In the province of Pangasinan, in four villages, 899 tributes.
In the province of Ilocos, in five villages, 2,988 tributes.
In the province of Cagayan, in eight villages, 2,192 tributes.
Consequently, the royal crown has 44,763 tributes, as appears from an official statement made in the year 630. At ten reals per tribute, the amount reaches 53,715 pesos.
Among private persons there are distributed and assigned as encomiendas 48,000 other tributes, which for the 230 citizens of Manila—without reckoning those of the cities of [Santísimo] Nombre de Jesus, [Nueva] Caceres, and [Nueva] Segovia, and the town of Arebalo, who number about 300 more—does not amount to 160 tributes per man. They amount to a like number of pesos of eight reals, for the two additional reals are for the royal crown. And even on the eight reals so many charges are made that there is left but six or a trifle more. This is the wealth, and natural and proper commerce of the Filipinas.
Number 18. Fourth reason for the importance of the islands: their location, as[18] is explained
The fourth reason which persuades one to value and conserve them is the one drawn from their notable location, almost opposite this hemisphere of España. Consequently, some think that Manila is the antipodes of Sevilla. Although according to the latitude of the world that is not exact—as it is in a different latitude from that required to be opposite by a straight line which passes through the center of the earth—according to the longitude the idea is not so far wrong; for although both cities are not on one great circle, their meridians lack only a difference of two or three hours to be diametrically opposite. From this it follows that, as the world has two poles upon which its frame moves and rotates, so does this monarchy also have two, one of them being España, and the other the Filipinas, which is the most remote part of España’s possessions. And although in respect to the Indias, which led to the discovery of Filipinas, they are called the Western Islands, yet if sought by the voyage by way of India, they are the most eastern, and the finest that have been discovered in that ocean—whose dominion belongs to them even by nature and by their relative position among all the islands of that hemisphere. Therein they are surrounded by an infinite number of rich islands, which were formerly frequented; these promised great increase in the promulgation of the gospel, and no small hope based on the wealth of their commerce, before the rebels of Flandes entered those seas and embarrassed their navigation and trade. The islands are also at equal or proportionate distances with the kingdoms which extend from the straits of Sincapura[19] and of Sunda (or Sabaon), to China and Japon.
Number 19. Importance of the islands because they offer opposition to the Dutch
From this so unusual location results the best proof of the importance of those islands—an importance well understood by the Dutch, who are striving, by means of immense military expenses, fleets, and numerous presidios, which they sustain in their seas and environs, as will be seen [In the margin: “In number 32.”] to blockade, restrict, infest, and attack the islands, with no other end in view than their seizure. For they believe (and not without reason) that if they should attain this end, and remove that obstacle (which is the one that restricts the course of their fortunes in those regions), they would be absolute masters of all that extends on from the straits; and that they would cause from there so great anxiety and danger to India, that they would oblige its citizens to spend on its defense a greater sum than is now spent on the conservation of the Filipinas. And now, when the Dutch have been unable to gain a foothold in any of the islands because the arms of your Majesty sustain that country with the same reputation as in Flandes, the enemy maintain themselves by aggressive measures against the Spaniards—usually keeping for that purpose in the seas of those islands forty or fifty armed vessels, which are used to pillage whatever they can find, and to guard the presidios which they have established, and the commerce which they have introduced of the most precious drugs and commodities valued by Europa, whither they take them. However, that is done at a greater cost than they are willing to pay, because of the opposition made against them by the Filipinas. In order for the Dutch to overcome the Filipinas, it has not been sufficient for them to unite and ally themselves with the Moro and pagan kings of other islands and lands of Asia, persuading them that they should take arms against the vassals of España, whose defense lies in the Filipinas alone. And if the banners of your Majesty were driven from the islands, the power and arrogance of Olanda, which would dominate all the wealth of the kingdoms of the Orient, would greatly increase with the freedom and ease of commerce; while they would gain other and greater riches in Europa, and would so further their own advancement that more would be spent in this part of the world in restraining them than is spent in driving them away in those regions [i.e., the Orient]. Consequently, those islands are the bit that restrains the enemy, the obstacle that embarrasses them, the force that checks them, and the only care that causes them anxiety, so that they cannot attain their desires—an evident proof of the importance of those islands, and a fundamental reason for their conservation.