Tobacco was introduced into the islands by missionaries in the last quarter of the sixteenth century. The best brands come from the provinces of Isabela and Cagayan. Its cultivation and export has been, and is, of great importance, immense quantities both of cigars and leaf tobacco being shipped chiefly to China, Japan, the East Indies, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Australasia. About thirty thousand people were employed in making cigars and cigarettes in the province of Manila, most of them women. See Montero y Vidal, ii, pp. 295, 296, iii, p. 165; Bowring, pp. 309, 310; Sawyer, pp. 131-133, 158; _Report_ of Philippine Commission (1901), iii, pp. 267-269; and _U. S. Philippine Gazetteer_, pp. 75, 76. [107] The royal assembly was the council whom the governor-general had to assist him in his decisions, and they shared with him, to a certain point, the authority. They counterbalanced his powers, and, during the vacancy, took his place in the command.--_Montero y Vidal_.