for, as the city has no depository, the greatest danger of the Spaniards, in case any enemy besiege them, lies in their capture through famine.  With this the remedy would be secure, and at the same time the Indians would be fed and aided in their needs.  When it was expected to place this plan in execution, the said governor sent three of his servants, with a salary of seventy reals to be paid by the commons.  Those men, who consisted of judge, alguacil-mayor, and clerk, remained at each commons, balancing accounts and making investigations until all the contents were used up on their said salaries.  Consequently, they established order or agreement in nothing, and all remained as before.  For this reason, then, affairs are going to pieces; for men are not sought for the offices, but offices to accommodate whomever the governor desires.

Item:  That many posts for alcaldes and corregidors have been created by making two such districts out of what was formerly one, so that the governor could accommodate persons to whom he was under obligations.  That is much to the cost of the Indians, and [an offense] to God and to my conscience; for the multiplication of those offices means the multiplication of those who destroy the Indians and inflict innumerable injuries upon them.  I petition and supplicate your Highness to order the said corregidors’ and alcaldes’ districts remade as they formerly were.

Item:  That the governor be warned to endeavor to avoid, as far as possible, the injuries inflicted upon the natives in the cutting of wood and in personal services; for they sometimes draft them in the planting season or at harvest, so that they lose their fields, as I have seen.  In addition to this, many times they do not pay the Indians, because there is no money in the treasury, which is continually short of funds.  This often arises from the fact that they do not estimate and consider the needs of the Indians with the amount of money that is available; and consequently all the Indians complain.  Finally, when the said Indians are paid, it is done by the hand of the chiefs or cabezas de barangay, who generally keep the money.  Will your Highness be pleased to order the governor and royal officials to avoid the above grievances as much as possible; and when it is necessary for the Indians to perform any personal labor, which consists generally in the cutting of wood, to see that it be when they are not busied in their fields—­for that can generally be avoided—­and that they be paid the just wage, and that promptly.  For acting in any other way burdens your royal conscience, since those who perform such service are very poor, and do not dare to ask for their pay, if it is not given them.  Consequently they very often do not receive it.  In this way are they much burdened by personal services.