11. “In the time of their heathendom, they ought to be considered as slaves rather than as vassals of their tyrannical petty kings, to whom they paid service as vassals. These tyrants employed them in their grain-fields, and in gathering pearls, shells, gold, dyewood, amber, and civet; in timber-cutting, and in the construction of vessels; in a word, the people had nothing more than the labor appointed to them by their tyrant masters” (thus I explained the matter to his Majesty in a report of June 5, 1760, and [here] will copy exactly the rest of its contents regarding the increase of tributes). “Your Majesty conquered these dominions and these peoples, making rational beings from brutes, Christians from heathens, and rich people from poor ones. Your Majesty gave them the freedom of the sea, the rivers, the lands, and the forests; established a governor, an Audiencia, and other courts, in order that they might be defended from their enemies and maintained in justice; formed bishoprics, with bishops and curas; and, in fine, you completed these benefits with the many privileges which are contained in the laws of the Indias, without further burden to them than the payment by each Indian of five reals. At the same time, they were able to pay much more, as it is just they should, considering that every vassal ought to contribute to his king and natural lord whatever is necessary to maintain the vassals in peace, justice, and social order; but in these islands not only does your Majesty not obtain what is needed to pay these expenses, but your Majesty supplies, and has supplied, an immense amount of money. If the rest of your vassals contributed in this proportion, your Majesty could not maintain your dominions, for you spend vastly more than what they yield to you; nor could the Indians of these islands, moreover, be instructed and governed if your Majesty spent upon them no more than you obtain from the fund of the tributes. Therefore, in order that these obligations may be reciprocal—that of your Majesty to maintain the Indians in social order, and theirs to contribute for the same—it is necessary that the tribute be proportioned to the expenses, and larger than what they are at present paying.”

12. Let these reflections be prudently considered, for, even without the constraint of the foregoing ones, they show the lawfulness of increasing the tribute; and at greater length I have stated the disposition of the Indians, as I also explained to his Majesty in the said report: “They are a people who are given up to sloth; they work one day for the food for the entire week, and the rest of the time they are without occupation, and most often [spend that time] in gambling or drinking. That is a very unusual Indian who takes pains to have a comfortable house, and to accumulate some little property for the comfort of his children; for he [usually] only works for his food and for wretched clothing, for paying his tribute, and for gambling. This is more usually the case; as also is it certain that there are no vassals who have better opportunities for being rich, or can do so more easily. Those who were exempted from going to cut timber paid the overseer five pesos, three reals each, in order not to be obliged to do this work for the period of one month; and in this is evident the facility with which they make money when they choose, and when necessity urges them.”

13. Here comes in well what the governor has set forth in a memorandum of suggestions regarding the increase of the tributes, and I will extract from it what answers my purpose: “Among the numerous vices which are occasioned by the incredible laziness of the Indians, one is that of gambling. When they gamble on a cockfight, a multitude of people assemble, and all of them carry ready money for this purpose. The Indian women adorn themselves with many chains of gold, with pendants, and with rosaries ornamented with gold; with rings and bracelets of tumbac, and with many buttons of the said metals on their chemises. The Indians are accustomed to use much silver, and some gold and tumbac, on the said buttons and those on their jackets; in rings and clasps; on their knife-belts[13] and weapons ornamented with silver. For a burial they pay out twenty, forty, or sixty pesos; they spend enormous amounts in the banquets at their weddings, in the functions of gobernadorcillos, and in other things, which prove that the Indian, notwithstanding his great slothfulness, has money for everything except for the tribute.”

14. There is no province which does not yield many and excellent products, and, if the Indians were willing to apply themselves to a very moderate [amount of] labor, they could pay a larger tribute, and [yet] live with more comforts; for there are probably no vassals in all the world who have such facilities and opportunities for becoming rich as have the Indians of Filipinas. But this condition is not attained when there is slothfulness; and what means have the Spaniards used to banish this vice? None; for we are as languid and negligent as the Indians, and have left them in their freedom without seeking either their advancement or our own. The Spaniards do not go out of Manila, where all are gentlemen; they regard it as unworthy to devote themselves to any other pursuit than commerce; they employ themselves in swindling and begging alms, rather than seek a living in the provinces; and, more than all, they live in utter idleness. They loiter about, divert themselves with gambling and other vices, and become insolent in their licentious mode of speech, even that which they do not understand. For this reason Manila is the commonwealth most abominable for malicious tales, slanders, and factions,[14] for sloth and licentiousness; for even the citizen of most wealth and he who is most occupied will have at least ten months which he does not know how to employ.

