Note 97 — Letters from Tavora to Felipe IV

Much more might be said about these points, which Father Medina treats with as much skill as delicacy.... Not to go into certain details, wearisome beyond measure, I shall only say, that even now were it not for the direct intervention of the Spanish priest in the collection of the cedula or tribute, the treasury would lose some hundreds of thousands of pesos. Many are the parish priests, especially in the Bisayas, who oblige the heads of barangay to deliver at the convent the result of the collection; for if they did not do so, not one-half of what the town should furnish would be deposited in the royal treasury. While the writer of these lines was in a certain town of Iloílo a few years ago, the parish priest had in his convent the sum of 15,000 pesos, belonging to the collection of the tribute. He petitioned the corresponding authority for an armed force to conduct the revenues of the state safely to the royal treasury. That authority considered it suitable to answer him that it was not part of the duty of the military force to act as a custodian for the conveyance of the state revenue....—Coco.