hrough
persons who know, and through what I have seen with my own eyes, I find
the following reasons therefor. First: When Don Goncalo Ronquillo came
here as governor of La Pampanga, [29] whence all this country used
to be supplied with rice, wine, and fowls, a great number of Indians
went to the mines of Ylocos, where they remained during the time
when they ought to have sowed their grain. Many of them died there,
and those who returned were so fatigued that they needed rest more
than work. As a result, in that year followed a very great scarcity
of rice, and for lack of it a great number of Indians in the said
Pampanga died from hunger. In Luvao alone, the encomienda of Guido
de la Vacares, the dead exceeded a thousand.

Second: in regard to the many occupations in which the Spaniards
employ the Indians, such as setting them to row in the galleys
and fragatas despatched by the governor and officials on various
commissions, which are never lacking. At times they go so far away
that they are absent four or six months; and many of those who go die
there. Others run away and hide in the mountains, to escape from the
toils imposed upon them. Others the Spaniards employ in cutting wood
in the forests and conveying it to this city, and other Indians in
other labors, so that they do not permit them to rest or to attend to
their fields. Consequently, they sow little and reap less, and have
no opportunity to attend religious instruction. It sometimes happens
that while these miserable creatures are being instructed for baptism
the Spaniards force them to go to the tasks that I have mentioned;
and when they return they have forgotten what they knew; for this
reason there are today many Indians to be baptized. In some cases when
I have gone to a village to administer confirmation, I have returned
without confirming any one, because the Indians were not in the place,
but were occupied in labors ordered by the alcalde-mayor, and I could
not collect them together. In proof of this, I send a mandate issued by
a deputy of Tondo. (I was present at the time, and all the people were
away, occupied in the tasks assigned to them; and the only Indians in
the village were those who were being instructed for the reception of
baptism.) This ordinance commanded all the Indians of the said village
to cut wood, and those who were receiving instruction to quit it.

Third: Before the governor Don Goncalo Ronquillo came, there were
not more than t