ce. In general there are some men of
service called bantayanes who are a kind of sentinel placed at the
entrances of villages. Many of them also pay to be excused from
that burden when their turn comes or when they are told that it
comes. In general he has ten or twelve men called honos, manbaras,
etc., given to him, who are exempt from polos and services, and they
serve the ayuntamiento to send papers, conduct prisoners, etc., and
the gobernadorcillo gives them permission so that they may cultivate
their lands, by collecting from them a contribution." "But it seems
to me that the gobernadorcillo will have to give account, if not for
all, at least for many of the taxes that you have mentioned." "It
ought to be so, and in fact, some enter into the communal treasury,
but they are the fewest and those connected with the legal matters,
for of the others there is nothing to be said. For example: I have seen
an order enclosing a fine as a punishment on the gobernadorcillo for
some fault or misdeed that he had committed. He assembles the cabezas
de barangai; the whole sum is apportioned among the people of the
village. The amount of the fine is collected and the gobernadorcillo
has still something left for his maintenance and revelling." "Why
do they not complain to the alcalde?" "Because, sir, of just what I
told you. The alcalde needs the gobernadorcillo so that he may use
him in his business, and for all such things he is a very far-sighted
man. Besides, the alcalde who tries to investigate those snares of
the tribunals (ayuntamientos) will lose his senses without deriving
any benefit from it. He does not know the language. As interpreter
he has the clerk, who is an Indian, and the entangler-in-chief, and
almost always in accord with the Indian magnates." "If the clerk is a
bad man, will he not be hated?" "I do not say that he is beloved, but
some fear him, and others are his accomplices. Since the alcalde is,
in reality, a business man, he naturally takes more interest in his
business than in that of other people, and leaves all court matters
in charge of the clerk, who comes to be the arbiter in that matter,
and here is where the latter reaps his harvest. One of the members
of the tribunal (ayuntamiento) steals, or causes to be stolen from
some man his buffalo. The man finds out where it is; he complains
to the gobernadorcillo; they begin to take measures; at last the
animal is returned to him, but if it is worth five duro