age from it. Consequently, they are generally the
first to encourage the government officials to undertake any work;
for not only do they not have to work at it, but they hope to get
some benefit from it by the methods which they know how to use."

The reading of these instructions can give an idea of the internal
government of a Filipino settlement, and the impossibility that
impartiality and efficient justice can rule, if there is no
intervention by the cura. I will add that the latter regards the
village in a certain manner as his own. He enjoys seeing its prosperity
and its advancement, as he thinks that this is his work. He takes an
interest in its having good roads, harvests, tools, irrigation, and
everything that can enrich and beautify it. Many curas spend all their
money in public works, and on their churches. They rival one another,
each striving to have in his own village the richest altars, the best
houses, musicians, schools, and finely-dressed people. It is a sight
worth seeing, a friar constituting himself overseer and director of a
wooden bridge or of a causeway--administering a buffet to this one,
a shove to another; praising that one, or calling this other a lazy
fellow; giving a bunch of cigars to the one who stays an hour longer
to work, or carries most bricks up to the scaffold; promising to
kill a cow for the food of next day; and making them offers, often
without any intention of fulfilling them, only with the object of
encouraging them, and deceiving them like children. [106] But whoever
knows the country can do no less than confess that this is the only
means to get any advantage out of the lazy and childish Filipinos,
who have no needs; and that the cura has infinite advantages over
the governor, for his buffets do not offend, his requests oblige,
and his love to the village and his disinterestedness captivate
and interest these people, and make them as wax. Thus indeed can it
be said that the cura is the soul of the village. In any province
where its ruler is united with the curas, where the latter honor the
alcalde and instruct him of all that happens, and he gives them the
aid that is necessary to preserve their prestige--in that province,
I say, there are no thefts, no disorders, no complaints, no tears, no
insurrections, nor any other thing but a complete and durable peace,
[107] and great submission and reverence to the Spaniards. At the
present time that may be seen in the provinces wher