e checked in making
extortionate charges. Ignorant and inefficient men should not be
placed in the ships as sailors. The common seamen therein (who are
Filipino natives) are inhumanly treated, and many of them die from
hunger, thirst, or cold, on each voyage. Slave women are carried on
the ships, in spite of the royal prohibition; and thus arise "many acts
offensive to God," and much cause for scandal. No sailor or passenger
(unless a person of rank) should be allowed to take with him more
than one male slave. Numerous other abuses are mentioned, regarding
the traffic in slaves, the treatment of seamen, and the overloading of
ships. The Chinese at Manila are oppressed by the royal officials--who,
moreover, appropriate their own household supplies of food from the
royal storehouses at the lowest possible prices. Municipal officers
and other leading citizens should not be compelled, as now, to live on
their encomiendas. Flour, rigging, and many other supplies should be
obtained in the islands, instead of being imported from Nueva Espana;
a great saving of money would be thus effected. The oppressive acts
of the friars toward the Indians should be checked; and no more
orders should be allowed to establish themselves in the islands. The
Chinese immigrants in Luzon should be collected in one community,
and induced to cultivate the soil. No relative or dependent of any
royal official should be allowed to hold a seat in the cabildo of
Manila, or to act as inspector of the Chinese trading vessels. More
religious are needed in the missions. The Chinese residents should
be treated more justly, and relieved from burdensome exactions. The
Japanese who come to Manila should be compelled to return to their
own country. No more ships should be built by the natives, and they
should be paid the arrearages which are due them.

The other memorial by Rios Coronel (March, 1620) is additional and
supplementary to the former one. He asks that regidors of Manila
be chosen by the Audiencia, and allowed some compensation for their
services; and that the governor be not allowed to compel the cabildo
to meet in his house. He blames the friars for transferring Indians
from the encomiendas to settlements near Manila, where these natives
are kept merely for the profit of the friars, and, moreover, become
greatly demoralized. The grant of licenses to Chinamen to reside in
the islands should be more carefully regulated; and they should in
no case be a