[48] They used palm leaves for paper and an iron stylus for a pen. "L'escriture ne leur sert que pour s'escrire les uns aux autres, car ils n'ont point d'histoires ny de Livres d'aucune Science; nos Religieux ont imprime des livres en la langue des Isles des choses de nostre Religion." _Relation des Isles Philippines, Faite par un Religieux qui y a demeure 18 ans_, in Thévenot's _Voyages Curieux_. Paris 1663, ii (p. 5, of the "Relation"). This narrative is one of the earliest to contain a reproduction of the old Tagal alphabet. Retana ascribes it to a Jesuit and dates it about 1640: p. 13 of the catalogue of his library appended to _Archivo del Bibliofilo Filipino_, i. The earliest printed data on the Tagal language according to Retana are those given in Chirino's _Relacion de las Islas Filipinas_, Rome, 1604. [49] Mendoza's _Historie of the Kingdome of China_, volume ii, p. 263. [50] _Ibid_., p. 264. [51] Morga, p. 319. [52] _Relation d'un Religieux_, Thévenot, volume ii, (p. 7 of the Relation). [53] On the powers of the Governor, see Morga, pp. 344-345. [54] Throughout this Introduction the Spanish "peso" is rendered by "dollar." The reader will bear in mind the varying purchasing power of the dollar. To arrive at an approximate equivalent ten may be used as a multiplier for the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, and five for the middle of the eighteenth century. [55] It may be remembered that the official conscience in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was not so sensitive in regard to "tips" as it is expected to be today. Le Gentil writes: "Les Gouverneurs de Manille corrompent journellement leurs grâces, et les Manillois ne les abordent guère pour leur en demander, sans se précautioner auparavant du rameau d'or; seul et unique moyen de se les rendre favorables. Un soir étant allé voir le Gouverneur, in 1767, à peine m'eût-il demandé des nouvelles de ma senté qu'il alla me chercher une bouteille de verre de chopine, mesure de Paris, (half-pint) pleine de paillettes d'or, il me la fit voir en me disant que c'étoit un presént dont on I'avoit _régalé_ ce jour-là même; _Oi_, me dit-il, _me regalaron de este_." _Voyage dans Les Mers de L'Inde_, Paris, 1781, ii, pp. 152-153. Le Gentil was in the Philippines about eighteen months in 1766-67 on a scientific mission. His account of conditions there is one of the most thorough and valuable that we have for the eighteenth century. As a layman and man of science his views are a useful offset against those of the clerical historians.