THK
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS,
MOLUCCAS, SIAM, CAMBODIA,
JAPAN, AND CHINA,
AT THK t'l.OSE OF
THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
A N T N I () D E M R G A.
T1{ANSLATEI) FROM THF SPANISH,
^otrs anti a ^rrfncc-,
AND A LETTER FROM LUIS VAEZ DE TORRES, DESORIBrNO
HIS VOYAGE THROUGH THE TORRES STRAITS.
BV THE
HON. HENEY E. J. STANLEY.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY.
I I
M.DCCC.LXVIII.
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>M!CUEL LOPEZ Dl LtOAZPip^
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S>CuN0U;5TAD0R Dt FILIPINASiJ
D E D I C A T E I)
TO
THE WORTHY SICCKSSOR OF 1>E MORGA
IN HIS .TUniC'IAI. FUNCTIONS,
DON JOSE ENTEALA Y PEEALES,
KKGF.NTE OF THE ROYAL ATDIFXCIA OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS
DURING THE YEARS 1845-1854.
AND NOW REGFXTE OF THE ROYAL AUDIENCIA
OF >L\I)I!11>.
107202
COUNCIL
THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY.
SIK RODEHICK IJIPEY MURCHISON, Bart., K.C.B., G.C.St.S., F.R.S., D.C.L., Coir.
Mem. Inst. K., Hou. Mem. Imp. Acad. Sc. Petersburg, etc., etc., Phesiuent.
URAL €. K. DRINKWATEK BKTHUNK, C.B.)
Hon. Sir DAVID DUNDAS. J.
Eear-Ajjmi
■ Vice-Presidents.
The Et. Hon.
The Right Hon. H. U. ADDINUTOX.
Rev. G. p. BADGER, F.R.G.S.
.T. BARROW, Esq., F.K.S.
]■:. H. BUNBURY, Estj.
Rkar-Admikal R. COLLINSON. I'.B.
Sir WALTER ELLIOT, K.S.I.
Sir henry ELLIS, K.H., F.R.S.
General C. FOX.
W. E. FRERE, Esq.
R. W. GREY,. Esq.
JOHN WINTER JONES, Esq., F.S.A.
R. H. MAJOR, Esq., F.S.A.
Sir CHARLES NICHOLSON, Bakx., D.C.L., LI..1).
Captain SHERARD OSBORN, R.X.,C.B.
Major-General Sir HENRY C. RAWLIXSON. K'.C.I!.. MP.
Rear-Aujiiral ALFRED HYUER, R.N.
Viscount STRANGFORD.
CLE.MKNIS l;. MAKKllA.M, Esq., F.S.A., HoNuiur.v Secretary.
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
The original work of De Morga was printed in Mexico
in 1609, and has become extremely rare; there
is no copy of it in the Bibliotheque Imperiale of
Paris, This translation is from a transcription made
for the Hakluyt Society from the copy m the Gren-
ville Library of the British Museum ; the catalogue
of which states that "this book, printed at Mexico,
is for that reason probably unknown to bibHographers,
though a book of great rarity." However, it is men-
tioned in the Bihliotheca Scripto7'mn Hispanice,
Matriti, 1783, which says, "Antonius de Morga, j mis
doctor, in Philipinas, extremse Asise insulas non dudum
mventas & armis occupatas, perductus ut guhematoris
vices gereret anno 1598, institutse ibidem Regise
curiae senator sive triumvir fait cooptatus, quo mimere
functus dicitur non sine laude alacris cujusdam pru-
dentise, vii-tutisque etiam bellicis expeditionibus com-
pertse. Jam vero ad prsetoriiun urbis Mexicanse inter
quatuor vii^os rerum criminaKum vindices fuerat trans-
latus quando edidit : Sucesos de las Islas Filipmas.
Mexici 1609 in 4 ex officina Hieronymi Balli." It is
also quoted in some histories of the Phihppmes, and
in the Dialogo Cortesano Pliilipino of P. Fr. Joseph
Torrubia, of which there were two editions, Madrid,
1736, 4to., and Madrid, 1753, 8vo. Li this book
h
11 TRANSLATORS PREFACE.
the inhabitant of the court of Madrid says that he
has not heard of such a book nor of the author : the
Phihppme Spaniard answers him that the book was
prmted m Mexico in 1609 and is now scarcely to be
found, but that he possessed a copy ; and he de-
scribes de Morga as a man m whom arms and science
were imited in a most friendly manner, and says
that he composed his book from original documents
since he was the first auditor of the Audiencia of
Manila. From a printed document in the British
Museum, i^%^^ it appears that Dr. Antonio de
Morga was President of the Royal Audiencia of
Quito in April of 1616, seven years after he pub-
lished this work in Mexico. This document, dated
April 14, 1616, a legahsed copy of which was made
by the notary public Juan de Zamudio on the 21st
March, 1617, refers to the opening of a road between
Quito and Caracas ; and by it the offer of P. fray
Diego de Yelasco and his companions to open the
road is accepted, and conditions are laid down, amongst
which it said that the unsettled Indians and Mulatos
are to be paid for their labour and treated with
gentleness.
This work of De Morga's was annomiced in the
reports of the Hakluyt Society as in progress as long
ago as 1851, but the translation of it has been de-
ferred till the present year. Dr. De Morga is less re-
markable for his literary merits than for his qualities
as a jurist, and administrator, and a commander. His
book is rather an histoiical than a geographical work ;
but the account of Alvaro de Mendana's second
TRANSLATORS PREFACE. Ul
voyage, by his pilot Fernandez de Quiros, given by De
Morga, brings it entirely within the scope of the Hak-
luyt Society's pubhcations. The account contained in
De Morga's work has not hitherto been published in
French or English, though M. E. Charton refers to
it in his foiuth volume of Voyages (Paris 1855), where
he gives another account of this voyage to the islands
of Sta, Cruz, compiled from two French translations
of a narrative of Alvaro de Mendana's second
voyage. These French translations were — i, that of
President De Brosses, m his Histoire cles Navigations
aux terres Aust rales, Paris, 1756 ; ii, that of Pingre,
in his Memoire sur le choix et Vetat cles lieux oh le
passage de Venus du 3 Juin 1769 j^ourra etre oh-
serve, etc., Paris, 1767. It appears from M. Charton's
notes, that the text translated by De Brosses was not
so complete as that which Pingre had m his hands,
and he has completed De Brosses' translation by
that of Pingre.
Pingre says, in a note at page 30 of his Memoire,
" The author of the Histoire des Navigations aux
Terres Australes, copied by the Dutch editors of
the large French collection of Voyages, in giving the
account of this expedition, had under his eyes a printed
copy of the sixth book of Figueroa ; but that copy was
terribly mutilated; two sheets (cahiers) were wanting,
— the first of all, and another : so that there could
not be any title-page. Nevertheless, the author
says that the copy was entitled, Descuhrimiento de
las islas de Salomon, Discovery of the Solomon
Isles. Was this title only in manuscript ? m that
6 2
IV TRANSLATORS I'REFAOE.
case it is not a proof. Will it be said that some
Spaniard has had printed separately the sixth book
of Figueroa under this title ? That might be ; but
then this title will not be that of Figueroa. What I
can affirm is, that the copy which the author of the
Navigations Australes possessed, to judge only by
that author's own translation, differs in nothing from
the sixth book of Figueroa, except some errors, into
which the mutilation of the copy has necessarily in-
duced the French author. Now, Figueroa nowhere
says that the islands discovered by Mendana in the
second voyage were wholly or in part the same as
those of Solomon, discovered m 1568. On the con-
trary, Figueroa msinuates more than once that the
discoveries of 1595 were entirely new."
There is a fragment of a folio prmt of this Descu-
hrimiento de las islas de Salomon, bound up in vol.
ii of M. Thevenot's Relations des Voyages, folio, Paris,
1696, British Museum, 566, K 5. It consists of
pages 5-8, 13-16, and is incomplete at the beginning,
middle, and end. Now this fragment in the British
Museum agrees exactly with the description given by
Pingre of the copy used by De Brosses, the gap in
the middle coincides with that indicated by him in
De Brosses' translation, and it appears to be identical
with the sixth book of Cristoval Suarez Figueroa,
Madrid, 1613. The British Museum copy has the
title Descuhrimiento de las islas de Salomon, not
in manuscript, but in print on the top of the
pages, and this title is justifiable, since although
the Sta. Cruz Islands are not the same as the
TRANSLATOKS PREFACE. V
Solomon Islands, yet the object of Mendafia's voyage
was to reach the Solomon Islands. The account of
this voyage ends in the first column of page 1 6 of the
fragment, and goes on to speak of two memorials of
Fernandez de Quu^os to Don Luys de Velasco,
Governor of Peru, and successor of the Marquis of
Canete, requesting ships and men to prosecute his
discoveries.
Since Figueroa's sixth book referred to by M. Pmgre
has no such title at the top of the pages, as is placed
on this fragment, it may be inferred that it w^as, as
M. Pingre suggests, a separate impression of the
second voyage of Mendana. This is the more probable,
since, as M. Hartzenbusch, the Director of the Madrid
Librar}'^, mforms me, many memorials and narratives
which Quu'os gave to the press were, in virtue of a
decision of the Council of the Indies, suppressed m
1610 by a royal order.
M. Charton says of Pedro Fernandez de Quiros :
" This remarkable man still waits for his historian.
If experience has shewn that his hopes surpassed the
reality, the greatness of his designs is no less worthy
of admu^atlon, and the positive services which he has
rendered are too undeniable for his celebrity not to
increase, whenever science shall at length have pre-
sented all his claims. His name, moreover, is in-
separable from that of Mendana, who partook of his
ideas and his researches, and had the honour to pre-
cede him "
M. J. Mallat published a work on the Philippmes
in 2 vols., Paris, 1846 : it contains much that is
VI TRANSLATORS PREFACE.
valuable, especially of modem commercial statistics ;
but a very large part of his work is simply a re-
production of De Morga, or of some other author
who has followed him, without any sufficient ac-'
knowledgment of the source from which this author
o
has dra^vn his information. His book is accompanied
by an atlas contaming a large map of the Philippines,
plans of Manila, etc.
In the begmning of the present year the Spanish
Government gave a commission to MM, Gayangos
and Vera to examine the archives of the Indies at
Seville, and other archives in the kmgdom, and to
publish all that concerned the legislation of the
Spanish settlements beyond the seas. This pubhca-
tion should be a very useful one, at any rate as far
as it will concern the Philippines ; for that colony,
judging it from the result, must be considered as
more successful than any belonging to any other
European coiuitry, and may be claimed as a triumph
for Phihp the Prudent and the measures he mitiated,^
For whilst the Portuguese have lost aU then" settle-
ments m those seas, the Philippines contmue to in-
crease the resources of the mother country,^ and only
requu'e from Spain some officers and a few companies
of artillerymen for their defence or retention, whilst
those islands furnished a large contingent as auxiharies
1 Mr. Consul Farren wrote from Manila in April 1848 : —
" There are some tilings in the Spanish colonial system which
are not unworthy the attention of Downing Street."
2 Official documents state in 1844 that half a million sterling
was I'emitted annually to the treasury of Spain.
TEAXSLATORS PREFACE. VU
t'o the French diiriiig thek conquest of Cochin
Cliina. The great pomt in which Manila has been
a success, is the fact that the original inliabitants
have not disappeared before the Europeans, and
that they have been civilised, and brought into a
closer imion ^dth the dominant race than is to be
foimd elsewhere m sunilar circumstances. The m-
habitants of the Pliilippines pre\ious to the Spanish
settlement were not like the inliabitants of the great
Indian peninsula, people with a ci\ahsation as old as
that of their conquerors. Excepting that they pos-
sessed the art of writing, and an alphabet of their
own, they do not appear to have differed m any way
from the Dayaks of Borneo as described by Mr.
Boyle in his recent book of adventures amongst that
people. Indeed there is almost a coincidence of verbal
expressions m the descriptions he and De Morga give
of the social customs, habits, and superstitions of the
two peoples they are describmg : though many of
these comcidences are such as are incidental to life in
similar cii'ciunstances, there are enough to lead one
to suppose a community of origm of the iahabitants
of Borneo and Luzon.
It would be difficult and perhaps presumptuous
to attempt, amongst different causes, to say what
chiefly contributed to the success of the Philippine
administration; the distance from Spaia, the absence
of gold in any large quantities,^ the devotion of the
1 " Nothing is more fatal to the character than the perspective
of the possibility of enriching oneself without labour : the dis-
covery of gold in Australia, as in Cahforuia, has multiplied
vm TRANSLATORS PREFACE.
monks, the Spanish charactsr and manners moukled-
\)j the Arabs of Sj^ain, the care taken not un-
necessarily to run counter to the habits of the people,
the early establishment of a court of law equal in
rank and dignity to some of the first tribunals of
Spain — all these causes no doubt combined to secure
the result of a well-ordered and contented popula-
tion.
Judging, however, from the experience of modem
times in our own possessions and colonies, I would
humbly suggest that the cause of the well-being of
the inhabitants of the Philippines is to be looked for
principally in the estabhshment of the royal Au-
diencia, or High Court of Law, and that the founda-
tion of the prosperity of the Manila Islands was that
which is pqinted out in the inscription over the prin-
cipal gateway of the Imperial Palace of Vienna :
"Justitia regnorum fundamentum." The atrocities
of Pizarro were such that they have engrossed all
attention, and the colonial legislation enacted to pre-
vent the repetition of similar offences seems, from the
following complaint of a modern Spanish writer, to
have escaped the observation of European authors.
Sr. Arias says, in a prize essay on the Influence on
crimes and inflamed all the bad "passions ; it is to it that the in-
credible fact must be attributed that eighteen persons on an
average out of a hundred are annually taken up in the colony,
and that it is almost impossible to open a newspaper from the
first of January to the thirty-first of December without learning
that some one has died from drunkenness that day in the town
in which that newspaper is published." — Seke millc li'eaes a
travers I'Asie et V Oceanic, by Comte Henry Russell-Killough.
TRANSLATORS rUEFACE. IX
Spain of her Dominion in America, yn:itteji in 1854,
— "How certain it is that if the writers of other
nations, on taking up then- pens to write of America,
had only kno^vn the code by which that part of the
world was governed, they would not have shewn so
httle circumspection, nor would they have allowed
themselves to be led away so blindly by their imagi-
nation. We have said the code, but indeed, by reading
only some of its headings, they would have formed
another opinion of the colonial rule of Spain. What,
nevertheless, could their information be on this matter,
when, in the year 1812, Dr. Mier could not find in
the pubhc hbraries of London a copy of the Recopila-
cion of the Indies, which he required to consult upon
certain points upon which he was writing ? In
America itself there was the greatest neglect m the
study of these laws, as an author of that country
shews. Perhaps there is not one of them which may
not be presented as an example of equity and discre-
tion ; but among them some stand forth v/hich ought
to be learnt by heart by those who take pleasiu-e in
meeting with proofs of benevolence towards peoples
on the part of those that govern them, or by those
who seek for models for estabhshing the pubhc ad-
ministration upon a basis of equity. Of tliis class is
the Eoyal Order of Phihp IV dnected to the Vice-
roy and High Court of Mexico, reproduced a thousand
times in different works on account of the singularly
humane terms in which it is drawn up : so is also
another law providing that offences committed agamst
Indians should be punished ^vith greater rigour
X TKANSLAT0R8 PREFACE,
than those committed agamst Spaniards ; and the
law which directed that the prelates and clergy
should from the pulpit and in confession persuade
Spaniards who had made theu* fortunes in the Indies,
and who wished to assign by their wills, legacies,
pious works, alms or restitutions, that they should
apply these to the country to which they owed their
fortunes ; by this law, at the same time that America
was preserved from being drained of large sums, the
country of the testators deprived itself of a similar
amount, and their famihes and relatives of considera-
ble SUCCOUl'S."
Though the author, De Morga, was high in the
legal profession, and carried his legal habits and
manner of acting with him, when on an emergency he
stepped into the naval profession, he does not seem
to seek to praise the High Court of Law, nor to
show how useful its estabhshment was to the Philip-
pines ; but this appears indu'ectly from the naiTative.
One testimony to the efforts of the administration
during De Morga's residence, to check oppression by
the Spaniards, is not supplied by the author, but
through the medium of a Dutch corsair, who inter-
cepted letters from the Spanish governor ordering a
priest to interfere in behalf of the natives against a
Spaniard who was oppressing them. The mterven-
tion of the author and the legists in opposition to
the views of the adventurers Diego Belloso and
Bias Euyz was most beneficial. A moral may be
drawn from this for the government of oiu" own
Asiatic possessions, where the mcrease of European
THANSLATORS PREFACE. XI
emigrants through the greater facihty of access by
steam, and the lesser powers now possessed by the
government to control them, render it much more
essential than it was in the time of our author,
that the courts of law should be independent, and
that they should be composed of men of such charac-
ter, weight, and eminence as to make them respected.
That our courts of law and judicial legislation in the
colonies are not always what they ought to be, com-
pared with what they are at home, will hardly be
denied ; but the assertion may be supported by the
testimony of Mr. Eyre, who complains, and quotes
Captain Grey, also the superintendent of Port Philhp,
and several others, to the effect that the testimony of
the natives was not admitted m any degree in any
court of law m Austraha, and that when the hves
of the aborigines had been taken m the district of
Port Philhp, " m no single mstance has the settler
been brought before the proper tribunal " (vol. ii, p.
193). The late request of the negroes of Jamaica
for independent magistrates, and the governor, Sir
John Peter Grant's pubhc declaration that there was
no justice m Jamaica for the poor man, are so recent
as to be m everybody's recollection. Smce Earl
Grey's speech m July of 1864 on the deplorable law-
lessness fostered in Chma and Japan by the unpunity
resultmg from the abrogation of the law of the land
in favour of the law of various European powers sup-
posed to be administered by their consuls. Her
Majesty's Government issued an order in Council
dated March 9, 1865, for the appointment of a court
Xn TRANSLATUnS PitEFACE.
of law and a judge in China, with jurisdiction over
British subjects in China and Japan. ^
This is an improvement, so long as the foreign
jurisdiction treaties are not aboKshed ; and it would
appear to have had a good effect, for since then such
cases as that of Dr. Rice shooting a Chinaman in
June 1864, and that of another Englishman shooting
a Chinese boatwoman in the public canal, reported in
the London papers of February or March of 1865, in
both cases with comparative impunity, have not again
appeared in the public prints.
From the account of the insurrection of the Chi-
nese, of the massacre of them, and of the disturbance
of social life in Manila caused by their disappearance,
De Morga was evidently of opinion that it was the
result of a misunderstanding, and was forced on the
Chinese by the unjust suspicions of the Spaniards
which they expressed too openly. Similar suspicions
and panics might arise in Singapore (where there is a
large Chinese population), at any time, from as idle a
story as that which caused the calamity related by
De Morga. The Kong-Sis of the Straits, wliich are
clubs and beneficent societies, and which might ad-
vantageously be regulated and encouraged, are apt
to be looked upon as merely secret societies. An
article which lately appeared in the Pall Mall Gazette
(written, I beheve, by a distinguished member of the
Hakluyt Society), may well be added here as a com-
mentary on such panics, and also in reference to the
preceding paragraph.
' Sec Parliamentary Papers.
TRANSLATOE, S PREFACE. Xlll
"The Late Stir at Damascus. — Some days ago
it was reported in Paris that the apprehension of a
massacre of Christians was prevailmg in Syria,. The
Christians of Damascus most unquestionably were
massacred seven years ago, and it is therefore any-
thing but unnatural for them to entertain apprehen-
sions of massacres and every other horror, or to shiver
at the famtest rustle of excitement among the Maho-
metans. There has never been any time since the ma,s-
sacre, in fact, in which they have been quite free from
some such apprehension in a greater or less degree ;
and at the present moment more especially, when
rumours of Christian risings and of European mate-
rial or moral support of risings all over Turkey are at
their rifest in all men's minds, it would be very
strange if these apprehensions were not prevalent
among the Christians of Damascus, or if some justi-
fication or tangible occasion for them were not pre-
sented by the attitude of the native Syiian Maho-
metans, then former persecutors. Nov/ something
did really happen- at Damascus to give rise to the
Paris rumour, and it befell in this wise. Towards
the end of last month the town of Damascus was pla-
carded one fine day with printed papers, calhng upon
all the behevers to come forward and contribute to
the relief of the suifermg Mussulman families of
Crete, who had been driven out of house and home
by a wicked rebellion, and were huddled together in
the fortified towns m a state of complete wretched-
ness and starvation. The terms of this appeal would
seem to have been perfectly temperate, and free from
XIV TRANSLATORS PREFACE.
any tinge of fanaticism, even when read by the most
bloodshot and panic-stricken eyes ; but its tenor was
inideniably such as to rouse a sense of mjuiy in the
breasts of the faithful which a native Christian, with
the memory of the horrors of 1860 still fresh withm
him, might well be excused for deeming certain to be
vented on himself as its first victim. Accordingly, to
use the words of an informant, the Christians openly
shewed their fear. The rest of the matter is so
plain, and so inevitable of perception to even the
most careless or igTiorant student of modern Turkey,
that it seems hardly necessary to finish the story.
Of coui'se the consuls took up the extreme view to
which the natives in their panic terror had rushed,
and of course they interfered at once. Of course the
governor disavowed all knowledge of the placards,
imprisoned the director of the printuig press — a
Government estabhshment, it should be said — and in
the excess of bewildered fussmess conspicuous among
consul-ridden pashas when nervously anxious to please
their oppressors, put under arrest his own secretary,
who had been denounced to him as the author or
authoriser of the paper. Perhaps the secretary was
so ; or perhaps the governor himself may have been
so, for the matter of that, for there is nothing in the
way of trick whereof a Turkish ofiicial is not capable,
at the same tune that there is nothing whereof a
native Christian will not accuse a Turkish official, or
which a consul with a keen nose for a ' question' will
not think it his profit or his duty to believe against
the official on the charge of the native Christian. All
TRANSLATORS PREFACE. XV
these three antecedent probabilities neiitrahse one
another, and accordingly the authorship of the placard
must stand over to be decided upon direct evidence
by those whom it may concern. The various morals
with which the story is pomted are the only things
wliich concern us, however, and of these the chief one
is the impossibihty of carrying on any government of
any kind much longer in Turkey imder a system of
consular interference, which practically serves to put
all government in abeyance without undertaking the
responsibihty of governing on its own account, as it
were, by commission. The Mahometan population,
invited under compulsion to forego all its former pri-
vileges, in the name of justice and humanity, sud-
denly finds itself in the present case hindered and
even punished for raising a call to charity and
humanity which is actually a direct imitation of
similar calls recently made m Western Europe. An
evil motive and an evil design are ascribed to their
temperate appeal on behalf of suffering ; perhaps with
rightness of apprehension as regards its ultimate pos-
sible result, but, at any rate, with the utmost want
of charity as regards its immediate conscious motive,
and without the shghtest rational ground for such
conclusion beyond a sheer panic terror. They thiak
it a monstrous and vexatious grievance that they
should not be allowed to subscribe funds like any-
body else for the relief of their brethren, and they
see in the prohibition the dawning of a bitter day of
retributary oppression. In that perhaps they are
not far wrong, if words and acts may be taken as in-
XVI TRANSLATORS PREFACE.
dications of future European policy in the East. We
seem going tlie right way to have a sick continent on
our hands ten times as big as oiu^selves. In that
case, no injury and no danger to the straight march
of human progress will be so great as the danger of
giving the Mahometan world reason to believe that
Europe has the will as well as the power to mete
out a different measure of justice and morahty to the
Christian and to the Mahometan, the European and
the Asiatic."
To revert to the comparison with Australia, Mr.
Eyre, and Captam Grey whom he quotes, complain
much of the inconsistency with which the Aus-
tralians were put on the footmg of British subjects
and made amenable to British law in cases of
offences agamst the settlers, yet were left unpro-
tected by that law when oppressed by the settlers
or by members of their own community, the law
courts taking no cognisance of the testimony of the
aborigines : they also complam of the barbarous
usages of the Australians havmg been allowed to
subsist which prevent them rising to a state of civi-
lisation. This is the more inconsistent, siace in other
countries of Asia under our rule and amongst civilised
communities we have not been so scrupulous or chary
of overturning customs which we have met with, and
which were not consonant with our ideas. The Span-
iards in the PhHippmes seem to have been more happy
in the choice of their measures. Whilst they did away
with all customs that were contrary to natural right
they allowed the others to subsist; they al)olished the
TRANSLATORS PREFACE. Xvii
arbitrary power of the chiefs, but they maintained
theii' social position, and made use of those of the
higher class for their o^ai administration. They
fomid in the Phihppmes slaves, and peasants omng
more than feudal service, somewhat analogous to the
position of the peasantry of the Danubian princi-
pahties imder the Reglement Organique ;^ though
they named these two distinct classes, indifferently
slaves, they left them to subsist nearly as they foimd
them, though they prohibited Spaniards from hold-
mg any of the natives of the Phihppines under either
form of slavery, or from employing them otherwise
than with wages and by mutual agreement ; they
also appear to have diminished the number of days
of corvee owed by the serfs to the chiefs, and to
have required a somewhat similar service from some of
the natives for the civil authorities, paying wages
however m return. They also prohibited all Spaniards
except the officers of justice from entering the towns of
the natives. Then magistrates were bound to visit the
whole of their districts, and to change theii' residence
tlnee times in the course of the year, so as to be
nearer at hand to assist with their office all the sub-
jects within their district. The natives were allowed
to change their residence when they moved to a dis-
tiict where religious mstruction was already esta-
1 la obedience to democratic ideas from France, tlie whole
position of the peasants has been changed in 1864, and they have
been made proprietors, paying a rent to the state which is sup-
posed to reimburse the proprietors ; but less corn is grown, and
the peasants are now worse off than before.
■ C
XVm TRANSLATORS PREFACE.
bKshed, but this was not allowed when the native
wished to go from a district provided with religious
mstruction to one where there was none. Lastly, the
High Court of Justice, which had very full powers
and extensive attributions, held an inquiry upon all
officials on the termination of their office, and till the
court had issued its sentence the official could not be
reappointed. Crime also on the part of the Spanish
settlers was punished, and Castilian convicts rowed
on the benches of the galleys side by side mth
Chinese and native convicts. Several of Mr. Eyre's
suggestions for the improvement of the condition of
the natives of Austraha are similar to the measures
put in force in the Phihppines. Doubtless the in-
habitants of the Philippines were much superior to
the Australians ; but in New Zealand, where the
aborigines have very great natural abilities, the re-
sult is not much more m their favour.^ The Philip-
1 The contrast between the principles that directed the govern-
ment of the Phihppines, and the weakness of rehgion which has
presided over the destinies of Australia and New Zealand, may
be well exemplified by the following extracts from an article in
Macmillan's Magazine of November 1865 (p. 56) by Mr. Henry
Kingsley, on Eyre's Australian journey. Comment is unneces-
sary, and moreover is supplied by the writer himself
"Wylie was a very good, a somewhat exceptional, specimen of
his people, as Eyre, a lover and protector of the blacks, allows.
Now you know these people must go. God never made the
Portland Bay district for them. All one asks is, that the thing
should be done with decency, and with every sort of indulgence ;
wliereas it is not, but in a scandalous and disgraceful manner.
Of course these Australians must be impi'oved, but let the im-
provement be done with some show of decency. But we may
l)reach and preach, and tlie same old story will go on, now there
TRANSLATORS PREFACE. XIX
piiies had another great advantage over our colonies
in the active co-operation of the monks, who, un-
burdened by families, were more able to devote
themselves to their labours ; also (especially at that
date) the monks had more influence over their own
countrymen than our missionaries have ever enjoyed.
From De Morga's account they do not appear to
have been very numerous, but rather to have been
insufficient m munber for the work they had to do ;
but even had there been legions of them, as Monsieur
Rienzi, a French writer on the Phihppines, says there
were, they never cost as much to the state as the
protectorate of the aborigmes in New South Wales
and Port Phihip, which Mr. Eyre states to have been
about ten thousand pounds annually.^ It is also
is no Governor Gripps ; and so we will leave preaching, and mind
our business ; for public opinion, unbacked by a Governor Gipps,
is but a poor thing for the blacks."
" The above paragraph was written yesterday, and under
ordinary circumstances I should have altered it and polished it
down. But this morning I got my Times, and read about the
massacre of the Indians on the Colorado ; and that seemed to
illustrate what I have said above in such a singular manner that
I determined to let the paragraph stand, just as I had jotted it
down as a matter of curiosity. The leading article in the Times
this morning was remarkably sensible. When the colonists are
left to administer justice in their own way, they do invariably
say, 'We must fight as they fight;' and they not only say so, but
do so. For very decency's sake, this improving business should
be done by paid third parties, if it were only to avoid scandal.
So we are going to withdraw the imperial troops from New
Zealand, and do the business in a shorter and cheaper manner."
^ Since the above was written I have found the following con-
firmation of what I have said of the salutary influence of the
monks : —
XX translator's preface.
worthy of remark, now that warUke expenditure so
much exceeds what is allotted to instruction, that, of
the capitation tax paid by the natives, two reals of
" The most efficient agents of public order throughout the
islands are the local clergy, many of whom are also of the
country. There are considerable parts of these possessions in
which the original races, as at Ceylon, retain their independence,
and are neither taxed nor interfered with : and throughout the
islands the power of the govei'nment is founded much more on
moral than on physical influence. The laws are mild, and pecu-
liarly favourable to the natives. The people are indolent, tem-
perate, and superstitious. The government is conciliatory and
respectable in its character and appearance, and prudent but
decisive in the exercise of its powers over the people; and united
with the clergy, who are shrewd, and tolerant, and sincere, and
respectable in general conduct, studiously observant of their
ecclesiastical duties, and managing with great tact the native
character." (Mr. Consul Farren, Manila, March 13, 1845.)
" Without any governing power whatever, the greatest moral
influence in these possessions is that which the priests possess,
and divide among the monastic orders of Augustines, Recoletos,
Dominicans, and Franciscans (who are all Spaniards), and the
assistant native clergy. A population exceeding 3,800,000 souls
is ranged into Q*?7 pueblos or parishes, without reckoning the un-
subdued tribes. In 577 of those pueblos there are churches with
convents or clerical residences attached, and about 600 of them
are in the personal incumbency of those Spanish monks. The
whole ecclesiastical subdivisions being embraced in the arch-
bishopric of Manila and three bishoprics."
" The Philippines were converted to Christianity and main-
tained in it by these monastic orders, energetically protected by
them (and at no very past period) against the oppressions of the
provincial authorities, and are still a check on them in the interests
of the people. The clergy are receivers in their districts of the
capitation tax paid by the natives, and impose it': they are the
most economical agency of the government." (Mr. Consul
Farren, March 29, 1851.)
" What religion has accomplished, it alone can maintain ; and
TEANSLATORS PREFACE. XXI
each person's tax went to religious instruction, whilst
only one and a half was assigned to the expenses of
the permanent military forces.
De Morga, as well as other writers of his period,
refer with satisfaction to the demarcation drawn by
Pope Alexander YI between the regions to be ex-
plored by Spain and Portugal. By this measiu^e
many wars were avoided ; not only between the
forces of those two powers, but also between the
various nations of the Old and New Worlds, who
would have been involved in the struggles of those
rival competitors for the dominion over the newly
discovered regions. Some idea may be formed of
the evils which were averted, from De Morga's
account of the feuds and jealousies between the
Spaniards and Portuguese in China and Cambodia,
even when those two nations were temporarily fellow-
subjects of Pliihp the Second. It must however be
observed that this Bull contains a grant to the
it is but too certain that the Philippines would be lost to Spain
and to the Catholic religion if ever they were deprived of the
monks who so wonderfully guard them without the assistance of
a single European soldier. May so fatal a moment never arrive!"
— Mallat, i, p. 40.
" How happy would France be if she knew how to make a
suitable use of this moral force in her new colonies ! What an
economy of means ! What security for the colonists ! What
happiness for the natives ! Thus it is that more than once
disturbances which had the most threatening appearances have
been skilfully appeased only by the word of a priest. An old
viceroy of Mexico used to say that — ' in each friar in the Philip-
pines the king had got a captain-general and a w^iole army'." —
Mallat, i, p. 389.
XXll TRANSLATORS PREFACE.
Spaniards and Portuguese of all lands and islands to
be discovered, which should not be already occupied
by any other Christian prince before Christmas day
of 1493, without regard to their havmg other owners
and governments, or to the equal rights of all nations.
