are many strangers, coming and going.  Every year some go and others come, and consequently, the uncertainty and confusion is unavoidable.  They are as freehanded in their bribes as interested in their gains.  As they have control of all the merchandise, trading, gains, and mechanical trades of the country, their extreme readiness to scatter bribes is remarkable.  There is no Spaniard, secular or religious, who obtains his food, clothing, or shoes, except through them.  Consequently, there is scarce a Sangley who does not have his protector.  Among themselves they have great system and energy in all those of one trade acting together in all matters that affect them.  They guard one another against the Spaniard to such an extent that, if I wish to change my shoemaker, I will not be able to find among all those engaged in that occupation another who will sell me a shoe.  If anyone would dare to do so, the others upon his return to China would bring suit before their mandarins, and thus they would destroy him and all his relatives. [In the margin:  “Take it to the fiscal.”  “It was taken.”  “Answered on a separate paper.”]

7.  Therefore, since those of this nation are infidels and of so mean a condition, one can easily infer that to attempt to govern them with the method, rigor, and terms of our laws and regulations is the highest injustice and a great abuse.  The usual method of judging them in their country is by a summary and verbal investigation, and an immediate punishment with the bamboo.  The latter is the strap or whip which the mandarins always carry with them, as any superior is allowed to flog his inferior, without other justification or authority than that of his own plain reason.  By that method is attained greater respect and obedience than in any other nation.  We do not have less need for them to fear us and to obey our edicts, since they are our feet and hands for all that arises for the service of the community and that of your Majesty.  But we shall never obtain that obedience and respect, unless we conform (as far as the Christian religion allows) to the methods practiced by their mandarins in commanding them.  This consists in having them punished instantly by the nearest justices whenever they are found in disobedience or fraud—­namely, their governor and the alcaldes-in-ordinary—­without giving them any opportunity to go from one tribunal to another, or to drag them from one prison to another.  In that they are the greater losers, as their property is wasted among the constables, attorneys, and notaries, all of whom are doing their best to skin [pelar] them.  At the end, and in the long run, the truth is not laid bare, nor is the service of your Majesty accomplished.  The Sangleys have so many methods of placing private persons, both religious and laymen, under obligation, by services and by presents, that when anything is ordered for them which does not suit them—­even though it be for your Majesty’s