Adultery was not punished corporally, but by a pecuniary fine. Therefore the adulterer, by paying to the aggrieved party the sum of gold agreed upon between them, or given by the sentence and judgment of the old men, was pardoned for the injury that he had committed; and the aggrieved party was satisfied, and his honor was not besmirched. Also he continued to live with his wife without anything more being said on the subject. But those children had by a married woman did not succeed to the nobility of the parents or to their privileges; but were always reckoned plebeians, whom those people call timauas. Likewise those children had by a slave woman, although they were free, as was the mother, were always regarded as of low birth. These who succeeded to the nobility were the legitimate children. In the barangay, when the father was lord of it his eldest son inherited that office; but, if he died, then he who came next in order. If there were no male children, then the daughters succeeded in the same order; and for want of either males or females, the succession went to the nearest relative of the last possessor. Thus no will was necessary for all those successions; for wills were never in vogue among these nations in the form and solemnity of such. As for legacies it was sufficient to leave them openly, in writing or entrusted by word of mouth, in the presence of known persons. 125. A great part of the wealth of these Indians consisted in slaves. For, after gold, no property was held in greater esteem, because of the many comforts that were enjoyed for their mode of living through a multitude of slaves. Thus our Spaniards when they entered the islands found so many slaves that there were chiefs who had one, two, and three hundred slaves, and those generally of their own color and nation, and not of other foreign nations. The most general origin of those slaveries were interest and usury. That was so much practiced among them, that no father would aid his son, no son his father, no brother his brother, and much less any relative his relative, even though he were suffering extreme necessity, without an agreement to restore double. If payment was not made when promised, the debtor remained a slave until he paid. That happened often, for the interest or increase continued to accumulate just so long as the payment was deferred. Consequently, the interest exceeded the wealth of the debtor, and therefore the debt was loaded upon his shoulders, and the poor creature became a slave; and from that time his children and descendants were slaves. Other slaveries were due to tyranny and cruelty. For slaves were made either in vengeance on enemies, in the engagements and petty wars that they waged against one another, in which the prisoners made remained slaves, even though they were of the same village and race; or as a punishment which the more powerful inflicted on the weaker ones, even for a matter of little importance,