of their tribute.  Consequently it follows that the natives have less capital and wealth, because they do not work; and the country, which was formerly very well provided and well-supplied with all products, is now suffering want and deprivation of them.  The owners of the encomiendas, both those of his Majesty and those of private persons who possess them, have sustained considerable loss and reduction in the value of the encomiendas.

When Gomez Perez Dasmarinas was appointed governor of the Filipinas, he brought royal decrees ordering the formation of the camp in Manila, with an enrollment of four hundred paid soldiers, with their officers, galleys, and other military supplies, for the defense and security of the country.  Before that time all the Spanish inhabitants had attended to that without any pay.  Then an increase of two reals to each tributario over the eight reals was ordered.  This was to be collected by the encomenderos at the same time when they collected the eight reals of the tribute, and was to be delivered and placed in the royal treasury.  There this amount was to be entered on an account separate from that of the other revenue of his Majesty, and was to be applied in the following manner:  one and one-half reals for the expenses of the said camp and war stores; and the remaining half real for the pay of the prebendaries of the Manila church, which his Majesty pays from his treasury, until such time as their tithes and incomes suffice for their sustenance. [208]

These tributes are collected from all the natives, Christians and infidels, in their entirety—­except that in those encomiendas without instruction the encomendero does not take the fourth part of the eight reals (which equals two reals) for himself, since that encomienda has no instruction or expenses for it; but he takes them and deposits them in Manila, in a fund called “the fourths.” [209] The money obtained from this source is applied to and spent in hospitals for the natives, and in other works beneficial to them, at the option of the governor.  As fast as the encomiendas are supplied with instruction and religious, the collection of these fourths and their expenditure in these special works cease.

Some provinces have taken the census of their natives; and according to these the tributes and the assignment of the two reals are collected.

In most of the provinces no census has been taken, and the tributes are collected when due by the encomenderos and their collectors, through the chiefs of their encomiendas, by means of the lists and memoranda of former years.  From them the names of the deceased and of those who have changed their residence are erased, and the names of those who have grown up, and of those who have recently moved into the encomienda, are added.  When any shortage is perceived in the accounts, a new count is requested and made.