Note 16 — ORDINANCES OF CORCUERA AND CRUZAT Y GONGORA, WITH LATER ADDITIONS (continued 2)

“By royal order of September 21, 1797, issued in virtue of an expediente which, in the preceding year, gave full information in regard to the tenor of article 53 of the ‘Ordinances of good government,’ his Majesty decreed that ‘the privilege of the Indians to enjoy freely the use of the lands, waters, and pastures which they need for their tillage and stock-raising, ought to be understood to be limited to the lands (joining and close to their villages) which are or may be assigned to them, the rest of the land remaining subject to the rules that have been established for the sale and adjustment of the crown lands. And in order to avoid the abuses which are committed, under the pretext of the Indians’ privileges, in the leasing of the lands within the boundary of the villages, this will not be tolerated hereafter; but the lands assigned to the villages must be cultivated invariably by the Indians in their own villages.’ ” (Montero y Vidal, Hist. de Filipinas, ii, pp. 353, 354.) ↑