Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 08).djvu/94

 And after the above the said alcalde-mayor caused to appear before him Don Juan Lisin, an Indian chief of the said village of Cubao, who received the oath through the said interpreter, was sworn according to the law; and on this oath, being questioned in accordance with the interrogatory, he deposed as follows:

In reply to the first question this witness declared that he knew that, at the time when the Spaniards discovered and pacified these islands, all the natives thereof—and especially those of this province, as this witness has seen—wore no other garments than those made of the cloths which they then wove, which were very good; nor did they care to use, instead of this, stuffs from other countries. And although one or two ships came from China, these carried no cloth, but only plates, horns, iron, and camanguian, which they took in exchange for rice and gold, and for cotton in the boll, where this was grown. And thus he replied to this question.

To the second question he said that since the Spaniards had settled in the city of Manyla, the Sangleys—who at various times had formed settlements there—seeing there were Spaniards in the country, and that the money they brought was different from that which had been used there before, began to increase their ships, bringing each year a greater number than before. In these they brought to the islands very large quantities of provisions (although there was no need of these in the country), together with many pieces of satin, damask, and taffeta, and other pieces of fine silk, and a large quantity of cotton cloths, white and colored. And so far has this gone that this witness has known as many as twenty ships to come in a