The principal, who occupied the place of the former dato, or "maharlica," like the gobernadorcillo of recent times, was responsible for the collecting of the tribute, and his lot seems to have been a hard one. "If they do not give as much as they ask, or do not pay for as many Indians as they say there are, they abuse the poor principal, or throw him into the pillory (cepo de cabeza), because all the encomenderos, when they go to make collections, take their pillories with them, and there they keep him and torment him, until forced to give all they ask. They are even said to take the wife and daughter of the principal, when he can not be found. "Many are the principales who have died under these torments, according to reports." Salazar further states that he has known natives to be sold into slavery, in default of tribute. Neither did they impose upon adults alone, but "they collect tribute from infants, the aged and the slaves, and many do not marry because of the tribute, and others slay their children." [41] Scarcity of Food.--Salazar further charges that the alcaldes mayores (the alcaldes of provinces), sixteen in number, were all corrupt, and, though their salaries were small, they accumulated fortunes. For further enumeration of economic ills, Salazar details how prices had evilly increased. In the first years of Spanish occupation, food was abundant. There was no lack of rice, beans, chickens, pigs, venison, buffalo, fish, cocoanuts, bananas, and other fruits, wine and honey; and a little money bought much. A hundred gantas (about three hundred pints) of rice could then be bought for a toston (a Portuguese coin, worth about a half-peso), eight to sixteen fowls for a like amount, a fat pig for from four to six reales. In the year of his writing (about 1583), products were scarce and prices exorbitant. Rice had doubled, chickens were worth a real, a good pig six to eight pesos. Population had decreased, and whole towns were deserted, their inhabitants having fled into the hills. General Improvement under Spanish Rule.--This is one side of the picture. It probably is overdrawn by the bishop, who was jealous of the civil authority and who began the first of those continuous clashes between the church and political power in the Philippines. Doubtless if we could see the whole character of Spanish rule in these decades, we should see that the actual condition of the Filipino had improved and his grade of culture had arisen. No one can estimate the actual good that comes to a people in being brought under the power of a government able to maintain peace and dispense justice. Taxation is sometimes grievous, corruption without excuse; but almost anything is better than anarchy.