It would be of the highest importance to cover the ships with lead
at Manila, which would obviate careening them every year. Don Juan de
Silva neglected to do that, because he was always in haste to resist
and attack the enemy.
Lead is also shipped from Nueva Espana to the said islands. More [than
that amount] is shipped [however], because it is brought from China and
Japon at cheaper rates. It can be worked in Cabite in order to lead the
ships, and in that way your Majesty will save many ducados every year.
The rigging in the said Filipinas Islands is of two kinds: one, which
was formerly used, is made from the palm called _gamu_, [49] today used
only to make cables, stays, and shrouds; the other is called _abaca_,
and is a kind of hemp, which is sowed and reaped like a plant in Piru
and Tierra Firme called _bihau_. Abaca is much stronger than hemp and
is used white and unpitched. This abaca costs twenty-four reals per
quintal, and is made into rigging in Cabite by the Indian natives, in
the sizes and diameter required. These Indian ropemakers are furnished,
in repartimiento [50] in neighboring villages, and your Majesty pays
them eight reals per month and a ration of one-half celemin of rice
daily. A task is assigned to them, for they work from midnight and
until the close of the next day.
The total cost per quintal of this native rigging is about fifty
reals. That shipped from Nueva Espana, which is bought in Beta Cruz and
delivered in the port of Acapulco, costs your Majesty two hundred reals
per quintal.
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