in false oaths in legal
instruments. This is well known, and therefore should be well punished.

CHAPTER XLIV

Of the former government and social customs of these Indians

462. I have already said that our brother and venerable father Fray
Juan de Plassencia wrote in the convent of Nagcarlan and signed
(October 24, 1589) a relation describing all the old customs of
these Indians, in obedience to a request and charge of the superior
government. That relation appeared to all a very truthful statement,
as, in order to make it, his examination and vigilance were rigorous.

463. Of this relation I have already used what I thought ought to be
set down in their fitting places. Now I shall say in substance what
he tells when speaking of the social customs of the Indians and their
old-time government, with some additions which serve for the better
understanding of the matter.

464. These Indians were not so lacking in prudence in the olden
time that they did not have their economic, military and political
government, those being the branches derived from the stem of
prudence. Even the political government was not so simple among all of
them that they did not have their architectonic rule--not monarchic,
for they did not have an absolute king; nor democratic, for those who
governed a state or village were not many; but an aristocratic one,
for there were many magnates (who are here called either maguinoos
or datos), among whom the entire government was divided.

465. In the olden days, when, as most of them believe, the Malays came
to conquer these islands, they called the boat or ship by the name of
barangay, which is well known and much used in these times. In this
boat came a whole family, consisting of parents, children, relatives,
and slaves, under the government of one who was the leader, captain,
or superior of all. In some districts, this man was called maguinoo,
and in others dato. And in proportion as they continued to people
this archipelago in this manner, it filled up with families and
they appropriated their places of settlement, each of them seeking
its own convenience for its maintenance and living. And there they
lived governed by their own chiefs, not with a hard and fast rule,
but all in friendly relations. By virtue of this friendship they were
obliged to aid their chief, both in his wars and in the cultivation
of his fields; and all to aid one another mutually. But no one was
able to usur