In regard to the contributions made by the Indians for the expenses (outside of ecclesiastical) of the Philippine colonies, Torrubia says (Dissertacion, pp. 98-103): "When the post of Samboangan was rebuilt in the year 1755, it was the opinion of the very reverend Father Juan de Bueras, provincial of the Society of Jesus, that the Indians of Pintados, as those most interested in the maintenance of the fort, should aid therein with a half-ganta of rice for each tribute. His opinion was accepted, but with the enlargement of the contribution to two gantas (which make one ganta of cleaned rice), and its extension to all the islands, which amount is paid up to this day. I have understood that this contribution amounts annually, on the average, to two thousand five hundred pesos. During the fifty and more years when Samboangan did not exist, it was paid just as when the fort was there, notwithstanding that the cabildo opposed it; and the Indians paid, without the motive for this imposition still remaining, at the least estimate, more than one hundred and fifty thousand pesos. The Indians are obliged to make other contributions. For the maintenance of the soldiers, they furnish rice to his Majesty at two reals a caban, and usually it is worth more; this is called the compra, and forty or forty-five thousand cabans (or fanegas) of rice are levied from them in compra, allotting it pro rata according to what each Indian sows. For these cabans (or fanegas) no more than two reals are paid, although that amount is worth four reals, or more; and it is to be noted that in the suburbs of Manila the price ordinarily does not go below three reals. The same practice is current in the compras of wheat, although it is true that in this the Indians seldom lose much. Besides this, the Indians do the timber-cutting for the ships, and do not receive more than sixteen reals a month, which they do not have even for their tools (which they carry with them); they are soldiers, they row in the galleys, and they are mariners, artillerists, calkers, and carpenters. And we know very well that in these occupations they serve in the Ribera of Cavite without pay, and likewise in the armadas, three, four, or five years, only to obtain a situation in the ship which goes to Nueva España or Acapulco. Here [i.e., in Madrid], without considering these contributions, all the expenses [of the islands] are summed up for the account of his Majesty." He goes on to say that from the sum of expenses must also be deducted the voluntary contributions of the citizens; also that these military expenses have been unfairly laid at the door of the Zamboanga fort. The soldiers there and in the forts at Cebú and Iloilo are paid from the situado contributed by the natives themselves; and the fleets which are sent against the Moros, and the coastguard galleys at Zamboanga, are not an expense caused by the fort there; "even if they were,