Note 2 — CONDITION OF THE ISLANDS, 1701

From these deficiencies grievous results have followed, in depopulating the islands, which at present lack their former abundance of the peoples and sources of wealth that are native to them. Confirmation and proof of the truth of this statement is especially furnished by the five provinces near to this city. As for those which are more remote, it is known and is evident that all the coast of Tayabas, which extends from Sariaya to the headland of Bondoc, was formerly very populous and rich, but now it has hardly a village that can be called such; there are [only] some groups of huts jumbled together, inhabited by some Indians who are kept there by their desire of obtaining some petty commodities of the country, such as wax, skins, and pitch. All are destitute of churches and ministers; for their churches have been destroyed at various times by pirates and Mindanaos, and no attention has ever been paid to reëstablishing those places anew as military posts, and with the means of defense that were necessary in order that the great number of people that were in that region might be able to maintain themselves as Christians. It is also a fact that there have been [other] very weighty causes for the depopulation of the islands: the building [of ships] within these five provinces; and the excessive and rigorous exactions in the collection of the tributes, and the excessive polos2 and personal services [required]. The sad thing is, that all those who leave the islands are ordinarily apostates from the faith, and live and die among heretics, Mahometans, and other barbarous people; and no reparation has ever been made for this great evil, nor has any obstacle been placed in the way of men passing freely [from these islands] to foreign kingdoms, even those who are well known to be married.