he revenue of the government. This is so obvious that I cannot
help suspecting attempts have, at some period or other, been made
to introduce the establishment of this privilege, in some of the
provinces alluded to; at the same time I am persuaded that, owing
to the affair not having been viewed in its proper light, seeking
on the contrary to obtain an immediate and disproportionate result,
the authorities have been too soon disheartened and given up the
project without a fair trial. All towns and districts murmur, and,
at first object, to taxes, however light they may be; but, at length,
if they be not excessive, the people become reconciled to them. The
one here proposed is neither of this character, nor can it be deemed
odious on account of its novelty. The natives are well aware that
their brethren in the other provinces are subject to it, and that
in this nothing more is done than rendering the system uniform. I,
therefore, see no reason why the establishment of this branch of
revenue should not be extended to all the points of the Islands. At
the commencement, let it produce what it may, since constancy and
time will bring things to the same general level.

[Indian tributes.] The too great condescension and mistaken humanity
of the government on the one hand, and the fraud and selfishness
of the provincial sub-delegates or collectors, on the other, have
concurred to change a contribution, the most simple, into one of the
most complicated branches of public administration. The first cause
has been owing to a too general acquiescence to receive the amount
of tributes in the produce peculiar to each province, instead of
money; and the second, because as the above officers are the persons
intrusted with the collection, whenever the sale has held out to
them any advantage, they have been in the habit of appropriating the
several articles to themselves, without allowing any benefit to the
treasury. If the prospective sales of the produce appear unfavorable,
it is then forwarded on to the king's store in Manila, surcharged with
freights, exposed to many risks, and the value greatly diminished
by waste and many other causes. No order or regularity being thus
observed in this respect, and the sale of the produce transmitted to
the king's stores being regulated by the greater or lesser abundance in
the general market, and a considerable stock besides left remaining,
from one year to another, and eventually spoiled, it is im