consoled, now that he had made his confession.  During Holy Week there was a great concourse of people who devoutly attended the divine services, keeping the receptacle of the most holy sacrament handsomely adorned.  On Holy Thursday, in the afternoon, after the sermon a very devout procession was formed, by which the people were more thoroughly instructed in the faith, and taught what Christ our Lord had done for our salvation.  The most pleasing and touching sight was to see all the children disciplining themselves with scourges which they themselves had made for that day.  At Easter some Spaniards chanced to be here, who augmented the solemnity of the occasion with salvos from their arquebuses.  Peace was restored between many married people who had been living in discord; and some abuses were corrected, especially two very baneful practices anciently common among them, namely, usury in loans, and enslavement through tyranny.  In order that my readers may better understand and recognize the power of God, who has unrooted these evils, it has seemed to me best to describe them in greater detail.

Of usury and slavery among the Filipinos.  Chapter XXXXVI.

Among other vicious practices common to these nations and proceeding from that fountain and abyss of evil, idolatry, one was that insatiable cupidity mentioned by the evangelist St. John as one of the three which tyrannize over the world. [1] This caused them, forgetful of that natural compassion which we owe to one another, never to lend succor in cases of need without assurance of profit.  Consequently, whenever they made loans (not of money, which they did not use or possess, but of other things, most commonly rice, bells, and gold—­this last more than all else, for when weighed it took the place of money, for which purpose every one carried in his pouch a balance), they must always agree upon the profit which should be paid them in addition to the sum that they were to lend.  But the evil did not stop here, for the profit or gain itself went on increasing with the delay in making payment—­until finally, in the course of time, it exceeded all the possessions of the debtor.  The debt was then charged to his person, which the poor wretch gave, thus becoming a slave; and from that time forth all his descendants were also slaves.  There was another form of this usury and slavery, by which the debtor or his son must remain from that time a slave, until the debt, with all the usury and interest which were customary among them, was repaid.  As a result of this, all the descendants of him who was ether a debtor or security for the debt, remained slaves.  Slaves were also made through tyranny and cruelty, by way of revenge and punishment for offenses of small account, which were made to appear matters of injury.  Examples of these are:  failure to preserve silence for the dead (which we have already mentioned), or happening to pass in front of a chief who was bathing (alluded to in the fable of Actaeon), and other similar oppressions.