This error, however, was committed before Suarez
and Vattel had written, and it has not yet been
enth'ely removed m certain quarters. Another ex-
ample of the salutary action of the Papacy occurs in
the history of the same period. The Zamorin was
informed by the Brahmans and Mussulmans of the
designs of the Portuguese on Ormuz and other towns
of the Indian Ocean, and sent to ask the assistance
of the Sultan of Egypt. The Sultan was already
greatly irritated at the piracies of the Portuguese in
the Ked Sea and its neighbourhood, and at the
interception of the pilgrims to Mekka; he accordmgly
sent for the abbot of the monks of St. Catharine on
Mount Sinai, a Spanish monk named Mauro, and
complamed of the conduct of the Portuguese, and
threatened to turn all the foreign merchants out of
his dominions and to destroy the sanctuaries at
Jerusalem and other places. Before resortmg to
reprisals, he would, he said, stay his anger if the
abbot would go as his ambassador to Rome and
arrange the matter pacifically. The abbot consented
and went to Rome charged with letters to Pope
Alexander VI complaining of the Kmg of Portugal
yearly ravaging the coasts of Africa, and of the
King of Spain for having driven the Moors out of
Granada without any fault of theirs or cause ; and
TRANSLATORS PREFACE. XXlll
that since these two kings proceeded so tyranically
against the Mussiihnans, and in a manner so contrary
to the laws of nations, he would blot out the name
of Christian in his dommions. But if His Hohness
wished to avoid this, let him call upon those kings
to desist, and mterpose his authority. The pontiff at
once held a consistory with the College of Cardinals
upon this matter, and resolved to send the ambas-
sador with letters from himself to the King of
Portugal, begguig hun not to run counter to the
King of Egypt, if it were only not to put ia danger
so many merchants and so many holy places. The
King of Portugal replied to the Pope that he should
not let himself be alarmed at the bravado and empty
tlu'eats of the Sultan, who would not mjure either
the merchants or the holy places on account of the
losses which he would himself suffer thereby ; and
that as for the Moors of Granada, that matter had
been quite forgotten at the end of twelve years, and
the Sidtan only complained of that, having nothing
else to fix upon. The Abbot Mauro returned with
this answer to Rome, and the King of Portugal
increased his preparations against India and Egypt.
The Sultan of Egypt did not carry out his threats
(if he really made them Avith regard to the sanctu-
aries), not because of the losses they would have en-
tailed upon him, but because his laws did not permit
him to do so. The remonstrances of the Pope might
have had more effect if they had been based more
upon right than upon expediency, as seems to have
been the case, judging from the above account; never-
XXIV TRANSLATORS PREFACE.
theless, these two acts of Pope Alexander VI, and
other similar action on the part of the Holy See,
shew how frequently it acted as peacemaker, arbi-
trator and court of appeal, and how easily it might
again do so if the promised deliberations of the coming
(Ecumenical Council, upon the establishment of a
Diplomatic College at Rome, have that happy result,
which would do much to recall the rule of law in
Europe, and to secure peace amongst men.
The reader is referred to Appendix II for further
information about the Philippine Islands in modern
times, with respect to matters treated of by De
Morga.
I desire to express my obligations to Mr. Major
of the British Museum for his assistance on this as
on other occasions, especially since it was at his re-
commendation, when formerly he was Secretary of the
Hakluyt Society, that I undertook this work.
Geneva, October, 1867.
SUCESOS DE LAS
ISLAS PHILIPINAS
DIRIGIDOS
A DON CHRISTOVAL GOMEZ
DE SANDOVAL Y ROJAS, DUQUE
DE CEA.
FOR EL DOCTOR ANTONIO DE MORGA,
ALCALDE DEL CRIMEN DE LA REAL
AUDIENCIA DE LA NUEVA ESPANA;
CONSULTOR DEL SANTO OFFICIO DE LA
INQUISICION.
MEXICI AD INDOS.
A 71710 1609.
IMPRIMATUR.
By order of the most excellent Lord, Don Luis de Yelasco,
Vice Roy of this New Spain, and of the most illustrious and
most reverend Lord Don fray Garcia Guerra, Archbishop
of Mexico, of His Majesty^s Council : I have seen this book
of the Events in the Philippine Islands, written by Dr. An-
tonio de Morga, Alcalde of the Court and Royal Audiencia
of Mexico; and it appears to me to be agreeable and profit-
able, and worthy to be pinnted ; inasmuch as the author
has observed with exactitude the laws of history, and for
the careful arrangement of the work; in which he shews
brilliant genius, and a laconic style which few attain to, and
a truthfulness in the matter, such as one might have Avho
possessed such complete information respecting it, from the
years during which he governed those islands. And I have
signed this with my name in this Professed House of the
Company of Jesus of Mexico, on the 1st day of April of 1609.
Juan Sanchez.
Don Luys de Velasco, knight of the order of Santiago,
Vice Roy lieutenant of the King our Lord, Governor and
Captain General of New Spain and president of the Royal
Audiencia and Chancery which resides in it, etc. Whereas
Dr. Antonio de Morga, Alcalde of crime in this said Royal
Audiencia, has informed me that he had written a book and
treatise of the Events in the FMlippine Islands, from their
first discovery and conquest until the end of the past year of
six hundred and seven; and has requested me to grant him
leave and pi'ivilege that he may print it, and no other person
for some time, and on my behalf I committed to padre
Juan Sanchez, of tlie Company of Jesus, the inspection of
the said book : therefore, by this present I give it to the
said Dr. Antonio de Morga, so that he, or the person who
may hold his permissiou, may freely, during the period of
ten years, the first in succession, print the said book, by
means of such printer as may seem fit to him : and I pro-
hibit that any person should do so within the said time
without the said permission, under pain of losing, and that
he shall lose the type and accessories with which the said
impression should be made; which 1 apply to the Royal
Chamber of His Majesty, and the said Dr. Antonio de
Morga, by halves. Done in Mexico, at seven days of the
month of April of one thousand and six hundred and nine
years. ' Don Luys de Velasco,
By order of the Viceroy, Martin Lopez Ganna.
Don Fray Garcia Guerra, by the Divine Grace, and that
of the Holy Apostolic See, Archbishop of Mexico, of the
Council of His Majesty, etc. Having seen the opinion of
padre Juan Sanchez of the Company of Jesus, which he has
given, of having seen the book which Dr. Antonio de Morga,
Alcalde in this Court and Chancery, presented before us,
intitled — Events in the Philippine Islands, their Conquest
and Conversion, for which we gave our commission ; and as
by the said opinion it is established that it contains nothing
against our Holy Catholic Faith, or good morals : on the
contrary, that it is useful and profitable to all persons who
may read it: by this present we give license to the said Dr.
Antonio de Morga that he may cause the said book of the
said conquest and conversion of the said Philippine Islands
to be printed in any of the printing presses of this city.
Given in Mexico, the seventh of April of one thousand six
hundi-ed and nine years.
Fr. Garcia, Archbishop of Mexico,
by order of his most illustrious Lordship
the Archb. of Mexico.
D. Juan de Portilla, Secrptan/.
DEDICATION TO
DON CRISTOYAL GOMEZ DE SANDOVAL Y ROJAS,
DTJKE OF CEA.l
I OFFER to your Excellency this small work, deser\dng of a
good reception as mucli for the faithful narrative which it
contains, as for its being free from artifice and ornament.
Knowing my poor resources, I began it without fear, and took
courage to go on with it : it is clear that if that which is given
had to bear an equal proportion to him that receives, there
would be no one who might deserve to place his works in
the hands of your Excellency ; and those deeds would re-
main forgotten, which in these times our Spaniards have done
in the discovery, conquest, and conversion of the Philip-
pine Islands j as well as various events which from time to
time have happened in the great kingdom of the Pagans
which surround them : for as these parts are so remote, no
narrative has appeared in public which purports to treat of
them from their beginnings up to the state in which they
now are. I pray your Excellency to receive my good will,
laid prostrate at your feet; and even should this short writing
not give that pleasure which self love (that infirmity of
human wit) leads me to expect, may your Excellency deal
with me, as you are used to do with all; reading it and
cloaking its imperfections with your courtesy and gentle-
ness, as being so rich in these and other virtues, which,
with Divine power, cause lofty things not to be strangers
to more humble matters ; and have placed your Excel-
^ See Appendix I for the text of this dedication.
B 2
4
lency in your own natural greatness, in the place wliicli you
liold for the good of these realms, rewarding and favouring
what is good, correcting and repressing that which is oppo-
site: in which consists the well being of the Eepublic, which
gave occasion to Democritus, the ancient philosopher, to
say that reward and punishment were indeed gods. In
order to enjoy this felicity there is no need to wish for any
time gone by, but contenting ourselves with the present
only to pray God to preserve your Excellency for us many
years.
D. Antonio de Mokga.
TO THE READER.
The monarchy of the Kings of Spain has been aggrandised
by the zeal and care with which they have defended within
their own hereditary kingdoms, the Holy Catholic Faith,
which the Roman Church teaches, against whatsoever adver-
saries oppose it, or seek to obscure the truth by various
errors, which faith they have disseminated throughout the
world. Thus by the mercy of God they preserve their
realms and subjects in the purity of the Christian religion,
deserving 'thereby the glorious title and renown which they
possess of Defenders of the Faith, Moreover, by the
valour of their indomitable hearts, and at the expense of
their revenues and property, with Spanish fleets and men,
they have fuiTOwed the seas, and discovered and conquered
vast kingdoms in the most remote and unknown parts of
the world, leading their inhabitants to a knowledge of the
true God, and to the fold of the Christian church, in which
they now live, governed in civil and political matters with
peace and justice, under the shelter and protection of the
royal arm and power which was wanting to them:^ weighed
' This boast is true of Manila, and of Manila alone amongst all the
colonies of Spain or the other Em'opean states. If the natives of
Manila have been more fortunate than those of Cuba, Peru, Jamaica,
and Mexico, it has been owing to the absence of gold, which in other
places attracted adventurers so lawless that neither the Church nor
Courts of justice could restrain them.
clown as they were by blind tyrannies and barbarous cruel-
ties, witli whicli tlie enemy of tbe human race had for so
long afflicted them and brought them up for himself.
From this cause the crown and sceptre of Spain has come
to extend itself over all that the sun looks on, from its
rising to its setting, with the glory and splendour of its
power and majesty; but surpassing any of the other princes
of the earth by having gained innumerable souls for heaven,
which has been Spain^s principal intention and wealth. And
besides much riches and the treasures which she enjoys,
together with memorable deeds and victories which she has
won, so that throughout the universe her great name is
praised and celebrated, and the perseverance and valour of
her vassals, who have accomplished these deeds and poured
out their blood.
Having won America, a fourth part of the earth which
the ancients never knew, they sailed following the sun, and
discovered in the Western Ocean an archipelago of many
islands, adjacent to further Asia, inhabited by various
nations, abounding in rich metals, precious stones, and
pearls, and all manner of fruit. Where, raising the standard
of the Faith, they snatched them from the yoke and power of
the devil, and placed them under her command and govern-
ment : so that justly may they raise in those isles the pillars
and trophies of Non 'phis ultra, which the famous Hercules
left on the shore of Cadiz, and later the strong arm of
Charles V, our sovereign, cast down upon the ground, sur-
passing him in great deeds of arms and enterprises.
The isles having been subjected by the sovereign light of
the holy Gospel which entered there, the heathen were
baptised, and the darkness of their paganism banished, and
they changed their names for that of Christians. The
islands also, leaving the names which they held, took (with
the change of faith and baptism of their inhabitants) the
name of Philippine Islands ; in recognition of the great
favours which they received from His Majesty Philip the
Second, our sovereign : in whose fortunate age and rule
they were conquered, favoured and encouraged, like a work
and labour of his royal hands.
Their discovery, conquest and conversion was not accom-
plished without much expenditure, labour and Spanish
blood, with varied events and critical moments, which make
the work more illustrious, and furnish a spacious field, over
which historians may extend themselves, for such is their
office, and the matter is not scanty: and it possesses serious
and pleasant subjects, sufficient to deserve their care, with-
out its being prejudicial to them to treat of Indian occur-
rences and wars, which they who have no experience of
them esteem as less than what they are. For the people
of these parts are valiant and warlike nations of Asia,
brought up in continual warfare by sea and land, making
use of artillery and other warlike instruments, taught in
this exercise by the necessity of their own defence against
the great and powerful kingdoms in their neighbourhood ;
and (if with a few imperfections) they have become skilled
and their teaching completed in the school of Spain, which
lastly brought war to their doors, as has happened to other
provinces of Europe in the like manner which had fallen
into ignorance and neglect of the use of arms.
Some curious persons have planned to write this history,
to whom (as time and resources failed me) I have given and
distributed many papers and narratives which I possessed ;
and I hope they will publish them with more purpose than
that which up to the present time we have received piece-
meal from some historians of our time.
I spent eight years in the Philippine Islands, the best
years of my life, serving unremittingly in the office of lieu-
tenant of the governor and captain general, and from the
moment the Royal Audiencia was founded in Manila in the
office of auditor, the first who was I'eceived iu it. And de-
sirous that the affairs of these islands should be known^
particularly those which happened in the time in which I
dealt with them, taking them from their origin, as much as
might be sufficient, I have related them in a book of eight
chapters ; and the first seven contain the discoveries, con-
quests, and other events in the islands and kingdoms and
provinces in the neighbourhood, which happened in the
time of the proprietary governors that there were until the
death of Don Pedro de Acuiia. And the eighth and last
chapter is a brief summary and narrative of their qualities,
inhabitants, and method of governing and converting them,
and other special matters, and of the knowledge, dealings
and communication which they had with the other islands
and gentile communities conterminous to them. As fearful
am I of the defects which will be found in this, as per-
suaded of being deserving of pardon, for having designed,
this being my intention, to give to each one that which is
due, and to restore the truth without enmity or flattery,
which has been injured in some narratives which are going
about the world, a fault very much to be reproved in those-
who relate the deeds of others, and prohibited by a penal
law which Cato and Marcius, tribunes of the Roman people,
established for those who in recounting their own deeds
exceeded the truth, which would seem less worthy of pun-
ishment, as self love intervenes in their case.
There will not be wanting some one who will call me to
account for my oversights, and I shall have already given
him an answer by confessing them ; and should this not be
enough to put him to silence, stopping up my ears like
another Ulysses, I will pass by this inconvenience (with the
hurry with which I have Avritten), and will serve whoever
may read it, which will be sufficient to remove me from
greater dangers.
9
It is to be noted
lu reading this history, that some words may be observed,
names of provinces_, towns, magistrates, arms and vessels,
which for more fitness have been written as they are
commonly named and are current in those parts ; and in
the last chapter, which contains the account of the islands
and their peculiarities, these words will be explained and
declared.
CHAPTER I.
Of the Fii'st Discoveries of the Eastern Isles, and of the Voyage which
the Adelantado ]Miguel Lopez de Legazpi made thither ; of the Con-
quest and Pacification of the Philippines during his Governorship ;
and of Guido de Labazarris, who afterwai'ds imdertook the charge.
AccoEDiNG to ancient and modern cosmograpliers, that part
of tlie world called Asia lias adjacent to it an immense
number of islands^ large and small, inhabited by divers
nations and peoples, as rich in precious stones, gold, silver,
and other minerals, as abounding in fruit and grain, flocks
and animals ; in some of these all sorts of spices are pro-
duced, which are carried thence and distributed throughout
the universe. They name them commonly in their books
and descriptions, and charts of navigation, the great Archi-
pelago of Saint Lazarus^ which is in the Eastern Ocean ;
of these islands, amongst others more famous, are the isles
of Maluco, Celebes, Tendaya, Luzon, Mindanao and Borneo,
which are now called the Philippines.
The Pope Alexander the Sixth having divided the con-
quests of the New World between the Kings of Castillo
and Portugal, they agreed to make the division by means
of a Hue which the cosmographers drew across the world, in
order that, the one towards the west and the other towards
the east, they might follow out their discoveries and con-
quests, and settle peacefully whatever each might win with-
in his demarcation.^
' This demarcation was a line drawn from the North to the South
Pole, at a distance of one hundred leagues west of the Azores and Cape
Verde islands. Solorzano gives a translation of the Bull in his Politka
Indiana.
12 OF THE FIRST DISCOVERIES
After that tlie city of Malacca had been won for the crown
of Portugal^ on the mainland of Asia, in the kingdom of
Jor (Johore), named by the ancients the Aurea Chersonesus,
in the year one thousand five hundred and eleven, on re-
ceiving news of the islands which lie near there, especially
those of Maluco and Banda, where they gather cloves and
nutmeg, a Portuguese fleet set out to discover them,^ and
having touched at Banda, they went thence to the isle of
Terrenate, one of the Maluco isles, drawn thither by its own
king, in his defence against the King of Tidore, his neigh-
bour with whom he was at war : this was the beginning of
the settlement which the Portuguese made in Maluco.
Francisco Serrano, who returned to Malacca with this
discovery, and passed on to India in order to go to Portugal
and give an account of it, died before making this voyage,
having communicated by letters what he had seen to his
friend Fernando de Magallanes" (for they had been together
at the taking of Malacca, and he was in Portugal) ; from
1 This fleet, according to John de Barros, Decade III, lib. v, cap. 6,
and San Roman, p. 217, consisted of three ships under Antonio de
Abreo, who returned from Banda to JNIalacca, where he gave informa-
tion of the Moluccas to Captain Fernan Perez de Andrada, and, re-
turning to Portugal, he was shipwrecked and lost. Francisco Serrano,
his companion, followed up the discovery in a war junk, which was
wrecked on the island of Tortoises, in the islands of Luco Pino, thirty-
seven leagues beyond Banda, only the men and arms being saved : here
they defeated some pirates, who conveyed them to Amboyna. Thence
their fame reached Ternate and Tidor. Cachil Boleyfe, King of
T'ernate, secured the assistance of Serrano against Cachil Almansor,
King of Tidor : both of these kings and their people were Mussulmans,
and had been so for some time back. Francisco Serrano died in
Ternate a few days before the King Cachil Boleyfe, and about the
same time that Magellan was killed.
2 Part of the substance of these letters is contained in the relation of
Francisco and. Tuan Serrano's voyage, an appendix to Magellan's account of
the shores of the Indian Ocean, Coasts of East Africa and Malabar,
Hakluyt Society, 1866. Perhaps the war junk of San Roman is the
same as the caravel which Francisco Serrano stole at Malacca, as men-
tioned in the above-named narrative.
OF THE EASTERN ISLES. Id
wliich narrative he understood what was most fitting with
respect to the discovery and navigation of those islands.
Magallanes at this time passed over to the service of the
King of Castille, from causes which moved him thereto •}
and he set forth to the Emperor Charles V our sovereign
that the islands of Maluco fell within the demarcation of
his crown of Castillo, and that the conquest of them per-
tained to him conformably to the concession of Pope Alex-
ander ;~ he also offered to make an expedition and a voyage
to them in the emperor's name, laying his course through
that part of the delimitation which belonged to Castillo, and
availing himself of a famous astrologer and cosmographer
named Ruyfarelo, whom he kept in his service.^
The emperor (from the importance of the business) con-
fided this voyage and discovery to Magallanes, with the ships
1 De Barros says the devil moved him ; but he admits that his treat-
ment by the King of Portugal was very aggravating. However, in
seeking a south-west passage, and availing himself of the encom-agement
of Spain, he only followed the example of Columbus.
- According to De Barros, Decade III, lib. v. Francisco Serrano, in
liis letters to INIagellan, doubled the distance from Malacca to Maluco
in order to increase his reputation as a discoverer, and to obtain a re-
ward from the Iving of Portugal ; Magellan used Serrano's letters and
distances to prove to Charles V that the Moluccas fell within his limit ;
but he seems to have done so in good faith, for, from Barros' account,
he expected to have reached the Moluccas sooner, and thought he had
run by them. Decade III, lib. v, cap. 10.
3 According to De Barros, IMagellan found Buy Faleiro, a Portu-
guese astrologer in Spain, also aggrieved by King-^ Manuel : he took him
to Seville, where Magellan stayed with his relation, Diogo Barbosa,
father of Duarte Barbosa, and married a daughter of Diogo. Ruy
Farelo did not sail with ]Magellan, either as Barros says, because he re-
pented of the expedition, or because his astrology shewed him the end
which the fleet was to meet with. The astrologer of the fleet was
Andres de San Martin : he and Christoval Rabelo, a PortugTiese, and
six or seven Castilians, were killed with Magellan. San Roman says he
saw a narrative in the handwriting of the pilot himself, whom ^Magellan
took with him in this fleet, who came to Castile by order of Don Juan
de Borja ; and this narrative is in the keeping of the Licentiate
Cespedes, cosmographer of the king.
14 OF THE FIRST DISCOVERIES
and provisions which were requisite for it, with which he
set sail and discovered the straits to which he gave his
name. Through these he passed to the South Sea, and
navigated to the islands of Tendaya and Sebu, where he was
killed by the natives of Matan, which is one of them.^ His
ships went on to Maluco, where their crews had disputes
and differences with the Portuguese who were in the island
of Terrenate : and at last, not being able to maintain them-
selves there, they left Maluco in a ship named the Victory,
which had remained to the Castilians out of their fleet ; and
they took as chief and captain Juan Sebastian del Cailo,^
who performed the voyage to Castile, by the way of India,
where he arrived with very few of his nlen, and he gave an
account to his majesty of the discovery of the islands of the
great archipelago, and of his voyage.
The same enterprise was attempted on other occasions,
and was carried out by Juan Sebastian del Caiio, and by
the Comendador Loaisa, and the Saoneses, and the Bishop
of Plasencia, without bearing the fruits that were expected,
on account of the travail and risks of so distant a voyage,
and the strife which those who arrived there encountered
on the part of the Portuguese in Maluco.
After all these events, as it seemed that this voyage
would be shorter and better by way of New Spain, a fleet
was sent by that part in the year 1545 under the charge of
Puy Lopez de Villalobos, which passed by way of Sebu and
reached Maluco, where it met with disputes with the Portu-
guese, misfortunes and troubles, by reason of which it did
not succeed in the object which had been sought for; neither
1 After the death of Magellan, Duarte Barbosa took the command :
he and twenty officers were treacherously killed by the Christian king,
with whom they had allied themselves, and Jnan Serrano was left be-
hind alive amongst the natives.
2 lie was a native of Guetaria in Biscay. This Victory was the first
ship which circumnavigated the globe : it is represented on the cover of
the vclnmcR of the Haklnyt Society.
OF THE EASTERN ISLES. 15
was tlie fleet able to return to New Spain, from whence it
had sailed, but was broken up, and some of the Castiliaus
who remained went away from Maluco through Portuguese
India, and returned to Castile, There they gave an account
of what had happened in their voyage, and of the qualities
and nature of the islands of Maluco, and of the others which
they had seen.
As it afterwards appeared to the King Don Phihp II our
sovereign that it was not fitting for him to desist from this
enterprise, and being informed by Don Luis de Velasco,
Viceroy of New Spain, and by fray Andres de Urdaneta of
the order of St. Augustine (who, being a secular, had been
in Maluco with the fleet of the Commander Loaysa), that
this voyage might be made shorter and more easily from
New Spain, he committed it to the viceroy. Fray Andres
de Urdaneta left the court of Madrid for New Spain, for, as
he was so experienced and so good a geographer, he offered
to go with the fleet and discover a way of returning. The
viceroy equipped a fleet and men with what was most need-
ful, in the port of Navidad in the South Sea, and gave it in
charge to Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, inhabitant of Mexico,
and a native of the province of Guipuzcoa, a person of
quality and trust. On account of the death of the viceroy,
the High Court (Audiencia), which governed in his stead,
completed the despatching of Legazpi, giving him instruc-
tions as to the parts to which he was to go, with orders not
to open them until he had got three hundred leagues out to
sea ; this, on account of differences which existed amongst
the officers of the fleet, some saying that it would be better
to go to New Guinea, others to the Luzon Islands, and
others to Maluco. Miguel Lopez de Legazpi sailed from
the port of Navidad in the year 1564, with five ships and
five hundred men ; he took also fray Andres de Urdaneta,
and four other monks of the order of St. Augustine, and
having navigated for some days to the west, he opened his
16 OF THE FIRST DISCOVERIES
instructions, and found that he was ordered to go to the
Luzon Islands, where he was to endeavour to pacify them and
reduce them to submission to his majesty, and to receive
the holy Catholic faith. He pursued his voyage until he
arrived at the island of Sebu, where he anchored, on account
of the convenience of a good port Avhich he met with, and
the nature of the land. He was at first well and jjeacefully
received by the natives and by their chief Tupas. Later
they sought to kill him and his companions, because they
had taken their provisions from them, upon which the
natives took up arms against them ; but it turned out con-
trariwise to what they had expected, for the Spaniards con-
quered and subjected them. Seeing what had taken place
in Sebu, the natives of other neighbouring islands came
peacefully before the chief of the expedition, making sub-
mission to him, and providing his camp with victuals. The
first of our Spanish settlements was made in that port, which
they named the city of the most holy name of Jesus, because
they found there, in one of the houses of the natives when
they conquered them, a carved image of Jesus ; and it was
believed that it had remained there from the fleet of
Magellan, and the natives held it in great reverence, and it
worked for them in their needs miraculous efi'ects. This
image they put in the monastery of St. Augustine, which
Avas built in that city.
That same year the chief of the expedition despatched his
flag-ship to New Spain, with advices and a narrative of
what had occurred in the voyage, and of the settlement in
Sebu, and requesting men and succour in order to continue
the pacification of the islands; and fray Andres de Urdaneta
and fray Andres de Aguirre, his companion, embarked
in it.
One of the ships which sailed from the port of Navidad in
company with the fleet, under the command of Don Alonso
de Arellano, carried as pilot one Lope Martin, a mulatto and
OF THE EASTERN ISLES. 17
a good sailor, although a restless man; when this ship came
near the islands it left the fleet and went forward amongst
the islands, and having procured some provisions, without
waiting for the chief of the expedition, turned back to New
Spain by a northerly course : either from the httle inclina-
tion which he had for making the voyage to the isles, or to
gain the reward for having discovered the course for re-
turning. He arrived speedily and gave news of having
seen the islands, and discovered the return voyage, and
said a few things with respect to his coming, without any
message from the chief, nor any advices as to what had
happened to him. Don Alonzo de Arellano was well re-
ceived by the High Court of Justice which governed at that
time, and was taking into consideration the granting of a
reward to him and to his pilot : and this would have been
done, had not the flag-ship of the commander-in-chief
ariived during this time, after performing the same voyage,
and bringing a true narrative of events, and of the actual
condition of afiairs, and of the settlement of Sebu ; also
giving an account of how Don Alonso de Arellano with his
ship, without receiving orders and without any necessity
for it, had gone on before the fleet on entering among the
isles, and had never appeared since. It was also stated
that, besides those islands which had peacefully submitted
to his majesty, there were many others, large and rich, well
provided with inhabitants, victuals and gold, which they
hoped to reduce to subjection and peace with the assistance
which was requested : and that the commander-in-chief had
given to all these isles the name of Philippines, in memory
of his majesty. The succour was sent to him immediately,
and has continually been sent every year conformably to the
necessities which have presented themselves ; so that the
land was won and maintained.
The commander-in-chief having heard of other islands
around Sebu with abundance of provisions, he sent thither
c
18 OF THE FIRST DISCOVERIES
a few Spaniards to bring some of the natives over in a
friendly manner^ and rice for the camp, with which he
maintained himself as well as he could, until, having passed
over to the island of Panay, he sent thence Martin de Goiti,
his master of the camp, and other captains, with the inen that
seemed to him sufficient, to the isle of Luzon, to endeavour
to pacify it and bring it under submission to his majesty : a
native of that island, of importance, named Maomat, was to
guide them.
Having arrived at the bay of Manila, they found its town
on the sea^each close to a large river, in the possession of,
and fortified by a chief whom they called Eajamora : and in
front, across the river, there was another large town named
Tondo ; this also was held by another chief, named Raja-
matanda. These places were fortified with palms, and thick
arigues^ filled in with earth, and a great quantity of bronze
cannon, and other larger pieces with chambers. Martin de
Goiti having began to treat with the chiefs and their people
of the peace and submission which he claimed from them, it
became necessary for him to break with them ; and the
Spaniards entered the town by force of arms, and took it,
with the forts and artillery, on the day of Sta. Potenciana,
the 19th of May,^ the year 1571 ; upon which the natives and
their chiefs gave in, and made submission, and many others
of the same island of Luzon did the same.^
1 1 have been unable to discover the meaning of this word : the con-
text would require stakes. It may be intended for areca palms, or be
connected with the French ariguier for alizier, a thorn tree ; or it
might be from the Arabic '•ark^ a root.
2 From the Spaniards having travelled westwards to the Philippines,
there was an error of a day in their dates and almanacks. This was
corrected in 1844, when, by order of the captain-general and the arch-
bishop, the 31st of December, 1844, was suppi^essed, and the dates of
Manila made to agree with those of the rest of the world. A similar
correction was made at tlie san\e time at INIacao, where the Portuguese
who had travelled eastwards had an error of a day in an opposite direc-
tion.
' The Dutch MemoraUe Emlassies states that tlie Sjiaiiiards sub-
OF THE EASTERN ISLES. 19
When the commander-in-chief^ Legazpi^ received news in
Panay of the taking of Manila^ and the establishment of the
Spaniards there^ he left the affairs of Sebu_, and of the other
islands which had been subdued^ set in order; and he
entrusted the natives to the most trustworthy soldiers^ and
gave such orders as seemed fitting for the government of
those provinces, which are commonly called the Bisayas de
los Pintados, because the natives there have their whole
bodies marked with fire. He then came to Manila with the
remainder of his people, and was very well received there ;
and established afresh with the natives and their chiefs the
peace, friendship, and submission to His Majesty which they
had already offered. The commander-in-chief founded and
established a town on the very site of Manila (of which Raja-
mora made a donation to the Spaniards for that purpose),
on account of its being strong and in a well provisioned dis-
trict, and in the midst of all the isles (leaving it its name of
Manila, which it held from the natives). He took what
land was sufficient for the city, in which the governor esta-
blished his seat and residence ; he fortified it with care,
holding this object more especially in view, in order to
make it the seat of government of this new settlement,
rather than considering the temperature or width of the site,
which is hot and narrow, from having the river on one side
of the city, and the bay on the other, and at the back large
swamps and marshes, which make it very strong.
From this post he pursued the work of pacification of the
other provinces of this great island of Luzon and of the sur-
jected these islands almost without striking a blow, the inhabitants
having forgotten the art of war and almost renounced civil life since
they shook off the Chinese yoke. Since the Chinese had lost their
dominion over these isles they had not ceased to trade with them as
before and sent yearly more than twenty ships laden with cotton, silk,
porcelain, sulphur, iron, copper, flour, quicksilver, cloth, and gunpowder,
Avhich they exchanged for skins of deer, buffaloes, and martens, with
which these isles abounded (Part i, p. 140).
c 2
20 OF THE FIRST DISCOVERIES
rounding districts ; some submitting themselves willingly,
otliers being conquered by force of arms, or by the industry
of tbe monks who sowed the holy Gospel, in which each
and all laboured valiantly, both in the time and governor-
ship of the adelantado Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, and in
that of other governors who succeeded him. The land was
entrusted to those who had pacified it and settled in it, and
heads named, on behalf of the crown, of the provinces, ports,
towns, and cities, which were founded, together with other
special commissions for necessities which might arise, and
for the expenses of the royal exchequer. The affairs of the
government, and conversion of the natives, were treated as
was fit and necessary. Ships were provided each year to
make the voyage to New Spain, and to return with the
usual supplies : so that the condition of the Philippine
Islands, in spiritual and temporal matters, flourishes at the
present day, as all know.
The commander-in-chief, Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, as
has been said, discovered the islands, and made a settlement
in them, and gave a good beginning to their subjection and
pacification. He founded the city of the Most Holy Name of
Jesus in the provinces of the Pintados, and after that the
city of Manila in the island of Luzon. He conquered there
the province of Ylocos ; and in its town and port, called
Vigan, he founded a Spanish town, to which he gave the
name of Villa Fernandina. So also he pacified the province
of Pangasinan and the island of Mindoro. He fixed the
rate of tribute which the natives had to pay in all the
islands, and ordered many other matters relating to their
government and conversion, until he died, in the year 1574,
at Manila, where his body lies buried in the monastery of
St. Augustine.^
> Ferdinand de los Rios, in a report on the Pluli])iiines, given by
Thevenot, vol. li, states that his body was removed later to another
chnrch, and that he was so good ;iiid lioly tluit his body was found to be
still entire.
OF THE EASTERN ISLES. 21
The commander-in-chief having died, a sealed des^Datch
was fovmd amongst his papers, from the high court of Mex-
ico, which carried on the government when the fleet left
New Spain, naming (in case the commander-in-chief died)
a successor to the governorship. In virtue of this. Guide
de Labazarris, a royal oificer, entered upon those duties, and
was obeyed. He, with much prudence, valour, and tact,
continued the conversion and pacification of the islands, and
governed them.
