uries, and vexations, the torments and miseries, which
the Indians are made to suffer in the collection of the tributes. The
tribute at which all are commonly rated is the value of eight reals,
paid in gold or in produce which they gather from their lands; but
this rate is observed like all other rules that are in favor of the
Indians--that is, it is never observed at all. Some they compel to
pay it in gold, even when they do not have it. In regard to the gold
likewise, there are great abuses, because as there are vast differences
in gold here, they always make the natives give the finest. The weight
at which they receive the tribute is what he who collects it wishes,
and he never selects the lightest. Others make them pay cloth or
thread. But the evil is not here, but in the manner of collecting;
for, if the chief does not give them as much gold as they demand,
or does not pay for as many Indians as they say there are, they
crucify the unfortunate chief, or put his head in the stocks--for
all the encomenderos, when they go to collect, have their stocks,
and there they lash and torment the chiefs until they give the entire
sum demanded from them. Sometimes the wife or daughter of the chief
is seized, when he himself does not appear. Many are the chiefs who
have died of torture in the manner which I have stated. When I was
in the port of Ybalon some chiefs came there to see me; and the
first thing they said to me was, that one who was collecting the
tributes in that settlement had killed a chief by torture, and the
same Indians indicated the manner in which he had been killed, which
was by crucifixion, and hanging him by the arms. I saw this soldier
in the town of Caceres, in the province of Camarines, and learned
that the justice arrested him for it and fined him fifty pesos--to be
divided equally between the exchequer and the expenses of justice--and
that with this punishment he was immediately set free. Likewise I
learned that an encomendero--because a chief had neither gold nor
silver nor cloth with which to pay the tribute--exacted from him an
Indian for nine pesos, in payment of nine tributes which he owed;
and then took this Indian to the ship and sold him for thirty-five
pesos. And although I told this to the steward and asked for the
Indian, he remained in slavery. They collect tribute from children,
old men, and slaves, and many remain unmarried because of the tribute,
while others kill their children.

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