book 19

, tit. 2 (_locati conducti_), fr. 15, which begins "_ex conducto_" and especially to the passage in the middle of fr. 15 (§ 3 of modern editions) which begins "_cum quidam_." It reads: "When a certain person alleged a conflagration on the (leased) land and desired a remission (of the rent), the following rescript is sent to him: 'If you have tilled the soil, relief may not undeservedly be given you on account of the accident of a sudden conflagration.'" The transcription of the following reference to the Digest: _Divus ff_: is too hopelessly muddled to identify. Before these is a reference to Bartolus, and at the end a reference possibly to Cujas (Cujacius). Bartolus was the leading civilian of the fourteenth century; Cujacius of the sixteenth.--_Munroe Smith_.

_In l_ is for _in loco_, and _l i c_ for _loco ibi citato_.--_Jose Algue_, S.J.

[37] Chocolate was at that time supplied to the Philippines from Nueva España; but the cultivation of the cacao-tree (_Theobroma cacao_), of which chocolate is a product, was introduced into the islands about 1665 by the governor Diego Salcedo, at the instance of the Jesuit Juan de Avila, according to Delgado (_Hist. de Filipinas_, p. 535). Blanco says (_Flora,_ p. 420), citing Gaspar de San Agustin, that this honor belongs to a pilot named Pedro Brabo de Lagunas, who brought cacao plants to Manila in 1670.

[38] There is evidently a slip of some sort here, due either to mistranscription or to a slip between Messa's hand and brain. The sense seems to require some such phrase as "depositions were given with great fear."

[39] There is a probable play on words here, the original reading _asolar_, literally, "destroy;" but the writer may have used it in the sense of "to deprive the earth of the sun," in view of the succeeding remark, _sol_ being the word for "sun."

[40] This letter is published, in an abridged form, by Rev. Pablo Pastells, in his edition of Colin's _Labor evangélica_, ii, pp. 688, 689; but he there dates the letter July 25, while the Sevilla MS. (here followed) makes it August, in 1621.

[41] The italic side heads and center heads throughout this letter appear in the margin of the original, and were made either by the archbishop himself or by a government clerk.

[42] _i.e._, guardianship: the district allowed to each convent in which to beg.

[43] This last sentence is evidently the correction in the margin noted by the archbishop in the last clause of the present letter.

[44] The numbers given in the text (all written out in words, not figures) amount to 205,000.

[45] The numbers given in the text, for the various bishoprics, amount to 509,450.

[46] Conducted by the confraternity of that name; see letter of Audiencia regarding the objects and work of this association, in _Vol_. XIV, pp. 208-313. See also Dasmariñas's account of the royal hospital, in _Vol_. X, pp. 28-40.

[47] At that period the (new) Parián, as shown by a plan of 1641, was opposite the city of Manila on the other side of the Pasig River. Evidently, then, the Chinese and Indians were obliged to pay tolls for crossing the river to the city.

[48] See _Vol_. XIII, p. 185, note 33. _Beca_ is most suitably translated "sleeves."

[49] A decree of like tenor was sent to the Audiencia on the same date. It is quite probable that similar decrees were sent to all the orders.

[50] Regarding this, Fajardo wrote thus to the king, on August 17, 1623 (a letter found in the Sevilla archives): "The expedition to take possession of the gold mines of the Ygolotes, which border on peaceful lands of this island, has been accomplished, although it has entailed some expense, not a little labor, and some bloodshed; for those barbarians are so indomitable, and occupy fortifications, in which are Spaniards and Indians belonging to the peaceful vassals of your Majesty. The indications of the mines, the disposition of the ridges, and the quality of the earth where they were, promise more richness than do the trials which have been made thus far by washing and separating the gold. Until all the tests which are used for this purpose have been made, it can not be certainly said what their value, will be--although it appears to me that that cannot be small, considering the large amount of gold which these natives take from the mines and barter with the friendly Indians. Even if the profit is not large enough to make it expedient to administer it on your Majesty's account, in pacifying and reducing to obedience these Ygolotes Indians there will be no little advantage, besides the taxes, from reducing them to the vassalage of your Majesty, and to instruction in our holy Catholic faith, which they have never received."

[51] "The nutmeg [_Myristica fragrans_] grows naturally in Cebu and in Laguna province, and will grow in all parts of the islands cultivated" (_Report_ of U.S. Philippine Commission, 1900, iii, p. 271).

Delgado states (_Historia_, p. 537) that in 1737 he found the nutmeg growing wild in Leyte, a native of the Visayas Islands. He adds: "It could be cultivated in these islands, if the natives would apply themselves to this work--or at least if the alcaldes-mayor would compel them to do so, as they do now in La Laguna of Manila, from which results to the people of the islands no little benefit."

[52] Probably the same as Ramón Beguer, who arrived in the islands in 1615, and ministered in various missions in Pangasinan. Finally he retired to the Dominican convent in Manila, where he died in 1661 (_Reseña biog. Sant. Rosario_, i, p. 348).

[53] George F. Becker in his "Report on Geology of the Philippine Islands"--in _Twenty-first Annual Report_ of U.S. Geological Survey (Washington, 1901),