The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803; explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commericial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the beginning of the nineteenth century; [Vol. 1, no. 36]

1649-1666] CONDITION OF PHILIPPINES, 1842 305
know well or poorly the dominant language, just as
in Cataluna, Valencia, the Baleares Islands, and the
Basque provinces, Castilian is known. But this is
not a matter which can be remedied in a brief time.
Consequently, if an alcalde who is beginning to administer justice in Cagayan has to go immediately to
Cebu, he will surely arrive there without knowing
the language, although he had given himself to the
study of it from the very beginning. But if this is an
evil, this evil is now being endured, for the alcaldes
arrive from Espana, and since they know that they
have to return in six years, they do not take the least
trouble to learn the language, and they leave the
government in this regard just as when they entered
it.
In the capital and its suburbs, justice is administered by means of two lay alcaldes, who are appointed annually by the ayuntamiento from the citizens of the city. When the appointees are men of
wealth, they resign, for this charge alone occasions
them ill-humor and serious occupations which distract them from their business. Those who accept
or desire it, can have no other stimulus than that of
vile interest, tolerating prohibited games, etc. It is,
then, necessary to appoint two lawyers with suitable
pay to be judges of first instance.
Everyone knows what the Leyes de Indias are, the
epoch in which they were made, and the distinct regions for which they were dictated. It is, then,
indispensable and peremptory to make the civil
codes of legal processes, of criminal instruction, and
of commerce especially for the country.
In India there is a commission of the government
composed of four votes and a president, charged