It is taken for granted, Sir, as a maxim which experience has shown to be infallible in all America, that the means for the preservation and extension of the Catholic faith are the same as were employed for its first introduction, which was most prosperous because the ardent zeal of the gospel ministers was united with the power and arms of his Majesty (whom may God preserve), by which the progress of the faith was assured. [On this ground] it is very evident that in these regions it is not possible to improve, or even to preserve, the peoples who are already conquered and reduced, because no attention has been paid to maintaining the military posts, or building any new fortifications; on the other hand, in some places and provinces even the little forts that they possessed have been entirely removed, and in others the number of officers and soldiers designated for their defense from any hostile invasion has been diminished. The effect of this retrenchment, and of not reëstablishing the old military posts with the number of soldiers that is judged necessary, and with the military and food supplies which necessity and natural law prescribed for a suitable defense, is the reason why great destruction and losses from infidels and apostates are suffered and lamented. This has been experienced in the provinces of Cagayan and Zambales, as it appears, for the lack of the arms and defenses which in former times were sufficient for the defense of the faithful converts, and for attacking the hostile infidels—and even for chastising sometimes their wicked acts, as the rigor of justice demands. Today the converted Indians and other vassals of your Majesty are exposed to the dangers of fire and death and captivity which have been experienced in these past years, nor have our people had any other way [of escape] than to contract for the payment of a certain amount of tribute every year to the hostile Indians—an agreement in every way unbecoming and injurious to the reputation and credit of his Majesty’s arms, so entrusted [to our Spaniards] by his royal self. There is this same lack of arms and supplies in the provinces and military posts of Yloilo, Cebu, Caraga, Calamianes, Yligan, and other forts; and from this the only benefit that can result is the very small one that his Majesty will save the expenses of reëstablishing posts and paying soldiers, and put a stop to another evil (likewise a small one), which is the losses occasioned to the poor by the idleness and license of the soldiers—but if this had to be attended to, there would be an end to all the military posts and garrisons which are maintained for the general welfare, the protection of the vassals, and the warfare (offensive and defensive) which natural law permits. Moreover, it is an obligation [and] characteristic of princes that they do not seek or desire the trifling evil mentioned, and as little the advantage of avoiding some expense—which cannot be done without violating that same royal obligation, especially when hitherto in all these islands there have been military posts and the necessary forces, not only in the interior of the country but also on its coasts.
From this grievous neglect it results that it is impossible for us to carry out our desire for the new conversions and reductions so earnestly charged by his Majesty; for if at present even our own preservation is difficult, how can any new conquest be easy? or how can it be right for our zeal to consider the acquisition of new Christian communities while leaving those that are now in our charge exposed to every invasion by the enemy and to total ruin? One thing that has contributed greatly to this wretched state of affairs is, that the expeditions for converting infidels and conquering apostates have ceased which in other days were made by the orders of your Lordship’s predecessors, in accordance with the royal laws, after having consulted the royal court of justice—in whose decisions the hopes that were entertained of the great usefulness of those expeditions were not mocked. It seems as if that experience would incline [the government] to renew the said expeditions, which for some time have been neglected; and in this very island there is so great a number of infidels, who are confirmed in their very infidelity and iniquity because they know that there is never any effort to subdue and conquer them, just as if his Majesty (whom may God preserve) had not the right to do so.
From these deficiencies grievous results have followed, in depopulating the islands, which at present lack their former abundance of the peoples and sources of wealth that are native to them. Confirmation and proof of the truth of this statement is especially furnished by the five provinces near to this city. As for those which are more remote, it is known and is evident that all the coast of Tayabas, which extends from Sariaya to the headland of Bondoc, was formerly very populous and rich, but now it has hardly a village that can be called such; there are [only] some groups of huts jumbled together, inhabited by some Indians who are kept there by their desire of obtaining some petty commodities of the country, such as wax, skins, and pitch. All are destitute of churches and ministers; for their churches have been destroyed at various times by pirates and Mindanaos, and no attention has ever been paid to reëstablishing those places anew as military posts, and with the means of defense that were necessary in order that the great number of people that were in that region might be able to maintain themselves as Christians. It is also a fact that there have been [other] very weighty causes for the depopulation of the islands: the building [of ships] within these five provinces; and the excessive and rigorous exactions in the collection of the tributes, and the excessive polos[2] and personal services [required]. The sad thing is, that all those who leave the islands are ordinarily apostates from the faith, and live and die among heretics, Mahometans, and other barbarous people; and no reparation has ever been made for this great evil, nor has any obstacle been placed in the way of men passing freely [from these islands] to foreign kingdoms, even those who are well known to be married.
