It is an abuse that the king pays the expenses of the voyage
and support of the fathers in Filipinas, under title of apostolic
missionaries, and they go there to become merchants and business men,
to the harm of the poor Spaniards and of the Indian, besides their
abandonment of the spiritual ministry which is in their charge.
In the environs of Manila--with the exception of the Franciscans,
who have nothing, and of the Condesa de Lizárraga, who has a small
estate--the religious orders possess the following estates: the
Dominicans, Lolomboy, Panay, Navotas, Great Malabon, and Biñan; the
calced Augustinians, Malinta and Pasay; the discalced Augustinians,
San Pedro Tunasan, San Nicolás, Imus, and Tunasancillo; the Jesuits,
Mayjaligue, Masilog, Nagtajan, Nagsubig, Mariquina, Indan, Silan,
Marigondon, Payatas, and San Pedro Macati (where they have their
earthenware factory, from which they make annually thirty thousand
pesos fuertes net profit). These are the ones which I now have in
mind, although they have other estates in the provinces, of which
I can give no exact account. But indeed I know, because I have seen
it, that the Indians who cultivate those lands come to be virtually
slaves, by which means the orders have aggrandized themselves, with
their trade in sugar, cattle and horses, and rice. Although this last
is the bread of all, that bread rises in price to such a degree that
it can rise no further--to which is added the great export of these
products to China and the coasts of Coromandel and Malabar. [86]