Note 2 — Affairs in the Philipinas Islands

I have tried to ascertain the reason for so great a change, and for the dearness of food; and after thoroughly informing myself through persons who know, and through what I have seen with my own eyes, I find the following reasons therefor. First: When Don Gonçalo Ronquillo came here as governor of La [204] Pampanga,2 whence all this country used to be supplied with rice, wine, and fowls, a great number of Indians went to the mines of Ylocos, where they remained during the time when they ought to have sowed their grain. Many of them died there, and those who returned were so fatigued that they needed rest more than work. As a result, in that year followed a very great scarcity of rice, and for lack of it a great number of Indians in the said Pampanga died from hunger. In Luvao alone, the encomienda of Guido de la Vaçares, the dead exceeded a thousand.