stizos,
[341] who are descended from Indian women and Chinese men. For since
trade with them [i.e., the Sangleys] has been, and is, so frequent,
and so many remain in these islands under pretext of trade, and they
are the ones who supply these islands with clothing, food, and other
products, those who have mixed with the Indian women in marriage are
numerous; and for this purpose they become Christians, and from them
have resulted so many mestizos that one cannot count them. They are all
Christians, and quite commonly well disposed, and very industrious and
civilized. They take pride in imitating the Europeans in everything,
but their imitation is only a copy. They inhabit the same villages
with the Tagalogs, but are not reckoned with them; since for the
reckoning of the king they belong to a different body. The women are
more like the Sangleys or Chinese, but the men not so much; however,
these inherit from them ambition, in their continual industry.

391. There is also another kind of mestizo--the Japanese--who result
from the Japanese who were shipwrecked on these islands in former
years. They are of better conduct than the others, since they have a
better origin. They are more esteemed here and have more privileges,
for they only pay half as much tribute as do the others.

392. It is tradition that the Negrillos, who belong to the second
class of people whom our first conquistadors found, were the first
owners of the islands of this archipelago; and that, the civilized
nations of other kingdoms having conquered them, they fled to the
mountains and settled there, and from there it has never been possible
to exterminate them, because their sites are impenetrable. There
they have lived and brought forth children until the present. In
former times they were so elated with their primitive power that,
although their forces were not able to cope with those of foreigners
in the open, they were very powerful in the thickets, mountains, and
mouths of the rivers; and were accustomed to burst like an avalanche
upon the villages, and compel their inhabitants to pay them tribute,
as if they were the lords of the land, who were inhabiting it. And if
the people refused to give it willingly, they killed right and left,
collecting the tribute in the heads of those who were decapitated; as
was written by one of our oldtime religious in the following words:
"Even in my time, it happens," he says, "that they descended to
the settlemen