Item: A plan occurs to me whereby the ships that have to sail in that line may cost your Highness less than half, and a vessel last twice as long, compared with those that are built in Filipinas. Likewise the Indian natives would be saved many hardships and annoyances in the cutting of timber, which they have to do for the building of the ships. This consists in the governor going from Manila to Vengala and Cuchin in India to buy the ships; for they sell them there made from an incorruptible wood together with a quantity of extra rigging made of cayro,[11] which is better than that of hemp. With the rigging alone that can be imported from there, the cost of the ship can be saved. Thence Lascar sailors can be brought, who are cheaper and are very good seamen. All the Portuguese of those parts use them in navigating, and they are very needful in the Filipinas. They will come very willingly and will save your Highness a considerable sum. For that it is necessary to send orders to your viceroy of Goa, and to the chief commandant of Malaca, to protect the Lascars who shall go thither, and not to harm them.
Item: Your Highness granted a concession to the city of Manila of a decree ordering your governor Don Pedro de Acuña to assign to the cabildo of the said city seats in the cathedral, as was befitting the chief municipal body of that kingdom. As yet these have not been assigned, because the wives of the auditors sit inside the principal chapel, where the said cabildo generally sat—that is, opposite the seats of the auditors and governor.
I petition your Highness to have the said seats assigned, and to order the wives of the said auditors to sit elsewhere, since in none of the Yndias do the latter sit in the principal chapel, thus depriving the said cabildo of their seats.
Item: The royal magazines have very few muskets and arquebuses for the defense of that kingdom. I petition your Highness to be pleased to have a quantity of arms sent, and also to order that they be distributed among the citizens; and that the latter pay those who give them those muskets and arquebuses the price that your Highness shall have paid for them there, and the costs [of transportation].
Item: The province of Nueva Segovia, the most northern province of the island of Manila, which is very near China, is a very good and fertile land. It is becoming entirely pacified and quieted. There the Order of St. Dominic is in charge, and they are gathering much fruit. It is the best land in the islands and the most fertile. There, inasmuch as the climate is temperate, the products of this country can be produced, such as wheat, fruits, and other food. It lies in an excellent region, and has there a Spanish city, called Nueva Segovia, which gives name to the said province. It has but few inhabitants now, because the encomenderos of that district go to Manila and desert it. Will your Highness be pleased to order the said encomenderos to live in the said city, and your governor to make efforts to settle it, especially with people who will cultivate and sow the land, so that that district may retain its excellence. For that purpose it is very needful that the said governor appoint an alcalde-mayor for that district, who shall be a lieutenant-governor, and who shall keep his office for three-years; for [the usual] appointments as alcalde are for but one year, and one can learn to know the country but little in so short a time. It is necessary that the judge that shall go there (and so that an influential and satisfactory man might be able to go there) be given a good salary; and that that province and that of Ylocos, which lies next to Nueva Segovia, be subject to him. That is very necessary for the welfare of those two provinces, which are very far from Manila.
Item: Will your Highness be pleased to give me a good master shipbuilder, or authority to look for one, and another intelligent person as shore-master, to assist in the despatch and repairs of ships. He should be a Spaniard and not a foreigner, like the one there now; for in former times, when Doctor Antonio de Morga, your auditor, sailed out against a Dutchman who went to those islands, while two ships were being prepared to attack the Dutch, two holes were bored in one of them one night, and it began to sink, and the sails were taken out and hid in the woods. It was not discovered who did it, nor was any investigation even made. But one may readily presume that some enemy to us did it; and indeed we can not settle our suspicions on anyone. In order to investigate these and many other actions worthy of punishment or correction which have occurred there in these matters, and in others—for instance, that in other parts of those islands they gave that same Dutchman food, and there was some person who communicated with him; while it is even said that they showed him how to get out of a harbor that he had entered, and from which we considered it impossible for him to sail—and finally there are many things to correct and reform, and burdens to be removed from the Indian natives: for all these it is necessary for your Highness to appoint a person there to make official visits through the country. It is as necessary as the inspection itself that such shore-master be a disinterested person and a resident of that country; for if he is after money, he will do no good. Hence, if your Highness be pleased to appoint such an one, there are ecclesiastical persons in the Filipinas, as for instance the bishops, especially he of Çibu, Fray Pedro de Agurto, who is a saintly man; an ecclesiastic, the archdeacon of Manila, called Licentiate Don Francisco Gomez de Arellano, a most zealous servant of God, and a father of that community—one who seeks no money, but rather gives all his income in alms; also a Dominican friar, the commissary of the Holy Office, who is an excellent man; and another friar of the Order of St. Francis, called Fray Juan Baptista. These men, besides having experience in the country, and knowing what demands reform, are men disinterested and wholly competent and capable. Entire faith can be given to any one of them, with assurance. If the visitor be not one of the inhabitants there, it is inadvisable to send him, nor is it my intent to ask for him.
