t if it is useful and indispensable for the parish priest to
know, directly or indirectly, the particular affairs of the village,
it is evident that far from undermining his authority, it ought to
strengthen it as much as possible. From the time of the conquest,
the curas have availed themselves of the expedient of applying some
lashes to the natives, when the fathers have believed it necessary
in order to correct faults, whether religious or those of another
kind; and it is known that this has contributed not a little to the
preservation of devotion. It is also known that they have not been
hated for this by the islanders; but, on the contrary, the friars
have constantly merited their love and have enjoyed a prestige which
no one doubts. Everyone knows that if the friars have shown themselves
exaggerated and unreasonable in anything, it has been in the protection
of the Filipinos--more, indeed, than they deserved and than healthy
justice demanded. Let us listen to the following words of Fray Casimiro
Diaz: "The old laws in regard to the execution of the tributes were
harsh, even to the point of making slaves of the debtors, and even
killing them with lashes, or mutilating them. And although these laws
were abolished from the time of Constantine as wicked, and have with
the law of Christ been moderated within judicious limits, this benefit
has not been obtained by the Indians. The Indian is beaten for his
tribute. The goods of the Indian are sold for the tribute, and he is
left destitute all his life. The Indian is enslaved for the tribute;
for the cabeza de barangay, under pretext that he is getting back
what the Indian owes, takes his house away from him, and, for the five
reals that the Indian owes, makes him serve one whole year. In short,
the wrongs which the tribute brings upon the poor wretch are so many,
that the greatest charity which the parish priest can show him is to
pay it himself." The above shows how this good father grieves because
the Indian has to pay five reals per year--five reals, which a Filipino
can get by simply planting a cocoa or cacao tree at the door of his
hut. How happy would be the Spaniards, or the French and English, and
any other Europeans, if they had no more to pay than that! But it is
not credible that Father Diaz was unacquainted with the people who so
broke his heart, and that he did not know the measures resorted to in
the country. A few pages farther on the same father says: "The