thought of imitating in Manila, since they are so easily made; but the
government has other cares, and the Filipinos do not know that such
objects are more highly esteemed in the Peninsula than their delicate
pina, embroideries and their very fine jusi fabrics. Thus disappeared
our trade in indigo, thanks to the trickery of the Chinese, which
the government could not guard against, occupied as it was with other
thoughts; thus die now the other industries; the fine manufactures of
the Visayas are gradually disappearing from trade and even from use;
the people, continually getting poorer, cannot afford the costly cloths
and have to be content with calico or the imitations of the Germans,
who produce imitations even of the work of our silversmiths.

The fact that the best plantations, the best tracts of land in some
provinces, those that from their easy access are more profitable
than others, are in the hands of the religious corporations, whose
desideratum is ignorance and a condition of semi-starvation for the
native, so that they may continue to govern him and make themselves
necessary to his wretched existence, is one of the reasons why many
towns do not progress in spite of the efforts of their inhabitants. We
will be met with the objections, as an argument on the other side,
that the towns which belong to the friars are comparatively richer
than those which do not belong to them. They surely are! Just as their
brethren in Europe, in founding their convents, knew how to select
the best valleys, the best uplands for the cultivation of the vine or
the production of beer, so also the Philippine monks (25) have known
how to select the best towns, the beautiful plains, the well-watered
fields, to make of them rich plantations. For some time the friars
have deceived many by making them believe that if these plantations
were prospering, it was because they were under their care, and the
indolence of the native was thus emphasized; but they forget that in