apostates from the faith, and live and die among heretics, Mahometans, and other barbarous people; and no reparation has ever been made for this great evil, nor has any obstacle been placed in the way of men passing freely [from these islands] to foreign kingdoms, even those who are well known to be married. The [requisitions for] the cutting of timber for the construction of the galleons constitute an evil that is necessary and unavoidable, since on these depends the entire preservation of these islands; but this necessity is equaled by the destruction and the injuries which that work has caused in these provinces, in the diminution of their population and products. For this so oppressive and heavy yoke has almost always been imposed upon the said five provinces without extending it to others--to which, without doubt, the silver that his Majesty expends in the said woodcutting would be of public advantage; and at the same time the said provinces that are now burdened would take breath and become prosperous with such a rest, an end to which it greatly contributes that the shipbuilding yards are not limited to the village of Cavite alone. With this easy distribution [of labors] in the shipbuilding, the damages arising from the said woodcutting would no longer be repeated in the same provinces, which, having been thickly populated and abounding in produce, are now ruined and barren--their inhabitants forsaking them for remote provinces, and for lands of infidels and heretics, and sometimes retiring to the districts within the mountains. The reason for this is that, although the building [of a galleon] costs his Majesty the amount of 40,000 pesos for the wages of the Indians, besides the poor of these provinces, [they] carry among themselves a burden of more than 100,000 pesos--or even more, because those who are designated for the repartimiento of the woodcutting search for others who can take the place of each one; and the cost of these substitutes usually reaches five or six pesos, and sometimes ten. For the payment of this, the former pledge, or sell, or enslave themselves; and from this cause result very serious evils--thefts, withdrawing to the mountains to roam as vagrants, and other crimes. Other burdens which the natives miserably suffer, and which ordinarily fall on the poorest and most wretched, arise from the fact that the alcalde-mayor who makes the apportionment of men adds to it a greater number than is necessary, and those who are thus added redeem themselves from this oppression by money; and then the [list of the] repartimiento goes to the gobernadorcillo, in order that the heads [of barangay] may summon for the woodcutting six or eight men, even though only four may be necessary. The gobernadorcillo collects in money that amount in excess, as a redemption from an imaginary woodcutting, a proceeding which does not impair the number of those assigned. Still more, after all the men go to the woodcutting, if any