this personal service and contribution, so that the villages shall
in no manner perform it, and we declare the villages free from any
obligation that they have or may have." This law is dated Madrid,
March 17, 1608.

[213] Taal was one of the villages where the most rigging was made
for the royal ships.--_Rizal_.

[214] This word _reales_ is omitted in the Rizal edition.

[215] A comparatively early law (_Recopilación de leyes_, lib. vi,
tit. i, ley xv), prohibits the forcible removal of the natives for
expeditions of conquest from one island to another. It is as follows:
"We order that the Indians in the Filipinas Islands be not taken
from one island to another forcibly in order to make incursions, and
against their will, unless it be under very necessary circumstances,
and paying them for their work and trouble. They shall be well treated
and receive no injury." Felipe II, Madrid, November 7, 1574.

[216] In Java also the Dutch restrict Europeans from roaming about
the country; this is a good regulation for the protection of the
inhabitants.--_Stanley_.

[217] Stanley praises these regulations; Rizal deplores them, as
keeping the men in authority out of touch with the people.

[218] _Recopilación de leyes_, lib. iv, tit. x, ley vii, has the
following law, dated Madrid, March 17, 1608: "The governor and
captain-general of Filipinas shall for the present appoint the
magistracy [_regimiento_] of the city of Manila, choosing persons