Admitting the information received against the Negrillos and certain Zambales, who commit assaults; and admitting (what is generally known) the murders committed daily, both past and present, and which have not been committed in their just defense or in just revenge for injuries--as is evident because indeed the Batanes, Panpangos, Pangasinanes, and Ylocos (and these last are the worst sufferers) were at peace with them, and, since that peace, neither the Panpangos nor the others have disturbed them in their villages or on the highways, but, on the contrary, have tried to preserve friendly relations; and admitting (likewise a well-known fact) the custom of this race from the earliest period of killing, whenever possible, Spaniards and Indians, without any distinction, and without having received any injuries, for the sole purpose of proving their courage by their ability to kill men, collecting heads and hanging them up in their houses, as such proof; _item_, admitting one other certain fundamental, that no incursion has been made into their lands for the sake of provoking them in their common habitation, but that they, on the other hand, invade, from their lands, the royal open highways and the settlements of the peaceful natives, in order to kill those who are living in peace with them, and with all: we render freely an exact opinion. 1. The Negrillos and mountain Zambales have not, because of their former wars, before the arrival of the Spaniards in this land, at present any just title to war against the settled and peaceful people of these islands. This is proved, for, although in those former times force ruled, and injustice held full sway, and meant different things to each individual, and no distinction was made--as, where two persons quarrel with words, and injure each other equally, there is no satisfaction other than to stop, and there is no distinction in the injury--now, after the pacification of the Indians in settlements, these wars ceased for many years; for which reason the old animosities do not furnish any just pretext for war to either Negrillos or Zambales against the Ilocos, Panpangos, etc. _Item_: Since those petty wars ceased, the Panpangos, etc., and all the others have not incited the Negrillos or Zambales to war; nor have they done them any injury, either personally or in their lands. Therefore the present action of the Negrillos and mountain Zanbales in committing assaults on the highways and killing as many as they have killed, has no just pretext of war from their neighbors.