and admitting (likewise a well-known fact) the custom of this race from the earliest period of killing, whenever possible, Spaniards and Indians, without any distinction, and without having received any injuries, for the sole purpose of proving their courage by their ability to kill men, collecting heads and hanging them up in their houses, as such proof; item, admitting one other certain fundamental, that no incursion has been made into their lands for the sake of provoking them in their common habitation, but that they, on the other hand, invade, from their lands, the royal open highways and the settlements of the peaceful natives, in order to kill those who are living in peace with them, and with all:  we render freely an exact opinion.

1.  The Negrillos and mountain Zambales have not, because of their former wars, before the arrival of the Spaniards in this land, at present any just title to war against the settled and peaceful people of these islands.  This is proved, for, although in those former times force ruled, and injustice held full sway, and meant different things to each individual, and no distinction was made—­as, where two persons quarrel with words, and injure each other equally, there is no satisfaction other than to stop, and there is no distinction in the injury—­now, after the pacification of the Indians in settlements, these wars ceased for many years; for which reason the old animosities do not furnish any just pretext for war to either Negrillos or Zambales against the Ilocos, Panpangos, etc. Item:  Since those petty wars ceased, the Panpangos, etc., and all the others have not incited the Negrillos or Zambales to war; nor have they done them any injury, either personally or in their lands.  Therefore the present action of the Negrillos and mountain Zanbales in committing assaults on the highways and killing as many as they have killed, has no just pretext of war from their neighbors.

2.  Second, we assert that the Batanes, Panpangos, Pangasinanes, Ylocos, and other tribes living near the Negrillos and mountain Zambales, have a just pretext for war against the Negrillos and mountain Zanbales—­a proof of which is admitted in the fact of the murders, robberies, attacks, and assaults on the highways, made without any just pretext, as we have said in the first conclusion.  Therefore, on the contrary, the injured ones have a just pretext against them.

There appears to be no doubt regarding these two conclusions, for they are most certain according to natural reason and to all law.  The whole difficulty is whether the injuries committed, the present harm, and that which with some reason is feared (which will be greater each day)—­considering also the condition of the Negrillos, and the sort of country in which they live—­whether all these together constitute sufficient pretext for an expedient so severe as war; and if fire and sword are necessary.