today many Indians to be baptized.  In some cases when I have gone to a village to administer confirmation, I have returned without confirming any one, because the Indians were not in the place, but were occupied in labors ordered by the alcalde-mayor, and I could not collect them together.  In proof of this, I send a mandate issued by a deputy of Tondo. (I was present at the time, and all the people were away, occupied in the tasks assigned to them; and the only Indians in the village were those who were being instructed for the reception of baptism.) This ordinance commanded all the Indians of the said village to cut wood, and those who were receiving instruction to quit it.

Third:  Before the governor Don Goncalo Ronquillo came, there were not more than three or four alcaldes-mayor in all these islands; but now there are sixteen and most of them are men who came with him.  As they came poor, and as the salaries are small, they have taken away the Indians—­as all affirm, and it is common talk—­at the time for harvesting rice; and they buy up all other provisions, and many profit by selling them again.  In this way everything has become dear, because, as they have forbidden the Indians to trade and traffic, they sell at whatever price they wish.  Formerly the Indians brought their produce to the gates, and sold it at very low-prices; for they are satisfied with very little gain, which is not true of the Spaniards.  But, not to ascribe all the guilt to men, but to our sins, the cause of this dearness has in part been that these years have not afforded as good weather as others.  This is the state in which the country has thus far been up to the present.

Injuries inflicted upon the Indians

First:  When a long expedition is to be made, the wrongs which they suffer are many.  One is to despatch for the Indians who are to row in a galley or fragata a sailor who has neither piety nor Christian feeling.  Moreover, it is notorious that, without inquiring whether an Indian is married or single, or whether his wife is sick or his children without clothing, he takes them all away.  It has happened that when a husband has led this deputy to his wife, who was great with child, and has asked with tears that he might be left behind as she had no one to care for her, the sailor has beaten her with cudgels in order to make her go, and the poor husband also, despite his resistance.  In other cases, their wives are abandoned when dying, the husband being compelled to go away to row.  The Indians are put into irons on the galleys, and flogged as if they were galley-slaves or prisoners.  Moreover, the pay that is given them is very small; for they give each man only four reals a month—­and this is so irregularly paid that most of them never see it.  The [officials of the] villages from which they take the rowers divide the pay among themselves, or give it to those whom they impress as oarsmen.  This statement is thoroughly authenticated; for when the governor, Don Goncalo Ronquillo, sent to the mines, in Vitis and Lobao alone they divided three thousand pesos belonging to the Indians themselves; and when he sent to Borney, in Bonbon they divided more than two thousand.  They say that in all Pampanga five or six thousand pesos were taken, and similarly in all towns where they get recruits.