y were free; but they were also obliged to pay
for their support and that of their children. At times it was usual
to transfer the debt to another, for the obtaining of some profit;
and the poor wretches remained slaves, even though such was not their
condition. Much of this is found yet, although not with the rigor
of slavery, but by the force of obligation; but these poor pledged
creatures suffer a certain kind of slavery in their continuous and
toilsome service. The authorities ought to employ all their care for
the uprooting of so keenly felt an abuse.

471. If perchance these slaves sa guiguilir acquired any gold through
their industry, they could ransom themselves with it and become
pecheros; and that ransom did not cost so little that it did not amount
to more than five taes of gold, or thereabout. If one gave ten or more,
then he became free from every claim, and became a noble. For this
purpose a certain ceremony took place between the master and the slave,
namely, the division between the twain of all the furniture that the
slave used--and that with so great strictness that, if a jar was left
over, they broke it and divided up the bits; and if it were a manta,
they tore it through the middle, each one keeping half.

472. From the time when our brother Plassencia explained this
difference of slaves, many acts of injustice which the Indians
practiced on one another were remedied; for they made slaves of those
who were never so, because, as the term alipin is so confused, and
the alcaldes-mayor did not know the secret, they declared one to be
a slave in all rigor, because the Indians proved that he was alipin,
which signifies "slave," being silent, in their malicious reserve,
as to whether he was namamahay or sa guiguilir. There were many such
acts of trickery.

473. Those born of father and mother who were mahadlicas were all also
mahadlicas, and never became slaves except by marriage. Consequently,
if a mahadlica woman married a slave, the children were divided. The
first, third, and fifth belonged to the father, while the mother had
the second, fourth, and sixth, and they alternated in the same way with
the other children. If the father were free, then those who pertained
to him were free; but slaves, if he were a slave. The same is to be
understood in regard to the mother and her children. If there were
only one son, or if there were an odd number, so that one was left
over in the division, the last was ha