ly, considered in its true light, we
shall not find in the measure above described anything more than a
very trifling discount required of the proprietor from the price at
which he sells his bonga, and which, as already noticed, ultimately
falls on the consumer alone.

[Estimate conservative.] The moderate estimate I have just formed ought
to inspire the more confidence from its being well known that the use
of the buyo is general among the inhabitants of these Islands. The
calculation, as it now stands, rests only on one million consumers,
for each of whom I have only put down three bongas per day, whereas
it is customary to use much more; nor have I taken into account the
infinite number of nuts wasted after being converted into the buyo,
a fact equally well known. Indeed, as the object proposed was no
other than to prove the main part of my assertions, and I trust this
is satisfactorily done, I have not deemed it necessary to include
in the above calculation a greater number of minute circumstances,
nor attempt to deduce more favorable results, which, with the scope
before me, I was most assuredly warranted in doing.

[Advantages.] In a word, from the concurrence of the facts and
reasons above adduced, the following propositions may, without any
difficulty, be laid down. First, that the increase of revenue produced
by the reform in question, would in all probability exceed $150,000
per annum; secondly, that the Filipinos would soon comprehend, and
gladly consent to a change of this kind in the mode of contributing
of which the advantages would be apparent; thirdly, that the persons
employed in the old establishment, might, with greater public utility,
be applied to other purposes; and lastly, that the civil magistrates
would not be harassed with so many strifes and lawsuits, and so many
melancholy victims of the monopoly, and its officers would cease to
drag a wretched existence in the prisons and places of hard labor in
these Islands.

[Cockpit licenses.] The cock-pit branch of the revenue is hired out
by the government, and the license is separately set up at auction
for the respective provinces. Its nature and regulations are so
well known that they do not require a particular description, the
general obligations of the contractors being the same as those in New
Spain. Perhaps the only difference observed in this public exhibition
in the Philippine Islands consists in its greater simplicity, owing to
its being