within three leguas of towns and cultivated areas should be abandoned, in order that this molestation may cease. The province of Panpanga is twelve leguas hence. It is the most fertile in all the islands, and the inhabitants have done more in your service than have any others. It lies low and is bounded by some mountains which slope down to it. The natives of the mountains are called Zambales. They are a race that live like beasts, without settled habitations; and they are so murderous that their delight is cutting off heads. For this purpose they come down upon this province, and, as its inhabitants are a race entirely devoted to agriculture, they take them unawares, and have wrought and do work great outrages upon them. The effort was made to put a garrison in their country, and some Spanish troops were stationed there. Since the country is rough and mountainous, it is impossible to march in it; and as there is no certain day on which the attacks of the mountaineers can be anticipated, it is impossible to prevent them. The Panpangans have often asked for permission to destroy these others, by killing or enslaving them; but no decision has been given them in all the years during which the matter has been discussed. The remedy for the evil is easy, for if they be given for a time as slaves to any man who can capture them, this will encourage the making of inroads upon them. This has not been done, because of your Majesty's commands not to enslave any of the inhabitants of this archipelago and island. This would he a temporary slavery, and by it much or all of this evil described would be corrected; and the expense which it causes would be prevented. The same thing happens in the mountains of Yllocos and in other regions, for every day the mountaineers attack and murder members of the tribes at peace--who, as they have no permission to kill them and no hope of making use of them, permit them to return and harass them.