Note 33 — Part II

15. As soon as I arrived in these islands and had made myself somewhat acquainted with this subject, the inactivity and indolence of our people caused me much sorrow; for although we possessed this exceedingly rich treasure, there had been no one who devoted himself to its development. This I explained, among other things, to his Majesty in my report of June 5, 1760, showing what these islands could produce, the valuable products with which they abound, and the possibility of maintaining them without the situado which annually comes from Mexico. In the following year came Don Nicolas Norton Nicols,33 who, it seems, proposed at the court the project for [developing] the cinnamon, and brought a royal order from his Majesty that he should be aided therein. I did so, with the utmost energy and readiness, and this famous and skilful Englishman began to make plantations in Caraga; people assure me that he would have carried this work to completion if God had not taken away his life, through the grief which he experienced at the attack on us by the English, from whom he expected no favor. It was necessary that a foreigner should accomplish what no Spaniard had done in some two hundred years;34 he died on account of our misfortunes, and now there will be no one who will devote himself to the same enterprise; for these citizens have no thought of any further occupation than their everlasting laziness, nor have they the spirit to risk four reals, or any zeal for the nation.