result of this practice is this: As all the natives--chiefs, timaguas,
and slaves alike--dress in these Sangley garments, the slave as well as
the chief, no one can decide whether they are not all chiefs. A large
quantity of the cloth is consumed, and it seems to this witness that
the number is even larger than stated in the question, rather than
smaller. And if this evil is not resisted and remedied very soon,
this number will greatly increase. For as the natives are compelled
to buy them from the Chinese, every one of the said pieces of cloth,
however worthless it may be, costs a peso or a peso and a half. If
the matter is allowed to go farther, experience shows that each
year the price of clothing will go higher--all the more because the
natives of these islands, when they have any money, try to spend
that little for food and clothing; and, not valuing the cloth that
they already have, they buy what they need--in order not to weave it,
as this witness has said--paying whatever is asked for it. Even the
most prominent and the richest of the natives finds three pieces of
cloth enough for an entire year; and these he buys, whether cheap or
dear, never hesitating to give whatever is asked for them in barter,
rather than to weave them--although that would not be more work than
they could easily accomplish. If this be permitted, all goods will,
as before stated, grow dearer every day. A piece of cloth which this
witness has known to be sold, and himself has bought, in former years
for three or four reals, sells today for eight and twelve reals: and
it will very soon cost twenty, if no check or remedy be applied. Thus
he answered this question.

To the third question he replied that the evil referred to in the
question is as therein specified. Last year it was stated to this
witness that the Sangleys carried away to their country more than
three thousand pesos, which he knows leave these dominions. This
evil should be corrected; and the remedy would lie in forbidding all
the natives of these islands to buy any cloth whatever for their own
use, and in requiring them to weave the same, as they formerly were
accustomed to do. Thus he replied to this question.

In answer to the fourth question this witness declared that he knows
that, since the Spaniards have traded with the Chinese in these
islands, the natives have begun to desert their villages--some
of them leaving their rice-fields, and others the cultivation of
their v