In his time there came the corsair Limahon from China,
with seventy large ships and many men-at-arms, against
Manila. He entered the city, and having killed the master of
the camp Martin de Goiti, in his house, along with other
Spaniards who were in it, he went against the fortress in which
the Spaniards, who were few in number, had taken refuge,
with the object of taking the country and making himself
master of it. The Spaniards, with the succour which Cap-
tain Joan de Salzedo brought them from Vigan, of the men
whom he had with him (for he had seen this corsair pass by
the coast, and had followed him to Manila), defended them-
selves so vaHantly, that after killing many of his people they
forced him to re-embark, and to leave the bay in flight, and
take shelter in the river of Pangasinam, whither the Spani-
ards followed him. There they burned his fleet, and for
many days surrounded this corsair on land, who in secret
made some small boats with which he fled and put to sea,
and abandoned the islands.^
During the government of this Guido de Labazarris, trade
> The Dutch Memorable Embassies relates that whilst Salzedo was
blockading Limahon, a Chinese vessel came near, and the Spaniards were
on the point of attacking it, but a Chinese merchant persuaded them
first to ascertain what the ship was; and it turned out to be the Chinese
Admiral Omoncon, who was cruising in pursmt of Limahon. This woi'k
states that Limahon died of fever on a desert island, to which he escaped
from the island of Tacaotican when threatened by the Chinese admiral
and Spaniards combined.
22 OF THE GOVEENMENT OF
and commerce were established between great China and
Manila, ships coming each year with merchandize, and the
governor giving them a good reception ; so that every year
the trade has gone on increasing.
This same governor distributed all the subjected land in
Luzon and the adjacent islands between the conquerors and
settlers that were there, and he granted to himself the vil-
lages of Betis and Lubao in the province of Pampanga, and
others of some importance. The governor who succeeded
him dispossessed him of all these ; and later, his Majesty,
on account of his good sei-vices, did him the favour of grant-
ing them all to him ; and he enjoyed them, along with the
office of master of the camp of the islands, during the time
that he lived.
CHAPTER II.
Of the Government of Dr. Francisco de Sande, and of the Events in
his time in the Philippine Islands.
News having been received in Spain of the conquest and
taking possession of the Philippine Islands by Miguel Lopez
de Legazpi, and of his death, his Majesty appointed as
governor and captain-general of these islands. Dr. Francisco
de Sande, a native of Caceres, alcalde of the Audiencia of
Mexico ; and he sailed thither, and entered upon his govern-
ment, in the year 1575.
During this government the pacification of the islands
continued, and especially that of the province of Camarines,
by means of Captain Pedro de Chaves, who several times
came to blows with the natives until he subjected them, and
they submitted. A Spanish town was founded in that pro-
vince, and the name of city of Caceres was given to it.
Amongst other enterprises, the governor in person made an
expedition to the island of Borneo with a fleet of galleys
DR. FEANCISCO DE SANDE. 23
and frigates. Witli these lie attacked and took the enemy^s
fleetj which had come out to meet him. He then took the
principal town^ in which the king of the island had his house
and residence. Having remained there a few days^ he aban-
doned it on account of the sickness of his crews, and from
not being able to maintain or preserve the lives of the
Spaniards in the island, and returned to Manila. On the
way, by his orders, Captain Estevan Rodriguez de Figueroa
went into the island of Jolo (Svilu or Holo), and fought with
the inhabitants and their chief, and conquered them, and
they made submission to him in the name of his Majesty.
From there he passed on to the island of Mindanao, and
saw it, and reconnoitred the river and its chief towns ; and
he brought back, to peace and friendship with the Spaniards,
other towns and inhabitants of the same island lying in his
course of those that had before submitted. The governor
despatched the ship San Juanillo to New Spain, under the
command of Captain Juan de Ribera, and it was lost at sea,
and never again heard of.
Dr. Sande continued in the government until Don Gon-
zalo Ronquillo de Penalosa arrived from Spain as governor
and captain-general. The doctor^s residence having ended,
he returned to New Spain to fill the office of auditor of
Mexico.
CHAPTER III.
Of the Government of Don Gonzalo Eonqiiillo de Penalosa ; and of
Diego Ronquillo, who, on account of his death, filled the office.
From the copious information which reached the court of
his Majesty concerning the afiairs of the Philippines, and of
the great need which they experienced of being supplied
with settlers and people to occupy them, for the better
ordering of this, and at the least cost to the royal exchequer.
2i OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
au arraugement was made with Don Gonzalo Ronquillo de
Penalosaj a native of Arevalo^ and alguazil-mayor of the
high court of Mexico, who was at that time at the court,
that he should have the government of the PhiHppines for
life, and should take with him six hundred men from the
kingdoms of Castile, married and single, to the Philippine
Islands; his Majesty, at the same time, would grant him
some assistance and facilities for this, and other favours, as
a reward for this service.
Don Gonzalo prepared for the voyage, and having col-
lected his people, and got them embarked in the port of
San Lucar de Barrameda, when the fleet went out to the
bar, one of the ships in his company was lost. He returned
in order to repair his losses, and although he did not get as
much as what he first started with, made his voyage to the
mainland. At Panama he embarked his people on the South
Sea, and set sail for the Philippines, where he arrived^ and
entered upon his government in the year 1580.
Don Gonzalo Ronquillo founded a Spanish town in the
island of Panay, in Oton, and he gave it the name of Are-
valo. In his time the trade with the Chinese was increased,
and he built a silk market for them, and parian, within the
city, to which they might bring their merchandize and sell
it. He endeavoured to discover a return voyage from the
islands to New Spain by a southerly course, for which pur-
pose he sent his cousin, Don Juan Eonquillo del Castillo ;
but he did not succeed, for after navigating for some time,
until he found himself in the neighbourhood of New Guinea,
and meeting with many adverse storms, he returned to the
Philippines. In like manner he sent another ship, com-
manded by Don Gonzalo Ronquillo de Vallesteros, to Peru
with some merchandize, to obtain some goods which were
required for the Philippines from those provinces. This
ship retui'ned from Peru, and found the governor already
dead. Ho imposed two per cent, duty on merchandize
DON GONZALO RONQUILLO DE PEiiALOSA. 25
embarked for New Spain^ and three per cent, on the goods
imported by the Chinese to the PhiHppines ; and although
this was disapproved of, and blamed for having been done
without orders from his Majesty, these duties continued to
jbe imposed and established thenceforward.
In the same governorship (his Majesty having succeeded
to the kingdom of Portugal, and having ordered the governor
of Manila to keep up good relations with the captain-major
of the fortress of the island of Tidore^ in the Moluccas, and
to give it such assistance as it might require), a fleet with
men-at-arms was sent from Manila to the fortress, under the
command of Don Juan Eonquillo del Castillo, at the request
of Diego de Azambuja, captain-major of Tidore, for an expe-
dition for the conquest of the island of Terrenate. This
fleet, after reaching Maluco, did not succeed in its object.
From this time forward succour of men and provisions con-
tinued to be sent from the Philippines to the fortress of
Tidore.
During this same government, the province of Cagayan
in the island of Luzon, opposite to China, was reduced for
the first time by Captain Joan Pablos de Carrion ; and he
founded in it a Spanish town, and gave it the name of
Nueva Segovia ; and he turned out of that province a
Japanese corsair, who with some ships had taken possession,
of, and fortified himself in, his port.
A few days after Don Gonzalo Eonquillo had entered upon
his government, he sent Captain Gabriel de Ribera with a
small fleet of one galley and some frigates, to discover the
coast and towns of the island of Borneo, and to go on from
there to the kingdom of Patan on the mainland, from
whence pepper is brought. After running down the coast
of Borneo, and reconnoitring it, on account of the season
being much advanced, and the provisions run short, the
captain returned with the fleet to Manila. The governor
sent him thence to Spain with authority from himself and
26 OF THE GOVERNMENT OP
from the islands^ to speak to his Majesty I'especting some
matters which he was desirous about, and others which were
advantageous to the islands. He found his Majesty in
Portugal, and gave him a few pieces of gold and other curi-
osities which he had brought for that purpose, and treated '
of the business upon which he had come. The result of
which was that his Majesty gratified him with the title of
Mariscal de Bonbon, and other favours, for his trouble in
the voyage, and took the decision which was most fitting in
the business which he had come about.
Whilst Don Gonzalo Ronquillo was governor, the first
bishop of the Philippines was elected, named Don Fray
Domingo de Salazar, of the order of St. Dominic, a person
of much hterature and sanctity. When he arrived in the
islands he took upon himself the ecclesiastical government
and jurisdiction, which at first had been exercised by the
Augustine friars who arrived at the conquest ; and later, by
the barefooted monks of St. Francis, who arrived at the
conversion. The bishop erected his church into a cathedral,
in the city of Manila, by apostolic bulls, with prebends paid
by the royal exchequer until there should, be tithes and
ecclesiastical revenues by which to sustain them. He also
established what else was necessary for the service and orna-
•ment of the church and divine service, which is celebrated
there with much solemnity and display. The bishop took
with him in his journey Antonio Sedeiio and Alonso San-
chez, priests, and grave persons of the company of Jesus,
who were the first who established that order in the Phihp-
pines ; and since that time it has gone on extending itself
with much profit and fruit to the teaching and conversion
of the natives, and comfort of the Spaniards, and education
and teaching of their children in the studies which they
follow.
Don Gonzalo Ronquillo enjoyed so little health from the
day in which he entered upon his government, that he died
DON GONZALO RONQUILLO DE PEllALOSA. 27
ill the year 1583, and his body was buried iu the monastery
of St. Augustine of Manila.
Diego EonquillOj his kinsman, succeeded him in the
government, having been named thereto by Don Gonzalo in
virtue of an order which he held from his Majesty. He con-
tinued all that Don Gonzalo left undertaken, especially in
the matter of assistance to the Moluccas and the pacification
of other islands.
In the time of Diego Ronquillo there was a fire in the city
of Manila, which first began in the church of the monastery
of St. Augastine, at midday, when the church doors were
shut ; and the fire increased so much that in a few hours the
whole city was burnt, as it was built of wood, with much
loss of furniture and property, and several people were in
great danger. The town was rebuilt with mach difiiculty
and labour, and after this the Spaniards remained very poor
and distressed.
Of the business treated of by the Mariscal Gabriel de
Ribera at court, that which was chiefly carried into effect
was (though at that time the death of the governor, Don
Gonzalo Ronquillo, was not known at court) was to order
the establishment of a high court of justice in the city of
Manila, whose president should be governor and captain-
general in all the Philippines. For this purpose the neces-
sary instructions were issued. The presidency was given to
Dr. Santiago de Vera, alcalde of the high court of Mexico,
a native of the town of Alcala de Henares, who went to the
islands with the usual succours from New Spain, taking
with him the royal seal of the court, and the auditors whom
his Majesty sent, and the judge and other officials and serv-
ants for the said high court. The auditors and fiscal were
the licentiates, Melchior de Avalos, Pedro de Rojas, and
Gaspar de Ayala as fiscal ; and at the end of two years
later, Don Antonio de Ribera came as third auditor.
28 OF THE GOVERNMENT OV
CHAPTER IV.
Of the Government of Dr. Santiago de Vera ; and of the Establishment
of the Audiencia (High Court) of Manila, until it was removed ;
and of that which hajjpened in his time.
The President and Auditors having arrived at the Philip-
pines in the month of May 1584, whilst Diego Ronquillo
was governing. Dr. Santiago de Vera entered upon the
government, and immediately founded the High Court, and
the seal was received and placed with all solemnity and
festivities that were possible. They then began to attend
to business, both of justice and in matters of war and
administration, with great profit to the country. During
this time fresh succours continued to be sent to the Moluccas,
and for the conquest of the island of Terrenate, which the
captain-major of Tidore desired to make : Captain Pedro
Sarmiento went from Manila for this purpose, and on
another occasion the captain and sergeant-major Juan de
Moron, but neither of these expeditions met with the
desired result.
The President Santiago de Vera also continued to cany
put the pacification of some provinces of the islands, and
efiected several matters that in all respects were most
fittinar. He discovered a rebelhon and insurrection which
the principal natives of Manila and Panpanga were propos-
ing to carry into efiect against the Spaniards, and justice
was done upon the guilty. He built with stone the fortress
of Our Lady of Guidance within the city of Manila on the
land side, and he caused some artillery to be founded for
arming it, by means of an old Indian named Pandapira, a
native of Panpanga : he and his sons rendered this service
for many years afterwards, until they died.
During the government of the President Santiago de
DR. SANTIAGO DE VEKA. 29
Vera^ Tliomas Escander/ an Englishman, passed through
the straits of Magellan to the South Sea ; he had captured
on the coast of New Spain (close to California) the ship
Sta. Ana, which was coming from the Philippines with
much gold and merchandise of great value : after that he
came to the Philippines, and entered by the provinces of
Pintados, in sight of the town of Arevalo and of the stocks,
oil wliich a galloon was being built to perform the voyage
to New Spain. Desiring to set fire to this ship he made an
attempt to do so, which was resisted by Manuel Lorenzo de
Lemos, who assisted in building it. The Englishman then
passed on, returning towards India, by which route he made
his voyage to England, having followed the same tracks which
some years before Francis Drake the Englishman took
when he passed through the same straits of Magellan to the
coast of Peru, where he made many prizes.^
1 Thomas Candish: in a letter dated September 9, 1588, published by
R. Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 837, he says he burned and sunk nineteen sail of
ships. ' ' The matter of most profit unto me was a great ship of the
king's which I tooke at California, which ship came from the Philip-
pines, being one of the richest of merchandize that ever passed those
seas, as the king's register and merchants' accounts did shew Which
goods (for that my ships were not able to conteine the least part of
them) I was inforced to set on fire." This voyage, 1586-1588, is given
by Hakluyt, vol. iii, pp. 803-825.
2 An account of this voyage, 1577-1580, was given by Nuiio da Silva,
a Portuguese pilot, whom Drake carried off with him, and is preserved
amongst the MSS. of the Madrid Public Library : a translation of it is
given by Hakluyt, vol. iii, pp. 742-8. Nufio da Silva says that Drake
took away the ornaments and reliques from the church of St. lago on
the South American coast; or as Drake relates it: "We came to a small
chappell which wee entred, and found therein a silver chalice, two cruets,
and one altar cloth the spoyle whereof our Generall gave to M. Fletcher
his minister." (R. Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 735.)
Mr. Froude, in his essay on England's Forgotten Worthies^ rejects the
"modern theory of Drake that he was a gentleman -like pirate on a large
scale, who is indebted for the place which he fills in history to the in-
distinct ideas of right and wrong prevailing in the unenlightened age in
which he lived." Further on Mr. Froude says: "Drake, it is true, aj)pro-
30 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
At this time it seemed fitting to the High Court and
to the Bishop to send to Spain to the coui-t of His Majesty-
some person of sufiicient and satisfactory qualities to give
an account and information of the state of affairs of the
PhiHppine Islands in all respects^ and to request that some
necessary dispositions should be taken^ and especially that
it should be given to be understood that the High Court
which had been founded might be dispensed with for the
present time ; for as the country was new, it was a heavy
charge for all classes. The individual selected for that pur-
pose was Padre Alonzo Sanchez, of the company of Jesus,
well informed and experienced in matters of the country,
and very active in business. They gave him instructions
and authority on behalf of all classes, orders, and com-
munities as to what he was to treat of and request in Spain,
and of His Holiness in the Roman court where he was also
to go. This padre arrived at Madrid, and after seeing His
Majesty a few times (respecting those things which he
thought fit to treat of), he went on to Rome, where he in-
troduced himself as ambassador from all the estates of the
Philippines, and on their behalf kissed the foot, and visited
the pontiffs who were at that time, after the death of Sixtus
priated and brought home a million and a half of Spanish treasure,
while England and Spain were at peace. He took that treasure because
for many years the officers of the Inquisition had made free at their
pleasure with the lives and goods of English merchants and seamen.
Spain and England were at peace, but Popery and Protestantism
were at war — deep, deadly, and irreconcileable."
The ideas of right and wrong were not however so indistinct in that
age, for we find in De Morga an account of Bias lluys, a Spanish ad-
venturer, who was as patriotic, as courageous, and as unscrupulous as
Drake; yet De Morga opposed his projects at the time, and in his
history blames his acts. To justify Drake's buccaneering whilst Spain
and England were at peace, by the fact that Popery and Protestantism
were at war, is to jjut Protestantism into the position which the Inqui-
sition is accused of having assumed ; and how much soever history may
credit the sincerity of Drake's piety, it should not on that account
justify wliat was as much piracy then as at the present time.
DR. SANTIAGO DE VERA. 31
the Fifth. After receiving many favours and indulgences,
and many reliques, and bulls and letters for the Philippines,
he returned to Spain, where he again sought for a decision
as to the business which he had left set on foot when he
went to Rome. His Majesty listened to what he brought
from the pontiflPs, and heard him favourably as to the affairs
of the islands ; and in private meetings the padre set forth
his requests, and got the business decided very much to his
satisfaction. Wben the despatches arrived in the Philip-
pines it seemed beside the intention and expectations both
of the bishop and the High Court, as well as of the city and
inhabitants and settlers, and even detrimental to those who
were in the islands ; on which account they expressed their
displeasure at P. Alonso Sanchez, who had remained in
Spain. He negotiated that the High Court of Manila
should be abolished and that a new governor should be
sent, and in asking for one, he himself proposed (on account
of the friendly intercourse which he had met with from him)
Gomez Perez Dasmariiias, who had been corregidor of Leon,
and later of Murcia, and who at that season was in the
court, and named as corregidor of Logrono and Calahorra.
His Majesty named him as governor and captain-general of
the Philippines, and increased the salary of his office to ten
thousand ducats of Castillo yearly : he granted him a habit
of Santiago, and a large sum towards the expenses of his
voyage. Providing him with the needful despatches (both
for exercising his office and for abolishing the High Court
which was in Manila, and for establishing there a camp of
four hundred paid soldiers with their officers at the king^s
expense, for the garrison and defence of the island), His
Majesty commanded him to sail immediately for New Spain,
in the ships which arrived in the year 1589 with the Vice-
roy Don Luis de Velasco, who came to take the government
there.
Gomez Perez Dasmarinas left Mexico as expeditiously as
OF THE GOVERNMENT OP
possible^ andj witli the ships, soldiers and captains that he
requirod_, set sail for the Philippines, whither he arrived in
the month of May of the year 1590.
CHAPTER V.
Of the Government of Gomez Terez Dasmariilas ; and of the Licentiate
Pedro de Rojas, who at his death was elected to the government by
the city of Manila, until Don Luis Dasmarifias was received instead
of Gomez Perez, his father.
As soon as Gomez Perez Dasmariilas arrived at the Phi-
hppines, he was received as governor, to the general satis-
faction. He abolished the Audiencia, and filled the offices
of president, auditors and fiscal and other ministers of the
court, by means of the Licenciate Herver del Coral, whom
the Viceroy Don Luys de Velasco sent for this purpose, in
virtue of a royal order which he held. The new governor
commenced his rule, establishing the camp of paid soldiers,
and putting into execution various matters for which he had
royal orders and instructions with much heat and zeal, with-
out excusing himself from any kind of labour, or care for
his own self. The first thing which he began was to wall
the town, and he took it up so much in earnest, that he left
it almost completed before he died : he also built a battery
on the point of Manila, where there used to be the old fort
of wood, and he named it Santiago, and supplied it with
some artillery; he levelled the fort of our Lady of Gruidance,
which his predecessor had built ; he constructed with stone
the cathedral church of Manila, and encouraged the in-
habitants of the city to persevere in building their houses
of stone, which work they had set about a few days before,
the bishop having set the example in his own case. He in-
creased the trade with China during his time, and the navi-
gation to New Spain and despatch of vessels in that line
J
GOMEZ PEREZ DASMARinAS. 33
became more regular. He built some galleys for the de-
fence of the coast^ pacified the Zam.bales who had rebelled,
and sent his son Don Luys Dasmarinas, of the habit of
Alcantara, with troops into the interior of the island of
Luzon, from Manila, crossing the river Ytui, and other
provinces not yet seen or discovered by the Spaniards,
until he came out at Cagayan. He made a cannon foundiy
in Manila, where, for want of expert founders, few lai'ge
pieces were turned out.
In the first year of his government he sent over to New
Spain the president and auditors of the High Court, which
had been abohshed : the licenciate Pedro de Rojas, the
senior auditor remained with the governor by order of His
Majesty, as lieutenant assessor in matters of justice, until a
few years later, when he was named as Alcalde in Mexico.
In the time of Gomez Perez, the peace and trade which
existed between the Japanese and the Spaniards began to
be disturbed ; for up to that ships had come for some years
from the port of Nangasaqui in Japan to Manila, with flour
and other goods, and had been well received and treated
there ; and Taicosama, the universal lord of Japan, was incited
by the efibrts of Farandaquiemon, a Japanese of low extrac-
tion of those that came to Manila, to write in a barbarous and
arrogant manner to the governor desiring him to recognise
him and send tribute, threatening to come with a fleet and
troops to destroy the country.^ And between demands and
replies some years had to pass b}'^, until at last Taico died.
' The substance of this letter of Taico Saraa is thus given in the
Dutch Memorable Embassies: "That since his accession to the empire of
Japan, the wars and divisions which formerly agitated it had been en-
tirely suppressed. That by the grace of their gods, everything being
at peace in Japan, he was resolved to make war on the Chinese ; that it
depended on himself (the Governor of Manila) not to be involved in it;
and that it was only necessary for him to recognise him as his sovereign,
master, and lord ; and that if he could not bring himself to that till
after trying the fortune of war, that he should expect him on his re-
D
34 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
At the same time as that in which Japan gave trouble to
the governor, the King of Cambodia sent him an embassy
with Diego Belloso, a Portuguese, and a present of two
elephants. He offered friendship and trade with his country,
and begged of him assistance against Siam, which was
threatening him. The governor sent him an answer and a
horse, with a few emeralds and other things, leaving him
hopes of assistance for another time, and thanking him for
his friendship. From this took their origin the events and
expeditions which were made later from Manila to the
kingdoms of Siam, Camboja, and the mainland of Asia.
From the time that Gomez Perez accepted his charge in
Spain, and after entering upon his government, he nourished
a desire to make an expedition from Manila to conquer the
fortress of Terrenate in the Moluccas, on account of the
great importance of this enterprise, and from the former
attempts having failed. And he was always disposing
matters and making arrangements with regard to this expe-
dition, but with such secresy that he confided it to no one ;
until, in the year ^93, seeing himself provided with what he
considered sufficient for his design, he declared it, and took
measures for setting out in person with more than nine
hundred Spaniards and two hundred sail, between galleys,
galliots and frigates, viceroys and other craft ; he left the
affairs of Manila and the islands with a few troops (though
not what was necessary for its defence) under the charge of
Diego Ronquillo, his master of the camp, in matters of war;
turn from China, whence he would go directly to his islands to teach
him who he was." The same work states that the Spanish governor
was much embarrassed, and resolved to do homage and duty to the
Japanese emperor, and for this purpose sent as envoy Lupus de Liano,
to say that the governor doubted if this letter were really from the
emperor, as the Jesuits had written him nothing on the subject. This
turned the wrath of the emperor against the Jesuits, whom he then
considered as spies who betrayed him. This envoy, Lupus de Liiino,
was two persons. Fray Juan Lobo and Capt. Llano, as stated further
on by De Morga.
G05IEZ PEREZ DASMARIllAS.
and in those of administration and justice under the care of
the Licenciate Pedro de Roxas. The governor sent his son
Don Lujs Dasmarinas forward with the rest of the fleets as
his lieutenant in the office of captain-general^ to the pro-
vince of Pintados, whence they were to start: he himself re-
mained in Manila making his last preparations, and armed
a galley of twenty-eight benches to sail in himself. He
manned it with good Chinese rowers with pay, and to gain
them over more, he would not consent to chain them, and
winked at some of them bearing arms. As many as forty
Spaniards embarked in this galley, and some frigates and
smaller vessels, in which went private individuals, sailed in
company Avith it. Tliey set sail from the port of Cabit, in
the month of October of 1563, for the province of Pintados,
where they were to join the fleet which was there waiting
for them, and pursue the voyage to Maluco. On the second
day of the voyage in the afternoon they arrived at the island
of Gaza, twenty-four leagues from Manila, close to the coast
of the same island of Luzon, a place called Sulphur point,
with some head wind : the galley made an effort to double
this point by rowing, and not being able to advance until
the wind should drop, it anchored and spread an awning,
and remained there that night. Some of the vessels which
came in company went in closer to shore, in sight of the
galley, and there waited for it.
The governor and those who accompanied him passed the
time playing on the poop till the end of the first watch, and
after he had gone into his cabin to rest, the other Spaniards
went to their quarters for the same purpose, leaving the
usual guards in the midship gangway and in the bows and
stern. The Chinese rowers three days back had agreed to
rise up and seize the galley whenever they should find a
favourable opportunity, from a desire to save themselv^es the
labour of rowing on this expedition, or from coveting the
money, jewels and other articles of value on board, as it
D 2
36 OP THK GOVERNMENT OF
seemed to them ill to lose what was offered to their hands :
they had provided themselves with candles and white shirts,
and had appointed some of their number as chiefs for the
execution of the plan ; and they carried it out that same
night, in the last watch before dawn, when they perceived
that the Spaniards slept. At a signal which one of them
gave, at the same moment all put on their shirts, and lit
their candles, and with their catans in their hands they at
once attacked the guards and those that slept in the quarters
and in the wales,^ and, wounding and killing, they seized
upon the galley. But few Spaniards escaped ; some by
swimming to land, others in the boat which was at the stern.
The governor, when he heard the noise in his cabin, and
perceived that the galley was dragging, and that the rabble
was cutting down the awning, and was taking to the oars,
hurried out carelessly, and his head being unprotected at
the hatchway of the cabin, a few Chinese were watching for
him there, and split his head with a catan. He fell, wounded,
down the stairs into his cabin ; and two servants whom he
had within, carried him to his bed, where he died immedi-
ately. The same fate met the servants, who were stabbed
through the hatch. The only Spaniards that remained alive
in the galley were Juan de Cuellar, secretary of the governor,
and Padre Montilla, of the order of St. Francis, who slept
in a cabin amidship ; and they stayed there without coming
out ; and the Chinese did not dare to go in, thinking that
there were more Spaniards, until next day, when they took
them out, and let them go on the coast of Ylocos, of the
island of Luzon itself, in order that the natives might let
them take water on shore, of which they were short.
The Spaniards who were in the other vessels, close to
land, although they perceived from their ships the hghts
and the noise in the galley, thought it was some manoeuvre
that was being executed ; and when afterwards they knew,
after a short space, through those who escaped, swimming,
' A r rumba das, planks or franios on whicli soldiers sleep.
GOMEZ PEREZ DASMARlilAS. 37
what had happened, they could give uo assislance, and
remained quiet, as everything was lost, and they were few
in number, and not in sufficient force. So they waited till
morning, and when it dawned they saw that the galley had
already set the mainsail, and was saihng wind astern,
returning to China, and they could not follow it.
As the wind served, the galley sailed all along the coast
of the island until leaving it. It took in some water at the
Ylocos, and left there the secretary and the friar. It
attempted to cross to China, and not being able to fetch it,
brought up at the kingdom of Cochin China, where the king
of Tunquin took from them what was in the galley, and two
large pieces of artillery which had been embarked for the
expedition to Maluco, and the royal standard, and all the
jewels, money, and precious things, and left the galley to
go ashore on the coast. The Chinese dispersed, and fled to
diflerent provinces. The governor, Gomez Perez, met with
this disastrous death, with which the enterprise and expedi-
tion to Maluco, which he had undertaken, ceased also. Thus
his government ended after he had held it for little more
than three years.
Amongst other despatches which Gomez Perez Dasma-
rinas brought from Spain, was an order from his Majesty
for naming the person whom he should judge fitting to
govern in case of his death, until such time as his Majesty
should name his successor. With this royal order, vvhicli
he shewed to some of the more important persons of the
island, he gave each one to understand that he would leave
him as the person named; and especially in the case of
Captain Estevan Rodriguez de Figueroa, an inhabitant of
Pintados, a rich man, of merit, and one of the first conque-
rors. To him he shewed a nomination made in his favour,
and he made use of him on all occasions, and he had to go
with him to Maluco. In Manila the seizure of the galley
and death of the governor became known very sliortl}- ; and
38 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
with tliis astounding news the townspeople and the men-at-
arms who had remained there, met together in the house of
the licentiate Pedro de Rojas, to treat of what it was fitting
to do ; and first of all to elect him as governor and captain-
general ; and then they sent Captain Juan Ronquillo del
Castillo, with other captains, in two frigates (for there was
no other vessel) in pursuit of the galley ; which was fruit-
less, for they never saw it. In like manner the governor
sent to Don Luys Dasmarinas, and to the fleet and army,
which was in Pintados waiting for Gomez Perez, advising
them of his death, and of what had happened, and of the
new election which had fallen upon him for the government,
and ordered them to come with all speed to Manila, which
was left very much deserted, and without the necessary pre-
cautions for anything that might occur.
This news caused much grief in the fleet, and Don Luys
Dasmarinas and the Captain Estevan Rodriguez de Figue-
roa, each in his heart held it for certain that he was about
to enter upon the government, taking it for granted that
the governor had left the nomination to him j and with this
hope, both together, with the best ships and crews of the
fleet, came to Manila as speedily as they could, at the same
time.
The licentiate Pedro de Rojas, fearing this despatch,
which the governor would have left among his papers and
writing boxes, which he kept in the monastery of St. Augus-
tine of Manila, in the hands of Fray Diego Munoz, prior and
commissary of the holy ofiice, made search for them to get
them into his power ; and although he took a few, yet not
the despatch in question ; for the prior had forestalled him,
and preserved a writing box in which they understood it
was to be found, until such time as Don Luys Dasmarinas
should reach the city. The secretary, Juan de Cuellar, who
escaped from the galley, arrived from the province of Ylocos,
and he certified that a norniuatiou for the succession to the
GOMEZ PEREZ DASMAEinAS. 39
government had been made by Gomez Perez ; but he did
not say in whose favoui'j nor amongst what papers it would
be foundj so that the hcentiate, Pedro de Rojas, and those
who were devoted to him, were very anxious.
Forty days passed in this manner, at the end of which
Don Luys appeared in the bay, near the city, with Estevan
Rodriguez de Figueroa and many people in his company.
There he anchored without choosing to enter the city, nor
disembark. He caused search to be made for the papers
which had been put by in St. Augustine, and amongst them
turned up the royal order and nomination of Don Luys Das-
marinas to succeed in the government. There was some
one on his behalf who made it known to the regiment in the
city, which changing its conduct, notwithstanding some
opposition which was made by the partizans of the licen-
tiate Rojas, called Don Luys Dasmarinas to the house of
the municipality, and gave him possession of the govern-
ment ; and the fleet and soldiers that Don Luys brought
with him did the same ; so that each day brought a disap-
pointment to the Hcentiate Rojas, who returned to his office
of Heutenant-assessor after having governed for the above
mentioned forty days.
If the death of the governor Gomez Perez Dasmarinas
was unfortunate, as much for the loss of him personally^ as
for such a good opportunity having been lost for the con-
quest of Terrenate, the success of which expedition was
held to be certain, the return of the fleet and arrival of the
troops in the city was none the less a fortunate event ; since
not many days later (anticipating the usual time for their
navigation), a quantity of ships from China came to Manila
' Colonel Fernando de los Rios, in a report, printed in Thevenot,
vol. ii, says that he had been thirty years in the Philippines, and in all
that time had only seen one governor fit for his office, and that was
Gomez Perez de las Marinas, who did more for the happiness of the
people in the three years that he was there, than did the others before
and after.
40 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
with many men on board and little merchandise, and seven
mandarins with the insignia of their office. This gave suffi-
cient motive for suspicion that they had had notice of the
departure of the fleet to Maluco, and of the city having
remained defenceless, and that on this occasion they came
to attempt to take the country; from which they desisted
when they found the city with more troops than ever, and
they returned without shewing any particular motive which
had brought them, and without any sign of consciousness
being given by one side or other. Only the governor, Don
Luys, was on the alert and very watchful, and took the
proper arrangements, especially with respect to the Chinese
and their quarters and parian.
In this year no ships came to New Spain from the Philip-
pines, because the governor, Gomez Perez, had sent two
ships before he started on the expedition to Maluco, the
San Felipe and the San Francisco ; but both had to take
shelter in port from storms, — the San Felipe put into the
port of Sebu, and the San Francisco in Manila, and they
could not go out of port till the following year. In New
Spain it was suspected, seeing that the ships did not arrive,
that there were troubles in the islands, and persons were
not wanting who affirmed to more than what did happen :
at the same time (in the town of Mexico) it could not be
ascertained whence the news had proceeded. This was very
shortly known in Spain (by way of India), letters going
through Persia to Venice, that immediately they set about
naming a new governor.
