discouraging him. We know from history that the encomenderos, after
reducing many to slavery and forcing them to work for their benefit,
made others give up their merchandise for a trifle or nothing at all,
or cheated them with false measures.

Speaking of Ipion, in Panay, Padre Gaspar de San Agustin says:
"It was in ancient times very rich in gold, ............... but
provoked by the annoyances they suffered from some governors they have
ceased to get it out, preferring to live in poverty than to suffer
such hardships." (Page 378). Further on, speaking of other towns,
he says: "Goaded by the ill treatment of the encomenderos who in
administering justice have treated the natives as their slaves and
not as their children, and have only looked after their own interests
at the expense of the wretched fortunes and lives of their charges
..............." (Page 422) Further on: "In Leyte, where they tried
to kill an encomendero of the town of Dagami on account of the great
hardships he made them suffer by exacting tribute of wax from them
with a steelyard which he had made twice as long as the others"

This state of affairs lasted a long time and still lasts, in spite of
the fact, that the breed of encomenderos has become extinct. A term
passes away but the evil and the passions engendered do not pass away
so long as reforms are devoted solely to changing the names.

The wars with the Dutch, the inroads and piratical attacks of the
people of Sulu and Mindanao disappeared; the people have been
transformed; new towns have grown up while others have become
impoverished; but the frauds subsist as much as or worse than they
did in those early years. We will not cite our own experiences, for
aside from the fact that, we do not know which to select, critical