_Observations on the island of Cubu_. In this village live thirty Spaniards, and as many encomenderos. Counting both citizens and soldiers, fifty or sixty Spaniards ordinarily reside there. _Alcalde-mayor in Cubu_. The governors of these islands have always appointed an alcalde-mayor, at a salary of three hundred pesos taken from the fines forfeited to the royal treasury; and the royal treasury not being sufficient, the alcalde-mayor has not, as yet, appointed any deputy. There are six regidors, who, up to the present time, have been elected annually. The past governors appointed also an alguazil-mayor, whom they can remove and replace at their pleasure. There is no remuneration for this last office; and it is therefore given to an encomendero, who is generally one of the leading citizens. There are also two alcaldes-in-ordinary, and one notary for the cabildo and the public. If all these officials were not also encomenderos, they would be unable to support themselves; for the town possesses no commerce which comes within their reach. The town has the best port of these islands, and it was for this reason that Miguel Lopez de Legazpi founded a settlement there. It was he who founded the above-mentioned town, in the year of sixty-four. Perhaps the traffic with Maluco may prove of advantage to the town, for there is no other place in its vicinity with which any commerce could be carried on. Its neighborhood is poor, and all the vast district round about lacks gold mines or gold-placers, except in the island of Mindanao--and that but little--as will be described later. The island of Cubu produces a small quantity of rice, borona, and millet and little or no cotton; for the cloth which the natives use for their garments is made from a kind of banana. From this they make a sort of cloth resembling colored calico, which the natives call _medrinaque_. In these islands great value is set upon the land which can produce rice and cotton, because cotton and cloth find a good market in Nueva Espana. The condition of the people will be described when I shall speak of all the Pintados in general, for they all are very similar. All are provided with fowls, swine, a few goats, beans, and a kind of root resembling the potatoes of Sancto Domingo, called by the natives _camotes_. After rice, fish is the main article of maintenance in this and other islands, for it abounds in all of them, and is of excellent quality in this island of Cubu. Although deer have been found in all the islands discovered hereabout, there are none here; and if any should be brought hither from elsewhere they would immediately die.