In the first year of the government of Gomez Perez Das-
mariilas, the want of the High Court of Justice began to be
felt by many, seeing all the power placed in the hands of
one person, and that there was no one to whom recourse
could be had for the remedy of certain cases ; and he that
experienced this most was the Bishop Fray Domingo de
Salazar, who had had some encounters with the governor,
GOMEZ PEREZ DASMARlflAS. 41
and met with some mortifications, whicli obliged him to set
out for Spain, although he was very aged. The governor
readily gave him leave that year, and a vessel for his journey,
in order to get him at a distance from himself ; but he sent
at the same time, with his full powers. Fray Francisco de
Ortega, of the order of St. Augustine, to court, so that he
might meet whatever the bishop might allege, and defend
his cause. Both arrived in Spain, and each spoke as suited
his purpose. The chief thing upon which the bishop laid
stress was to beg that they would again establish the High
Court of Justice, and found other bishoprics in the Philip-
pines besides that of Manila, and other things which he
thought requisite for spiritual and temporal matters. In all
this, Ortega contradicted him. The authority and virtue of
the bishop weighed so much, that, although at first the cause
which had moved him to leave his church, and come, at his
age, five thousand leagues to Spain, was held to be a light
one, later he was heard favourably by his Majesty and
council ; and all his petitions and propositions were taken
into consideration, and much time was spent over them, and
many consultations were held with his Majesty for him to
decide upon them.
In the same year of 1593 in which Gomez Perez died in
the Philippines, the council provided, after consulting with
his Majesty, that the office of lieutenant-assessor in judicial /
causes, which had been filled by the licentiate Pedro de
Rojas since the abolition of the audiencia, should be made
more important than what it then was, as more convenient ;
and that it should have the title of lieutenant-general of the
governor and captain-general ; and that in matters of justice
he should hear causes in appeal, which did not exceed the
value of a thousand ducats of Castile ; and under these cir-
cumstances the licentiate Pedro de Rojas was promoted to
the place of alcalde of Mexico, and his Majesty named
Dr. Antonio de Morga to take his place as lieutenant-general
•i2 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
of the Philippines. He came to New Spain in the course
of his journey out^ in the beginning of the year 1594, and
found that the ships had not arrived, which, as has been
already said, were missing from the Philippines ; but the
death of Gomez Perez and the other events were not known
until the month of November of the same year, when Don
Juan de Yelasco came in the galloon Santiago, which had
been despatched the year before from New Spain by the
Viceroy Don Luys de Velasco, with the usual succour, to the
islands, and brought the news of the death of the governor,
and that his son, Don Luys Dasmarinas, was in the govern-
ment. Immediately men were got ready, and fresh succours,
for the islands, with which, and many passengers and monks
who had come from Spain, Dr. Antonio de Morga embarked
in the port of Acapulco in the galloons Sa7i Felipe and Sant-
iago, taking everything under his orders, and set sail the
22nd of March, 1595. He arrived with fair weather, and
anchored in the port of Cabit the 11th of June of the same
year, and entered upon his office of lieutenant-general, and
began to occupy himself with its duties, and with what else
was at his charge.
Whilst Don Luys Dasmarinas governed, the suspicions
and fear continued with respect to Japan, and people lived
in anxiety as to that, and on account of the Chinese. The
governor sent his cousin, Don Fernando de Castro, to China
with letters and despatches to the Viceroy of Canton and
the Viceroy of Chincheo, where it was understood that there
were many of the Chinese who had seized upon the galley
and killed the governor, Gomez Perez. Supposing that they
had gone there with it, a request was made for the guilty to
be given up for punishment, and that the royal standard,
artillery, and the other things which they had carried off,
should be restored. This was not obtained, because, as the
galley went to Cochin China, and the Chinese dispersed in
so many directions, it could not be effected ; though, at the
LUYS DASMARIllAS. 43
end of a few days, a few of the guilty Chinese were brought
from Malacca to Manila, whom the Captain-Major, Francisco
de Silva de Meneses had found there. From these it was
known more accurately what had passed with respect to the
seizure of the galley and death of the governor, and justice
was done upon them.
During the year 1594, in which Don Luys governed, a
large junk came to the Philippines, in which were some
Cambodians and Siamese, and a few Chinese and three
Spaniards, one a Castilian, named Bias Ruyz de Hernan
Gonzalez, and two Portuguese, named Pantaloon Carnero
and Antonio Machado. Wliilst these were in the kingdom
of Cambodia and city of Chordemuco,^ with Prauncar" Lan-
gara. King of Camboja, the King of Siam fell upon him with
many men and elephants, took all the country, and the
house and treasures of the king, who, with his wife, mother,
sister, daughter and two sons which he had, fled into the
upper country as far as the kingdom of Laos. The King of
Siam,^ leaving some of his captains to defend Camboja, re-
turned to his home with the rest of his army ; and what he
could not carry away by land, he sent to Siam by sea in
some junks. He captured the Portuguese and Castilians
whom he found there, and put these three and other Cam-
bodian prisoners of war on board this junk, with much
property, and a guard of Siamese, and Chinese for sailors.
When they were out at sea, the three Spaniards, aided by
the Chinese, made themselves masters of the junk, and
killed or took prisoners the Siamese guard. After that the
Spaniards and Chinese came to blows to decide whose the
• Cho-da-mukha, in Siamese the place of meeting of the cliief man-
darins, i. e., the capital.
2 Phra Uncar.
' Some words are wanting or misprinted in the text, which runs : —
"Hasta el reyno de los Laos. En Siam, dexando algunos capitanes
suyos en guardia de Camboja." It should be — "El Roy de Siam
dexando," etc.
44 OP THE GOVEENMENT OF
prize was to be, and where it was to be taken to. The
three Spaniards conquered the Chinese, and, killing- the
greater number of them, brought the junk to Manila, with
what was on board of it which was adjudged to them, and
liberty was given to the Cambodian captives, and also to
the Chinese who had survived from this fray.
The King of Siam having arrived at his court in the city
of Odia,^ expected the arrival of this junk, and seeing that
it delayed longer than what the voyage required, feared
that it had been seized or lost, and desired to send some
one to bring him news or explanation of what had happened.
There was a prisoner (amongst those he had brought from
Cambodia), one Diego Belloso, a Portugue^, whom the
King Prauncar Langara had sent to Manila, at the time
that Gromez Perez Dasmarinas governed, to ask for his
friendship and assistance against Siam, which was then
threatening him, as has been before related : and on his re-
turn to Cambodia with the governor's answer and presents,
he found that Siam had conquered and occupied the country,
so that they made him prisoner, and the King of Siam took
the present he brought, and carried it off with the prisoners
to his own country. This Diego Belloso having been in-
formed of the king's wishes, managed to send him word
that if he were to send him on this business, as he was so
well acquainted with the Archipelago, he would arrive at
Manila, and bring him information of the junk ; and at the
same time would, in his name, establish a friendship and
trade with the Spaniards, and would procure him many
curiosities from Europe which were to be got at Manila,
especially a coloured stone, large enough to serve as a hilt
for the two-handed sword which he used ; a thing the king
wished for very much, on account of another smaller one
which was amongst the things in the prcseut,^ and which,
' Si-Yuthia, or the Seat of Kings.
• 2 To the King of Cambodia.
LUYS DASMARlflAS. 45
when he went on his elephant, he carried before him. The
king agreed to this, and had a junk prepared, and sent in
it a Siamese in his service, with the others necessary for the
na^ngatioQ, in company with Diego Belloso ; and two ele-
phants for the governor of Manila, and a quantity of benzoin,
ivory and other merchandise for sale, and ordered that with
the proceeds they should buy the curiosities which Belloso had
mentioned. Having put out to sea they met with a storm,
and the junk arrived at Malacca, where they got information
that the other junk belonging to the King of Siam, which
they were inquiring for, had been seized, and the Siamese
guards killed, and that the Spaniards, who had left Cam-
bodia in it as prisoners, had carried it off with all the goods
on board to Manila.
With this news the King of Siam^s officer grew cool as to
pursuing the voyage to Manila; so much so, that against
the desire of Diego Belloso, he began to discharge the
goods in Malacca and to sell them, with the intention of re-
turning immediately after to Siam. One morning this
officer of Siam, named Aconsi,^ was found dead in the junk,
having gone to sleep the night before safe and sound j with
which Diego Belloso made himself master of the matter, and
having again collected and put the goods and elephants on
boai'd the junk, he went out of Malacca, and made the voyage
to Manila. There he found Don Luys Dasmariiias governor,
on account of the death of Don Gomez Perez, his father,
and he gave him the present of the elephants which he
brought from the king, and gave him the message with
which he had been despatched, and the other goods and
merchandise were offered for sale by means of another
Siamese who went in the junk on account of his king^s
service.
Belloso met with Bias Ruyz de Hernan Gonzales and his
two companions in Manila ; and they all agreed together to
^ Id est, the supercargo, in Chinese.
46 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
persuade the governor Don Luys to send a fleet to Cam-
bodiaj in favour of tlie King Langara^ who was in exile and
stripped of his kingdom, and that it would be easy to re-
store him, and at the same time in this way to gain a foot-
ing for the Spaniards on the mainland, and to settle and
fortify themselves there, from which other effects would
follow of greater and deeper importance. They took as
supporters of their ideas with the governor the monks of
the order of St. Dominic; and they easily put the matter on
such a good footing (for in everything he was guided by his
council), that it was decided to prepare a fleet, and send in
it as many men as possible, and as head of the expedition
the captain and sergeant-major, Juan Xuarez Gallinato, in
a ship of middling size ; and in its company two junks, one
under the command of Diego Belloso, the other of Bias
Riiyz de Hernan Gonzales, with a hundred and twenty
Spaniards, some Japanese, and Indians of the islands, and
what else was necessary.
This resolution did not seem very suitable to the greater
number in the city, both on account of so many troops
going away, and because the success of the expedition
seemed very doubtful, as it was said that the country of
Cambodia waS subjected to Siam, which held it with a suf-
ficient guard, also because nothing more was known of the
matter ; and above all the result of the expedition would be
to gain the King of Siam as a declared enemy, whilst the
governor had just received a present and a friendly embassy
from him through Diego Belloso : moreover, without giving
him an answer they would be taking up arms against him in
favour of one who was unknown to them, and from whom the
Spaniards had not received either favours or obligations.
Dr. Antonio de Morga, the lieutenant-general, and with
him the master of the camp, Diego Ronquillo, and other
captains and persons of importance, treated of this business
with the governor up to the point of requesting him in
LUYS DASMARinAS. 47
writing to desist from the expedition ; but although he had
no reasons to give on his side with which to satisfy them,
yet being so taken with the expedition, and having the
above-mentioned monks of St. Dominic of his opinion, he
did not choose to change his plans, and despatched the
fleet in the beginning of the year 1596 to the kingdom of
Cambodia, which is usually a voyage of eight days. On the
other hand, he sent away the Siamese who had come with
Belloso, without giving any decided answer to the King of
Siam, and sent him in return for his present some produce
of the islands which seemed suitable. The Siamese, seeing
that they were about to return to their kingdom, were
satisfied, without hoping for any other result of their
journey.
A storm overtook the fleet, on account of which, the flag-
ship, which carried Juan Xuarez Gallinato and the greater
number of the Spaniards, arrived in the Straits of Sinca-
pura, near Malacca, where it stayed many days. The other
two junks of Diego Belloso and Bias Ruyz, which carried
Spaniards and some Japanese and natives of Manila, arrived
with a good deal of risk at Cambodia, and went up the
river Mecon, Bias Ruyz before Belloso, as far as the city of
Chordemuco. There they learned that the Cambodian Man-
darins had joined together against the Siamese, and had
beaten them and driven them out of the kingdom; and that
one of these mandarins, named Anacaparan, had got pos-
session of the country, and governed with the title of king,
though against the will of the others. It seemed to Diego
Belloso and Bias Ruyz and the men of their company that
they had arrived in good season for the designs which they
entertained, seeing the confusion of afiairs amongst the
Cambodians, and the Siamese already out of the country ;
and encouraging themselves with the expectation that Galli-
nato and the flag- ship would shortly arrive, they passed
several days in Chordemuco, with the good pleasure of
48 OF THE OOVEKNMENT OF
Anacaparaiij who resided in Sistor^ nine leagues distant.
Althougli he knew of the entry of these ships^ and of the
people who came in them^ and that many more were coming
after them, and what their intentions were ; and although
these did not seem very suitable to his purpose, yet he dis-
sembled with them, so as to see what time would bring.
Six ships of the Chinese with goods had entered Chorde-
muco at th^ same time, and they unloaded them, and being
very numerous, and at enmity with the Spaniards, they
behaved towards them on various occasions with arrogance
and insolence, which obliged the Spaniards, for their repu-
tation and satisfaction of the injuries they had received, to
take up arms against them. This they did, killing a great
many Chinese, and taking their ships and whatever was in
them; at which Anacaparan shewed his displeasure, and
desired that the Chinese should take their revenge, and to
assist them in it. To remedy this evil, it seemed best to
the Dominican Fray Alonzo Ximenez, who was with the
Spaniards, that Bias Euyz and Diego Belloso, with fifty
Spaniards and a few Japanese and Manila men, leaving the
rest to guard the ships in Chordemuco, should ascend the
river in small boats to Sistor to have an interview with
Anacaparan, and offer him excuses and satisfaction for what
had happened with the Chinese. And in order to negociate
with him more easily, they made up a letter of embassy in
the name of the governor of Manila, because Gallinato
carried the letter which the governor had given. This
stood them in little service, because Anacaparan not only
did not grant them an audience, but after taking away
their boats, he kept them so hard pressed in a lodging out-
side of the city ; and threatened them so much that he
would put them to death if they did not at once restore
their ships and what they had taken from them to the
Chinese, that they were very anxious to return to Chorde-
muco, and get on board their vessels for greater security,
and they determined to carry that out as best they might.
DON LUYS DASMAKlflAS. 49
Necessity and the finding themselves in such danger, gave
them courage to go forth one night (though with much
risk) to seek the passage for crossing the river towards the
city : they crossed it with their arms in their hands at a late
hour of the night, and as silently as they could, and finding
themselves near the city, and their courage and resolution
increasing, they entered it as far as the king^s house; and
setting fire to it, and to the magazines and to the other
buildings which they met with, they threw the Cambodians
into su.ch confusion, that they killed a great number of
them that night and the following morning, and amongst
the slain was the King Anacaparan himself. They were
not of opinion either to advance or to maintain their ground,
so they turned back to the ships, marching in as orderly a
manner as they could. A great number of Cambodians
collected together with arms and some elephants, and set
out in pursuit of the Spaniards, and came up with them
before they reached the ships ; but they defended them-
selves valiantly, and continued their march until they got on
board without losing a Spaniard ; and the Cambodians re-
turned to their city with some killed and wounded on their
side.
Diego Belloso and Bias Ruyz having got on board their
ships. Captain Gallinato at this time entered by the river
into Chordemuco with the flag- ship. They gave him an
account of all that had happened with the Chinese and
Cambodians, and of the good position in which affairs stood
for continuing the enterprise; since, Anacaparan the usurper
being dead, many Cambodians would immediately pass over
to the side of the Spaniards in defence of the name and cry
for Langara the legitimate king. And although some
Cambodians came to visit the fleet, and affirmed the same
things to Gallinato, and that Anacaparan was dead, and re-
lated what the Spaniards had done in Sistor, he shewed
that he did not believe any of them, nor did he choose to
K
50 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
be persuaded into it, nor that the enterprise ought to be
gone on with and continued. On the contrary, he blamed
the Spaniards for what they had done in his absence, and
taking from them everything they had got in the way of
plunder of the Chinese and Cambodians, put out to sea to
sail to Manila. Belloso and Bias Ruyz persuaded him to
go at least to Cochinchina, where it was said that the
galley, which had been seized upon when the governor
Gomez Perez was killed, had put in; and that the royal
standard and artillery were there, and that he should claim
them j and they offered in the meantime, whilst this business
was being negociated, to go by land to the kingdom of the
Laos, where the King Langara of Cambodia was living, in
order to bring him back to his kingdom. Captain Gallinato
consented to this, and sailed along the coast until he
entered the bay of Cochinchina, where, although he was
(seemingly) well received by the inhabitants, he would
never disembark from his ships : and from them he sent
Gi'egorio de Vargas to visit the King of Tunquin (who is
the chief of that kingdom) to ti^eat with him on the business
of the galley and the standard and artillery. Wliilst he was
thus engaged, he gave permission to Bias Euyz and Diego
Belloso to go on shore and endeavour to make the journey
to Laos ; because, by getting them out of the way, and
leaving them thus occupied, without their being able to do
him an ill service in Manila respecting his coming out of
Cambodia, he consented easily to what they requested.
Diego Belloso and Bias Euyz went to the King of Sinua,
son of the King of Tunquin, and begged him to favour
them in their journey ; and he gave them all that was
necessary, so that they were well treated and served as far
as the city of Alanchan,^ the capital of the Laos kingdom,
where the king of the country received them well. They
' Lantchang, or Lanxang, name of an ancient city in the north of
Cambodia. Pallecfoix'' s Dictionary.
DON LUYS DASMAKlflAS. 51
found that Prauncar Langara^ King of Cambodia, and his
eldest son and daughter had died, and there survived only
his son Prauncar and his stepmother, grandmother, and
aunts : they related the state of affairs in Cambodia, and the
arrival of the Spaniards, and death of the usurper Anaca-
paran. The same information was brought by a Cambodian
who came from Chordemuco ; and that after the death of
Anacaparan, his youngest son named Chupinanu reigned ;
that the country was entirely divided into factions ; and
that there would be many who, on seeing their natui'al and
legitimate king, would leave Chupinanu, and would come to
him and obey him.
Some difficulties as to setting out from Alanchan having
been overcome, by the arrival at this time in Laos from
Cambodia of a mandarin named Ocuiia de Chu, with ten
prahus well armed with cannon, sent by order of other
mandarins and grandees of Cambodia, to fetch their legiti-
mate king, it was decided to go down to Cambodia. Praun-
car and his grandmother, and aunt, and stepmother, the
wife of Langara, and Diego Belloso and Bias Ruyz embarked,
and all made the voyage in the above-mentioned prahus by
the rivers which go from Laos to Cambodia, where they
found new disturbances and insurrections of provinces ; but
after Prauncar arrived many came over to his side, especially
two Muslim Malays who were in the kingdom with a Malay
armed force and artillery and elephants — they were named
Ocuna Lacasamana^ and Cancona. Prauncar got the ad-
vantage on various occasions, and Chupinanu and his brothers
and other rebels having been killed in some battles, he
became master of almost all the provinces of his kingdom.
He made Diego Belloso and Bias Ruyz chiefs in the affairs
of war, and they always directed them until they left
Prauncar on the throne ; and the war being almost entirely
ended, the king made Belloso and Bias Ruyz great Chofas
^ Laksamaua, a general or admiral in Malay.
E 2
,)2 or THK GOVERNMENT OF
of liis kingdom, and gave them two provinces and otlier
favours, thougli not as many as tliey hoped foi', or as he
had offered when they were in Laos. The chief cause of
this was the stepmother, and grandmother and aunt of the
king, who directed him on account of his youth, and of his
being addicted to wine, — more so than Langara his father.
The Malay Ocuila Lacasmana had much influence with
these ladies, and, envious of the valour of the Spaniards,
always served them ill, and endeavoured to compass their
destruction; on this account they continually had encounters
with him. It must be understood that this Malay was in
relations with the widow of Langara, the stepmother of the
King Prauncar.
The fleet of Captain Grallinato remained in Cochin China
negotiating with the King of Tunquin for the royal standard
and the ai-tillery of the galley, as has been related ; because
the galley was lost upon the coast, and the king had the
rest in his possession. He not only did not give them up,
but whilst entertaining Gallinato with good reasons, he was
treating elsewhere about taking his ships and what was in
them. Gallinato, having been warned of this in secret by a
great lady of Cochin China who came to see him in the
fleet, kept a still more careful watch than he had done
hitherto, not allowing any one to go on shore. All the
same he did not succeed in this with Fray Alonso Ximenez,
one of the Dominican monks whom he brought with him,
and who had been one of the chief promoters of this expe-
dition : he going on shore was taken and detained there.
The Cochin Chinese imagining that the fleet was off" its
guard, sent down some fire ships upon it ; and after them
some galleys and war boats to set it on fire : and on shore,
which was not far ofi", were many people with arquebuses
who molested the Spaniards. The fleet succeeded in getting
out of the way of the fire, and went further from the land,
and resisting the enomifs' ship.s with artillery and mnskotry.
DOX LUYS DAS:.lAi:illAS. bo
sent some to the bottom j and without waiting any more,
lea^^ug behind Fray Alonso Ximenez on shore with two
secular companions he had with him, it put out to sea and
went out of the bay of Cochin China, making for the Philip-
pines.
Whilst these things were happening in Camboja and Co-
chin China, orders had arrived from Spain from his Majesty,
to conclude an agreement which Captain Estevan Rodriguez
de Fio-ueroa had made with the o-overnor Gomez Perez
Dasmariiias, under which he was to pacify and settle the
island of Mindanao at his own expense, and receive the
governorship of it for two Hves, and other rewards. This
agreement was carried out, after a few difficulties which
presented themselves had been overcome ; and Estevan
Kodriguez got ready men and ships, and other necessai'ies
for the enterprise, and with some galleys, galliots, frigates,
viceroys, and varangaj^es ylapis, he set out with two hun-
dred and fourteen Spaniards for the Isle of Mindanao in
Febi'uary of the same year, 1596. He took as master
of the camp Captain Juan de la Xara, and some monks
of the company of Jesus, for teaching, and many natives
for the service of the camp and fleet.
He arrived with fair weather at the Mindanao, where the
first towns he met, named Tampacan and Lumaguan, hostile
to the people of Buhahayen, received him in peace and
friendship, and joined his forces; they might be about six
thousand men, and without delay they continued going up
the river, eight leagues further, against Buhahayen, the
principal town of the island, where the principal chief had
fortified himself on many sides. Having arrived before the
town the fleet anchored, and at once sent on shore a large
part of the troops with their arms, who, before reaching the
houses and fort, found in some thickets^ which were near
' Cacatal, written ;iLso ^•atatal aud gacatal.
5 l< OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
the river, some of the people of Buhahayen, who came out
to meet them with their carapilaus^ and carazas^ and other
arms, and attacked the Spaniards in various directions.
For, as the ground was swampy and thick with brushwood,
they could not act in a fitting manner with the necessary
concert ; although the master of the camp and captains
worked hard in keeping the troops together, and in en-
couraging them to face the natives. The governor Estevan
Rodriguez de Figueroa looked at what was going on from
his galley, and not being able to endure the little concert
there was amongst his men, he took arms, and with three or
four companions had himself put on shore. In order that
he might go more expeditiously, a servant carried his hel-
met, and as he was crossing part of the thicket to where the
fight was going on, a hostile Indian stepped out (without
being seen) from one side, and with his campilan struck the
governor a blow on the head, which brought him to the
ground badly wounded. Those who accompanied him cut to
pieces the man of Mindanao, and carried the governor to
the galley. In a short time the master of the camp Juan de
la Xara withdrew with his soldiers to the fleet, having left a
few Spaniards killed in that encounter. The governor did
not recover his senses, for the wound was very severe, and
the next day he died, and the fleet after that loss and mis-
fortune left that place and returned down the river to Tam-
pacan, where it anchored amongst the friendly inhabitants
and their towns.
The master of the camp Juan de la Xara then got himself
elected by the fleet as successor to the government and en-
terprise, and made a fort of palms and arigues^ close to
Tampacan, with a Spanish town to which he gave the name
of Murcia : and he began to dispose of everything as he
chose, in order to perpetuate himself, and make himself sole
I Swords. = Lar^c sliifltls. ^ Pik'S.
DON FKANCISCO TELLO. 55
master in this affair, without any dependence or recognition
of the governor of Manila, without whose intervention and
assistance this enterprise could not be pursued further.
CHAPTER VI.
Of the Government of Don Francisco Tello; and of the second establish-
ment of the Audiencia of ^Manila ; and of the things that happened
during the period of this government.
The Governor Don Luys Dasmariiias was expecting news
of Captain Juan Xuarez Gallinato, and of the Governor
Estevan Rodrigaiez de Figueroa, respecting the voyage
which each had made in the beginning of this year, ninety-
six, to Cambodia and to Mindanao; when advices reached
Manila in the month of June that there were two ships from
the passage of the Espiritu Santo, within amongst the is-
lands, and that there came in them, sent from Spain as new
governor, Don Francisco Tello de Guzman, knight of the
habit of Santiago, a native of Seville, treasurer of the House
of Commerce with the Indies, He entered Manila in the
first days of July, and was received at the Government
House. At the same time it was known that there remained
in New Spain the Archbishop-elect of Manila, Fray Ygna-
cio de Santivaiiez of jbhe order of St. Francis, a native of
Santivafiez in the province of Burgos ; for the Bishop Fray
Domingo de Salazar had died in Madrid; and that Fray
Miguel de Benavides, native of Carrion, a Dominican monk,
was bishop-elect of the city of Segovia in the province of
Cagagan ; he had gone to Spain as the companion of the
Bishop Fray Domingo de Salazar. It was also known that
there had remained behind in Mexico the bishop-elect of
the city of the most holy name of Jesus, Fray Pedro de
Agurto, of the order of St. Augustine, a native of Mexico :
and these two bishops (with another for the city of Caceres
5C) OF Till'. rSoVKRNMP^NT OF'
in tlie province of CamarineSj who was not yet named) had
been added to the Philippines, and given as suffragans to
the Archbishop of Manila/ at the instance of the Bishop
Fray Domingo, at the same time that the High Court of
Justice of Manila, which had been abolished, was again to
be established, with other matters, in which he had taken
part at Court.
A short time after Don Francisco Tello entered upon the
government, news was brought of the death of Estevan
Rodrigues de Figueroa in Mindanao, by the brother Caspar
Gomez, of the Company of Jesus, who brought the body for
burial in the college of Manila, the patronage of which was
his. Juan de la Xara wrote word how he had remained in
the government, and had settled in Tampacan, and that he
meditated continuing the pacification and conquest of the
island, as it should seam to him convenient, and asking for
succours of men and other things to be sent to him. It was
understood that he intended to make an ill use of the govern-
ment, without observing due subordination to the governor
of the Philippines, and to deprive the heirs of Estevan
Eodriguez of what belonged to them from this source: also,
that in order to make himself safer in this respect, he was
sending confidantes of his to the town of Arevalo in Oton,
where Estevan Rodriguez had left his wife Dona Ana de
Osseguera and two little daughters, and his house and pro-
perty, to persuade that lady to mai-ry him. As these inten-
tions appeared to be very prejudicial in many respects, they
took into consideration how to find a remedy ; but in order
not to disturb the affairs of Mindanao, it was let alone for
the present, until time should show what course ought to be
followed. And so it happened; for Juan de la Xara having
left the camp and settlements of Mindanao, and come hur-
riedly to Oton to negotiate his marriage personally (though
' The episcopal staff of the rhilippiiios still consists only of the arch-
bishop and three bisliojjs.
DON FRANCISCO TKLLO. Ot
tlie widow of Estevan Rodriguez had never been favourable
to it), Dou Francisco Tello sent to arrest him, and he was
brought to Manila, where he died whilst his affair was under
investigation.
After de la Xara had been put in prison Don Francisco
Tello at once sent Captain Toribio de Miranda to Mindanao
with despatches to take the command of the camp, and
govern the settlements until some one should continue the
carrjdng out of that enterprise by agreement. When he
arrived at Mindanao, and the soldiers saw that the machina-
tions of Juan de la Xara were defeated, and that he remained
in prison at Manila and would not return, they obe^^ed
Toribio de Miranda, and the orders which he brought.
In Manila the governor considered with much attention
the measures to be taken for continuing the war; for, as the
island of Mindanao was so near the. other islands that were
already settled, and in the island itself there were some
provinces that had submitted and were settled with Spanish
magistrates, such as the river of Butuan, and Dapitan, and
Caragan, it was desirable to pacify the whole island and re-
duce it to submission to his Majesty. The royal property
had been spent, and nothing was left for further expense,
and Estevan Rodriguez had bound himself by a formal
wi'iting to carry on the war at his own expense until entirely
completed, in conformity with the conditions of the agree-
ment. The guardian of his daughters and heirs brought
the matter before the Court, and excused himself from this
obligation on account of the death of Estevan Rodriguez ;
and, in order not to lose time, since what had been com-
menced had to be continued in one way or other, the gover-
nor decided on following it up, giving out of the royal
exchequer what was requisite either on account of the ex-
chequer or of the heirs of Estevan Rodriguez, if such should
be according to law. • The governor then looked out for a
person to go to Mindanao, and selected Don Juan Ronquillo,
58 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
general of the gallej^s^ and gave liira what seemed the neces-
sary succour of men and other things. So he arrived at
Mindanao, and took the command of the fleet and camp of
Spaniards which he found in Tampacan : he confirmed the
peace and friendship established with the chiefs and their
people of Tampacan and Lumaguan : he restored and set in
order the Spanish town and fort, and began to equip him-
self for the war with the people of Buhahayen, He made a
few expeditions to their lands and forts, in which he passed
many days without any notable result, as these enemies
were many in number and good soldiers, with plenty of fire-
arms and artillery in a strong position, and many other forti-
fications in the interior of the country, amongst which they
passed from one to another whenever it suited them, without
receiving any hurt, and greatly harassing the Spaniards, who
were little used to such swampy country. The Spaniards,
moreover, were short of provisions, and in the country they
were not to be got on account of the war, as there were a
great many people in camp both of Spaniards and natives,
as servants and boatmen ; and it was not easy to go and
come at all times from one part to another to get the neces-
sary supplies.
As Don Juan Ronquillo saw that the war was advancing
very slowly, and that little advantage was derived from it,
and the camp was sufiering, having made a report, he sent
despatches with sjjeed to the governor Don Francisco Tello,
giving him an account of the state of afiairs, and that it would
be better to remove the camp from the river of Mindanao,
not to let it perish, and that a garrison might be put in the
island itself in the poi^t of Caldera, which might be left
fortified, so as not to turn their backs entirely on the enter-
prise ; and in order to maintain their friends, the people of
Tampacan and Lumaguan, in their hostility to those of
Buhahayen : and he proposed that the fleet and rest of the
camp should return to Manila, if he gave him permission
DON FRANCISCO TELLO. 59
for that, and requested that instructions should be sent him
with all speed. Upon the governor Don Francisco Tello
receiving this despatch, he resolved to order Don Juan
Ronquillo that, the state of affairs being such as he had re-
ported, and seeing that the camp could not be sustained,
nor the war continued advantageously, he should withdraw
with all the camp from the river of Mindanao, after first
makmg a great effort to chastise the enemy in Buhahayen ;
and then burn the Spanish town and fort, and go to
Caldera and fortify it, and leave in it a sufficient garrison,
with artillery, boats, and provisions for its service and
maintenance ; and that he should come to Manila with the
rest of the forces, explaining to their friends in Tampacan
that the Spaniards would shortly return to the river, better
provided, and in greater numbers.
Silonga, and other chief men of Buhahayen, did not
neglect its defence ; since, amongst other measures, they
had sent a chief to Terrenate, begging assistance against
the Spaniards who had brought war into their homes.
Upon this the King of Terrenate sent a fleet of many
caracoas and other boats to Mindanao, with cachils^ and
valiant soldiers, and a quantity of small artillery, rather
more than a thousand fighting men in all, to oblige the
Spaniards to raise their camp and go away (if they could
not succeed in doing more). In Buhahayen they had news
and advices that this fieet was coming for their defence and
protection, and they got ready and prepared to fall ujDon
the Spaniards, who also had heard the same news, and
were not off their guard. On this account more care was
taken by them of their principal fort, and they reduced
the number of men in other smaller forts in the river
Buquil, and other posts, mouths and arms of the same
1 Chiefs. Ketchil^ Malay word signifying little, young ; hence a
young man of distinction, a son or brother of the INIolucca princes : in
Amboina it is the designation of the heir-apparent. Marsdeiis Diet.
GO OF THE GOVKKNMKNT OK
river, which enabled them the better to gai-rison the fort
and armed galleys, and other smaller craft, in order to
make use of them for the attack of the enemies whom they
expected. The enemy entered gallantly with all his vessels
and men as far as the Spanish fort, and attacked and
assaulted it to enter it with all vigour and speed. Those
within resisted valiantly, and the Spaniards outside who
were on the river in the galleys assisted them in such
manner, that together, with artillery and firearms, and at
times coming to close combat with swords and campilans,
they made a great destruction and desolation amongst the
men of Terrenate, and of Buhahayen, who had joined to
assist them. Killing and wounding a great number of
them, they took almost all the caracoas and boats which
they had brought, so that veiy few escaped by flight ; and
the Spaniards followed them up and burned them, capturing
many prisoners, and spoils and weapons of the enemy.
