Note 41 — Chapter XII

The loss of the galleon “San Diego” was felt keenly, as there was a great lack of ships in these islands because of the repeated shipwrecks of preceding years. But all knew that it was apparently permitted by divine Providence so that they might not have a ship which was built by so many extortions on the natives. That is an irremediable difficulty in the shipyards and in the cutting of timber in these islands, as was seen in the building of that galleon “San Diego,” which was built in the time of the most disinterested governor, and one who had the cleanest hands that can be imagined; such was Don Diego Fajardo, who was a wonder in that way. Also as superintendent of its building was appointed the commander Don Pedro de Mendiola, a man as creditable in this particular as the governor. Yet with all that vigilance, great vexations, wrongs, and expenses were heaped on the natives. The chief cause was the foreman and master of the building, who was a Moro named Nadir, who assuredly was the very opposite41 from the disinterestedness of Don Pedro Mendiola. This man, from one thousand two hundred Indians who were drafted monthly from the provinces of Tondo, Bulacán, Balayán,and Tayabas, occupied scarcely four hundred in the work, and sometimes five hundred. The [service of the] remainder he reduced to money, in which they redeemed their oppression. A curious person, having reckoned the cost of that galleon, found that it had cost the king sixty thousand pesos, and the natives more than one hundred and fifty thousand. This is an evil that has been seen to be irremediable; for it is impossible to build galleons in any other way, because the cutting of the timber must be managed by sailors—a class of men who lack pity, and have too much greed—and because the Indian natives are so weak and so hostile to work that they prefer their ease to all advantage to themselves. This has been the cause of the tumults and insurrections, such as that of Palapag in 1649, and that of the province of Pampanga in 1660; and, in the time of Governor Don Juan de Silva, that of 1614, because of the considerable felling of timber which was occasioned by so much shipbuilding as was caused by the undertaking against the Dutch. Then, most of the provinces of these islands mutinied and almost rose in insurrection; and there was danger of a general outbreak, had not the religious who were ministers in the provinces reduced the minds of the natives to quiet; for they, overburdened by so heavy a load, were at the point of desperation.