nd their respective attributes determined with due precision, it has
not hitherto been possible, notwithstanding the pains taken to make the
contrary appear, to do without the personal authority and influence
the parish curates possess over their flocks. The government has, in
fact, constantly been obliged to avail themselves of this aid, as the
most powerful instrument to insure respect and a due subordination,
in such manner that, although the parish curates are not at present
equally authorized to interfere in the civil administration, in point
of fact, they are themselves the real administrators.

[Standing of parish priests.] It happens that, as the parish curate
is the consoler of the afflicted, the peacemaker of families, the
promoter of useful ideas, the preacher and example of every thing good;
as in him liberality is seen to shine, and the Indians behold him alone
in the midst of them, without relatives, without traffic, and always
busied in their care and improvement, they become accustomed to live
satisfied and contented under his paternal direction, and deliver up to
him the whole of their confidence. In this way rendered the master of
their wishes, nothing is done without the advice, or rather consent,
of the curate. The subaltern governor, on receiving an order from the
superior magistrate, before he takes any step, goes to the minister
to obtain his sanction, and it is he in fact who tacitly gives the
mandate for execution, or prevents its being carried into effect. As
the father of his flock, he arranges, or directs, the lawsuits of
his parishioners; it is he who draws out their writings; goes to the
capital to plead for the Indians; opposes his prayers, and sometimes
his threats, to the violent acts of the provincial magistrates, and
arranges every thing in the most fit and quiet manner. In a word, it
is not possible for any human institution to be more simple, and at
the same time more firmly established, or from which so many advantages
might be derived in favor of the state, as the one so justly admired in
the spiritual ministry of these islands. It may therefore be considered
a strange fatality, when the secret and true art of governing a colony,
so different from any other as is that of the Philippines, consists in
the wise use of so powerful an instrument as the one just described,
that the superior government, within the last few years, should have
been so much deluded as to seek the destruction