After this, with as much speed as they could, they turned
against the town and forts of the people of Buhahayen,
succeeding so well against some of them, that the enemy,
finding himself hard pressed and with no one to assist him,
sent messengers and proposals of peace to Don Juan Ron-
quillo. These ended in their making recognition and sub-
mission, and establishing friendshij) with the people of
Tampacan, their ancient enemies ; and to strengthen this
more, it was corroborated by the marriage of the greatest
Chief and Lord of Buhahayen with the daughter of another of
Tampacan, named Dougoulibor.^ In this manner the war was
apparently ended ; for now provisions were to. be had ; and
the Spaniards (with few precautions) crossed and went about
the whole country. Buhahayen promised at once to dis-
mantle all the forts, which was one of the conditions of
1 In the Malay annals thci'c is ;i princrss naincil Diiun-li'bar. the
l.r.M.l leaf.
nON KKANCISCO TELI.O. Gl
peace. So the Spaniards retuirned to their fort and settle-
ment of Tampacan^ from which Don Juan Eonquillo imme-
diately sent news to the governor Don Francisco Telle; he
advised him of the change of circumstances which had hap-
pened^ and in accordance with the state of the enterprise,
he begged him to issue fresh instructions as to his conduct,
because he would wait without making any change, notwith-
standing the arrival of the answer which he expected to his
first dispatches, since now the times were diffei'ent ; and,
having changed so much for the better, the governor's de-
cision would also be a different one.
The governor Don Francisco Tello had replied to the first
despatch of Don Juan Ronquillo in the sense which has been
above related. When the second despatch arrived with the
good news of the events in Mindanao, as it was feared that
the men in the camp (who had always shown a desire to re-
turn to Manila, and little disposition for the hardships of
war), would return to Manila on the arrival of the first or-
der ; and that they would obey that, and abandon the expe-
dition which was in such a satisfactory state, and the aban-
donment of the river now would be ill-timed ; the governor
immediately sent with speed and by various roads a second
order for them to stop in Mindanao without paying attention
to the first order, and carry on the business, and he would
shortly send them what was necessary for the future.
It appears that this message travelled slowly, for the first
having arrived, it was executed without any further delay,
the camp raised, and the country abandoned. The}'' gave as
a reason to the people of Buhahayen who had been their
enemies, that the governor of Manila had sent to summon
them ; and to their friends of Tampacan they said that, for
their security, they would leave people in Caldera, and that
they would send them assistance from Manila. For which
reason, these remained as sad and disconsolate as. the people
of Buhahayen were well pleased. After that, they burned
62 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
their fort and town, and as speedily as possible embarked
all the forces, and went out of the river, going to Caldera,
twenty-four leagues lower down on the way to Manila.
Having put into port, a fortress was built, in which they left
a garrison of a hundred Spaniards, with some artillery and
provisions, and boats for its service.
At this juncture, the second order of the governor to Don
Juan Ronquillo arrived, to which he replied that he had
already left and was in Caldera, and could not return to the
river. Without further delay, he came with the rest of the
fleet to Manila, by the provinces of Oton and Panay. The
governor, being informed of his arrival before he entered the
city, sent to arrest him on the road, and proceeded against
him by law for having brought away the camp and army
from the river of Mindanao, and for not waiting for the or-
ders, which he should have expected according to the turn
which things had taken. Don Juan Ronquillo was set at
liberty on showing a private letter from the governor, which
he had sent him separately with the first instructions, order-
ing him in any case to come to Manila with all his forces,
because he wanted them for other necessities of the islands ;
and Don Juan said that on the strength of that letter he had
not waited for second instructions.
The Captain and Sergeant-major Gallinato crossed over
with the flagship of his fleet from Cochin China to Manila,
where he related and gave an account to Don Francisco
Tello, whom he now found in the government, of what had
happened in his expedition, and how Bias Ruyz and Diego
Belloso had gone by land from Cochin China to Laos in
search of Langara King of Cambodia : by their absence he
avoided calumny in this matter of leaving Cambodia; al-
though there were not wanting many of those that came
with him who spoke with regret of the opportunity which he
had lost, by not showing himself and staying in Cambodia,
in such a good conjuncture ; and they even asserted that had
DON FRANCISCO TELLO. G3
he done so, everything would have been effected which had
been looked forward to in that kingdom.
The other ship of his convoy, to which his fleet had been
reduced, of which he had made the ensign Luys Ortiz the
commander, was not able to pursue the voyage, and put into
Malacca for shelter from the storms. Some Spaniards re-
mained there, and with the remainder of the crew he was
able to sail some months later, and return to Manila.
At this same time, and at the beginning of Don Francisco
Tellers government, two Indian chiefs of the province of
Cagayan, the principal one named Magalat, were detained
in Manila, because they and their kinsmen^ and others who
followed their party and way of thinking, had several times
raised up the people of that province, and it had cost no
slight trouble to reduce them to submission, and they had
frequently killed Spaniards, and done other injuries to the
peaceable natives and to their crops. Magalat was the cap-
tain and head of these men ; and as he and a brother of his
and some other Indians were in Manila, without being able
to leave it, that province was more secure.
Some Dominican monks who had to go to the city of
Segovia, capital of the province, where they were charged
with teaching, being moved with pity, persuaded the go-
vernor to give to them Magalat and his brother, that they
might return to their homes. They importuned him so
much about this that he granted it. When these two
reached Cagayan, they went further up the country by the
river of Lobo, and they again raised all the country, and
with the help of other chief men of Tubigarao and other
towns, they so stirred up the country that it was not possible
to pass through it, or to go a step beyond the city. Magalat
was the head of these enemies, and he committed cruel mur-
ders and injuries upon his own country people, if they would
not rise against the Spaniards. This reached such a point
that it became necessaiy for the governor to send the master
G 1- OK 'I'llK (iOVKKNMKNT Ol'
of the camp Pedro de Cliavcs from Mauila with troops, care-
fully to set about remedying the evil: and_, although with
great difficulties, he had such good luck that he laid hands
on several chiefs of the insurgents, upon whom he executed
justice and public punishment : and, as for Magalat himself,
he caused him to be killed in his own house and estate in
which he had fortified himself, by the hand of his own In-
dians, because they offered to do it for a reward which was
given them ; for in any other manner it seemed impossible,
and if Magalat had not died it would have been impossible
to end the war in many years : so the province I'emained
quiet, and peace established.
In April of the year 1595, the Commander Alvaro de
Mendana de Neira went out from Callao of Lima in Peru, to
people the islands of Solomon, which he had discovered many
years before in the South Sea,^ and he had named the princi-
pal one the island of St. Christopher. He took with him
four ships : two large ones, a flagship, and an admiral's
ship, and a frigate, and a galliot, with four hundred men in
all, and his wife Dona Ysabel Barreto, and three brothers-
in-law. In the voyage he discovered other islands, at which
he did not stop, and not finding those he had before dis-
covered,- and the admiral's ship having been lost, for it did
not again appear, he anchored with the other ships at an
island of negroes, close to New Guinea, to which he gave
the name of St. Cruz ; and there he settled, to the small
satisfaction of his people. The commander-in-chief and two
of his brothers-in-law, and many of his people died there.
Dona Ysabel Barreto removed the settlement on account of
' This first voyage was in the year 15C8.
* From this it is clear that it was generally known that Mendana did
not reach the Solomon Islands in his second voyage ; yet, as those islands
were the object of his expedition, the mutilated printed account of his
seconil voyage, translated by De Brosses, Avould easily have received
the titU' of Descuhrimiento de ftix ul>is de iSrdomon. See Preface.
DON FRANCISCO TELLO. 65
the sickness and want, and put her remaining people on
board the flagship, frigate, and galley, and whilst they were
sailing to the Philippines the frigate and the galliot disap-
peared in another direction. The flagship entered the river
of Butuan 'in the island of Mindanao, and reached Manila
with great labour, and scarcity of provisions. There Doiia
Ysabel Barreto married Don Fernando de Castro, and re-
turned in his ship, the San Geronymo, to New Spain in
the year 1596. The events of that voyage have been touched
very lightly, as it will be to the purpose to set down here
the narrative of this voyage which Pedro Fernandez de
Quiros signed with his name, which is as follows : —
Narrative of the Voyage of the Adelantado Alvaro de
Mendana de Neira for the Discovery of the Islands of
Solomon.
On Friday the ninth of April, of the year 1595, the Com-
mander-in-chief Alvaro de Mendana set sail with his fleet
to go and subject and people the western islands of the
South Sea, from the port of the Callao of Lima, which is in
twelve degrees and a half south latitude, passing by the
valleys of Santa, Truxillo and Sana, and collecting men and
provisions, he went to Paita, where he took in water, and
made a list of four hundred persons, more or less, with his
four vessels, two large and two small. He left this port
(which is five degrees higher than the said part), steering
west-south-west, making for the islands of his discovery :
he took as master of the camp Pedro Merino Manrique, and
as admiral his brother-in-law Lope de la Vega, and as chief
pilot, Pedro Fernandez de Quiros; and he sailed on this
course to the altitude of nine degrees and a-half, from
which point he sailed west and to the point south-west
to fourteen degrees, where he changed his course to west
and the point north-west; and having reached by this
course fully ten degrees of latitude, on Fi-iday, twenty-
66 NARRATIVE OP THE VOYAGE OF
first of July, we sighted an island^ to which the general
gave the name of Madalena^ and from a port in it there
came forth about seventy canoes^ in each of which came
three men, in some more in others less. Others came
swimming, and others on logs : they were more than fom*
hundred Indians, white, and of very agreeable appearance,
tall and strong, large limbed, and so well made that they
had greatly the advantage over us ; with handsome teeth,
eyes and mouth, hands and feet, and most beautiful flowing
hair, and many of them very fair. Amongst them were
most beautiful youths ; they were entirely naked, without
covering on any part, and all had their bodies, legs, and
arms, and hands, and some of them their faces, marked
after the manner of the Bisayas here : and indeed, for
savage people, naked and of so little reason, at sight of
them there was much cause to praise God who created
them. Let this not be taken for exaggeration, for so it is.
These people called us to go to their port, and they called
to them from our flag-ship, and they went on board of her,
a matter of forty of them : and we appeared to be men of
less than the usual stature by the side of them : and amongst
them there came one who was understood to be a palm
taller than the tallest man of our fleet, although we had in
the fleet men of more than regulation height. The general
gave there to some of them shirts and other things, which
they received with much pleasure, and danced after their
fashion, and called to the others. The general was put out
of temper at the liberties they took, because they were great
thieves ; and he ordered a cannon to be fired to frighten
them : when they heard it they took to swimming, and all
seized their arms, and sounding a conch, they threw a few
stones, and threatened with their lances, for they had no
other arms. From the ship they fired at them with arque-
buses, and killed five or six, and they remained there. As
our fleet sailed on we discovered three other islands. This
DON ALVARO DE MENDAllA. 67
island may be six leagues round ;^ we passed by it on the
south side ; this is high^ precipitous towards the sea, with
rocky ravines, in which the Indians dwell. There seemed
to be many inhabitants in it, for we saw them on the rocks
and beach; so we went on making for the other three
islands. The first, to which was given the name of San
Pedro, will be ten leagues from Magdalena, and runs with
it northward and to the point north-west: it will have three
leagues circuit. It is an island beautiful to look at, with
much wood and fair fields : we did not know whether it was
inhabited, for we did not come close to it. To the south-
east of it, about five leagues off, is another, which the
general named Dominica; it is very fair to look at, and
seemed thickly inhabited : it may have about fifteen leagues
circumference ; and to the south of this, and a matter of
little more than a league ofi", is another island, which may
be eight leagues round, which received the name of Santa
Christina; and our fleet passed through the channel between
this and the other island. For all that we saw of these
islands is clear sailing ; and on the west side of Sta. Chris-
tina a good port was found, in which the fleet anchored.
These Indians did not come before me like the others, but
some very beautiful women were seen : 1 did not see them,
but persons who had an opinion in the matter affirmed to
me that there were as beautiful women as in Lima, but
white, and not so tall; and in Lima there are some very
pretty. What was seen in the way of victuals in that
port was pigs and hens, sweet canes, very good plantains,
cocos, a fruit which grows on high trees ; each is as large
as a large fir cone ; it is very good to eat ; much of it was
eaten — green, roasted and boiled, and when ripened it is in-
deed so sweet and good a fruit to my way of thinking, that
I know no other which has the advantage of it : there is
hardly anything in it to throw away, unless a little husk.
' De hox, boxear^ to go round : hence, to box the compass.
F 2
68 NARRATIVE OP THE VOYAGE OP
There was another fruity Hke chestnuts in savour, but much
larger than six chestnuts together : a good deal of that was
eaten, roast and boiled ; and some nuts with a very hard
shell, which were very oily, and many of them were eaten :
some suspect that they brought on looseness. We also saw
pumpkins of Castillo sown in the ground. There is a pretty
waterfall close to the beach of very good water; it comes
out of a rock, at the height of two men : its volume may be
of the thickness of four or five fingers, and then, close to it,
a stream of water, and the vessels supplied themselves from
it. The Indians went ofi" to the mountains and rocks, in
which they fortified themselves, and tried to do mischief by
rolling stones and hurling them, but they never wounded
any one, for the master of the camp stopped their advance
by placing outposts. The Indians of this island, on seeing
a negro of ours, made signs towards the south, to say that
in that direction there were men like him, and that they
went there to fight, and that the others had arrows, and
that these went in large canoes which they possess. As
there was no interpreter, nor much curiosity to learn
more, the matter remained thus ; but in ray opinion, this is
not possible for Indians so isolated, unless there is a chain
(of islands), because their boats and customs in other
matters do not show that these people had come there from
any great distance.
This port is in nine degrees and a half (south) latitude.
The commander-in-chief ordered three crosses to be set up
in it ; and, on Saturday 5th of August, to weigh anchor and
set sail, making for the west, to the south-west, or north-
west, a matter of four hundred leagues. Sunday, the 20th
of August, we saw four low islands, with sandy beaches, full
of very many palms and woods, and on the south-east side;
towards the north, a great sand-bank. All four may have
a circuit of twelve leagues. We did not know whether they
were inhabited, because we did not go close to them. This
DON ALVARO DE MENDAl'lA. 69
year all seemed timid : I say this with rage. They are in
ten degrees and three-quarters latitude, and were named
after St. Bernard, having been discovered on his day.
Henceforward we began to meet with south-easterly winds,
which appear to pi-edominate here. With those we con-
tinued sailing to the above-mentioned points, never rising
above eleven or going below ten leagues, until Tuesday,
29th of August, when we discovered a round islet, which
might be a league round, all surrounded by reefs. We tried
to land on it, and could not find where to do so, in order to
get wood and water for the admiral's ship, of which it had
run very short ; it was given the name of Solitary Island ;
it is in ten degrees and two-thirds, and will be one thousand
five hundred and thirty-five leagues from Lima. From this
place we went on navigating, with the before-mentioned
orders, and a variety of opinions were given : some saying
that we did not know where we were going, and other
things which did not fail to cause grief. It was God's
pleasure, that on the eve of our Lady in September, at mid-
night, we saw an island, which might have a circuit of from
ninety to a hundred leagues, and it lies about east south-east
and west north-west, and will be a thousand eight hundred
leagues from Lima. The whole of it was very full of woods,
reaching to the highest ridges, and where it was not cleared
for the Indians to sow, in all the rest not a span of earth
was to be seen. The sliips came to anchor in the northern
part of the island, in ten degrees latitude. To the north of
this port, about seven leagues oflP, is a volcano, with a very
well shaped hill, from the top of which and from other parts
issued much fire. The volcano is lofty and may have a cir-
cumference of three leagues ; it is precipitous on the side of
the sea, and all bare, and without any part where a landing
can be efi'ected ; it rumbles within frequently and loudly
like thunder. To the north-east of this volcano there are
some small islets which are inhabited, and a great quantity
70 NARRATIVE OF THE VOYAGE OF
of shoals ; there is a distance of seven or eight leagues to
these islets, and the shoals run to the north-west ; and the
person who went to see said that they were numerous.
Around the great island there were some small islands : all
of them, and the great one (when it was circumnavigated)
were found to be inhabited ; and within sight of this great
island, to the south-east of it, there was seen another island
of no great size : this must be the link with others. After
putting into port in the great island of Santa Cruz; for this
was the name given it, the commander-in-chief ordered
Captain Don Lorenzo, brother of his wife, to go with the
frigate to seek the Admiral's ship, which disappeared on the
night in which we saw the island, respecting which I make
no favourable conjecture ; it was sought for this and two
other times, and was not found, but only the shoals which I
have mentioned. What was seen in the way of victuals in
this port consisted of pigs, hens, plantains, sweet canes,
one, two, or three kinds of roots like sweet potatoes, which
they eat roast and boiled, and make biscuit with it, huyos,
two kinds of good almonds, and two kinds of pine nuts,
wood-pigeons, doves, ducks, grey and white herons, swal-
lows, potherbs,^ pumpkins of Castillo, the fruit which I men-
tioned in the first islands, and chestnuts and nuts. There
is a very strongly scented sweet basil, and coloured flowers,
which at this port they keep in the gardens, and two other
species of another sort also coloured. There is another fruit
on high trees, like pippins for their good smell and savour.
There is a great quantity of ginger which grows there with-
out its being cultivated, and much yerba chiquilite, with
which they make indigo. There are agave trees, and a
great deal of sagia, and many cocoa nuts. Marble was seen,
and pearl shells, and large snail shells like those which are
brought here from China. There is a very copious spring,
and five or six other rivers, though not very large. The
settlement was established close to this spring. The In-
' Muchos bledos, blitcs.
DON ALVARO DE MENDAllA. 71
diaus attempted to defend themselves^ and as the arquebuse
tells at a distance, seeing the evil effects, they did not de-
fend themselves much, but on the contrary gave some of
what they possessed. In this matter of going for provisions
there were a few things happened, which were not very good
treatment of the Indians, for they killed the Indian who
was our best friend, and the lord of that island ; his name
was Malope; and two or three others, who were also
friendly. Of the whole island no more was seen than a
matter of three leagues around the camp. The people of
this island are black : they have small canoes made of one
tree,^ in which they go about their villages, and other very
large canoes with which they go out to sea. On Sunday,
the eighth October, the commander-in-chief ordered the
master of the camp to be killed by stabbing, and they
killed Tomas de Ampuero in the same manner, and they
cut off the head of the ensign Juan de Buitrago ; and he
wished to put to death two other friends of the master of
the camp: but he left them alone, because we entreated him
to do so. The cause of this was public, because they wished
to go away from the country and abandon it, and there
must have been other reasons, but I am unacquainted with
them. ^Vhat I saw was much dissoluteness and shameless-
uess, and more than enough improper conduct. On the
eighteenth of October the commander-in-chief died : on the
seventeenth there had been a total ecKpse of the moon."
' De un palo, or, with one mast.
'■^ Pingre's translation of the Descuhrimiento de las islas de Salomon
says, p. 41, — " On the 17th October there was a total eclipse of the
moon : this luminary, on rising above the horizon, was already totally
eclipsed. Mendaua, by his will, which he signed with difficulty, named
as lady governor of the fleet his wife Dona Isabella de Barreto." And
in a note, he says that he calculated this eclijjse by the tables of Halley:
the immersion must have happened at Paris at 19 hours 6 minutes, and
the moon had already been risen since 5 or 6 minutes ; so that the isle
of Sta. Cruz would be at least loh. 2m. west of Paris, which would
rl NARRATIVE OF THE VOYAGE OF
On the second of November his brother-in-law, Don Lorenzo,
who had succeeded as captain-general, died ; and seven or
eight days before, the priest Antonio de Serpa ; and on the
eighth November the vicar Juan de Espinosa. There was
great sickness amongst our people, and as there was little
care for want of an apothecary and doctor, many of them
died ; and they begged the lady governor. Dona Ysabel
Barreto, to take them out of the country. One and all
agreed to embark ; and, trusting ourselves to the mercy of
God, we left this port on Saturday the eighteenth of the
said month, in a westerly direction to the south-west point,
making for the island of St. Christopher ; or more exactly
in search of it, to see if it or the admiral's ship could be
fallen in with, for so the lady governor commanded. We
sailed two days and saw nothing ; and at the request of all
the people, who cried out that we were taking them to
destruction, she ordered me to shape the course from this
town to Manila, from a port in ten degrees and a half, from
which I came steering to north-west, to avoid meeting
islands on the way, for the ill prepared we were to go amongst
them, with the crews so sick that there died whilst we were
sailing some fifty persons, and there in the island forty per-
sons, a little more or less. We made our course, short of
provisions, navigating five degrees south and as many in
north latitude. We met many impediments and calms, and
in fully six degrees north latitude saw an island, which
seemed to have a circumference of twenty-five leagues,
thickly wooded, and inhabited by very many people, like
those of the Ladrones, for we saw them in canoes which
came out to us. From the south-east to the north and then
to south-west it is surrounded by large reefs. On its western
side, about four leagues oS', there are some low islets : we
make it 184 degrees 30 minutes longitude, or at most 190 degrees,
allowing for the Spaniards not having i:)erccivocl the eclipse before
sunset."
DON ALVAEO DE MENDAnA. 73
found no place to anchor, though we tried ; for the galliot
and frigate which sailed with our ship had disappeared some
days back.^ From this place we came by the said course
to latitude thirteen degrees and three quarters, and in two
days that we sailed west in this latitude we sighted Serpana^
and Guan in the Ladrones, and we passed between the two
and did not anchor, from not having ropes to lower and re-
cover the boat. This day was the third of January of 1596,
and on the fourteenth of the said month we saw the cape of
Espiritu Santo, and on the fifteenth anchored in the bay of
Cobos. We arrived there in such a state that only the
goodness of God could bring us thither, for human strength
and resources were not enough to reach to a tenth of the
way. Here we arrived so dismantled, and the men so thin
and worn out, that it was the most pitiable sight that could
be seen, with only nine or ten pitchers of water. In this
bay of Cobos the ship and crew were set to rights as much
as was possible, and on Tuesday, second of February, Ave
left that port and bay, and on the tenth of the same month
we anchored in this port of Cabite, etc.
Besides the desire which I have to serve your Honour,
that which moves me to leave this brief narrative with your
> The Descuhrimiento de las Islas de Salomon says : — " The frigate
was found cast away on the coast with all the crew dead. The galliot
touched at IMindanao, in 10 degrees, where the crew landed on the islet
of Camaniguin ; and while wandering on the shore, and dying of hunger,
met with some Indians, who conducted them to a hospital of the Jesuits.
The corregidor of the place sent five men of this ship prisoners to
Manila, upon the complaint of their captain, whom they had wished to
hang. He wrote to Don Antonio de Morga the following letter : 'A
Spanish galliot has arrived here, commanded by a captain, who is as
strange a man as the things which he relates. He pretends to have
belonged to the expedition of General Don Alvaro de Mendana, who
left Peru for the Solomon isles, and that the fleet consisted of four ships.
You will perhaps have the means of knowing what the fact is. The
soldiers who were prisoners declared that the galliot had separated from
the general only because the captain had chosen to follow another route.
= Isle of Scypau.
74 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
Honour is, that an account may remain (if perchance God
should dispose of my life, or anything else should arise,
or I or she that I take with me should be missing)/ and
that it may give light, which may be a business of great
service to God and to the king our sovereign. May your
Honour be pleased to accept the good will to serve you
which I retain ; and if God make me return to this port,
there will be an opportunity to set it forth better : and at
the same time will your Honour forgive my being so short,
for time is in fault for being so with me. I beg you to
keep it secret, for man does not know what time brings ;
for looking at it rightly, it is fit that the first islands remain
concealed, until His Majesty be informed and order what-
ever may be most for his service : for as they are placed,
taking a middle position between Peru, New Spain and
this country, the English, on knowing it, might settle in
them, and do much mischief in this sea. And consider me
as the faithful servant of your Honour, whom may God pre-
serve many years, with much satisfaction and increase of
dignity, etc.
Your servant,
Pedro Fernandez de Quiros.
To the Dr. Antonio de Morga, Lieutenant-general of His
Majesty of the Philippines.
* " Que yo, 6 la que llevo faltemos.'''' The astronomer Pingre is rather
severe (in a note, p. 46) upon the President de Brosses, and ujjon the
editors of the Holland edition of the French collection of voyages, for a
prolix note respecting Doiia Beatrix, whom they suppose to have been
tlie wife of Lope de Vega, Mendaiia's second in command, who was lost
during the voyage; she returned, they say, with Doiia Ysabel de Barrcto,
to America. M. Pingre urges that there was no such person in the
fleet as DoQa Beatrix, or else that she and Dofia Ysabel were the same
person ; and he is of opinion that the person who wrote down the name
of Beatrix in one part of the narrative instead of Ysabel, probably had
his mind full of some other Beatrix altogether foreign to the narrative.
However, as Dona Ysabel de Barreto was mairied again to Don Fer-
nando de Castro, and returned to America with him in his ship, it is
DON FRANCISCO TELLO. 75
Don Francisco Tello^ when he entered upon his govern-
ment in the year ^96, found the ship San Geronymo (in
which Don Fernando de Castro and Dona Ysabel Barreto
his wife returned to New Spain) getting ready in the port
of Cabite : the galloon San Felipe was likewise ready for sea,
to make the voyage to New Spain with the produce of the
Phihppines : and as soon as the governor Don Francisco
Tello had assumed the government, both ships were de-
spatched, and set sail. Although the San Geronymo went
last out of port, it made the voyage and reached New
Spain at the end of the year of ^96. The ship San Felipe,
which was large and hea\aly laden with merchandise and
passengers, and had for commander and general Don Mathia
de Landecho, met with many storms during the voyage ;
so that in one of these it became necessary to lighten the
ship of much of the cargo, and the rudder was lost in thirty-
seven degrees of latitude, at six hundred leagues from the
Philippines, and a hundred and fifty from Japan. Seeing
themselves unable to repair the loss and continue the
voyage, it was proposed to make for the Philippines, and
they began that navigation, changing the course which
they had followed. In this again the greatest difficulties
and labours presented themselves : they frequently saw
themselves on the point of being lost, for the seas were
very high, and as the ship had no rudder, the rigging and
few sails she carried were so violently shaken that every-
thing was shattered, and they could not hold her on her
course ; and she was so often taken aback, that she was in
great danger of foundering, and all hope of reaching the
Philippines was lost. It was found that the nearest land
was Japan, but not so near that the ship could reach it, or
venture near its coast, which is very wild, and was un-
hardly probable that Quiros would have spoken of her in the above
terms; so that the lady referred to in the text by (Quiros may perhaps be
Doua Beatrix.
/G or THE GOVERNMENT OF
known and had not been seen by them : and even should
they have the good fortune to reach it, they did not know-
how they would be received by the Japanese. Here arose
the confusion and diversity of opinions of the people on
board the ship ; some said the course they were making for
Manila ought not to be altered, although it was accom-
panied by the great peril and discomfort which they were
experiencing : others, that it would be great rashness to do
so, and that since Japan was much nearer, that they
should go to it, making for the port of Nangasaqui, whence
there was trade to the Philippines, and where they would
meet with shelter, and the means of repairing the ship, and
continuing their voyage from that point. This opinion
prevailed, for some monks who were on board embraced it,
and the remainder conformed to it, on the assurance of the
pilots that they would in a short time take the ship in to
Japan. So they altered the course for that country, and at
the end of six days discovered the coast and country of
Japan, in a province called Toza ; and although they made
every eJBTort by day to reach the land, at night, when they
struck the sails, the currents carried them away from it.
Many boats^ came out to the ship from a port called
Hurando, and persuaded by the king of that province, who
assured them of harbour, tackle and repairs, they put the
ship into port : having first sounded and reconnoitred the
entry, and ascertained that there was water enough. The
Japanese, who were infidels, and did it with malice, took
the ship in tow with their boats into the port, and led and
guided her on to a shoal, and as there was not much water
on it, the ship touched and grounded on it : so that it be-
came necessary to unload the ship, and take out all the
cargo on shore close to the town, in a spot staked round
which was given them for that purpose. The Japanese
gave the Spaniards at the time a good reception, but with
' Funeas. (iuoiy fiiuiiv Euniicc.
DON FRANCISCO TELLO. 77
respect to repairing the ship and going out of port again^
they gave them to understand that this could not be done
without license and permission from Taicosama, lord of
Japan, who was in his court at Miaco, a hundred leagues
from the port. The General Don Matia de Landecho_, and
those in his companj_, resolved, in order not to lose time, to
send his ambassadors to the court, with a good present of
valuable things from the ship to Taicosama, to entreat him
to give orders for despatching them. They sent Christoval
de Mercado with this message, and three other Spaniards;
also Fray Juan, Pohre, a Franciscan, and Fray Juan Tamayo,
of the order of St. Augustine, who had come on board the
ship : they were to treat this business with Taico, and avail
themselves of the Franciscan fathers who were in Miaco ;
for these had gone formerly from the Philippines as ambas-
sadors, to settle the affairs of Japan with Manila, and they
were staying at the court, with a permanent house and
hospital, and (being winked at by Taico) making a few
Christians, though with much opposition on the part of the
monks of the company of Jesus, who are in the kingdom of
Japan; as they said that other friars could not meddle or
occupy themselves with the conversion of Japan, on account
of apostolic briefs and royal letters. The King of Hurando,
although in appearance he was friendly and gave a good
reception to the Spaniards who were in his port, yet he
took great care that they and the merchandise should be
ready at hand ; and he at once gave notice at court that a
foreigner's ship had been lost there, foreigners whom they
called Nambajies,^ and who had brought great riches. Upon
which Taicosama, having become covetous, and desiring to
' Nambaji, a monk. Koempfer, vol. ii, p. 12, says that Nembuds
Koo are devout fraternities who chant the Namanda, which is an abridg-
ment of Nama Amida Budsu, "Great Amida help us;" and at p. 198 he
says that Dai-Nembudzsui are persons specially devoted to the worship
of Amida.
78 OF THE GOVERNMENT OP
make himself master of them, sent Ximonojo/ one of his
favourites and councillors, to Hurando ; he, on his arrival,
took possession of all the property, and imprisoned the
Spaniards within a palisade under a guard, obliging them to
give up whatever they had got, and had hidden away, under
pain of death. Having executed this with much rigour, he
returned to the court, after giving leave to the general and
others of his suite to go to Miaco. The ambassadors who
had been despatched at first with the present (although it-
was accepted) could not see Taico, nor negotiate anything
available, notwithstanding that the Padre Fray Pedro Bap-
tista, prelate of the Franciscan monks who were at Miaco,
set on foot many plans for remedying the injury which was
being done to the Spaniards, This only served to increase
the evil, because the favourites, seeing Taico so set upon
the riches of the ship, and so distant from listening to any-
thing on the subject of the restitution of them, not only did
not ask him to do so, on the contrary to make the matter
easier, and in order to profit by the time and opportunity,
being infidels, and abhorring the monks who made Chris-
tians in the court ; they set Taicosama against them ; tell-
ing him that the monks and the people of the ship all
belonged to one sovereign, and were conquerors of the
kingdoms of others ; and that they did this by first sending
in their monks, and entering later after them with arms,
and that this was what they intended doing in Japan.
They supported themselves in this statement by the fact
that, when the confidante who went to take possession of
the property in the ship was at Hurando, Francisco de
Landa, the pilot of the ship, had shewn him the charts of
navigation, and in them all that had been discovered by
Spain and the other kingdoms, and what His Majesty
possessed ; and amongst these possessions Peru and New
Spain : and on the confidante asking him how they had
gained those very distant kingdoms, the pilot replied thnt
DON FEANCISCO TELLO. 79
first the monks had entered and preached their rehgion,
and the mihtary forces following after them had subjected
those countries. It is indeed true that this pilot impru-
dently gave these reasons^ which Ximonojo noted well^ and
committed to memoiy in order to repeat them to Taicosama
on a good occasion^ as he did on this.^
From all these things together, and from the instance
with which the monks begged Taico to give the merchandise
to the Spaniards, the result was that he was at last tho-
roughly irritated, and like a barbarous tyrant, and so avari-
cious, he gave orders to crucify all of them, and the rest of
the monks who preached the religion of Namban in his
kingrdoms. Five monks who were in the house at Miaco
were immediately seized, and another of those of the ship
San Felipe, who had joined them, and all their Japanese
preachers and teachers ; and it was understood that this
persecution would be extended to the rest of the monks and
other Christians in Japan, so that all were in great fear and
confusion. But Taicosama later became more moderate ;
• The Dutch account of Memoralle Emhassus of the United Provinces
to the Emperors of Japaji, printed in 16i9, and translated into French
by Jacob de Meurs, and printed at Amsterdam in 1680, states that
Taicosama died on the 16th September, 1598, and relates the above con-
versation of the pilot a little more fully, as the second reason for the
persecution of the Christians by Daifusama, successor of Taicosama. It
states that a Spanish vessel having anchored in one of the Japanese
ports (it does not mention when), a Japanese gentleman named Yemon-
done went to see it, and was received by the pilot, who spoke as related
by De Morga. It adds that Yemondone informed the emperor, who
praised the policy of his predecessor, who had banished the Papists in
1587 ; and that the same time the emperor was informed that a Spanish
pilot had been surprised sounding the ports of Japan, and no doubts re-
mained to the Japanese that the Spaniards intended to invade them. It
is probable that Yemondone is the same person as Ximonojo of De
Morga, as the Dutch account gives five reasons for the persecution of
the Christians on the authority of the Jesuit Hazard. Ximonojo may
be intended for Siomio, a title given by Koempfer, i, p. 70, as inferior
to that of Daimio.
