ion and supplicate your Highness
to order the said corregidors' and alcaldes' districts remade as they
formerly were.

_Item_: That the governor be warned to endeavor to avoid, as far as
possible, the injuries inflicted upon the natives in the cutting of
wood and in personal services; for they sometimes draft them in the
planting season or at harvest, so that they lose their fields, as I
have seen. In addition to this, many times they do not pay the Indians,
because there is no money in the treasury, which is continually short
of funds. This often arises from the fact that they do not estimate
and consider the needs of the Indians with the amount of money that is
available; and consequently all the Indians complain. Finally, when
the said Indians are paid, it is done by the hand of the chiefs or
cabezas de barangay, who generally keep the money. Will your Highness
be pleased to order the governor and royal officials to avoid the
above grievances as much as possible; and when it is necessary for
the Indians to perform any personal labor, which consists generally
in the cutting of wood, to see that it be when they are not busied
in their fields--for that can generally be avoided--and that they be
paid the just wage, and that promptly. For acting in any other way
burdens your royal conscience, since those who perform such service
are very poor, and do not dare to ask for their pay, if it is not
given them. Consequently they very often do not receive it. In this
way are they much burdened by personal services.

_Item_: Considering the nature of the Indians, who are generally
indolent and lazy--inasmuch as the religious have always forbidden
them to pay the tributes in kind, insisting that they be allowed to
choose for themselves in what they wish to pay it, consequently the
rate of living has risen greatly. The country is steadily going to ruin
because the Indians are not compelled to pay in kind; for they refuse
to plant or cultivate, and all engage in mercantile pursuits, seeing
that they can easily gain the ten reals which is the amount of their
tribute. Although the effort has been made to remedy this by another
way--namely, by official visits from the alcaldes-mayor, in order that
they may rear fowls and plant fields, the result of that has been to
strip them of their possessions. For when the alcaldes-mayor go to
inspect them (that is, every four months), and do not find the fowls
that they have ordered the Indians