shall be provided and supplied with them at moderate rates.
57. It does not appear that the alcaldes and regidors of Manila use their offices to the good of the state, but each for his own private interests. They must be instructed in their duties, and punished for any negligence.
58. There is no system in regard to the provision of beef, for there is no one who is compelled to provide it. What there is, is not properly cleaned. It is not cut, divided, or weighed with equality and fairness. As the regidors and people in authority are the owners of the cattle, they weigh and sell them as they please, without observing any system.
59. There is likely to be a scarcity of rice, for the city does not make the necessary provision for it. Those who have this grain—the encomenderos—hoard it and make a profit from it, selling it to the Sangleys at high rates; and thus it becomes dear. The same thing is true of fowls. The rate fixed is not observed, and no one takes any pains to enforce it.
60. Fish is the most abundant and most general food supply. The Indians do not occupy themselves, as formerly, in fishing, but leave this work to the Chinese. These avaricious and interested people have raised the prices, an evil that must be restrained and checked.
61. The fishing is done with salambaos,[1] and with
- ↑ The salambao is a raft of reeds or bamboo; on which is erected an apparatus not unlike the mast and yard of a square-rigged ship. To one end of the yard is attached a net which may be raised from and lowered into the water. This contrivance is called by the natives timba. See full description of the salambao, and of other native modes of fishing, in Zúñiga's Estadismo (Retana's ed.), i, pp. 199, 200; and illustration of this apparatus in F. Jagor's Travels in the Philippines (London, 1875), p. 47.
