[Then follow the depositions of Juan Arze de Sadornel, Andres
Cauchela, the captain Juan Pacheco Maldonado, Pedro Carballo,
the ensign Christobal de Axcueta, Don Juan de Bivero (treasurer
of the Manila cathedral, and a priest), and Don Juan de Armendares
(canon of the cathedral, and a priest). They are couched in almost
the same words as the foregoing. The testimony of all shows the high
cost of living in the islands, and ascribes the cause to the great
number of Spaniards, the deaths by disease and war of many natives,
and the coming of great numbers of Chinese for purposes of trade,
they as well as the Spaniards being non-producers. Of the natives
many have engaged in trade and but few till the soil, thus increasing
the dearth of provisions and forcing prices still higher. The two
priests do not take the oath in the same form as the laymen, but by
"placing the hand upon the breast, and swearing by their priestly
word." After all of these depositions, each of them attested in due
form by the notary, the document continues:]

All the above, according to what passed before me, the said clerk of
the court, I have given and delivered, signed with my name and signet
[i.e., flourish] to the honorable president and auditors, written on
ten sheets together with this present, accompanied with my signet. In
the city of Manila, in the Filipinas islands, on June thirtieth,
in the year one thousand five hundred and eighty-four--the witnesses
being Rodrigo de Leon and Alvaro Mendez de Herrera.


Luis Velez Cherino.