The [requisitions for] the cutting of timber for the construction of the galleons constitute an evil that is necessary and unavoidable, since on these depends the entire preservation of these islands; but this necessity is equaled by the destruction and the injuries which that work has caused in these provinces, in the diminution of their population and products. For this so oppressive and heavy yoke has almost always been imposed upon the said five provinces without extending it to others—to which, without doubt, the silver that his Majesty expends in the said woodcutting would be of public advantage; and at the same time the said provinces that are now burdened would take breath and become prosperous with such a rest, an end to which it greatly contributes that the shipbuilding yards are not limited to the village of Cavite alone. With this easy distribution [of labors] in the shipbuilding, the damages arising from the said woodcutting would no longer be repeated in the same provinces, which, having been thickly populated and abounding in produce, are now ruined and barren—their inhabitants forsaking them for remote provinces, and for lands of infidels and heretics, and sometimes retiring to the districts within the mountains. The reason for this is that, although the building [of a galleon] costs his Majesty the amount of 40,000 pesos for the wages of the Indians, besides the poor of these provinces, [they] carry among themselves a burden of more than 100,000 pesos—or even more, because those who are designated for the repartimiento of the woodcutting search for others who can take the place of each one; and the cost of these substitutes usually reaches five or six pesos, and sometimes ten. For the payment of this, the former pledge, or sell, or enslave themselves; and from this cause result very serious evils—thefts, withdrawing to the mountains to roam as vagrants, and other crimes. Other burdens which the natives miserably suffer, and which ordinarily fall on the poorest and most wretched, arise from the fact that the alcalde-mayor who makes the apportionment of men adds to it a greater number than is necessary, and those who are thus added redeem themselves from this oppression by money; and then the [list of the] repartimiento goes to the gobernadorcillo, in order that the heads [of barangay] may summon for the woodcutting six or eight men, even though only four may be necessary. The gobernadorcillo collects in money that amount in excess, as a redemption from an imaginary woodcutting, a proceeding which does not impair the number of those assigned. Still more, after all the men go to the woodcutting, if any are lacking the [native] overseer pays the superintendent of the work at the rate of two reals a day for the failure of each man. To this is added that the superintendent himself is wont to grant exemptions of his own accord, with unjust benefit to some, to the great injury of the main work, [the burden of] which falls on those who remain; moreover, he usually establishes shops, and thus the fund which his Majesty provides to aid these poor people by the purchase of some of their commodities remains therein. His Majesty orders that the men be called out and paid for one month; but many poor creatures do not get away from the woodcutting in a month and a half, during which time they are so overtaxed and harassed that they hardly have time to eat, and of sleep they will have some three hours, as a result of their labors on the account of his Majesty and outside his account. Such is the sorrowful course of the experiences and the unjust acts which they encounter in the woodcutting, his clemency toward the poor, and with the justice of the many laws which he has promulgated in their favor. In presenting thus in general these transgressions of the laws, these crimes, and these oppressions of the poor to your Lordship, as to their judge and father, it is not our intention to blame all the head overseers of the woodcutting; for some have been known who with Christian zeal, the utmost assiduity, and entire disinterestedness have begun and ended their terms of woodcutting with treating those poor people with compassion and justice.
In these provinces near Manila there are a great number of Indians whose mode of life may appropriately be compared to that of the gypsies in España; for they go from one village to another accompanied by some women, and, without labor, they travel, eat, and are clothed; while they prove to be the authors of many murders, robberies, rapes, and other iniquitous deeds. Of the same sort are a great many of the slaves from Manila, who have fled from their masters and go about in bands through various districts; they ravage and destroy fields and farms; they lord it in the houses of the poor Indians; and there is hardly an evil deed that their rash boldness will not perform.
The tribute of the half-annats which his Majesty commands to be paid by the public offices which enjoy honor and salaries is a burden on many provinces (and especially on that of Leite, in which these half-annats, recently raked up [suscitadas] are collected)—although it is a fact that the [native] governors of those provinces do not receive salaries or desire such honor; rather, they shun it on account of their poverty. From [the attempt at] constraining them the following results ensue: first, they flee to the mountains; second, those who do not flee are compelled to remain slaves, or else bind themselves for their whole lives, in order to find means for paying this half-annat, so grievous a tax and so against their wills.
