That the one hundred and fifteen pesos given to the soldiers in Mexico be reckoned only up to the time of their arrival at the port of Cavite, and that thenceforth their ordinary pay be given them.

This is as indispensable and needful as the matter of the pay and means of profit, and even more so; for if this be not done, it will be and serve for nothing else than to waste your Majesty’s royal estate, without any results for the expense—­namely, the colonization, increase, and defense of this country.  Rather the very opposite in a certain way results; and to say so is no exaggeration, but truth.  For they arrive at Cavite after a three months’ voyage, and without a blanca [9] in a new land, which is much less comfortable than Mexico, which they have left.  Then in the space of nineteen months they receive not one real of pay or remuneration, until after they have served out the one hundred and fifteen pesos.  This causes them to suffer such want and wretchedness that I can not tell it.  So many evils and wrongs are caused that is a pity and shame to recount them.  The result is that their need abases and lowers (or rather forces) many of them to commit thefts and other misdemeanors as bad, and worse, which I shall not name out of the respect due your Majesty.  They also marry the Indian women, so that the latter may supply their necessities; but the Indian women themselves do not possess those things.  And most usually there is great danger and risk of offenses against God, and of the discrediting of the Spanish name and nation.

One other great harm follows from the above, and it is of great moment.  This is the slight credit and little esteem accorded to the soldiers by these Sangleys, Japanese, and other peoples—­and, consequently or jointly with them, by ourselves—­since they behold them naked, ill clad, and worse conducted.  The behavior of some, as I have said, is of such a nature that out of respect I shall not name their vices; but their actions and manners are a cause for sorrow.

It results and springs from this need that the soldiers are a torment and a vexation to the community; and they become obnoxious to, and are little liked and less esteemed by, the inhabitants; for they are generally seen at the doors of the people begging for aid in their need and poverty.  It is a grief to consider and see every one of these things—­and the more so, as they are so just.  And they are felt much more by those who, with love and zeal for the glory of God, care for and desire His service and that of your Majesty, the welfare and increase of these lands, and the reputation of our nation.  Of a certainty this last is being ruined and lost more and more daily.  The remedy for these evils is the increase of the pay, and provision for additions to it; and a decree by your Majesty that the one hundred and fifteen pesos be regarded as a gratuity provided until the arrival of the soldiers at Cavite.  Only