certain low price, and he who does not give them is punished and fined. The worst thing is that on this occasion the governor of the Chinese steals as many more, at the same price. That amounts to a vast sum; for, since there is no other flesh eaten except beef and pork, these fowls amount by the end of the year to more than twenty thousand. In this way signal injury is done to the Chinese.

They also provide their houses with rice, which is the usual bread; and they take it as well as other things from your royal storehouses, at the prices for which they are given to your Majesty as tributes. It results that your Majesty’s treasury, in the course of the year, encounters a deficiency of supplies, on account of the great expense, and these must be bought afterward at very high rates. He mentioned this so that your Majesty should provide what may be deemed advisable; for it is a pity to see your Majesty’s treasury poorly administered, since it is so necessary there.[3]

28. Item: Inasmuch as certain regidors of the city have their encomiendas in the Pintados Islands and other districts, and as the governors, in order to annoy them, command them to go to live on the encomiendas, thus obliging them to leave their offices, to their own great loss and inconvenience; and as that is even the cause of their being unable to exercise their offices with freedom, in order not to anger the governor: he petitions your Majesty that, if your governor thus urge a regidor to go to live [there] in person, he may maintain in the said encomienda a soldier in his stead, since it is the same thing; and it shall be understood that he is under no further obligation. The same also is to be understood with the leading citizens of Manila.

29. Item: That your governor of Filipinas, in recent years, requested from your viceroy of Nueva España many kinds of supplies, such as rigging. One year they carried him fifty thousand pesos’ worth of it; but the freight charged for carrying it from one sea to the other alone amounted to a vast sum of money, and the rigging arrived at the islands rotten and useless. For ten thousand pesos, the Indians would make twice as much as what cost fifty thousand pesos. He sent for damask for the flag to the sea of Damascus; and six varas of it cost less than one in Nueva España. He sends for garbanzos, habas, biscuit, soap, and many other things, which cost their weight in money; and when they reach the islands, they are rotten and useless. Those things can be provided in the Filipinas with great advantages; and where your Majesty spends one thousand, they can be bought there for one hundred. And, as above stated, there are many other articles besides those I have mentioned—such as flour for the hosts, which in the islands costs less per quintal than does the freight alone for carrying it from the port of Capulco. He sends for preserves for the sick, who never taste them. All the above can be very well avoided, and it is enough to send money, and to order that these articles be provided there. Your Majesty would have saved in these last eight years more than five hundred thousand ducados; for those who have the handling of most of those things profit greatly from them.