[6] Mas here cites at length a writing by the Augustinian Casimiro Diaz, which instructs parish priests in their duties; they are warned against trading or engaging in any business or manufacture directly or indirectly.
[7] Father Juan Ferrando, professor of canons in the college of Santo Tomás of Manila, to whom I gave the manuscript of this chapter to read, wrote in the margin the following note, which is very just and timely; and as such I insert it, in order to counteract the statement which has given occasion for it, and which I wrote in the heat of composition, simply through heedlessness and inadvertence. “In no way can the cura make use of what he learns in the confessional for the exterior government. By its means one may better understand the character of the Indian, but the cura can never make use of it for the investigations that the government exacts. 1 believe that it will be impossible to print this statement without doing harm to the confessional and to the curas.”—Mas.
[8] “When Juan Salcedo conquered the Ilocos, he found a caste of nobles amongst them who possessed all the riches of the country, and treated the cailianes, or serfs, with great rigour.
“The common people [among the Igorrotes] are in a kind of bondage to the nobles, and cultivate their land for them. In Lepanto they are called cailianes as in Ilocos.” (Sawyer’s Inhabitants of the Philippines, pp. 251, 256.)
[9] The famous bridge which joins the capital with the barrio of Binondo was directed by the Recollect, Fray Lucas de Jesus Maria. Another religious has lately constructed another bridge in Iloilo, which is said to be very fine. The government sent him a cross on that account. His name was Fray Simon de San Agustin. Almost all the advances in agriculture and the arts which have made in the islands since the arrival of the Spaniards are due to the religious, as was also the abolition of slavery.—Mas.
[10] Spanish, pax octaviana, referring to the Roman emperor Octavian and the peaceful condition of his empire.
[11] “This proposition, founded on the common opinion of those who have seen none except the curacies of the rich and well-populated provinces, cannot be maintained in any manner. In the environs of Manila, where the food and services cost dearer than in the city itself, the cura in charge of a village which does not number more than one thousand tributes cannot live with decency. For here also generally fails what you say in another place, namely, that the cura’s income can be adjusted at a peso for each tribute. In the distant provinces—as, for instance, Cagayan and other distant parts—since food and services are very cheap, and the cura does not have to spend anything except on the things that he requests from Manila, if the village reaches 500 tributes it will be sufficient for him, but not below the said number; and even in the first case, if he has a sufficient number of masses to apply with alms, which rarely happens. I pray you now to consider the fact that the majority of the villages of the archbishopric do not exceed 1,000 tributes, and those of the other bishoprics 500. What would you say it you knew what passes in the villages that even preserve the names of missions? The government gives them a small stipend, of less than 300 pesos, and a few cabans of palay. On this they have to support themselves, as well as the church edifice and divine worship, as there are no fees on the part of the village; for as missionaries they do not have parochial fees. Consequently, if they wish to live with some comfort, they have to engage in stockraising; and those who do not possess a somewhat regulated conscience will have to devote themselves to unseemly traffic.” (Note of Father Juan Ferrando, written on the margin of the manuscript of this chapter.)—Mas.
[12] Peso fuerte or duro, the “strong” or “hard” dollar; the “piece of eight,” or peso of eight reals. See Vols. III, p. 177, and XII, p. 73.
[13] Spanish, el [libro] de cuarenta; literally, “the book of forty leaves,” meaning a pack of cards.
[14] Any man who is willing to work is able not only to live, but to become rich.—Mas.