His Majesty has given orders to fortify and repair the village of Cavite, because on it depends, in truth, the preservation and guardianship of this city, the safety of the castle of San Felipe, and that of many intrenchments and various houses, and of the royal storehouses, which his Majesty possesses there. [Moreover,] a large Christian community has gathered in that place; and there are four churches, and three houses of religious orders, with a considerable number of citizens. All these things strongly enforce the necessity of executing the said royal decree of his Majesty, for the preservation, promotion, and protection of all those religious orders and vassals—although our opinion inclines to suppose that there must have been reasons more important than these for suspending the royal mandate of his Majesty; and if these do not exist it surely seems that this state of affairs calls to your Lordship for amendment.
The most holy and awful sacrifice of the mass depends on the pious and punctual provision which his Majesty has made in having wine brought here for the celebration of mass; and this wine, as for the rest, cannot be sure. It seems that in recent years it has been required [from Mexico by the officials of Filipinas] in so small quantities that often not even the amount ordered by his Majesty is delivered; from this it results that, as this deficiency cannot be made good, there is a failure in saying many masses. Even in the oil for the lamps that burn before the blessed sacrament there is a great deficiency [in the supply], for two reasons: either because it is not delivered, or because it is delivered in places very far away. These two matters are, without doubt, worthy of your Lordship’s most careful attention—from whose Christian veneration for the blessed sacrament and well-known piety our solicitude desires and expects an entire and complete remedy.
It seems as if in most things the principal object of the alcaldes-mayor in the provinces, and that in which they proceed with most assiduity—excepting many who conduct themselves with entire integrity—reduces itself to a rigorous and excessive collection of the tributes; and their other aim is the utmost attention to their own personal advantage. These two aims are most injurious and prejudicial to the public welfare and to the poor people of the said provinces—because, when there is no produce [with which to pay the tributes] the alcaldes-mayor either compel the headmen to search for it, and even to bind themselves to do this, or regularly make the headmen responsible for amounts which they not only will not but cannot collect. Another reason is, that the said headmen, with cruel injustice, compel Indians to pay tribute before the age which his Majesty commands and fixes, and this they do under the compulsion of the alcaldes-mayor; likewise, the said headmen exact more than the amount of their obligations for the conveyance of the tributes. In the other aim of the said alcaldes-mayor (that is, their own private advantage) is seen a monstrous hydra with many heads of injustice and iniquity. One of these is their compelling the Indians to labor in construction and other works which do not belong to his Majesty’s service, although even for those [for the crown] the royal law spares and exempts them [from service] during the times when they sow and harvest their crops. The alcaldes also appoint certain Indians who are intimate with them, and who have influence among the other natives, to whom the latter deliver the commodities which they carry to the provinces; and these Indian agents, fixing the prices of goods at their own pleasure, compel the said Indian chiefs to supply them, either by sale or in exchange for other wares. From this results a most flagrant inequality in the prices and the exchanges of goods; and the loss in all these dealings always falls on the mass of the poor people, because the alcalde-mayor and the said petty chiefs or influential Indians always conclude their bargains with profit, and never with loss. Some alcaldes-mayor have gone to such an extreme of violence that, in case the said petty chiefs are unable to dispose of the goods which are thus committed to them, the alcalde compels them to assume the obligation, and to bind themselves to take the goods. Thus some of the Indians are constantly bringing upon others irreparable consequences and losses that are worthy of redress—all springing from the first injustice of compelling those to buy who neither possess nor can take charge of such commodities.
The assessment for each tribute is regulated at ten reals, and it includes two tribute-payers, the husband and wife; nevertheless, the Indians who have no fixed abode are burdened with the requirement that each individual taxed shall pay an entire tribute of ten reals each—although it is believed that this increase was imposed as a penalty, and in order that certain people might be reduced to villages and barangays; for it is evident, from the method of [planning] the tribute, that the imposition or the increase of the tributes is one of the peculiar and exclusive prerogatives of the supreme sovereignty belonging to his Majesty. These injuries, Sir, and these oppressions which extend through all the provinces, to the destruction of the poor, are certainly worthy of action [on your part], and constitute a legitimate obligation on your vigilance, and on the high office which his Majesty entrusted to your Lordship.