15. Such is the example that we set to the Indians, and they imitate us so perfectly that they all desire to live as the Spaniard does, to wear the same costly ornaments, and to be rich—but without labor, and without ceasing to be idle or to divert themselves with all the other vices. If the many Spanish vagabonds who wander about Manila and its environs were distributed in the provinces, they would trade therein; they would marry Indian women of rank, would become rich with some application and labor, and would thus furnish a good example to the Indians. In this way the foreigners (and especially the French) have established their colonies, free from the error of our pernicious vanity, inaction, and sloth; and we, although better warned than they, are unwilling to change our ideas, but prefer to maintain the Indians in the same state of idleness.

16. The means for their not being idle is, that the Spaniards should work, and encourage and aid the Indians to cultivate their lands and utilize their products. An ordinance should be published that no Indian may be a gobernadorcillo or official of his village unless he cultivate and gather in a certain portion of rice, wheat, sugar, cacao, cotton, wax, or other product, regulated by what each province produces; that if they do not cultivate their lands they must lose them, the lands being adjudicated to other persons, in order that these may cultivate them; and that exemption from tributes, polos, and personal services be granted to those who shall most distinguish themselves in tillage and harvesting. The idea is, to stimulate them in this manner to the tillage and cultivation of the lands which his Majesty grants to all the villages and the Indians who dwell in them; and these measures are very gentle compared to others which were decreed by the municipal law of the Indias. For in one of the ordinances of Mexico it is decreed that “the Indians must not be allowed to be idle, or to wander about as idlers and vagabonds; but they must work on their farms.” The authorities could compel them by force to obey this, as Señor Solorzano proves by various arguments in book 2, chapter 7 of his Política Indiana, demonstrating that no Indian would work if allowed his liberty, “through his natural inclination to an idle and easy life,” as is definitely stated in ley 1, tit. 13, lib. 6 (“Of the Indians”), and many others of the same Recopilación; and that the Indians resist work “because they are exceedingly slothful and fond of idleness, and are inclined to abandon themselves to intemperance, licentiousness, and other vices which idolatry occasions among them; and as they are so little covetous, and are content with so little for food and clothing, many passing their lives in the manner of beasts, some force and compulsion is necessary to make them give up this mode of life; for the devil prompts and persuades them not to serve or aid the Spaniards.

17. “On this account it has always been regarded as best to keep them occupied and at work, and in their heathen condition the same was done by their Ingas [i.e., Incas] and Montesumas—to such an extent that, when they lacked profitable and necessary occupation, their rulers set them to work at others that were only for pleasure, and of no use or benefit; they were even made to collect little bags of lice, and to cut and carry to the mountains stones of enormous size.”

18. All this description seems written for the Indians of these islands, and he who may have any experience with them will decide that, in order to remove them from their sloth and their vices the increase of their tributes is indispensable, as is the necessity of compelling them by the said measure to perform work that is useful to the king, and likewise to themselves, in both spiritual and temporal interests—so much so that one can and ought to form the gravest scruples at allowing the Indians to remain in their present condition, since it is the origin of numberless evils (from which I shall pray God to deliver his Majesty and his ministers), through consenting to this so pernicious sloth, and not applying some remedy to it. At the same time with the increase of the tribute, the abundance of products and the wealth of the islands will be greater; for if the Indians now do a certain amount of work in order to pay five reals, they will be under necessity of working three times as much in order to pay two pesos.

19. In Nueva España, Señor Solorzano regards as lawful and very just the tribute of eight tostons (which are four pesos, each of eight silver reals), for each Indian, one-half more[15] than what I rated in the increase which is here proposed. He who has any knowledge of the said kingdom and of these islands will admit that the said rate is very moderate; for the Indians of America do not enjoy so great an abundance of products or so wide a market as do the natives of these islands. Also, there they have not, in proportion [to the extent of the country], as many troops and as many military posts as here; and these natives have fewer burdens of polos and personal services, and much less hardship, than those of Nueva España. Notwithstanding these advantages, which furnish just reason for imposing on these islands the same tribute which is regarded as just in Nueva España, I am fixing the rate at one-half less—for with the two pesos for each Indian I think that there will be more than enough to place the troops, the fortifications, and the navy, on a more respectable footing; to defend these vassals from the invasions of Moros and other enemies; and, by saving to his Majesty the royal situado and making amends for the enormous expenses which have burdened these islands, to furnish to the royal revenues some increase, and have means with which to meet the needs and obligations of the crown.

20. The difference which there may be between the Indians who were conquered by arms and those who voluntarily subjected themselves to our sway (as were those of these islands) is also found in the said regulation of rates, by which the latter will pay but one-half as much as the former; for this circumstance that I have mentioned does not relieve them from the obligations and burdens of vassals—although on account of it they have the right to be treated with more clemency, as they have been treated hitherto, and will be in the future—paying the two pesos as tribute, in order that his Majesty and the other vassals need not defray the expenses to which the people of these islands ought to contribute, since these conduce to their spiritual and temporal welfare, and to the preservation and security of these dominions.