The work on the new convent of Sanct Andres and Sancta Potenciana for the shelter and training of girls is well under way, although for lack of money not so far advanced as I would like. However, the girls are being cared for in the house first assigned them.
As I have written to your Majesty, I have four galleys fitted up, which are actually patrolling the coast, and acting as a defense to these islands whenever needed, although they cost me abundance of complaints, both in and out of the pulpit, from these blessed fathers, who have compelled me to make the enclosed inquiries; and yet, with the rumors and dangers current at the present time, these four seem but few to the theologues. My only regret is my inability to provide and fit them with all the things that they lack, as I wrote your Majesty.
In accordance with clause 7 of your Majesty's instructions, whereby I was ordered to allow the Indians to pay their tribute in land products or in money, as they chose, your order has been observed hitherto. Experience has shown that the carrying of this measure farther means the ruin of the country; for since the Indian sees that he can pay his tribute with ten reals, which he makes in one day's gain, all the rest of the year he makes merry and spends his time in idleness and leisure, drunkenness and magabalijas, which are his sources of income. Therefore they do not sow their fields, raise animals, or weave their cloth, or cultivate the fruits of the earth. On this account no rice is found, nor one mata or lampote,[1] which is worth more than three from China.
- ↑ A textile fabric of cotton made by the natives of the Philippines; see Zúñiga's Estadismo (Retana's ed.), ii, 88, where the word is spelled lompote.
