and of this province saw all these cloths brought by the Chinese,
they made less exertion to weave their own; but to avoid even that
little work, all the natives began to clothe themselves with the
said stuffs from China, discarding entirely their own, which they
formerly wore. And so far has this gone at the present day, that all
alike--without distinction of chief from timagua, or of timagua from
slave--dress in these stuffs, making it impossible to judge of their
rank from their dress. In this way a very large quantity of cloth is
used--far more, as it seems to this witness, than the number stated
in the question; and he is very certain that, if this tendency is not
checked and corrected, the price of every one of these stuffs will in
a few years be doubled; for now even the cheapest costs not less than
a peso. For the natives of these islands do not accumulate wealth,
but spend it all in food and clothing; and as none of the natives,
however high his rank may be, needs more than two or three pieces
of cloth in a year, in order to avoid the labor of weaving them,
and so that they can spend their time in idleness, they prefer to
buy them from the Sangleys, whether they are cheap or dear, paying
without hesitation or heed whatever price is asked. The result is that
everything is growing much dearer; for a piece of cloth which at first
usually cost, on the average, three or four reals, as already stated,
now costs ten reals, and, unless this rise is checked, will very soon
cost twenty--and this for the reasons mentioned in the question. These
matters should be considered, and some corrective be found, to avoid
further difficulties. Thus did he reply to this question.

To the third question he replied that, for the reasons mentioned in
the preceding question, considerable damage has been and is suffered,
and, unless some check and remedy is applied, will continue to be
suffered in these islands, by the Spaniards and by the inhabitants