It is very desirable and necessary that the pay of the soldiers be increased, for they suffer the utmost poverty and want with their pay of but six pesos; for the country is so expensive and so needy that they can in no manner be fed or clothed as is fitting. This is necessary so that the spirit and honor of the soldiers may be kept constant, and so that they may not be debased and humbled to the low condition of becoming pages to women throughout the year. This fits the name of soldiers of your Majesty very ill, and many of them are now thus engaged. This is permitted to them and tolerated because of their poverty; for when it is seen and regarded close at hand, greater compassion and pity are felt for them. Another cause for connivance and gentle treatment is the danger that they may commit other greater wrongs in the way of theft and violence, to which need is wont to incline and constrain men--and there is enough of such things. There is also danger of their flight and desertion for fear of punishment; and thus by being punished, the soldiery may be lost, and the forces lessened and made useless. [After making all allowances,] ordinarily there are plenty of them who require punishment, and more than get it, in proportion to the universal need and poverty. Because of these things, the raising of the pay is very important, as is also a provision for additions to it, so that the companies may be kept intact and respectable. For, if they have these, then respectable young men who are in this country, and who now are leaving it, will serve gladly. They now come usually on the footing of mercenaries, because of their small means, and finally leave the islands--only those remaining who are worthless and of no account, and even of them but few. In other districts where there is no lack and need of people as here, they ought to consent. _That the one hundred and fifteen pesos given to the soldiers in Mexico be reckoned only up to the time of their arrival at the port of Cavite, and that thenceforth their ordinary pay be given them_.