80 OP THE GOVERNMENT OF
for, allowing himself to be entreated, he declared that there
should only be crucified those monks who had been found in
the house at Miaco, and the Japanese preachers and teachers
their companions who had been arrested ; and that all the
others, and the Spaniai-ds of the ship, might be allowed to
return to Manila. The execution was committed to Fon-
zanbrandono, brother of Taracabadono, governor of Nanga-
saki : he took out of the house of the Franciscan monks at
Miaco all that were there, on bullock waggons, with a
numerous guard, to wit : Fray Pedro Baptista, Fray Martin
de Aguirre, Fray Felipe de las Casas, Fray Gonzalo, Fray
Francisco Blanco, and Fray Francisco de San Miguel, and
twenty-six Japanese preachers and teachers, with two boys
in the service of the friars : and he cut off their right ears,
and led them about the streets of Miaco, and through the
cities of Fugimen, Usaca and Sacai, to the great grief and
regret of all the Christians who saw them suffer. The sen-
tence and cause of their martyrdom was carried hanging on
a spear, written on a tablet in Chinese letters, and it was as
follows : —
Sentence of the Comhaco, lord of Ja'pan, against the hare-
footed friars and their teachers, whom he caused to he mar-
tyred in Nangasaqui.
Forasmuch as these men came from the Luzons, from the
island of Manila, with the title of ambassadors, and were
allowed to remain in the city of Miaco, and preached the
faith of the Christians, which I in former years rigorously
prohibited ;^ I order that they be executed, together with
the Japanese who became of their religion, so these twenty-
' According to the Dutch Memorable Embassies, an embassy of four
Franciscans and a Jesuit had an audience of Taico Sama in 1583, and
received permission to establish themselves at ]\Iiaco on condition of not
converting any Japanese : according to De IMorga this date should be
1593, as the governor Gomez Perez Dasmarinas, who received Taico-
sama's summons, only arrived at Manila in 1590; and the Dutch
account says that Taicosama bccanu- emperor in 1584.
DON FRANCISCO TELLO. 81
four shall be crucified in the city of Nangasaqui ; and
whereas I again prohibit anew from this time forward the
said religion, let all hear this : and I order that it be put in
execution, and if anyone should dare to break this order,
that he be punished with all his family. Done on the first
of Echo and second of the moon.
In this manner these saints were taken to Nangasaqui,
and upon a hill, which was in sight of the town and gate,
sown with wheat, and close to a house and hospital named
St. Lazarus, which these monks had founded in Nanga-
saqui when they left the Philippines, they were all crucified
in a row, the friars in the middle, and the others on either
side of them, on high crosses, with iron staples at their
throats, hands and feet, and long sharp iron lances passed
through their sides, from below upwards crossways: so that
they gave up their souls to their Creator, for whom they
died with much valour, on the fifth of February, day of Sta.
Agueda, of the year 1597. They left behind them in that
ploughed field, and through it in the whole of that kingdom,
a great sowing of seed, watered with their blood; from
which we hope to gather the abundant fruit of a numerous
conversion to the Holy Catholic faith. Before these saints
were put upon the crosses, they wrote to Dr. Antonio de
Morga, a letter to Manila, by the hand of Fray Martin de
Aguirre, which is word for word as follows : — ■
To Dr. Morga, Lieutenant of the Governor of Manila,
whom may God preserve in Manila.
Farewell, Doctor ! farewell, for our Lord, in his mercy,
not looking at my sins, has been pleased to unite me to a
company of twenty-four servants of God, who die for love of
Him ; of whom six of us are friars of St. Fi'ancis, and
eighteen Japanese. With the hope that many more will go
by the same way, may your worship receive the last farewell
a
82 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
and tlie last embrace of all this company, for we all acknow-
ledge tlie favour wliicli you have shown to the affairs of this
conversion ; and now, in taking leave^ we beg you (and I
especially) to take up as a business of your own the favouring
of this Christian body ; as you are a father, and favouring all
things which may present themselves for the mission of monks
to this conversion, so may your worship find one to favour you
and intercede for you before God, in time of need. Farewell,
sir ! and give my last adieu to the Lady Dona Jua-na, whom
may God preserve, etc. From the road to execution, twenty-
eighth of January of 1597.
This king's appetite has been much increased by what he
robbed from the San Felipe, and they say that next year he will
go to Luzon, and that he does not go this year, being taken up
with the Coreans; and that for this purpose he intends to take
the islands of Lequios^ and Hermosa," to throw people thence
into Caga3^an, and from thence take Manila, if God does not
first put a stop to his advance. Your worship will see to what
is necessary and fitting. Fray Martin de la Ascencion.
The bodies of the martyrs, although they were guarded by
the Japanese for many days, were removed by bits (particu-
larly those of the friars) from the crosses as relics by the
Christians of the place ; they, with much veneration, distri-
buted them, and they are now throughout Christendom,
without forgetting the staples and wood of the crosses.
Two other friars of the same company, who were out of the
house at the time of the arrest, did not suffer this martyr-
dom ; one named Fray Geronymo de Jesus, hid himself and
got into the interior of the country, so as not to have to leave
it ; the other, named Fray Agustin Rodriguez, was taken in
by the Fathers of the company, and they sent him away by
the way of Macan. General Don Mathia and the Spaniards
of the ship h^ft Japan stripped and without equipments, they
' liii Tclm. 2 Formosa.
DON FRANCISCO TELLO. 83
embarked at Nang-asaki and went to Manila, in different
ships, of those which make that voyage on accoant of the
Portuguese and Japanese ; and the first news of this event
was received through them in the month of Maj of the year
ninety-seven ; it caused much grief and sadness on account
of the death of the holy monks, and the disturbances which
were to be expected in the future in the affairs of Japan and
the Philippines ; and for the loss of the galloon and property
which Avere going in it to New Spain ; for its value was more
than a million, so that the Spaniards were much im-
povei-ished. In considering what it became them to do under
the circumstances, it was ultimately decided, in order not to
abandon the matter, that a person should be sent to Japan
as messenger with letters from the Governor to Taicosama,
to represent to him the regret which he felt at what he had
done in taking the ship and merchandise from the Spaniards,
and killing the monks, and to beg him to repair it as much
as possible, by restoring the property of the Spaniards, and
the artiller}', tackle, and other; things that remained of the
ship, and the bodies of the monks whom he had crucified,
and providing for the future in such manner that the
Spaniards should not be so treated in his kingdom.
The Governor despatched Captain Don Luis Navarrete
Fajardo with this message to Japan, and with a present of
some jewels of gold and silver, swords, and valuable stuffs,
for Taicosama ; also an elephant well caparisoned, and with
a silk covering, with its nairs in the same livery, which was
a thing which had not been seen yet in Japan ; in order that,
conformably to the usage of that kingdom, the envoy might
make a present to Taico, when he acquitted himself of his
embassy ; because otherwise it is not usual either to send
one nor to receive it. Don Luys de Navarrete having ar-
rived at Nangasaki, Taicosama sent from the Court with
much readiness for the ambassador and present sent to him
from Luzon, which he wished to see, particularly the ele-
02
84 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
phant^ wliicli he was mucli deliglited with. He heard the
embassy, and gave it a reply with much osteBtation and
state ; he excused himself with respect to the death of the
monks, upon whom he laid the blame, since, though he had
prohibited them from making Christians or teaching their
religion, they had broken his commands in his very Court,
making no account of them. Likewise the taking the ship
and its merchandise, which entered the port of Hurando of
the province of Toza, had been a justifiable thing according
to the law of Japan, because all ships which are lost on its
coast belong to the king, with their merchandise.^ But he
regretted the whole matter, and would give the merchandise
if he had not distributed it ; and as to the monks, that could
not now be remedied ; and rather he would beg the Grovernor
of Manila not to send him such persons, for he had again
made laws forbidding the making of Christians under pain
of death ; and he would give up to him whatever had re-
mained of the bodies of the monks. With respect to peace
and amity with the Luzon Islands and the Spaniards, he
would be greatly pleased with it, and for his part would en-
deavour to secure it, and would give orders that if another
ship fi'om Manila should come to his kingdom it should be
' received and treated well. With this reply, and a letter to
the same effect for the governor, Taicosama despatched and
granted leave to depart to Don Luys Navarrete, giving him
to take to the governor a present of lances and arms, and
catans of great merit and estimation amongst the Japanese.
So Don Luys left Miaco and came to Nangasaki, whence he
sent word to the Governor Don Francisco by the first ship
which safled for Manila, of what he had negotiated, which, as
he died there of illness, was brought later by another person
to Manila. Taicosama remained satisfied with the reply
which he gave to the ambassador, without, indeed, having
' Like our early law ami that of other European nations.
DON FRANCISCO TELLO. 85
done any of the tilings which had been asked of him ; for
that reply was more a semblance and compliments, than a
desire for friendship with the Spaniards ; and he boasted
and gave out arrogantly, and his favourites said in the same
manner, that that present and message which the Spaniards
had sent, was from the fear they had of him, and as a recog-
nition of tribute and lordship, in order that he should not
destroy them, as he had on other occasions threatened them
in former years, when Gomez Perez Dasmarinas governed ;
on which occasion also they had then answered and sent a
present with Padre Fray Juan Lobo, of the order of St.
Dominic, and Captain Llanos.
Faranda Quiemon, a Japanese, sought for war against
Manila, and the confidantes who assisted him were not negli-
gent in entreating Taico not to lose the opportunity which
offered for conquering it, for it would be easy as there were
few Spaniards in it, and Faranda Quiemon assured him of
success, as a man who knew the country and its resources.
They made such instances, that Taico gave him the enter-
prise and some succours, and other assistance towards it.
He began to equip himself, and to collect Chinese vessels to
go on the expedition : which he was never able to carry out,
because he was a man who was personally low and mean, and
had neither qualities nor sufficient resources for the enterprise,
and his protectors did not choose to furnish them to him ; so
that his preparations were prolonged until the matter fell
through with the death of Taico, and his own, as will be re-
lated later. In Manila news constantly arrived that a fleet
was being prepared in Japan, and that Faranda was the
person Avho was doing it all, so that they lived with a natural
anxiety, as the enemy was proud and powerful, and notwith-
standing that there was a full intention on the part of the
city and valour to resist him. For all that, the governor and
the city never chose to show (in public that they were aware
and knew that Taico was about to change, in order not to
86 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
bring on war^ and give a motive to tlie otlier side to hasten
it; they trusted to time for a remedy, and disposed the
affairs of the city in readiness for what might happen, and
sent to Japan all the Japanese who were settled in Manila
(and they were not a few), and those who came in trading
shipS;, taking charge of their arms on their arrival until they
again left the country ; and endeavouring to cause them to
remain as short a time as possible in the islands, but giving
them in all other respects a good reception. As it was un-
derstood that Taico was thinking of taking the island of
Formosa, which is on the Chinese coast, and very near to
Luzon, on the way to Japan, a large well-provisioned island,
in order to make of it a rallying point for his fleet, and carry
on from it war with Manila with greater convenience ; the
governor despatched two ships of the fleet, commanded by
Don Juan de Zamudio, to reconnoitre this island and all its
ports, and the state in which it was, in order to take posses-
sion of it first : or, at least, should there not be means or
time for that to give advice in China to the Viceroys of the
provinces of Canton and Chincheo, so that they, as ancient
enemies of Japan, might prevent their entry into it, which
was so injurious to all of them. With these measures and
precautions the business was prolonged for some days, al-
though in this matter of the expedition to the island of For-
mosa, nothing else was carried into effect besides giving
warning to Creat China of the designs of Japan.
After a few days, during which Fray Alonso Ximeuez was
imprisoned in Cochin China, where Captain Juan Xuarez
Gallinato had left him, the King of Tunquin and the King of
Sinua gave him leave to go away to Manila, and he got a
passage by Macau, in Portuguese ships. He not only did
not arrive wearied by the voyage and labours and imprison-
ment which he had undergone, but on the contrary with re-
newed health and spirits, he proposed that the expedition to
Cambodia should again be set on foot ; although there was
DON FRANCISCO TELLO. 87
little news of tlie good state of affairs in that kingdom, and
of the restoration of Prauncar, he, accompanied by other friars
of his order, as they had so much influence with Don Luys
Dasmarinas, who at this time was already out of the govern-
ment of Manila, persuaded him, and brought him round to
offer to undertake to make this expedition again, in person,
and at the cost of his own property, from which would follow
good effects, for the service of God and of his majesty.^ Don
Luys spoke of the matter to the governor, Don Francisco
Tello, and offered to bear all the expense. The taking a
resolution was put off until some news should be received
from Cambodia, and the only information possessed was, that
Bias Ruyz and Diego Belloso had gone to Laos from Cochin
China, having there left Captain Gallinato with his ships.
The people of Tampacan lost courage so much from the
departure of Don Juan Ronquillo with the camp from the
river of Mindanao,^ and the spirits of the people of Buhahayen
rose, so that notwithstanding the friendship that had been
made, and the obedience promised, they began to declare
themselves as enemies, and the state of affairs was again dis-
turbed, so that not only they did not dismantle their forts as
they had promised, but even they repaired them, and com-
mitted other excesses against the people of Tampacan, their
neighbours, and they would altogether have broken out into
open war, if they had not feared that the Spaniards would
return with more decided intentions, and a greater number
of men, as it was with this intention that they had left the
garrison in Caldera; and thus they let matters go, neither de-
1 This Fray Alouso Ximcnez and his historian give a fresh proof of
the veracity of the " imprudent" pilot who explained to the Japanese
how such large kingdoms had been conquered. Modern practice has
substituted "the supply of the markets" for the phrase "the service of
God and of His Majesty."
2 M. Gayangos informs me that there is in the Archives of the
Indies at Seville a letter from D. Juan Ronquillo to De IMorga, dated
1597, in which he describes his expedition to the isle of Mindanao.
88 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
daring themselves as revolted^ nor acting as friends towards
the people of Tampacan, and other allies of the Spaniards.
Near the island of Mindanao there is an island named
Jolo^ not very large^ but thickly inhabited, it may have three
thousand men, with their own king and lord j all of them are
Mussulmaus. Wben the Grovernor Francisco de Sande went
on the expedition to Borneo, he sent Captain Estevan
Rodriguez de Figueroa to Jolo, and he entered there, and
brought over the inhabitants to submission to his majesty,
as was noted further back ; these were committed to Captain
Pedro de Osseguera during his life, and after his death to
Don Pedro de Osseguera, his son and successor. For some
years he went on asking and receiving as tribute whatever
they chose to give him, which was of small amount, without
pressing upon them more heavily, so as not to upset the ar-
rangement altogether : and when Don Juan Ronquillo was
in the camp in Mindanao, the Jolo people, seeing the affairs
of the Spaniards in a flourishing condition, shewed a desire
to enjoy peace and to pay their tributes ; but on seeing the
departure of the Spaniards, they again grew cool. Captain
Juan. Pacho, who, in the absence of Don Juan Ronquillo, re-
mained as chief of the gai-rison at Caldera, had sent a few
soldiers to barter for wax, the people of Jolo ill-treated them,
and killed two of them ; and Juan Pacho desiring to chastise
this excess of the Jolo people, went there in person with a
few boats and thirty soldiers, and landed. A great number
of Jolo men came down from the king's town, which is on a
high and strongly fortified hill, and attacked the Spaniards ;
and as they were very numerous, and the Spaniards were un-
able to make use of their arquebuses, from the occurrence
at the time of a heavy rainfall, they were routed, with the
death of their Captain Juan Pacho, and twenty more of their
companions, and the rest wounded, and taking to flight, they
embarked in their vessels, and returned to Caldera.
This event caused much regret in jManila, especially ou
DON FRANCISCO TELLO. 89
accouut of tlie reputation wliich. had been lost by it,
both among the Jolo people themselves, and among the
people of Mindanao, their neighbours. Although it was
held to be necessary to repair this disgrace, and send and
chastise the Jolo men ; yet, as this had to be done with
vigour, and at that time there was not a sufficient force, it
was deferred for a better opportunity ; only Captain Yillagra,
with a few soldiers, was sent immediately as head of the
garrison at Caldera. AYhen they arrived, they passed the
time quietly until their provisions were running short, and
the garrison suffered ; and with this little support which the
people of Tampacan felt, knowing that there were Spaniards
in the island, they sustained themselves and passed the time,
hoping for the arrival of more Spaniards, as Don Juan had
said and promised them, and for chastisement and revenge
on the people of Jolo.
YTiilst the affairs of the Philippines were in this state, in
the month of May of 1598, there arrived at Manila ships
from New Spain ; which brought despatches ordering the
.re-establishment of the royal court of justice of the Philip-
pines which had been abolished in a former year. The pre-
sident named and appointed to it was Don Francisco Tello,
who governed the country ; and the auditors. Dr. Antonio
de Morga ; and the licentiates, Cristoval Telles Almazan,
and Alvaro Rodriguez Zambrano, and the Fiscal, the licen-
tiate Geronymo de Salazar, with the rest of the officials of
the court. In the same ship arrived the Archbishop Fray
Ignacio de Santivailez, who enjoyed the archbishopric but
for a short time, for he died in the month of August of the
same year, of dysentery ; there arrived likewise the Bishop of
Sebu, Fray Pedro de Agurto. On the eighth day of May of
this year, 1598, the royal seal of the High court of justice
was received. It was brought from the monastery of St.
Augustine to the Cathedral Church upon a horse caparisoned
with cloth of gold and crimson, under a canopy of the same
90 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
cloth ; its staves of ofl&ce were borne by the city magistrates,
with their robes of crirasou velvet, lined with cloth of Avhite
silver, and doublets and breeches of the same material. He
who held the office of alguazil mayor, clothed in cloth of gold
without a cloak, led the horse on the right hand side, upon
which the seal was placed in a case of cloth of gold, with a
covering of brocade ; and the president and auditors went,
all on foot and bareheaded, around the horse. In front there
went a large procession of the whole city, dressed in costly
and gay clothes ; and behind followed all the camp and men-
at-arms, with their drums and standards, their arms in their
hands, and the captains and officers at their posts, and the
master of the camp in front of them with his staff. The
streets and windows were richly adorned with many hangings
and ornaments, and many triumphal arches ; and enlivened
by the music of minstrels, trumpets and other instruments.
When the seal reached the door of the Cathedral church of
Manila, the Archbishop in pontifical robes came out to re-
ceive it, with the cross, and the chapter and clergy of the
church ; and having lowered the case in which it went, from
the horse, the president under the canopy put it into the
hands of the Archbishop, and went into the church with the
auditors, whilst the singers in the chapel began the Te Deum
Laudamus. They ai-rived at the great altar, upon the steps
of which there was a place prepared with brocade upon which
the case with the seal was placed, and whilst all knelt the
Archbishop sung some orisons to the -Holy Ghost, and also
for the health and good government of the king our
sovereign. The president then again took the case with the
seal, and with the same order and music with which it had
been brought in, it was taken out of the church, and again
placed upon the horse ; and, the Archbishop and clergy re-
maining at the door of the cathedral, the cortege continued
on its way to the royal buildings ; where in an apartment
well fitted up, under a canopy of crimson velvet, with the
DON FRANCISCO TELLO. 91
royal arms embroidered on it, and on a table covered with
brocade, and its cushions of the same stuff, the before-named
case with the seal inside of it, was placed and left, and
covered over with a cloth of crimson cloth of gold. There
was pubhcly read the royal order for the estabhshment of
the court, and the nominations of the president and of the
auditors and fiscal, and they received obedience, and the
usual oaths were taken from them. The president then
went out to the hall of the court, where the seats and plat-
form were dressed out, with a canopy for the royal arms.
There the president, auditors, and fiscal sat down and re-
ceived the ministers and ofiicials of the court, and its ordi-
nances were read out in the presence of as many of the city
and people as could find room in the hall. With this an end
was made that day of the foundation of the High court of
Justice ; and from that time forward it continued in the
exercise of its functions, having under its charge and ad-
ministration all the civil and criminal suits and causes of its
district : which consists of all the Philippine Islands and
mainland of China, discovered or to be discovered ; and
under the charge of the president, as governor, was all the
business i-elating to the government according to the royal
laws, ordinances, and special orders, which were brought
before and despatched by the High court.
A few days after the Chancery of the Philippines had
been established in the city of Manila, there arrived news of
what had happened in the kingdom of Cambodia after the
coming of Prauucar (son and successor of Prauucar Langara,
who died in the Laos country), in company with Diego
Belloso and Bias Puyz de Hernan Gonzalez, and of his
victories and restoration to his kingdom, as has been before
related, by letters from the King Prauncar for the Governor
Don Francisco Tello, and for Dr. Antonio de Morga, signed
by his hand, and with his seal of coloured ink, written in
Castilian, that they might be better understood ; and as
02 OF THK GOVERNMENT OF
they were all in the same sense^ it seems fit to put in tins
place the letter which the King Prauncar wrote to Dr.
Antonio de Morga, which is word for woi'd as follows : —
Prauncar, King of Cambodia, salutes Dr. Antonio de Morga,
and sends this letter ivith much love and satisfaction.
I Prauncar^ King of Cambojaj an abundant country^ I the
sole lord of it the great, I have a great love for Dr. Antonio
de Morga, and cannot separate him from my thoughts,
because I have learned from the Captain Chofa Don Bias
Castile that he with his good heart took part, and assisted
the Governor of Luzon,^ in sending to this country the
Captain Chofa Don Bias Castile, and the Captain Chofa
Don Diego Portugal, and soldiers in search of the King
Prauncar my father. They did not find him, and the two
chofas and soldiers killed Anacaparan, who was the only
great man. And then they went to Cochin China with the
ships, and the two chofas went to the Laos in search of the
king of this country, and they brought me to my kingdom,
in which I now am, and through themj and the two chofas,
and other Spaniards who have come, have assisted me to
pacify that which I now possess. I understand that all
this has happened to me through the Doctor having an
affection for this country, and for this I will endeavour that
Dr. Antonio de Morga may always love me, like my father
Prauncar, and assist me now, in order that monks may
come, and be with the two chofas, and with the other
Spaniards and Christians who are in my kingdom ; for I
will build them churches, and will give them leave and per-
' The reader will remember that De JNlorga stated at p. 46 that he
and others had opi:)osed the exijeditiou to Cambodia, and had sent in to
the governor a minute against it. De Morga does not seem to have
had a very favourable opinion of the two adventurers Don Diego
Belloso and Don Bias Ruyz, and leaves it to be suspected that Diego
Belloso had put a troublesome Siamese colleague of his out of the way.
(Sec p. 45.) Further on he expresses a doubt whether their designs
were consistent with the obligations of conscience.
DON FRANCI8C0 TELLO. 93
mission to make Christians all tlie Cambodians who may
wish to become it : and I will give them people to serve
them^ and I will foster them as did formerly the King
Prauncar my father. And I will assist Dr. Antonio de
Morga with everything of this country which may be of
use to him. To the two chofas I have given the lands
which I had promised them ; to Captain Don Bias Castile
the province of Tran ; and to Captain Chofa Don Diego
Portugal the province of Bapano ; which provinces I grant
and concede to them for the services which they have ren-
dered me, and in payment of the property which they have
spent in my service, in order that they may possess and
enjoy them, and use them at their wall, like their own
property, whilst they are in my service.
Bias Ruyz de Hernan Gonzales wrote to Dr. Morga,
together with the King's letter, another long one, in which
he gives an account of all the events of his expeditions,
which is that which follows : —
To Dr. Antonio de Morga, Lieutenant of the Gooernor of
the Fili^nne isles of Luzon, in the city of Manila, whom may
our Lord iireserve. From Camhoia.
Of that which happened in this kingdom of Cambodia,
since I entered it, until the captain took away the fleet,
your worship will already have had news, although in
various modes, according as it suited each one to speak, in
order to gild his own business ; some according to their
bent and opinion, and others according to their passioi].
Notwithstanding that it has been already seen by many
persons, and clearly known, I undertake to give you the
best relation I can, as to a person who can weld them all
together, and attribute to each circumstance the weight
which it may possess or deserve ; together with an account
of all the rest of what happened to Captain Diego Belloso
and to me in the journey to Laos, and the vicissitudes and
94 OP THE GOVERNMENT OF
wars which there have been in this kingdom since we have
been in it until now, and the actual state of affairs. And
as Spaniards have been mixed up in all these affairs, it will
give you some satisfaction to know the method and retire-
ment with which I have lived in this kingdom, ever since
I arrived from Manila, sustaining the soldiers and other
people whom I brought at my expense in my ship, keeping
them in a state of discipline and honour, without consenting
to their straggling; possessing no credentials, because those
which the governor was to have given me, Gallinato carried
them. And of that which happened with the Chinese,
wherefore and how, I do not treat of, because the Padre
Fray Alonso Ximenez and the Padre Fray Diego were
present at some of these affairs, and others heard of them,
and they will have given you an account of all that, together
with the war with the usurper, and the manner in which
Gallinato abandoned this kingdom, when the business was
already done ; and if it had been followed up, half the king-
dom would at this day belong to His Majesty, with just
grounds, and the whole of it governed by Spaniards and in
their power,^ and it might be that the king would be a
Christian with the greater part of his people. In the
matter of the Chinese, which is what most requires explana-
tion, I only say to you, consider the kingdom which we
came to assist, and that the Chinese had no more rights in
it than we had ; and that we had to endeavour to gain re-
' Bias Ruyz is a very frank adventurer, and seems to have no mis-
givings, not only as to the piratical nature of his proceedings, but as to
his personal baseness and ingratitude in seeking to despoil a sovereign
from whom he had received many favours. It will be seen further on
that his immoral propositions were rejected by the jurists and theo-
logians of Manila. It would be desirable to know if Gallinato acted
from greater scrupulousness, or only from timidity, as Bias Ruyz in-
sinuates. Gallinato was frequently employed later, and was very highly
approved of for his valour, zeal, discretion and tact by Andrea Furtado
de Mendoza, the Portuguese commander-in-chief, at a siege of Ternntc
DON FRANCISCO TELLO. 95
putatiou, and not to lose it, for we came in a warlike fashion,
and it was the first time that an armed force of Spaniards
entered the mainland, was it well to suffer, from people as
infamous as they, disgrace and outrages, contempt and
public affronts, before all these pagan comruunities ? And
they went further, inveighing against us to the usurping
king so that he might kill us ; telling him of us many evil
and infamous things to induce him to what they entreated
of him; and above all to be so impudent as to kill Spaniards,
and disarm them, and go forth to spear them in the streets,
all which I endured with much patience, not to disturb
the country by breaking with them. Until one day they
designedly sought to kill some in their Parian, having
already wounded them and shamefully treated them, the
numbers being very unequal ; and coming out at this noise,
they drew up in the open ground with many warlike instru-
ments, summoning us to battle with insults and contemptu-
ous expressions. Ha^ang reached this term, what reputa-
tion remained to us had we retired? They ha\nng obtained
the advantage, since after attacking and killing many of
of them, what security had we in this tyrannised kingdom,
which in nothing showed itself friendly to us, and with one
ship only, which at that time was grounded, with the
artillery and provisions on shore ; and they Avith six ships,
and many row-boats, which fight with one or two guns, and
many men, both those of the ships, and those who live in
the port. Was it fitting, after war had broken out, to leave
them with all their resources, whilst we were without ours ?
If they should deprive us of our lives, what reputation
would Spaniards leave behind them in these kingdoms ?
For which reason, I held it to be better to make oui'selves
their masters, rather than be at their mercy or at that of
the king ; so, to insure our lives, we were obliged to take
their ships, and strengthen ourselves in them, since they
began the Avar. After this was done. Padre Fray Alonso
9() OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
Ximenez was of opinion, and we also, that by presenting
oiirselves to the king, and giving him the embassage, and
some presents, and disculpating ourselves in the matter, it
would turn out well; and that if he were peaceably disposed,
and our persons in safety, either in a fort or under his
word and safe conduct, we would give up to them their
ships and property, and this was written out and signed.
In order to go and do this, a letter was written in the name
of the governor of Manila, and we went to give it nine
leagues off in the place where the king was living, leaving
the ships guarded. When he had got us thei-e, he took
away from us the boats in which we had gone, and Avould
not receive the letter, which went under the forms of an
embassy, nor listen to our speech, unless we first gave up
the ships ; he then immediately began to prepare arms, and
call in many people, with the intention, if we would not
give up the ships, of killing us, or of putting us by force
in such extremities as to make us give them up, and after
they were given up, make an end of us all, without trouble
oc risk to his own people ; because he would in nothing
trust to us, for we were going to assist and search for him
whom he had dispossessed. All this was related to us by
some Christians that were amongst them, especially by a
young man of mixed race, who had come from Malacca, and
lived with them, and knew the language. Therefore, taking
into consideration that we were already divided, and that if we
gave up the ships, it would be easy for them to take ours by
ineans of them, and kill those who had remained in them,
and afterwards us who were in that place ; and that if we
waited until people were collected, and attacked us, they
might easily kill us, we determined to seek a remedy, rather
by attacking than by waiting to be attacked, and to endea-
vour to rejoin our own men, and ensure the safety of our
lives, or end them fighting. So we made an attack, and our
o'ood fortune was such that we killed the king in the battle.
DON FRANCISCO TELLO. 97
and we withdrew to our ships^ with infinite labour, but
without losing a single Spaniard, and without permitting
the sack of his house, that it might not be said that we had
done it to rob him. At this juncture the captain and
sergeant-major, our commander^ arrived, and found fault
with, and reduced to nothing what we had accomplished,
and ridiculed what we and some of the Cambodians said,
that we had killed the usurper. All he did was, to collect
all the gold and silver which some soldiers had taken in
these affairs, and all that was good in the ships, and then
set fire to them; and draw up statements against us, dis-
possessing us of our ships and commands, causing suspicion
and distrust ; and he gave orders to quit the kingdom,
without listening to many Cambodians, who came to speak
to us when we went on shore, and who said that we should
build a fortress, as they before had a legitimate king, and
he who now ruled had made him fly to the Laos, and so they
had not got a king ; and that wherever they obtained most
shade, thither they would flock, and that we should follow
up the war. Neither did the captain admit from us any
opinion which we gave, when we told hira that the usurper
held in arrest a relation of the lawful king, a man of much
good fortune, and that we should go and rescue him, and he
would raise men in favour of the legitimate king, and that
with his favour we should come to possess the kingdom, and
then we would go and fetch the king. To all this he refused
to listen, and so abandoned the kingdom, and this great op-
portunity was lost. We only obtained from him when out
at sea, by much entreaty, that we should go to Cochin China
to make inquiries about the galley ; since they had wished
to send from Manila to make them : and I offered to go to
the Laos, by land at my expense, in search of the King of
Cambodia, as I knew that that was the road to go by. So
we went, and as soon as we arrived he despatched us.
Captain Diego Belloso and me, to the Laos, and Captain
H
98 OP THE GOVERNMENT OF
Gregorio de Vargas to Tunquin, Meantime lie held an
auction of whatever was good of what was in the {Chinese)
ships, and of the rest of what he had taken from the soldiers,
among them, although they were all without a real, and or-
dered everything to be bought up for himself for whatever
he thought proper. The king of Sinoa, a province of Cochin
China, equipped us for the road to Lao, with a very good
outfit, giving us an embassage for that country, and peoj)le
to accompany us on the road. So we went all the way well
provided for, being always well attended to and respected,
and much looked at, as something never seen before in those
kingdoms. We were all laid up on the road, but in all that,
we were assisted by the affection which the people shewed
to us, and the good reception which we met with from all.
Thus we arrived at Lanchan, the capital of the kingdom, and
where the king resides. It is a kingdom of great extent,
but thinly inhabited, because it has been frequently de-
vastated by Pegu. It contains mines of gold, silver, copper,
iron, brass,^ tin. It possesses silk, benzoin, lac, brasil, wax,
ivory, grapes, many elephants, and horses larger than those
of China. It borders on the east side with Cochin China,
and on the north-east and north with China and Tartary,
from whence come the sheep and asses which I saw when I
was there ; it has a large exportation of its merchandise by
means of them. On the west and south-west it touches
Pegu and Siam ; and on the south and south-east Cambodia
and Champan. It is a rich country, and everything costs
much which comes from abroad. Before we arrived at
Lanchan there had arrived from Cambodia a cousin of tbe
king who had fled, who, on the death of the usurper, had
come away in fear lest the son who now governed should kill
him. This person had related what we had done in Cam-
bodia, on which account the King of Lao gave us a great re-
' Laton. Bias Kuyz probably did not know that this was a comiiosito
iTirtal.
