Le Gentil remarked that as the Spaniards in Manila had no landed estates to give them an assured and permanent income, they were dependent upon the Acapulco trade, and had no resources to fall back upon if the galleon were lost. Money left in trust was often lost or embezzled by executors or guardians, and it was rare that wealth was retained three generations in the same family. _Voyage_, ii, pp. 110-112. [114] Of the commerce with China it is not necessary to speak at length, as a full account of it is given in Morga. It was entirely in the hands of the Chinese and Mestizos and brought to Manila oriental textiles of all kinds, objects of art, jewelry, metal work and metals, nails, grain, preserves, fruit, pork, fowls, domestic animals, pets, "and a thousand other gewgaws and ornaments of little cost and price which are valued among the Spaniards." (Morga, p. 339.) Besides the Chinese, that with Japan, Borneo, the Moluccas, Siam, and India was so considerable that in spite of the obstructions upon the commerce with America, Manila seemed to the traveler Careri (p. 444) "one of the greatest places of trade in the world." [115] _Documentos Inéditos del Archivo de Indias_, v, pp. 475-77. [116] It would be vain to guess how many hundred people there are who are familiar with the denunciations of Las Casas to one who knows anything of the more than six hundred laws defining the status and aiming, at the protection of the Indians in the _Recopilacion_. [117] Cf. Jagor: _Reisen in den Philippinen_, p. 31. [118] _Voyage de La Pérouse autour du Monde_, Paris, 1797, ii, p. 347. [119] _History of the Indian Archipelago, etc_., by John Crawfurd, F. R. S. Edinburgh, 1820, vol. ii, pp. 447-48. [120] That I take to be his meaning. His words are: "Ces institutions (i. e., the local administration) si sages et si paternelles ont valu à l'Espagne la conservation d'une colonie dont les habitants jouissent, à notre avis, de plus de liberte, de bonheur et de tranquilleté que-ceux d'aucune autre nation." i, p. 357. Cf. also his final chapter: "L'idigène des Philippines est l'homme plus heureux du monde. Malgré son tribut, il n'est pas d'être vivant en société qui paye moins d'impôt que lui. Il est libre, il est heureux et ne pense nullement à se soulever." ii, p. 369. [121] _A Visit to the Philippine Islands_, London, 1859, p. 18. Cf. the recent opinion of the English engineer, Frederic H. Sawyer, who lived in Luzon for fourteen years. "The islands were badly governed by Spain, yet Spaniards and natives lived together in great harmony, and I do not know where I could find a colony in which Europeans mixed as much socially with the natives. Not in Java, where a native of position must dismount to salute the humblest Dutchman. Not in British India, where the Englishwoman has now made the gulf between British and native into a bottomless pit." _The Inhabitants of the Philippines_, New York, 1900. p. 125. [122] _Reisen in den Philippinen_, p. 287.