Item: For some years past, some Indians living near by, and our enemies, of the islands of Mindanao, Jolo, Burney, and other neighboring islands, have become emboldened and have gone beyond bounds. They are Mahometans, and have ruined those Filipinas Islands—pillaging and capturing the natives, burning the churches and images, and cutting the images with knives and destroying them, to the great injury of our holy Catholic faith. This has reached so shameless and bold a pass that no one—not only natives but Spaniards—dares to go among the said islands. Those enemies have rendered the said natives very liable to revolt, by coming daily to plunder them, and to carry off their possessions, and their wives and children captive; and in fact they have revolted several times, and taken to the mountains, saying that since the Spaniards do not provide for their defense, they will not pay tribute. Some, who are more loyal, say that, if they are allowed to carry arms as before, they will defend their country. After examining the cause of these troubles with great care, the following considerations have presented themselves.
First, that, according to the command of one of your Highness’s royal decrees, such men [i.e., the Moros] cannot be slaves. As they are a race from whom the soldiers can get no other booty, because the Moros do not possess it, they fight unwillingly. If the soldiers could make captives of them, they would become very eager, and that would be a great incentive for the soldiers to destroy them. There is less incentive for them to capture those people than to kill them, as they do now. Again it would be very useful to the said islands, for the natives would also be encouraged to go to war because of their eagerness to possess slaves to cultivate their fields. Therefore, will your Highness be pleased to order that those people be made slaves, since their enslavement is so justifiable and of so great service to God; or that this matter be committed to the royal Audiencia and archbishop and bishops to determine, inasmuch as they have the matter in hand.
Item: There are two other nations in the island of Manila called Zambales and Negrillos. They are a people who live in the mountains. They go naked, and are highwaymen; and their only ambition is to cut off heads, in order to swallow the brains. He is most valiant and influential who has cut off most heads. No woman will marry any one who has not cut off some heads. They are so inhuman and churlish a race that they do not care whether those whom they kill are women, children, or men. They obstruct the most needed road in the island, and occupy the best land. They are near the province of La Pampanga, which is inhabited by an agricultural people, who support Manila. They prevent the latter from cultivating their fields, for seldom can the Indians, whether men or women, go out to cultivate their fields, without their heads being cut off. Although the governors have often sent soldiers to punish them, scarcely have the latter ever killed one of them. For they run like deer, and have no village or fixed abode. They do not sow grain, but live on wild fruits and game. The most efficacious remedy will be for your Highness to order that they be made slaves of the natives of the province of La Pampanga; for with this, through their greed to capture these enemies so as to cultivate their fields, the Pampangos will subdue the country in a very short time, at their own cost. I petition your Highness to commit this matter, as above stated, to the Audiencia, archbishop, and bishops. This is a matter of great importance. Slavery, as practiced among the natives, is such that they are almost not slaves at all; and the system is of great benefit to the country. If this matter be not remedied by the above method, the many depredations that are committed will have no check.
Also, the reason why the enemies have become emboldened beyond their wont is for the lack in those regions of ships fit for that warfare. For that, it must be known that those people use certain light craft called caracoas. Those craft are short and undecked. They have one palmo, more or less, of freeboard; and they carry eighty or one hundred Indians who act as rowers, who use certain oars one vara in length. Each of these vessels carries ten or twelve fighting Indians, no more. They cannot take the open sea, except when it is very calm weather, nor do they carry provisions for even one fortnight. When we Spaniards used those craft, and others called vireys, which resemble them, they greatly feared us; for, since those craft were as light as their own, we made great havoc among those people. And finally—although at great cost to the natives who were drafted as rowers—those ships made the country safe; for they fought after the manner of those people. Those vessels are not used so much now, for in truth they cause great injuries to the natives. I do not know whether I can say that they even care any longer for the damage inflicted by the enemies, one reason being that they are badly paid and badly treated, while their wives and children are left to starve to death, and their crops go to ruin. The governors of the Filipinas, in their effort to avoid that trouble [i.e., of hostile raids] have built galleys there since the time of Doctor Francisco de Sande until now. As I have seen personally, and as all the inhabitants of that country know, the galleys of the Filipinas are their destruction. The reason is that the rowers are a weak people, and their food is not very nourishing. Accordingly, it has happened, even lately—during Don Pedro de Acuña’s term, when the galleys were best supplied—that the crew have continued to row a galley for six hours, and that two convicts fell dead, while the others stretched themselves on the deck exhausted; and even if the overseers killed them, they could not make them move. For that reason, and because the seas have strong currents between those islands, and continual winds, the galleys are of little use.