gardens, estates, and
other plantations, in which the Indians are interested, as a matter
on which the preservation of those distant dominions and provinces
depends, it is ordained that compulsory labor, and such distributions
as are advantageous to the public good, shall continue."

After so pointed an explanation, and a manifestation so clear of
the spirit of our legislation in this respect, all further comments
would be useless, and no doubt whatever can be any longer entertained
of the expediency, and even of the justice of putting the plan of
well-regulated distributions in practice, as a powerful means to
promote the agriculture, and secure to Spain the possession of these
valuable dominions of the Indian Seas. ....

[Manufactures.] .... It would be impossible to gainsay Don Juan
Francisco Urroz, of the Philippine Company, in his detailed and
accurate report to the managing committee in 1802, when he observes:

"That the Philippine Islands, from time immemorial, were acquainted
with, and still retain, that species of industry peculiar to the
country, adapted to the customs and wants of the natives, and which
constitutes the chief branch of their clothing. This, although
confined to coarse articles, may in its class be called perfect, as
far as it answers the end for which it is intended; and if an attempt
were made to enumerate the quantity of mats, handkerchiefs, sheeting,
and a variety of other cloths manufactured for this purpose only in
the Provinces of Tondo, Laguna, Batangas, Ilocos, Cagayan, Camarines,
Albay, Visaya, etc., immense supplies of each kind would appear, which
give occupation to an incalculable number of looms, indistinctly worked
by Indians, Chinese, and Sangleyan mestizos, indeed all the classes,
in their own humble dwellings, built of canes and thatched with palm
leaves, without any apparatus of regular manufacture."

[Native cloth weaving.] With equal truth am I enabled to add, that the
natural abilities of these natives in the manufacture of all kinds of
cloths, fine as well as coarse, are really admirable. They succeed
in reducing the harsh filaments of the palm-tree, known by the name
of abaca, to such a degree of fineness, that they afterwards convert
them into textures equal to the best muslins of Bengal. The beauty
and evenness of their embroideries and open work excite surprise;
in short, the damask table-cloths, ornamental weaving, textures of
cotton and palm-fibres, intermixed w