34. In order to [secure] the observance of the said ordinance, it will be expedient that when the tribute is increased the salaries likewise should be made larger. An alcalde-mayor has twenty-five pesos of salary a month, which makes three hundred pesos a year; but before he leaves Manila for the province to which he is assigned he spends a larger sum [than that] in the fees for his documents and in the notary's office, and for the securities [that he must give]. In three years his term as alcalde comes to an end, and the expenses of his residencia cost him four hundred to five hundred pesos; and it needs but little less for the settlement, presentation, and despatch of the accounts of the royal revenue. Thus all the salary which he receives on account of being alcalde, which amounts to nine hundred pesos in the three years, is not sufficient for the aforesaid expenses; for the rest of their maintenance have been invented the thefts from the royal revenue which they handle, and from the Indians within their jurisdiction. For this reason, and likewise because these offices have usually been sold, as a rule they are filled by men who are not very trustworthy. But if suitable pay were assigned to them, there would be many persons of known probity who would seek them, transgressions could be more severely punished, plundering would be decreased, the appointees would furnish better bondsmen for the security of the royal exchequer, and the Indians would not experience oppression. 35. The poverty of the alcaldes-mayor, their being loaded with debts when they go from Manila, and the ambition to become rich in a short time, draw them into trading with the product of the tributes in each province; they buy vessels, lade them with goods, and convey these to Manila, or send them to other provinces. If the vessel sink, if the Moros seize it, or if it run aground on some shoal and the goods are damaged, or if any other disaster occur, the alcalde loses nothing, for he possesses nothing; and the damage is suffered by the king alone. 36. All this would be remedied by paying them more; for there would be more reliable alcaldes, and they could be compelled to deposit in the royal treasury every year, by means of their agents, the royal revenue of their respective provinces, in order to avoid the aforesaid contingencies, which here are common.