social organization, which was originally patriarchal; and rights of
property, which are partly individual and partly communistic. There
are three classes among the people--nobles, commoners and slaves. The
status and rights of each are carefully defined, and the causes and
kinds of slavery. A somewhat elaborate system of regulations concerning
inheritances is described, also the status of children by adoption,
which usage is widely prevalent among the Tagalogs. Marriage,
dowries, and divorce are fully treated. In the second of these
relations Plasencia describes their modes of burial and worship,
and the religious beliefs and superstitions current among that
people. They have no buildings set aside as temples, although they
sometimes celebrate, in a temporary edifice, a sort of worship. Their
chief idol is Badhala, but they also worship the sun and the moon,
and various minor divinities. They believe in omens, and practice
divination. A detailed account is given of the various classes of
priests, sorcerers, witches, etc., in which the natives believed;
also of the burial rites of both Tagalogs and Negritos.

A letter to the king from Portugal (written early in 1590) gives him
information which he had requested from Portuguese officials in India,
regarding the character and results of the trade between the Spanish
colonies and those established by the Portuguese in India and the
Eastern archipelago, and China. The continuance of this trade would,
they think, ruin the prosperity of the settlements in India, and
greatly injure the commerce of Spain, and deplete that country and her
colonies of their coin. At Salazar's petition, he receives from the
king (April 12, 1590) a grant of money toward the payment of debts
incurred by him in procuring the rebuilding of Manila in stone. On
June 20 of the same year, the members of the Audiencia, suppressed
by order of the king and replaced by Dasmariñas, notify the king that