Cf.  Bourne’s account of these officials, Vol.  I, of this series, pp. 55, 56.

[104] The Spanish is paso doble, a term used also as the name of a dance, the equivalent of the “two-step.”

[105] This tribute is the contribution that the Indians and mestizos pay in order to aid in the maintenance of the burdens of the state.  The polos means the obligation to work a certain number of days in neighborhood works.—­Montero y Vidal.

[106] The tobacco monopoly was arranged by Governor Basco y Vargas in pursuance of a royal order of February 9, 1780.  Although opposed by certain classes, especially the friars, the monopoly was organized by March 1, 1782, and approved by royal order May 15, 1784.  Under the monopoly, however, quantities of tobacco always escaped the vigilance of the government, and could be bought at much cheaper rates than the government tobacco.  The monopoly was repealed in the province of Union October 25, 1852; and in all the archipelago, by a royal order in 1881.  The order was applied in the islands in 1882, and the suppression of the monopoly was completed in 1884.

Tobacco was introduced into the islands by missionaries in the last quarter of the sixteenth century.  The best brands come from the provinces of Isabela and Cagayan.  Its cultivation and export has been, and is, of great importance, immense quantities both of cigars and leaf tobacco being shipped chiefly to China, Japan, the East Indies, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Australasia.  About thirty thousand people were employed in making cigars and cigarettes in the province of Manila, most of them women.  See Montero y Vidal, ii, pp. 295, 296, iii, p. 165; Bowring, pp. 309, 310; Sawyer, pp. 131-133, 158; Report of Philippine Commission (1901), iii, pp. 267-269; and U.  S. Philippine Gazetteer, pp. 75, 76.

[107] The royal assembly was the council whom the governor-general had to assist him in his decisions, and they shared with him, to a certain point, the authority.  They counterbalanced his powers, and, during the vacancy, took his place in the command.—­Montero y Vidal.