DON FRANCISCO TELLO. 99
ception, and held us in high esteem^ praising the deed, and
showing amazement at the small number who had done it.
When we arrived the old king of Cambodia was already
dead, with his daughter and eldest son ; there remained only
his younger son, and his mother, aunt^ and grandmother,
who were greatly rejoiced at what we had done and at our
coming; and from that time foi-ward they were more at-
tended to. Before we had arrived at the city we met with
an ambassador, whom Anacaparan, the usurping kino-, had
sent from Cambodia before we had arrived there, to see what
was going on there, with the excuse and pretext of asking
for the old queen, the stepmother of Prauncar, the deceased
king, who, he said, was a sister of his father : and the king
of Lao was sending her, and on account of our arrival, and
the certainty of his death, he ordered her to return, and the
ambassador fled to Cambodia, in a boat down the river, from
fear of being killed. Then we gave our embassage, and
asked for the heir of the kingdom, to take him to the ships
and from thence put him in his own country. It was an-
swered that now he could not any more go alone, and that
they could not give him, especially in order to go throuo-h a
foreign kingdom, and by such rough roads and seas. The
youth wished to go, and his mothers would not consent to it.
At length it was determined that we should return to the
fleet, and take it to Cambodia, and that from thence we
should send them notice, and then they would send him with
many people. The mothers gave me letters for Manila, with
large promises on the part of the kingdom, if the Spaniards
would return to Cambodia to pacify it and restore it to them.
The king of Lao gave another embassage, by which he asked
for friendship, and requesting that the fleet shou.ld return to
Cambodia ; and should Gallinato not choose to return, that
he would give assistance by land with large forces, and they
should be confided to the heir of the country. With this we
took leave, and departed to Cocliin China. While these
H 2
100 OP THE GOVERNMENT OF
things were taking place, the following happened in Cam-
bodia. As soon as the fleet left, tlie death of Anaeaparan
was published, and when this news reached Chupinaqueo, the
kinsman of the lawful king, who was imprisoned, he escaped
from prison, and caused a province to rise up in arms, and
collected its inhabitants, and raising a cry for Prauncar, the
legitimate king, came in search of us with as much as six
thousand men, to effect a junction with us, and make war on
the sons of the usurper, who were now governing : and as he
did not find us in Chordemuco, in the place where the ships
had been lying, he sent boats as far as the bar to seek us ;
and as he did not find us, he took all the Chinese and other
people who lived there, and returned to the province where
he had levied his forces, and fortified himself there. At this
time there arrived the people who were in Champan, who
had gone there to take it, and the commander of the camp,
named Ocuiia, of Chu ; he took sides with the sons of the
usurper, and caused one of them to be set up as king, the
second one, named Chupinanu, because he was the most
warlike. For which reason the elder, named Chupinanon,
and those of his party were discontented, and so there never
was peace between them. After that they went out together
with the camp, which had come from Champan in pursuit of
Chupinaqueo ; and he went out to meet them with many of his
people, and they fought many days ; but at length it was his
fate to be conquered, and killed with much cruelty. So
Chupinanu remained for the time as king, and the camp was
disbanded, each man going to his home. At this time a ship
came from Malacca with an embassy, and in it some
Spaniards looking for us, and many Japanese. Chupinanu
wished to kill thera all, but, seeing that they came as an
embassy and from Malacca, at once let them alone. On ac-
count of the cruelties which he exercised among his people,
a large province, named Tele, rose in insurrection, cryiug
I
I
DON FKANCISCO TSLLO. 102
out for liberty ; aud set up a new king, and came against
Cliupinanu, and conquered and routed him, taking from him
a great number of elephants and artillery, and sacked his
city. In this battle the greater part of the Spaniards and
Japanese who had come from Malacca were killed. Chupi-
nanu retreated with all his brothers, who were sis., to another
province, always accompanied by Ocuiia of Chu; and there they
sought counsel, and collected people, and called two Malays,
heads of all the other people, in whom he confided much,
and at the death of Chupinaqueo, when the camp was broken
up_, they had gone to the lands of which they were the
mag-istrates. And in order that what follows mav be under-
stood, I will mention who they were. At the time this
kingdom was ravaged by Siam, these two went to Champan,
and tookwith them many Malays of their ownpeople, and many
others, Cambodians ; and because the ruler of Champan did
not do them as much honour as they desired, they seized
upon his city, whilst he was not in it ; and the}^ fortified
themselves in it, and afterwards they sacked it, and returned
to this kingdom, bringing all the artillery and many people
captives and prisoners. AVhen they arrived here the usurper
Anacaparan was ruling, and each praising what the other
had done, he received them with friendship, and they gave
him all the artillery which they had brought, and other
things ; and he gave them lands for their maintenance, and
made them great mandarins. These Malays made it easy
for him to take Champan, and offered to seize its king, and
as he is a great enemy of Cambodia from a long time back,
forces were at once prepared, and Ocuiia of Chu sent as
commander : and when we killed Anacaparan, these were in
Champan ; and on account of his death, returned as I said.
These having presented themselves before the new king
Chupinanu, with all their Malays, it was at once resolved to
go against the insurgent people of Tele. At this time ar-
rived from Lao the ambassador, who had fled when we ar-
104 ^\' 'i'li;^ GOVEKNMENT OV
rived at Lanchan^ and he related how we had remained there,
and that we were going to ask for the legitimate heir of
Cambodia, in order to convey him to the ships, and bring
him in them to his kingdom ; and that the king of Cochin
China was giving his aid in this matter, and that we had
entered Lao with that report, also that the king of Lao
wished to send him with large forces by the river and by
land, and us and the Cochin Chinese by sea, and that we
were to join in Cambodia and make war, and inflict severe
chastisement upon whoever would not obey. So when the
new king and his friends heard this news they grew feai^ful,
it made each one look out for himself. After some days had
passed a report came from the bar that four Spanish ships
had entered the river with many galleys from Cochin China.
This report, either was a vision which some one had seen, or
it was feigned and fictitious, for to this day we have not
cleared it up : at any rate, hearing this news, all that the
ambassador who fled had told them was confii-med to them
as truth. So the mandarins of Cambodia taking into con-
sideration the war which they now had with the people of
Tele, and the new one which was impending over them with
Spaniards, Cochin Chinese, and Laos, resolved to depose the
new king, and to obey the king who was coming from Lao.
For this purpose they communicated with the two Malays,
and together they attacked the king and his bx'others, and
turned them out of the State ; and both the two elder
brothers fled each one separately to the province where he
imagined he would find the greatest number of friends.
The mandarins, having done this, ordered a fleet of row-
boats to start on the way to Lao to receive their king, who,
they said, was already coming : Ocuiia of Chu went for this
with two of his sons. They also sent other boats to the bar
to receive the Spaniards, and to agree with them in a friendly
manner, and for this purpose they sent some Spaniards who
had remained in tlie country : and they settled that two
DON FKAXCISCO TELLO. 103
Cambodian mandarins and tlie two Malays should remain as
governors to preserve the kingdom. The Spaniards went to
the bar, and, as they found nothing, they returned. Ocuiia
of Chu went on the way to Lao, and, seeing that he did not
meet his king nor hear any news of him, he resolved to go
as far as Lanchan to seek for him ; and pursued his journey
with some difficulties on account of hunger, having left the
kingdom unprovided, and the journey being long. For
which reason some of his men ran away ; but at last he ar-
rived, with ten prahus mounting artillery. He disturbed all
the kingdom of the Laos, as it was supposed he came for
a warlike purpose, and they abandoned their villages and
property and went to the mountains ; but, on seeing- that he
came with peaceable intent, they became quieted. When he
arrived we were already on the road to Cochin China ; and,
on account of his coming, the king sent to order us to return
immediately to Lanchan. The king {of Lao), on being ac-
quainted with what was passing in Cambodia, despatched
many vessels by sea and troops by land, and sent the king
to Cambodia, and despatched me to Cochin China, to carry
the news of what was going on, and to take the ships to
Cambodia : and then on the road I heard the news of the
battle which our forces had fought, and I returned with the
king to Cambodia. When we came to the first \411age of
the kingdom, we knew from the spies who had gone on be-
fore, that, as the news of the ships had not been true, and
Ocuiia of Chu delayed so much, the provinces to which the
two brothers had betaken themselves, had set them up as
kings, and they were fighting with one another; and that
the people of Tele had come to fight with the governors, and
that they had become divided amongst themselves, and every
man obeyed whomsoever he liked best. But that Ocuiia Laca-
samana, the head man of the Malays, had the greatest force
of artillery and prahus, and that a Japanese junk had come,
which was the one which was in Cochin China when our fleet
lOi OF THK GOVKHNMENT OF
was there, and that it was with Chupluanu. In the place
where this news was received the land and sea forces were
collected together, and it was found that there were few men
to enter the country for war : so they made a fort there and
sent to Lao to ask for more troops. In the meantime they
despatched secret letters to probe the hearts of the great
men. The people of Lao delayed, and the answers to the
letters did not arrive, and they did not feel very secure
where they were, and were deliberating upon returning to
Lao, but at this juncture news arrived from Ocuna Lacasa-
mana, one of the Malays who was in his own land and forti-
fied, and he said that he was on his side [of the lawful Ixlmj),
although he had given obedience to Chupinanu, but that that
was feigned, seeing that the king had delayed, and that when
he entered the country he would pass over to his side. Then
came a message from another Cambodian governor, saying
that though he had obeyed Chupinanu, yet if the king would
come to where he was, he would fall upon Chupinanu, and
would dispossess him or kill him, and that to do this he had
got four thousand men with whom he had fortified himself
on a hill. He sent a relation of his with this message : all
put confidence in this man, and we set out at once for that
place, and when he knew that the king was coming he
attacked the other and routed him, afterwards he came out
to receive us ; and so we entered, and that province was at
once given up to us, and several others. ChujDinanu with-
drew to some mountains, and immediately the two Malays
joined us, each with his forces, the Japanese also came in.
The king then gave orders to pursue Chupinanu, until he
was taken and killed. He then captured another who was
judge in another province, and put him to death. War
then began against the eldest [of the brothers), and against
the people of Tele, who also would not obey. At this time
an-ived a vessel from Malacca, in which came fourteen
Sjianiards of the men of our fleet, who had put in to Malacca,
DON FRANCISCO TELLO. 1 05
and the king was much pleased with them^ and did them
great honours, and held them in high estimation, knowing
that they were of those who had killed the usurper ; and
they were loved and respected in an extraordinary degree
by all the kingdom. Captain Diego Belloso wished to sub-
ject them to obedience to him in virtue of an old document
which he had from Malacca : this I forbade, alleging that
the right of this jurisdiction ought to be from Manila, since
from that place proceeded the restoration of this kingdom,
and that these men were Castilians, and had nothing to say
to his document, nor to Malacca. The king answered, for
this business came before him, that he did not wish to inter-
fere between the two, in these matters. Some of those who
had come followed his opinion, and others mine : and thus
we have gone on till now, and this was the cause of my not
asking the king for a fort, to secure our personal safety,
which would have been a footing for some business, and that
which I will relate later would not have happened to us.
After their arrival, the king sent an embassage to Cochin
China, with a Spaniard and a Cambodian, to look for Padre
Fray Alonso Ximenez and some Spaniards, who, as we
heard, had remained there. The raler of Champan arrested
them, and they have not returned. The wars continued,
and wherever we the Spaniards and Japanese went, and
whatever we attacked, by the assistance of God we gained
the day; and wherever we did not go, there were always
losses, so that we won great reputation, and were loved by
our friends and feared by the enemy. Whilst we were
making an incursion, Ocuna of Chu wished to revolt : he
now was named Mambaray, which is the highest title of the
kingdom ; one of the headmen of the Malays, named Cau-
cona, was supporting him in this. The king sent to call
me, and order me to take with me the Spaniards of my
party, and ordered Diego Belloso to stay with him, for both
of us were heads, and still are, in any war in which any of
lOo OF THE GOVERNMENT OP
US are engaged. I came at his bidding, and he related to
me how those people wished to kill him and deprive him of
the kingdom, that I might give him a remedy. The Mam-
baray was the person who governed the kingdom, and as
the king was a youth and yielded to wine, he made little
account of him, and thought to be king himself. At last
I and the Spaniards killed him, and after that they caught his
sons and killed them. After that the capture of the Malay
Cancona was undertaken and he was killed, and there was
security from this danger by means of the Spaniards. We
then returned to the war, and I learned that another grandee,
who was head of a province, wished to rise up, and go over
to the side of Chupinanon ; I seized him and killed him,
putting him on his trial. With all this the king and king-
dom loved us very much, and that province was pacified,
and returned to the king. At this time a vessel arrived
from Siam, which was going with an embassy to Manila,
and put in here. There came in it Padre Fray Pedro
Custodio, and some Portuguese. The king was much de-
lighted at the arrival of the priest, and wished to set up a
church for him. We all joined together, and followed up
the war, and again reduced many provinces to submission
to the king, and left Chupinanon withdrawn into some
mountains, and the war almost ended. At this time many
Laos came, commanded by a relation of their king, for up to
this time they had done nothing, and had not uttered a sound.
I do not know whether it was from envy at seeing us so
advanced in favour with the king, and the people of the
king, or whether they had settled the matter before in their
own country, but they killed a Spaniard on a slight motive ;
and when we asked the king for justice in this matter, he
ordered his mandarins to judge the case. Meanwhile, we
sent to call the Japanese who were carrying on the war in
another part, in order, if justice were not done, to take
vonjfeance on the Laos. The Laos, either fearful of this.
DON FRANCISCO TELLO. lU7
or having the design of making an end of us, fell upon our
houses at nighty so that they killed the priest and some of
the Spaniards who had come with him, and who were sick,
and they killed some of the Japanese, for their anger was
directed against all. The rest of us escaped, and got on
board the Japanese vessel, and there we defended ourselves
until the Japanese arrived. The Laos made a fort and
strengthened themselves in it ; they might be six thousand
in number, and they sent to tell the king, that they would
not agree to any act of justice which he might order to be
caiTied out. The king felt much regret for the deaths they
had caused, and for the disrespect with which they treated
him; but in order not to come to a rupture with their king,
he would not give us forces with which to attack them,
although we requested it several times, and we did not do
it ourselves, having been left without arms. The king sent
word of this affair to Lao, and we I'emained for the time
stripped^ without property, without arms, and without
justice or revenge, and very much discontented with the
king, although he was continually sending us excuses, say-
ing that if the King of Lao did not do justice in the matter,
that he would do it, and on that account he would not let
them go away from his country, and he sent us food and
some clothes and arms. At this time a ship was sent with
an embassage to Malacca, in which we all wished to go
away^ but neither the king nor his mothers would consent
to Diego Belloso or I going away. Some went away in it,
and others returned to Siam, others remained with us ; and
from that time forward the king made us more presents
than ever. The Japanese took to their ship, and would not
any longer continue the war. The enemy, having learned
that we were in confusion^ collected large forces, and re-
gained much undefended country. The king requested the
Laos to go to the wars, since they had thrown into confusion
those who defended his country. They went and lost the
108 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
first battle^ and returned completely defeated^ leaving many
killed and wounded. Cliupinanon followed up the victory,
and came within sight of where the king was, with a river
between them. Here the king made little account of the
Laos, and persuaded us and the Japanese again to take up
arms and defend him. By this time we had all replaced
our arras and ammunition, and with much entreaty from
him and his mothers, we went to the war, to succour a
fortress which Chupinanon was besieging : we won two
battles and made him retire, regaining all that he had just
gained, and other lands which had remained in those parts,
taking much rice from the enemy, and provisions, with
which the king^s men recruited themselves, for they suffered
from want, and we went into quarters. This we did, I and
the Spaniards and Japanese on my part, and Diego Belloso
and his men went to Tele and killed its king, and won part
of the province, and returned. At this time a Portuguese
ship with merchandise arrived from Macao, on which account,
and seeing what we had done, the Laos were filled with
great fear, and without leave from the king, they went
away in boats to their country. Upon which we had recourse
to the king to request him not to let them go without doing
justice, if he did not wish to break the friendship between
him and Luzon and Malaca, He replied that he did not
dare to detain them, but that if we wished to go after them,
he would give us people secretly, if we ventured to fight
with them ; and so we settled ourselves all in ten prahus,
and followed them. And as they had gone forward a good
deal, and with fear, we could not reach them till after
many days : for that reason Belloso turned back with some
Spaniards and Japanese. 1 followed with great difficulty,
on account of the strong currents, for in parts we dragged
the prahus with ropes, although with few people, until I
came up with several of them and took from them their
prahus and property, by which we all got compensation,
DON FRANCISCO TELLO. 109
and gained still more in reputation : at present we have
higher repute than ever any nation had in foreign kingdoms.
We are much loved by the king and his men, and by the
inhabitants, and much feared by the strangers, and so we
receive great respect in all parts of the kingdom. The
king has given to Captain Diego Belloso and to me the
highest titles of grandees of his kingdom, that we may be
more respected and feared, and better obeyed. Two pro-
vinces, the best in kingdom, are put down to our names,
and will be made over to us as soon as the affairs of the war
are grown quiet, and parliaments have been held to take
the oaths to the king, which has not yet been done.
Meantime we make use of other people whom the king
orders to be given to us. As possessing entire power of
management and command in the kingdom, there is no one
to be found beside Ocuila Lacasamana, the head of the
Malays, whom the king likes, because he has large forces,
and because he requires him for the wars on hand. The
Spaniards have some encounters with his people, for which
reason we hold aloof from one another. I have related to
you these wars and affairs so minutely, in order that it may
be seen whether His Majesty has any right, with justifica-
tion and justice, to take possession of some part of this
kingdom ; since his forces killed the man who was in quiet
possession of it, and the heir of the kingdom, who was
diiven away where he had lost the hope of ever again
possessing it, has since retui'ued to conquer it through His
Majesty^s vassals, and they have guarded and defended his
person from his enemies. For to hope that he will give it
up voluntarily, that will never be, because, on the contrary,
he fears having many Spaniards in his country, although he
loves them, because he is in dread lest they should deprive
him of his kingdom, for he sees that this only requires the
will to do it ; and some of our enemies impress this upon
him, especially the Mussulmans. I beg and supplicate you
110 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
to take part in this matter, since you can do so much in it,
in order that we may not lose our hold on this country,
since so much has been done in it, and its affairs have been
brought to such a satisfactory state ; and it is of such great
importance to hold a fortress on the mainland, since it is a
beginning of great things. For if a well-prepared expedi-
tion should come, and the king see a large force in thia
country, even though he should be ill-disposed, he would
have to do what he would know is justice. I say this, for
his mother, aunt, and grandmother, who are the persons who
command and govern, for he only does as they tell him : he
is a boy, and is overcome with wine oftener than his father,
and he only thinks of sports and hunting, and cares nothing
for the kingdom. For this, if he should see that there are
many Spaniards, and that no one can injure them, he will do
whatever they wish, because (as I say) he loves them : the
opposite party, moreover, will not venture to contradict.
And if perchance there should at present be so few people
in the Philippines, that it is not possible to send any great
number, let at least some come, as many as possible, in
company with priests, so as not to lose this jurisdiction,
and our share in anything ; because Diego Belloso sent to
Malacca to ask for fi-iars and men and documents, so as by
that means to be the chief justice of this country, and to
make over this jurisdiction to Malacca. And since this
kingdom has been restored by the Philippines, do not you
permit that it should have been tilled for others to gather
the fruit. And if some soldiers should come, and from being
few in number, and their not being feared, the Cambodians
should not give them wherewithal to maintain themselves,
I will do here whatever you bid me (which is reasonable),
and until more come I could manage that the Cambodians
should give it, however much against their inclination. And
let them come tied down with good documents, so that as
tli(^ country is wide and remote, they may not wish to avail
DON FRANCISCO TELLO. Ill
themselves of licence; for the not possessing means of
discipline and restriction was the cause of what happened
to us with the Laos. I have despatched this vessel with
much labour, as little is given to the king for nothing, and
as there were many opposing persons who were preventing
it ; for it is clear that the mandarins, whether native or
foreign, cannot like that there should be persons in the
kingdom to command them ; and as I am poor, for up to
this time I have lived by war and its profits, I have main-
tained myself, as the king also is very poor, by the many
wars. The Spaniard who goes is a very good soldier, and
poor, and to enable him to go I have assisted him from my
indigence. Will your worship be pleased to assist him and
the Cambodian, in order that the Cambodian may become
acquainted with some of the grandeur of His Majesty. I
should rejoice to be the bearer of this, to give you a long
account of these affairs and of other notable things, and of
the fertility of these kingdoms ; but neither the king nor
his mothers have allowed me to go, as the bearer will re-
late those and other matters, and you may believe him, as a
person dispassionate in all respects, who has now come from
Macao. On account of the many wars, the king has not
got many things to send to you. He sends two ivory
tusks, and a slave, will you excuse him, and the next 3'ear
he will send many things, if the pacification of his country
is accomplished, for he still has much to do in it. I have
spoken to him and urged him to send to Manila to ask for
soldiers to complete the pacification of the country : his
mothers would not have it on any account. I imagine, for
certain, that they act thus, not to promise them lands for
their maintenance, or in order that they may not take them.
But when they were in Lao, they promised very wide lands;
but if what is done is not suflScient to provide for them, let
the mercy of God suffice. At the time of sending this
embassage, Diego Belloso and I told the king that if he did
112 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
not give us the lauds wliicli he had promised uSj we wished
to go to Luzon, because we had not now got wherewithal to
maintain ourselves. With respect to this, much took place,
but at last he gave them to us, and so it is stated in the
embassage ; but he gave them with the charge that we had
to hold them in his service and obedience. By this means
I shall have more resources for the service of your worship.
With the expenses which I paid in that city (Manila) I
spent what I had got, and in maintaining men in this king-
dom ; for that I took the silver of the ship's boys who were
in my ship, and although I paid them with some which
was found in the {Chinese) ships, Gallinato would not consent
to it, but, on the contrary, took it all for himself; and in
Malacca they made me pay it out of the property which was
on board my ship, and did not consent that they should be
paid out of the prizes, since the war was considered a just
one:^ for this reason I am now without any property. So I
am without the means of serving you, as I am bound to do,
and as I should have desired. Recollecting your very
curious armoury, I send a bottle and a little flask of ivory,
will you forgive the trifle, for next year I promise something
better, and do you send and command anything for your
service it will be a great favour to me : and will you do me
the favour to shield and protect my affairs, so that by your
fervour they may obtain some approbation. Trusting to this,
may our Lord preserve your worship, and give you increase
in your dignity, as this servant of j^ours desires in his affairs.
From Camboja twentieth of July of 1598, the servant of
your worship,
Blas Ruyz db IIernan Gonzales.
With this despatch and news which came from Cambodia
it was understood in Manila how good a result had been ob-
• The more correct reading would seem to be, since tlie war was not
considered a just one.
DON FRANCISCO TELLO. 113
tained from Diego Belloso and Bias Ruys having remained
behind in that country; and Don Luis Dasmarinas was more
encouraged in the enterprise which he had proposed; he
treated of it with more warmth^ and since difficulties were
raised as to the justification with which an entrance could be
made into Cambodia with armed forces (for anything else
than to favour, and complete the setting upon his throne of
Prauncar, and to leave priests with him) he said on his be-
half, that having accomplished the above, he would, with the
necessary permission of the king of Cambodia himself, pass
on to the nighbouring kingdom of Champan, and would take
possession of it for his majesty, turning out of it a usurper
who lorded over it, a common enemy of all those kingdoms,
and who from a fortress which he had close to the sea, sallied
out against all navigators, and robbed them, and made them
prisoners : and he had committed many other crimes, mur-
ders and robberies, on the Portuguese and on other nations
who were obliged to pass his coasts in their trade and
voyages to China, Macao, and Japan, and other kingdoms,
respecting which sufficient information and reports had been
given. On account of these reports the theologians and
jurists considered as established the justification of war
against this ruler of Champan, and the conquest of his
country : and that this position was of no less importance
for the Spaniards than Cambodia.
The Governor and President Don Francisco Tello held a
consultation with the Audiencia, and with other persons,
monks, and captains, as to what, in their opinion, it was
most fitting to do in this matter, and it was resolved : that,
since Don Luys ofiered to make this expedition at his own
expense, with those persons who might choose to follow him
in it, this offer should be carried out. Accordingly an agree-
ment was made with him in the above-mentioned sense, he
taking people at his expense, with commission and provision
from the governor for the affairs of government and the war,
I
114 OP THE GOVERNMENT OF
and instructions from the higli court of justice for tlie ad-
ministration of justice ; and tliey set about preparing ships
and people and provisions in order to sail as shortly as
possible.
I At this time the governor, Don Francisco Telle, despatched
Don Juan de Zamudio with a ship of middle size to Great
China to obtain from the Viceroy of Canton leave for the
Spaniards to communicate and trade with his province ; and
to fetch saltpetre and metals which were wanted for the
royal magazines of Manila. Don Juan performed his voyage
with fair weather, and having stationed himself off the coast
of Canton, he sent some persons of his company to the city
with despatches to the Tviton, who is the same as the Vice-
roy. He, after hearing of the arrival of the Spaniards, and
the cause of it, listened to them, and gave them a good re-
ception. The Portuguese, who reside in Macao, near the
city of Canton itself, took many steps and busied themselves
with the Viceroy and the Conchifu, and other mandarins, to
get them not to admit the Castilians of Manila into their
country,- alleging against them that they were pirates and
men of evil deeds, and that they seized upon kingdoms and
provinces wherever they came ; and they told them so many
things, that it would have been suflScient to destroy them if
the viceroy and mandarins had not looked at the matter
dispassionately, for they knew that it was enmity and open
hostility which moved the Portuguese, also the desire that
the Castilians should not have any trade with China, for
their own interests. The affair went so far that, being
brought before a court of law, silence was imposed upon the
Portuguese of Macao, with severe corporal punishments ;
and to the Castilians was given and assigned a port on the
coast, named the Pinal, twelve leagues from the city of
Canton, to which they might at that time and always come
and anchor, and make a settlement of their own, with
chapas^ and provisions sufficient for it. Upon which Don
' Cliops, edicts.
DON FRANCISCO TELLO. 115
Juan de Zamudio entered the Pinal with his ship, and was
very well provided there with every necessary by the Chinese,
and at moderate prices : the Spaniards went backwards and
forwards by the river to Canton in lorchas and champans to
do their business. Those days in which they were detained
in the said port they were always well received and lodged
in the city in houses within the walls, going about the
streets freely and with arms, a new and very special thing
in China with respect to foreigners, at which the Portuguese
(who are not so treated) were so much amazed and envious
that they endeavoured by every means to prevent it, even
going so far as to come by night in boats from Macao to
the Pinal to set fire to the ship of the Castilians, which did
not succeed, because, as they were heard, the necessary re-
sistance was made ; and ever after a good watch was kept
in the ship, until it went away from there, after ending its
business, much to the satisfaction of the Chinese, and with
chapas and documents which were given for the future.
The ship arrived at Manila in the beginning of the year 1599.
After Don Luys Dasmarinas had equipped two ships of
middling size and a galliot, with two hundred men in his
company who chose to follow him in this enterprise of Cam-
bodia, taken from those who were going about Manila with-
out pay, and had collected the necessary munitions and pro-
visions, and had got in his company Fray Alonso Ximenez,
Fray Diego Aduarte, of the order of St. Dominic, and
Fray Juan Bautista, a Franciscan, and some Japanese and
Indians natives of Manila: he set sail with the fleet from the
bay in the middle of the month of July of the year ^98. He
met some contrary weather, the season of south-westerly
gales having set in, but the desire to accomplish his voyage
and lose no time and get out of Manila, which was the
greatest difficulty, made him pay no attention to the weather;
he thought that having put to sea, he would be able to pass
the time on the coast, in the port of Bolinao.
i2
116 OP THE GOVERNMENT OF
This scheme did not turn out as well as Don Luys had
imagined, for as soon as this fleet of three ships went out of
the bay, it was so hard pressed by the weather, that it was
unable to fetch the port of Bolinao, neither could it hold the
sea, and the flag-ship taking in water, the ships returned to
the mouth of the bay, opposite Miraveles, where they were
detained for some days to refit. They again went out, the
weather having grown calmer, but it again beat them so
much that the ships separated from_ one another, and the
galliot which was the weakest, with great labour made the
port of Cagayan, and entered by the bar of Camalayuga to
the city of Segovia, at the head of the isle of Luzon, opposite
to great China, very much distressed and in great extremity;
there the chief alcalde of that province gave it the necessary
jDrovisions and tackle. Captain Luis Ortiz, who commanded
this galliot with twenty-five Spaniards and some Indians,
used good speed in getting ready for sea, and again went
out from that port in search of the fleet which he had to
follow, according to his instructions, making for the bar of
the river of Cambodia, whither they were going directly.
He had hardly gone out of Cagayan, when the admiral's
ship entered the same port, in the same distress as the
galliot had been in : and she also was detained there some
days to refit. She went out again to seek for the flag-ship
and galliot : the flag-ship (being a ship of greater strength)
kept out at sea with difl&culty, and as the storm lasted long,
she was obliged to run before it, making for China ; and
the wind was always so steady, that without being able to
make anything in the direction of the voyage, it had to
arrive with very high seas and cloudy weather at the coast
of China, at some small uninhabited islands below Macao.
There it was several times exposed to shipwreck, every
day lightening herself of part of the cargo. The admiral's
ship, after refitting and leaving Cagayan, made the same
voyage with the same storm, and came to anchor near the
DON PEANCISCO TELLO. 117
flag-ship, where she was lost with some persons, and with-
out saving any of the cargo. The flag-ship made shift to
take in the people who escaped from the admirals ship, and
although she held on for some days, at length she grounded
near the coast, and began to make so much water, that with
that and the heavy seas that struck her on the broadside,
she went to pieces. The boat was already lost, and they
were obliged, in order to save the men before the ship
entirely broke up, to make rafts and frames of spars and
planks, on which Don Luis and the monks and the people
came ashore, as many as a hundred and twenty Spaniards ;
and they brought away from the ship a few things of those
of most value, and their arms, and the most manageable
pieces of artillery, abandoning the rest as lost : all of them
were soaked, and in such a wretched condition, that some
Chiuese who came to the coast (from some towns which
were in the neighbourhood), both from feeling compassion
for their loss and on account of some things which they
gave them of what they had brought ofi" from the wreck,
provided them with victuals and with a country vessel of
small burden, in which they might get away from that place
and make for Macan and Canton, which were not far off".
Don Luis and his people, having arrived in sight of
Macao, sent two soldiers of his company in Chinese vessels
to the city and settlement of the Portuguese, giving them
notice of their arrival and of their hardships, so that they
might give them assistance, and two others to Canton, to
beg of the viceroy or Tuton his assistance and favour to
enable them to equip themselves, and leave China to pursue
their voyage. The people of Macan, and their captain-
major, Don Pablo de Portugal, received the Castilians so
ill, that he put them in prison, and would not allow them to
return to Don Luys, and sent to tell Don Luys to go away
from the coast immediately, as they would treat them no
less ill ; and as the Portuguese knew that Captain Hernando
118 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
de los Rios and anotlier person Ms companion had gone to
Canton for the same business, they at once sent two Portu-
guese of their council and regiment, to oppose their entry
into China, saying that they were robbers and pirates, and
people of evil actions, as they had before said of Don Juan
de Zamudio, who at this season was in the port of Pinal
with his ship, as has been already related.
Captain Hernando de los Rios and his companion met in
Canton with the ensign, Domingo de Artacho, and other
companions belonging to the ship of Don Juan, and being
informed of the disaster of Don Luis' fleet, and how it had
been cast away near there, they united together and de-
fended themselves against the calumnies and pretensions of
the Portuguese. So that as the chief difficulty had been
already overcome in the matter of Don Juan, and the vice-
roy and mandarins were informed that all were from Manila,
and who Don Luis Dasmariiias was, and that he was going
with his fleet to Cambodia, they received him with the
same goodwill as they had received Juan de Zamudio ; and
they gave him permission to enter with him into the port
of Pinal, where both met together, with much regret for the
loss of Don Luis Dasmarinas, and much satisfaction at find-
ing there Don Juan de Zamudio with his people, who pro-
vided them with some of the things they stood in need of.
With his assistance Don Luys at once bought a strong
junk of middle size, in which he put himself with some of
his people, and the artillery and property which had re-
mained to him, and enjoyed the same conveniences as the
Spaniards of Don Juan de Zamudio's ship had in that port.
His intention was to remain there until, with the advices
which he would send to Manila, they should send him ships,
and the rest of what was requisite to prosecute his voyage
thence to Cambodia, with respect to which Don Luys never
chose to shew himself discouraged or as having given it up.
