54. This worst of customs is very prejudicial and troublesome to the Spaniards and to the father ministers. For it might happen that one has one servant (or all) who wastes and destroys the property of his master, and there is [no one] who will tell him what is passing. [204] But if it happens that the wasteful servant leave, then all the others tell what he did; and, whatever is lacking afterward, they throw the blame on that absent servant. If the Spaniard reprove the servant whom he most esteems and benefits, asking him why he did not tell of the evil that the other servant was doing, he replies with great dudgeon that they must not accuse him of being mabibig, or talebearer of what happens. This is what takes place, even if the servants know that they are flaying their master. Consequently, the first thing that they do when any new servant comes is, to threaten him if he turn mabibig, and afterwards make him do all the work that belongs to them all, while the old servants are quite free from toil. Hence the fewer servants a Spaniard has, the better served will he be; for only the newcomer works and does everything, and the others not only do nothing, but are all served by him. [205] 55. They have another peculiarity, which always causes me great wonder. I am trying to discover the cause therefor, but I only find, so far as I can make out, that it is due to their incapacity and ingratitude and their horror of the Spaniards. This is, that while the difference between the poverty, wretchedness, and want of their houses and the anxiety and poverty in which they live, when compared with the abundance, good cheer, good clothes, and comfort which they enjoy in the service of certain Spaniards is almost infinite, if they happen to be discharged, or to leave for some very slight cause occasioned by their pride and vanity, they turn from one extreme to the other, so contented with the present misery that they do not remember or even consider the past abundance. If they be asked in what condition they lived better, they answer that everything is one and the same, and hence we do not get revenge by sending them away in anger [en embiarlos con Dios]. But what great happiness is theirs! [206] 56. They would rather scorn the goods of the father or of the Spaniards than enjoy them and profit by them. Hence what they lose is greater than what they spend. 57. They are greatly lacking in foresight. Hence the servants and stewards do not advise their master to procure any article until it is completely gone. Therefore when they say that there is no more sugar or no more oil, it is when there is not [oil] enough to whet a knife. [207] Consequently, great deficiencies and annoyances are suffered because of this custom.