t the people have their conduits, and, when they need water
let it in. This is the reason for the vast quantity of rice there. This
province has abundance of cocoa-palms, and many bananas. The soil is
very favorable for any trees that one might choose to plant there. When
the religious arrived there, that province had many inhabitants. Now,
although it lacks that great number of former years, yet it is not
depopulated. [96] The people there have accepted Christianity more
readily than all others of the islands. They have more to do with
the Spaniards than the others, and try to imitate them as far as
possible. But the more they try to do that, the more do they show
their texture as Indians. Very many people have been conscripted from
this district, and I wonder that a man is left. For the governors send
soldiers from here to Maluco, Sugbu, Octong, and Caragan, where a fort
has been built and is guarded by the men of Pampanga. And although they
do more work than the Spanish soldiers, they receive no pay, their food
is scarce, and they are ill treated. And yet it can be said of these
Indians (and a strange thing it is), that although they are treated so
harshly, it is not known that a single one has deserted to the Dutch
in Maluco, where they suffer more than in their own country. Many of
the other Indians go and come. When these soldiers leave Pampanga,
they present a fine appearance, for the villages come to their aid,
each with a certain sum, for their uniforms. All this is due to the
teaching of the religious of our father St. Augustine, whose flock
these Indians are, and the children of their teaching.

Besides the above religious, the provincial established others in a
settlement in the village of Bacolor, which is the best village not
only of Pampanga, but of all the islands; for it has more than one
thousand Indians under the bell [i.e., "who are Christians"]. It is
about one and one-half days' journey from Manila by sea and creeks, as
in the case of the others. It has the best meadow-land in the islands,
and it all produces rice abundantly. It is irrigated, as was remarked
above of the others. It has a celebrated church with its crucifix,
which is entirely built of stone and brick. The house is made of stone
also. The inhabitants are the richest and best-clothed of all Pampanga,
and have the most prominent of the chiefs. When the supply of religious
is good, there are always three in this village, and there have e