and the convents of the religious orders have given them the loan
of lands and twenty-five pesos per head, so that they might settle
and equip themselves with the necessary implements for farming the
land. The first year the Chinaman pays this sum, and the following
years gives for every hundred brazas of land fifteen or twenty pesos
rent, which is a like number of fanegas of rice. It has seemed to me
expedient that in certain uncultivated lands that rightly remain in
the name of your Majesty in the best region and lands of the islands
(which is near here, in La Laguna de [Bay], five leguas up the river
from Manila), two pieces of land should be appropriated [for this
purpose]. I am assured that these will be sufficient so that two
thousand Sangleys can be established on them; and that your Majesty
will make the profit which the inhabitants and the religious make,
since you can do so with greater advantage and protection to the
farmers than private persons can give. I am also assured that a very
productive agricultural estate can be made, by managing to obtain
from it the cost in one or two years. For the rest of the time the
rent is left free [from debt or other obligation]. For two thousand
Sangleys that will amount to forty thousand fanegas of rice; and,
as it increases with time, it will amount to fifty thousand. That is
as much as these magazines need. [_In the margin_: "Let us be informed
whether any of the expenses of those islands have been reduced." "Bring
the memorandum of the reduction that was made in the year 618."]

The gain that will accrue to your Majesty from that will be to relieve
your Majesty from the expense of fifty thousand pesos, and the Indian
natives from the assessment and allotment of fifty thousand fanegas,
which, as aforesaid, is the greatest relief for the islands, and for
this royal treasury. The risk that will be run of the money that will
be advanced to the Chinese so that they may settle and equip their