that he equips upon extraordinary occasions.

Each province is subdivided into a greater or less number of
towns. Each town has a gobernadorcillo [i.e., little or petty
governor], with assistants and alguacils of justice, whose number is
fixed. They discharge various functions, among them the administration
of justice in regard to fields and palm-trees, and that of police. In
some towns where there are a sufficient number of Sangley mestizos
(who are the descendants of the Chinese), they form, when they
obtain permission from the government, a separate community, with a
gobernadorcillo and other members of the magistracy taken from their
own midst. In the towns which are the capitals of the province there
is often a gobernadorcillo for mestizos and one for natives. This
latter always takes command of the province in case of the sickness
or absence of the alcalde-mayor. The gobernadorcillos have in their
towns all the municipal responsibility proper to the authority which
is conferred upon them by their appointment. They are especially bound
to aid their parish priests in everything pertaining to worship and
the observance of religious laws. They try civil causes up to the
value of two taels of gold, or forty-four pesos. They take action in
criminal cases by collecting the preliminary evidence, which they
submit to the provincial chiefs. They are under obligation to see
to the collections of the royal revenue, and further to give notice
of the ordinances for good government. They are permitted to collect
certain dues that are specified in their own credentials. Each town
has also other citizens known under the name of cabezas [_i.e._, heads]
de barangay. Each cabeza is obliged to look after forty-five or fifty
tributes which comprise as many families, and that is the signification
of barangay. The cabezas must reside with them in the district or
street assigned; must attend in person to the good order and harmony
of their individuals; must apportion among them all the services
that are due from them collectively; must settle their disputes; and
must collect the tribute under a fixed bond, in order to effect its
delivery afterward in entirety to the gobernadorcillo, or directly
to the provincial chief, as happens in that of Tondo. The cabezas are
ex-officio attorneys for their barangays in all matters that concern
them collectively, and electors of the gobernadorcillos and other
officials of justice. For that interesting