Of especial value are two relations (1589) by the Franciscan missionary Juan de Plasencia, on the customs of the Tagalogs.  He describes their social organization, which was originally patriarchal; and rights of property, which are partly individual and partly communistic.  There are three classes among the people—­nobles, commoners and slaves.  The status and rights of each are carefully defined, and the causes and kinds of slavery.  A somewhat elaborate system of regulations concerning inheritances is described, also the status of children by adoption, which usage is widely prevalent among the Tagalogs.  Marriage, dowries, and divorce are fully treated.  In the second of these relations Plasencia describes their modes of burial and worship, and the religious beliefs and superstitions current among that people.  They have no buildings set aside as temples, although they sometimes celebrate, in a temporary edifice, a sort of worship.  Their chief idol is Badhala, but they also worship the sun and the moon, and various minor divinities.  They believe in omens, and practice divination.  A detailed account is given of the various classes of priests, sorcerers, witches, etc., in which the natives believed; also of the burial rites of both Tagalogs and Negritos.

A letter to the king from Portugal (written early in 1590) gives him information which he had requested from Portuguese officials in India, regarding the character and results of the trade between the Spanish colonies and those established by the Portuguese in India and the Eastern archipelago, and China.  The continuance of this trade would, they think, ruin the prosperity of the settlements in India, and greatly injure the commerce of Spain, and deplete that country and her colonies of their coin.  At Salazar’s petition, he receives from the king (April 12, 1590) a grant of money toward the payment of debts incurred by him in procuring the rebuilding of Manila in stone.  On June 20 of the same year, the members of the Audiencia, suppressed by order of the king and replaced by Dasmarinas, notify the king that they have surrendered their posts, and ask him for various favors.

Bishop Salazar writes to the king (June 24) a special communication regarding the Chinese (or Sangleys) at Manila.  He apologizes for having formerly given, under a mistake as to their character, a wrong impression of that people; and relates various instances of their humane treatment of foreigners in their land.  He blames the Portuguese for having spread in China false reports about the Spaniards, and thinks that by this means the devil is trying to hinder the entrance of the gospel into that land.  The bishop urges that no hostile demonstration be made against the Chinese; for they are most favorably inclined to the Christian religion, and many conversions may be made among them.  Most of Salazar’s letter is devoted to the Chinese residents of Manila, and their quarters there, which is called the Parian.  He