At present the government sends men who know the law to act as alcaldes in the Philippines, who are somewhat better paid and are not allowed to trade.
On the whole, the government is endeavoring to lessen the influence of the curas, in order to strengthen the civil authorities; but that will be only very imperfectly accomplished, however, unless the tenure of office of the alcaldes be lengthened, and the office be so assigned that the alcaldes will have no temptation to make money on the side.[17]
[1] A comparison of the English translation of Jagor (London, 1875) with the original text reveals the fact that the translation is inaccurate in many places, and that it was done in a careless and slovenly manner. Consequently, it has been necessary to translate this matter directly from the German.
[2] Polángui is located in the province of Albay, on the right bank of the Inaya River, and eleven miles in a general southeast direction from Lake Bató (the Batu of the text). This passage, in the English translation mentioned in the preceding note, is incorrectly rendered, “to cross the lake of Batu”—an error probably due to ignorance on the part of the translator, of the location of Polángui, although the language of the author is not at all ambiguous.
[3] That is, “It is what hour your Majesty pleases.”
[4] At this point Jagor adds in Spanish in parenthesis: “Discalced minor religious of the regular and most strict observance of our holy father St. Francis, in the Filipinas Islands, of the holy and apostolic province of San Gregorio Magno.”
[5] As many as 900 monasteries were suppressed in Spain by decree of June 21, 1835, and the rest were dissolved by the decree of October 11, of the same year. The suppression, as might have been expected, was accompanied by excesses against the friars and nuns, and some of them were murdered, while parish priests and Jesuits were hunted over the borders.
[6] This passage is hopelessly confused in the English translation, and proves how entirely untrustworthy that translation is. The reading of the original (da sie gezwungen sein würden, dort der Ordensregel zu entsagen und als Rentner zu leben) is translated “for they are compelled in the colonies to abandon all obedience to the rules of their order, and to live as laymen”—a sin against actual history, as well as language.
[7] Historia de las islas ... y Reynos de la Gran China (Barcelona, 1601), chapter xi.