Don Juan do Zamudio went out of Pinal, leaving Don
DON FRANCISCO TELLO. 119
Luys Dasmarinas and his people in that port, in the begin-
ning of the year ^99, and he reached Manila within twelve
days. Don Luys sent after him the ensign Francisco
Kodriguez, with three companions, to Manila in a small
champan, to beg from the governor and his supporters
succour and assistance in the extremities in which he found
himself, and a ship, and what was necessary for continuing
the expedition upon which he had set out. In Manila the
disaster of Don Luis Dasmarinas, and the condition to which
he was reduced, was heard of both from Don Juan de
Zamudio and from the ensign Francisco Rodriguez (who
arrived just after him at Manila) ; and seeing that it was
impossible for him to continue his voyage to Cambodia, and
that there was neither property nor substance with which to
equip him again, nor time for it, a middle-sized ship was at
once bought for him, and with the same ensign Francisco
Eodi'iguez, and some soldiers in his company whom he
commanded, and with provisions and other things, this ship
was despatched from Manila to Pinal, with an order sent by
Don Francisco Tello to Don Luys to embark with his
people and come to the Philippines, without for the time
thinking of the expedition to Cambodia, or of anything else.
Captain Hernando de los Rios, who attended to Don
Luis' business in Canton, wrote a letter at this time to Dr.
Antonio de Morga ; and that what happened in this respect
may be better understood, it is here given word for word :
Colonel Fernando de los Rios,^ to Dr. Antonio de Morga,
of His Majesty's Council, and Jiis Auditor in the Royal
Audiencia and Chancery of the Philippines, whom may
our Lord preserve, in Manila.
The hardships which have fallen upon us within the short
1 This officer wrote a memorial to the king on the state of the Philip-
pine Islands, published in Thevenot, vol. ii, from which it appears that
he was sent to Spain in 1605 by the inhabitants of the Philippines to
represent their wants, and that he had returned to Manila in 1610.
120 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
space which there has been since our departure from Manila
have been so many, that, if an account veere to be given of
all of them to your worship, it would weary you, especially
as the short time in which Don Juan is to depart does not
allow of it. And because he will give an entire narrative of
everything, I will only relate that which has happened to
us since our arrival in this country, for the Lord has been
pleased to undo our intentions, which were to wait in
Bolinao till the bad weather, which we were experiencing,
had passed. And in sight of the port a storm overtook us,
and placed us in imminent peril ; and we were forced to
come to this kingdom of China, where we expected that at
least the Portuguese would allow us to refit our ship. As
it was the Lord^s will that we should lose it, we have
suffered hardships enough, for hardly anything was saved,
and I lost my property, and some portion of what belonged
to other men, because at the time I was not present, for
the day before my commander had ordered me to go out in
search of refreshments with a pilot of the coast, which is
vilely laid down in the charts, so that we did not know
where we were ; and I could not return to the ship on
account of the wind which sprung up. For which reason I
was obliged to go Canton, where the Sangleys,^ who
conveyed me, and those who left the ship with me, raised
the accusation against us of having killed three Sangleys ;
and if we had not found there the ensign, Domingo de
Artacho, and Marcos de la Cueva, who were pleading
against the Portuguese, we should have passed a very ill
time of it. God was pleased that, by His favour, we
settled the pleadings in the Court ; although without proofs,
and without taking our depositions, they condemned us in
fifty taes of silver. There we learned that, for a month and
a half, they had been defending themselves against the
> Chinamen. Chinese traders, from hiamj and lei/, travelling mer-
chants. Mallat, vol. i, p. 38.
DON FEANCISCO TELLO. 121
Portuguese, who, as soon as they had arrived, went about
saying that they were robbers and rebels, and people who
seized upon the kingdoms in which they entered, and other
things not worth while writing. Finally, all their measures,
good and evil — and, indeed, very evil — did not profit them,
since, by means of great assiduity and much silver, that
was negotiated which they had never imagined, Which was,
the opening of a port in this country, where the Castilians
could always come in security, and that they might be lodged
in Canton, which had never been done in the case of the
Portuguese, on which account they are, or very shortly will
be, exceedingly vexed. Besides, silence was imposed upon
them, although this was not part {of the negotiation) , in
order that by other means they should not attempt to do
all the injury possible, according as the Sangleys tell us,
who were among the Portuguese. They so abhor the name
of Castilians,' that it is not possible to express it, unless it
be experienced as we have experienced it for our sins :
since they placed us in great extremity, as Don Juan will
well relate ; since, when our commander wrote to them that
he had been wrecked and was dying of hunger amongst
infidels and in great peril, and that he was not coming to
trade, but was going on the service of His Majesty, the
courtesy which they showed him was to seize his messengers,
and up to the present time they have kept them in a
dungeon.^ And latterly, whilst we have been in this port,
with the hardships and difficulties which Don Juan will
relate, and they such near neighbours, not only do they
leave us to sufier, but, if there are any well-intentioned
persons, they have prohibited their communicating with us,
1 These violent disputes between the Portuguese and Si^aniards, even
whilst they were fellow-subjects of Philip 11, shew how much strife and
bloodshed was averted by the intervention and arbitration of Pope
Alexander the Sixth, who imposed peace between them by what is
known as his demarcation. See p. 11.
122 • OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
or giving us anything, not only under temporal, but also
spiritual penalties. In truth, to reflect upon this cruelty,
and still more to experience it as we are doing, exhausts
all patience. May God give it to us, and a remedy through
His mercy, because these infidels are the people who
have the natural light more corrupted than any others that
are in this world ; and so to deal with them it requires
angels, and not men. Since there are historians of what
goes on in those parts, I will not detain myself with this
matter. I only say, in order that it may be understood in
what a country we are, that it is the true kingdom of the
devil, and where it appears that he governs with full
command ; and so each Sangley appears to have got him
inside himself, for there is no malice or deceit which they
do not attempt. The government, although it appears
good in externals, and with all its good order and method
with respect to its maintenance, yet, when experienced in
practice, it is all a scheme of the devil. Although here they
do not rob or publicly plunder foreigners, they do it worse
by other methods. Seiior Don Juan has laboured much,
and certainly gratitude is due to him, for he has done a
thing so difficult that the Portuguese say only the devil or
he could have done it. Though, indeed, it has cost him,
as I have heard, at the rate of seven thousand dollars,
and the risk to which he has been exposed, for the
Portuguese endeavoured to burn him in his ship ; and
though their schemes turned out to be ineffectual, the
Portuguese feel a bitterness which cannot be told at our
coming here to traffic, for the notable injury they receive
thereby. Although the truth is, all things well considered,
if this business were established on a footing of fair agree-
ment, they, on the contrary, would gain ; because they
would dispose of a thousand things which they have got,
and the greater part, especially the poor, would be repaid
by selling the work of their hands, and what they receive
DON FRANCISCO TELLO. 123
from India, which they always get a very good price for ;
and with respect to raising the price for them of merchan-
dize,, if it was once estabhshedj and if the Saugleys under-
stood that ships would come .every year, they would bring
down much more merchandize ; so much the more, that
Canton possesses so much that there is over and above
enough for as many more as are here, as has been seen by
the eye. I am a witness that, if they wish to load a ship
with only one kind of goods, even be it needles, they may
do it. The more so, that the greater part of what they
use are not the kinds which we buy. The chief staple is
raw silk. So I conceive that to follow this up would be
much to the interest of Manila for the reasons which present
themselves to me. The first is that, if orders were given
for a ship to come of siifiicient bulk to be able to employ
the gross ^ of the money of Manila, much more and better
goods would be bought with much less money, and of the
kinds of goods which are most profitable : since after all
we should save what the people of Chincheo gain with us,
which is much.
The second reason is that Manila would be provided with
everything necessary, because there is in this city of Canton
as much as can be desired.
The third is that by this means would be avoided the ex-
cessive commerce of the Sangleys in Manila, who do the
mischief which your worship knows, and even that which we
do not know of : and they are people who, the less they are
admitted, the better it will be for us in all respects ; and so
it will not be necessary that there should be more of them than
the number required for the service of the republic, neither
would they raise the price of provisions, nor traverse what re-
mains of the country, as they now do, and many pernicious
sins would be avoided which they commit, and teach to the
natives: and although it seems that there would be some
] Gruesa.
124 OF THE GOVEKNMENT OF
difficulty in establishing tliis^ and in smoothing down the
Portuguese, it might be accomplished.
The foui-th is that the purchases going from here would
reach Manila about Christmas, and each one would put his
property in his house, would prepare and arrange it, and
then, even should the ships from Castile come early, no loss
would be suffered as now, when, if they arrive before the
purchases, the merchandise rises a hundred per cent.
The fifth is that the ships might take in cargo during the
whole of May, and take advantage of the first south-westerly
winds, which sometimes set in by the middle of June or be-
fore : and going out at that time they run less risk, and
would arrive more than a month, or even two months, earlier
at New Spain ; then they can leave that country in January
and come here by April without any danger, which, if .they
come late, follows them amongst these islands, as we know.
The sixth is that many inconveniences would be avoided
at the time of the purchase, such as there are, which your
worship is aware of, and for the inhabitants it would be less
trouble. Also, with respect to the expense and the distri-
bution of it, (it is certain) it would be arranged better, not
to allow the money of Mexico to be employed, nor that of
companies : for only to prevent this rigorously would be
sufficient to make Manila prosper in a short time ; because if
only the inhabitants alone were to send their bought pro-
perty already invested for traffic, it is certain that they
would have to employ all the machinery of the money of the
people of Mexico, in the goods which should go from here ;
I say of Manila, if they do not allow them to purchase in
Manila; and less merchandise going from here, and there
being more buyers there, the pi'operty would be worth
double.^ This is easily seen, and if, as your traders have
1 Tliis sixth reason is very obscure. The colonel seems to wish to
prove too much ; it might be better to send a ship to purchase in China,
and better not to have Chinese traders in Manila, but it is not likely
DON FRANCISCO TELLO. 125
begun to remedy this matter, they carry it on with rigour
much further, Manila must prosper greatly ; since by not
sending other produce to New Spain, but only that of
Manila, and principally purchasing in this country [Canton),
there would be all the prosperity which could be desired. If
we look at the benefit and favour which his Majesty confers
upon us in this matter, we should esteem it much more than
it is esteemed ; but I believe that we shall have to weep for
it, when perchance it is taken from us. Could anyone say
against this which I have said, about coming here to pur-
chase, that his Majesty would be defrauded of the customs
dues and duties which the Sangleys now pay, and of the
tributes which they give ; all this has a remedy, since with
only the freights his Majesty would save much more, and by
buying munitions here, and other things which he stands in
need of for preserving this country, at twice as cheap and
abundant, and not subject to their bringing them when they
please, and at other times they leave us without them, as
they now do every year, since they oblige us to go and fetch
them. In the matter of the tribute I believe that his Majesty
would be better served if there were no Sangleys, than by
receiving the tribute ; and by this it might be, if the Lord
ordered it, that a door should be opened for the preaching of
the Gospel and conversion of the people, which his Majesty
so much desires, and which is the principal matter which he
seeks to attain. And after all things require a beginning,
and the road would be opened, although at present it ap-
pear to be shut, since, if it is hoped that the Portuguese
will endeavour to accomplish this, I do not know when they
will do it, since in so long a period as they have settled here
they have not attempted it. Even the Sangleys themselves
that limiting the trade to one yearly ship would increase the prosperity
of Manila ; and if Chinese goods are made to cost double in Manila,
though good for the shippers, it can hardly be good for the people of
Manila.
126 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
say it, that they began Hke ourselves, and at first they came
and went away, later two sick men remained, another year
they built four houses, and so they went on increasing. And
to do likewise, I know that there is no other difficulty than
that which they cause. To return to the Portuguese oppo-
sition, it is something amazing; for not only are they vexed at
our coming here, but also that we should go to Cambodia or
to Siam : they say that those are their districts, and I do
not know why they give them that name, since it is very
much the reverse, and rather it is because we have indo-
lently suffered them to seize upon what belonged to us,
which is out near the Straits of Malacca, which enters within
the line of demarcation, and falls to the crown of Castile : as
I would give them fully to understand if an opportunity
offered. It will be seen in the history of the Indies, in the
chapter one hundred and two, before and after ; how at their
request his Holiness drew the said line, from three hundred
and seventy leagues more to the west of the islands of Cape
Verde, which were called the Hesperian Isles, and the
hundred and eighty degrees of longitude which fell to them
terminate and conclude, as I have said, near the above-men-
tioned Straits. All the rest belongs to us ; and all the more,
since we are under one king, how is it allowed that they for-
bid us all our trade ? Why do they shut up Maluco, Siam,
Cambodia, Cochin China, China, and all the rest of this Ar-
chipelago ? What then are we to do, if they wish to seize
upon all, for certain, this is very far from reasonable. I have
written at length on this matter to express my feelings. Of
the fertility and nature of the country, and of its greatness,
I do not write to you until we depart ; then I will endeavour
to write very fully and to mark out the coasts, for nothing is
put down correctly.
It is the best coast of all that has been discovered, and
the most convenient for galleys : if God should ordain that
they should come this way, I have already spied out where
DON FRANCISCO TELLO. 127
the king keeps his treasure. It is a very rich country, and
the city of Canton is very well supplied, though in respect
to edifices there is nothing to be said, for the whole city has
few of any importance, according to what I was told by a
Theatine Sangley, with whom I had much pleasure in talk-
ing, though I was only able to do so for one afternoon ; he
was a man of good understanding and demeanour, and they
say he is a scholar. He related to me that in Paquien,^
where the king is, and in Lanquien,^ the fathers of the
company have got three houses in their tranquil possession,
and there are seven fathers, amongst whom there is one
called Padre Rizio,^ companion of Padre E,ugero, who went
to Rome : he is a very good mathematician, and he has
corrected their calendars, which contained many errors and
false opinions, as also in the fabric of the world, which they
considered to be flat. He made them a globe and a sphere,
and with this and the good arguments and reasons which
they give them, they are esteemed as people come down
from heaven. He says that there is in those parts a very
great disposition towards conversion, if there were ministers ;
and there foreigners are not looked upon as strange, as in
this city.* He says that the people are very sincere and
reasonable, and so they call those here barbarous. He
says that Lanquien is in the latitude of Toledo, which is
thirty degrees and two-thirds, and from there to Paquien it
takes as long as twenty-five days on the road, which natu-
1 Pekin.
^ Probably Nankin : that city is however in nearly 32° latitude, and
Toledo is in nearly 40°, not in 30° and two-thirds, as stated further on.
^ The Jesuits established themselves in Canton in 1583: Matthew
Ricci reached Pekin in 1595, but was obliged by an accidental excite-
ment among the Chinese to withdraw to Nankin. In 1600 he was en-
abled to go again with presents to the emperor: he died May 11, 1610.
Col. Yule, Cathay and the Way Thither, p. 536.
* This shows that the greater disinclination to foreigners which pre-
vails at Canton is not modern.
128 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
rally must be in more than fifty degrees. This brother
comes every year for the stipend which those here give
them for these three houses : they are now expecting a
great friend of theirs, who is to be the second person near
the king. All this country can be travelled in by water,
and on this account it is so well supplied with everything,
because things are brought by the rivers without its being
necessary to load a beast, which is the most wonderful
thing.^
He who should wish to paint China without having seen
it, let him paint a very flat country of rivers and towns,
without a span of ground which they suffer to lie idle. I
could wish to have more time to relate some of the things
of China, which I have noted, and informed myself about
with especial care, and if God please, I will be the mes-
senger. The affairs of Cambodia are in a good state, and
we should arrive at a good time, if our Lord is willing, that
we leave this place prosperously. The king sent a ship at
the end of August to Manila to ask for assistance, I do not
know whether it will have arrived, or if it will have turned
back to put into port, for it left very late. Bias Ruys sent
fifty pieces of caman guian. The king, according to what
they tell us, has given and committed to him nine thousand
vassals, and as many to Belloso.
We for our part remain at present with the necessities
which Don Juan Zamudio^ will tell you of. I entreat your
worship to succour us, since it is of such importance. I
kiss the hands many times of my lady Doiia Juana, and our
Lord preserve you many years with the prosperity and
tranquillity which your servants desii'e for you. From the
port of Pinal, frozen with cold, the twenty-third of De-
cember of ninety-eight. [1598.]
^ Que es la mayor grandeza.
2 This name is generally printed Camudio, the cedilla under the C
apjwars to have been omitted.
DON PEANCISCO TELLO. 129
If my brother sliould come before I return^ I entreat yon,
since it is so natural to you to do good to all (especially
tliose of that country), to let him receive that which your
worship has always done for me.
Fernando de los Eios, Colonel.
After Don Juan de Zamudio had gone out of the Pinal,
where Don Luis Dasmariiias remained with his junk, waiting
for the succour which he hoped for from Manila, and which
he had requested through Don Juan and the ensign Fran-
cisco Rodriguez ; it seemed to Don Luis that several days
had passed, and that the answer was overdue, and that his
people were suffering there great want and cold ; so he
attempted to go out to sea with the junk, steering for
Manila. This the weather did not admit of, neither was the
vessel large enough with the people that he had on board for
crossing; so he passed the time near the port, where the
Portuguese of Macan again sent him many messages and
requisitions to leave the coast immediately, advising him
that they would seize him and the men of his company, and
would send them to India, and that they would be punished
severely. Don Luys always answered them, that his arrival
was not for their detriment or to offend them, but only for
the service of God and His Majesty on the way to Cam-
bodia, that he had been shipwrecked and had suffered great
hardships and travail ; among which the severest had been
owing to the Portuguese of Macan themselves, vassals of
His Majesty ; and he was Vv^aiting for assistance from Ma-
nila, in order to be able to return thither, and he begged
and required them to assist and favour him, and to set at
liberty the two Castilians whom they had taken from him
and imprisoned ; and that if besides all this they should
seek to do him any injury or insult, he would defend him,
self as he could, protesting against any losses which might
result to them, which would lie at their door. From that
K
130 OF THE GOVERNMENT OP
time forward Don Luis Dasmarinas was always very watchful
on board liis sliip^ keeping tlie arms in readiness^ and the
artillery loaded^ on his g-uard day and night. And he was
not mistaken^ for the people of Macan resolved to come out
and seize him ; and with this intention^ the captain-major
himself, with some lateen rigged boats and other crafty and
men armed with javelins^ guns and artillery, came one day
when they thought the Castilians would be off their guard,
and fell upon Don Luys Dasmarinas. He, suspecting what
was about to happen, held himself with his arms in readi-
ness, and seeing that the Portuguese fleet was attack-
ing him, began to open fire upon them with muskets,
arquebuses, and a few pieces of artillery, with such rapidity,
that he caused a great loss to the enemy, and to the ship
which carried the captain-major ; one of whose pages who
stood behind him, and other persons were killed. The Por-
tuguese vessels then retired, and desisted, beaten back by
Don Luis, who did not choose to follow them, but remained
on the watch ; and as they did not venture to return to
attack him, but made for Macan, Don Luis Dasmarinas put
into the port of Pinal, where he thought he should be in
greater security. There he remained until Captain Fran-
cisco Rodriguez arrived with a ship from Manila, and joined
Don Luis, and having distributed their men between the
two ships, they made some purchases with what this last
ship had brought from Manila in the city of Macan itself;
for the Portuguese for the sake of their interests supplied
them and sold to them, though with some fear of their ma-
gistrates. They returned to Manila leaving in Pinal a few
persons dead of sickness, and among them was Fray Alonso
Ximenez, who "had been the principal promoter of this enter-
prise. His companion. Fray Diego Aduarte, did not choose
to return to Manila, and went to Macan, and thence to Goa,
to go on to Spain. Don Luis returned with both ships to
Manila, and the expedition of Don Luis to Cambodia, and
DON FEANCISCO TELLO. 131
the undertaking of that enterprise on his partv, remained in
this state.
It has been ah'eady related how the galliot^ one of the
ships under the command of Don Luis Dasmariiias, in
which Luis Ortiz and twenty five SjDaniards sailed, after
having put into Cagayan and refitted there, had again left
the port, with moderate weather, in search of the fleet. This
ship, although it was so little fit to resist storms at sea, yet
God permitted it to weather those which it met without
being lost. Making its way along the coast of Cochin
China and Champan, within the shoals of Aynao, it reached
the bar of Cambodia, and, expecting to find within all or
some of the ships of its convoy, it went up the river as far
as the city of Chordemuco, where it found Diego Belloso
and Bias Euyz de Hernan Gonzalez, with some Castilians
who had joined him, and other Portuguese who had come
from Malaca, with whose assistance many battles had been
won in favour of King Prauncar, who was restored to his
kingdom, although some of the provinces were not entirely
pacified. There the people of the galliot heard that neither
Don Luis Dasmarinas, nor any one else of his fleet, had
reached Cambodia ; and they related that Don Luis was
coming in person, with a large force of ships, men, arms,
and some monks, for that which he had always desired in
that kingdom, and that he would not be long in coming,
and that this galliot and her men belonged to his fleet.
Bias Ruyz and the Castilians rejoiced much at such oppor-
tune news : it seemed to him that everything was turning
out well for him, and that this time, according to the state
to which affairs had now reached, they would accomplish
and establish all that they pretended to. Diego Belloso
and his partisans, although they did not show their regret,
were not so satisfied, for they much preferred that the
happy termination of this expedition and its rewards should'
be for the Portuguese and the government of India ; upon
k2
132 OP THE OOVERKMEXT OF
which matter they had had some differences and encounters
with Bias Ru^^z ; but as they saw the affair in this conjunc-
ture, they conformed to the times and circumstances. All
joined together, Portuguese and Castilians, and informed
Prauncar and his mandarins of the arrival of the ensign,
Luis Ortiz, with his galliot and companions, and they were
a portion of a good fleet, which would come shortly, in
which was Don Luis Dasmariilas in person, with monks and
people to assist and serve him, in conformity with what he
had written to Manila a few months ago to ask for. The
king showed satisfaction, and some of his mandarins also,
who liked the Spaniards, and knew the benefits which they
had received from them up to that time ; and understanding
that this would turn out such as it was represented to
them. But the king's stepmother, and other mandarins
who acted with her, especially Ocuiia Lacasmana, the Malay
Mussulman, were vexed at the coming of the Spaniards,
and were of opinion that they, as valiant men, and being so
many and so enterprising, as they already knew, would
become masters of all, or at least would take what was
best ; and they wished to be alone to deal with the king,
Prauncar, and so their aversion to the affairs of the Spaniards
became known to be as great as the feelings of Prauncar
were, on the contrary, favourable to them. He at once
ordered the Spaniards and their ship to be placed close to
the city, at the place which Bias Ruyz and Diego Belloso
occupied.
i Before Don Luis Dasmarifias went out from Manila with
his fleet, Captain Juan de Mendoza Gamboa had proposed
to the governor, Don Francisco Telle, to give him leave to
go to the kingdom of Siam, with a ship of middle size, to
effect some barter; and for the greater security of his
voyage and business, he asked the governor to give him
letters to ihe King of Siam, giving him to understand that
he sent liini as his ambassador and envo}" to eontinne the
DON FRANCISCO TELLO. io6
peace and amity and the commerce which Juan Tello de
Aguirre had treated of with Siam the year before. In
order to give greater facilities for the granting his I'equest,
he oflFered, as Don Lnis Dasmariiias (who was on the way to
Cambodia) had left in Manila some munitions and other
things of use to his fleet for another opportunity, to take
these stores on board his vessel, and make his voyage by
way of Cambodia, where he supposed he should find Don
Luis Dasmarinas, and he would there deliver them to him.
The governor thought both of these proposals well timed,
and having given him the necessary despatches, Juan de
Mendoza went out of Manila in his ship, taking, as pilot,
Juan Martinez de Chave, who had been the pilot of Juan
Tello when he went to Siam, and some sailors and Indians
of the country in his company, and a quantity of signey
and other goods to barter, and the ammunition and stores
which he was to convey to Don Luis. Fray Joan Maldouado
and a companion, Dominican monks, embarked with him :
he was a grave and learned man, and a very intimate friend
of Don Luis Dasmariiias, whom his Order were pleased to
send to him for the sake of his companionship. They went
out of Manila, without knowing of the shipwreck of Don
Luis, two months after he had set sail, and, crossing
over the shoals, they shortly arrived at the bar of Camboja,
and went up to the Court, where they found the galliot
belonging to the fleet, and learned that the other ships had
not arrived. They were well received by the king-, and
lodged with Diego Belloso, Bias Ruyz, and Luiz Ortiz and
his companions. They passed the time together, and
would not let Joan de Mendoza leave Camboja with his ship
until somethi'ng was heard of Don Luis Dasmariiias. Some
days later they heard, through Chinese ships and by other
ways, that he had remained there, preparing to prosecute
his journey ; and although this event caused them regret,
there remained the hope that, in a short time, he would
come to Cambodia, with the two ships of his fleet.
134- OF THE GOVERNMENT Or
At tliis same time a man of mixed race, son of a
Portuguese and a Japanese woman, who lived in Japan,
named Govea, who had a junk, which he kept in the port of
Naugasaki, collected some companions of mixed race, and
some Japanese and Portuguese, in order to go out to the
coasts of China, Champan, and Cambodia, for their adven-
tures, and to barter, but principally to lay hold on what
they might fall in with at sea. A Castilian embarked with
him, who had remained in Nangasaki from the time of the
loss of the galleon San Felipe, which was going to New
Spain in the year ninety-six. He was named Don Antonio
Malaver, and had been a soldier of Italy, and had come
i'over from New Spain to the Philippines as captain and
serjeant-major of the troops which Dr. Antonio de Morga
brought that year in the fleet from New Spain to Manila.
Don Antonio Malaver, who had not wished to return to
the Philippines, intending to return by that way to India
and Spain, and thinking that on the road there might fall
to him some part of the ill-gotten gains of the voyage,
embarked with Grovea and his company. Having run down
the coast, and heard some news of the entry of the Spaniards
into Cambodia, he persuaded Govea to enter the river of
Cambodia, where they would most likely find the Spaniards,
and, affairs in such a conjuncture, that they might take
some effective action in this kingdom, and thrive more than
at sea. After going up the river to Chordemuco they
joined with the Castilians and Portuguese, and were received
into their company and reckoned with them ; and as they
all of them severally (and they were a considerable number)
saw the delay of Don Luis Dasmarinas, they set up as their
head Fray Joan Maldonado and Diego Belloso and Bias
Ruyz. They began (on their own account) to treat with
King Prauncar,^ of their establishment and convenience,
• After forging a letter of credentials from the governor, this next
step of setting up a plenipotentiary of their own was a natural one on the
DOX FRANCISCO TELLO. 1:35
aud to ask for lauds to be given them and rice for their
maintenance, and other things which had been promised,
because they had not derived the benefit and profit which
they required from what had been given to Belloso and
Bias Euyz. Although the king gave them good hopes
with respect to everything, he brought nothing to a con-
clusion, his stepmother and the mandarins of her part}^
impeding it, for they desired to see the Spaniai'ds clear out
of the kingdom ; and they were every day more encouraged
in this by the delay of Don Luis Dasmariiias. In this way
the Spaniards wasted" time in going and coming between
their quarters and the city to negotiate with the king, with
whose answers and conversations they were sometimes
satisfied, and at others not quite so much so.
Near the Spaniards' own quarters, Ocmla Lacasamana had
his, with his Malays ; and as Muslims so opposed in religion
and pretensions, there was not a very neighbourly feeling
between the two parties. And on one occasion there oc-
curred a dispute between the Spaniards and Malays, and
both sides had many of their men severely wounded, amongst
them the Ensign Luys Ortiz, commander of the galliot, had
both legs run through, and was in much danger : at which
the King Prauncar shewed his regret, but he did not venture
to inflict chastisement or make reparation for these injuries.
Affairs were much inflamed, and the Malay very ill-disposed
to the Spaniards, and one day that Fray Joan Maldonado,
Diego Belloso, and Bias Euyz were in the city, and had left
Luys de Yillafaiie in command of the quarters, on account of
Luys Ortiz being laid up with his wounds and illness, another
dispute arose in the quarters with the Malays. Taking this
opportunity, Luys de Villafaiie determined, with a few
Spaniards who followed him, to unite with Govea and his
part of the adventurers. The course they were now gx)ing to follow was
in direct opposition to that which had been enjoined ou the real joleui-
potentiary Don Luis Dasmariiias.
136 OF THE GOVEHNMENT OF
men, and fall upon the Malays, and their quarters and the
goods they possessed, and sack them : moved by their anger
and still more so by their covetousness, they carried this
out, and having killed many Malays, and taken from them
much property, they took to their own quarters and fortified
themselves there and in the Japanese ship. The king was
much vexed, and his mandarins also, and no less Fray Joan
Maldonado, and Belloso, and Bias Kuyz, who were in Chor-
demuco ; but far more Ocuna Lacasamana, at the sight of
the injury and affront done to him, and at the breaking of
the peace and agreement, which had so lately been estab-
lished with reference to the former disputes. Although
Fray Joan Maldonado, Belloso, and Bias Euyz went at once
to the quarters to remedy the affair, they found it so com-
plicated, and so much excitement, that not even King
Prauncar, who wished to intervene, could arrange it ; and
he advised the Spaniards to look to their personal safety, as
he saw their party fallen, and in much peril, without his
being able to remedy it. Fray Joan Maldonado and his
companion, although they faced the business in company
with Diego Belloso and Bias Buyz, at the same time betook
themselves to the ship of Joan de Mendoza for greater
security, and some Spaniards did the same. Diego Belloso
and the rest with Bias Ruyz relying on the friendship of the
king, and the services they had rendered in the country,
remained in it, though with the greatest watchfulness and
precautions for their safety that they could take.
The Malay Lacasamana, with his people and the mandarins
his partisans, and the support which the king's stepmother
afforded him, did not lose any more time, nor the opportunity
which he held in his hands, and at one blow, both by sea
and by land, attacked the Castilians, Portuguese, and
Japanese ; and finding them separated, although some made
as much resistance as they could, he made an end of all of
them, and amongst them of Diego Belloso and Bias Ruyz de
DOX FKAXCISCO TELLO. 137
Hei^nan Gonzales ; and burned their quarters and vessels,
excepting that of Joan de Mendoza, who, feariqg the danger,
went away down the river, making for the sea, and defended
himself from some prahus which followed him. He took
with him Fray Juan Maldonado and his companion, and some
few Spaniards : on shore there only remained alive a Fran-
ciscan friar with five Indians of Manila, and a Castilian
named Juan Dias, whom the king caused to be hid with
much care in the country, regretting much the death of the
Spaniards : and, although he advised the friar not to come
out in public until the Malays were appeased, this friar
thinking that he could escape from their fury, came out with
two of the Manila men, to fly from the kingdom, when they
were found and killed like the rest. Juan Dias and three
Manila men remained many days in concealment, and the
king supported them until after other events they were able
to show themselves. • In this manner the cause of the
Spaniards in Cambodia came to an end, and so entirely
thrown down, that the Malay and his partisans remained
complete masters, treating the affairs of the kingdom with
such little respect for the King Prauncar, that finally they
killed him also : upon which there was a fresh insurrection,
and the provinces were disturbed, each one taking what he
could o-et, and there was more confusion and disturbance
than what there had been before. .
The garrison of Spaniards which remained in Caldera /
when Don Juan Ronquillo raised the camp from the river of j
Mindanao, was under the command of Captain Villagra, on y
account of the death of Captain Juan Pacho in Jolo ; and it
was suffering from shortness of provisions, for neither the
people of the river could give them to the Spaniards, nor
would the Jolo men supply them, as war was declared
between them. So they urged the governor Don Fran-
cisco Telle to succour the garrison with provisions, soldiers
and munitions, or to give them orders to withdraw to
138 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
Manila (wliicli was wliat they most desired) ^ since tlievc
they did not obtain any other result than that of suffering-
hunger, and of being shut up in that fort, without having
any place in which to seek for sustenance. The governor,
seeing the urgency of the case, and finding himself with a
very small sum of money in the royal treasury, from which
to supply that garrison and maintain it ; and for the same
reason the punishment was deferred which ought to be in-
flicted on the Jolo men, for the outrages which they had
committed against Spaniards, and for their revolt; and that
to renew what had been done in Mindanao would be a long
business, was inclined to avoid the care and trouble of
maintaining and supplying the garrison of Caldera. And in
order to do so with a decent excuse, he submitted it for
consultation to the High Court, and to other persons of
understanding, requesting them to give their opinion, at
the same time letting them know his desii-e and giving
some reasons with which he hoped to persuade them to give
an answer in conformity with his desire. The High Court
advised him not to remove or raise the garrison of Caldera,
but on the contrary to maintain and succour it, and that as
shortly as possible the affairs of Jolo and Mindanao should
be attended to, even though it should be by taking what
was required for that from some other part ; this being the
major necessity, and the one it was most necessary to
attend to in the islands, both for the sake of pacifying
those provinces as for that of restraining them, lest they
should be encouraged by seeing the Spaniards withdraw
from all of them, and should venture still further, and come
down to make captures amongst the Pintados, and carry the
war to the very doors of the Spaniards. Notwithstanding
this reply, the governor resolved to raise and remove the
garrison, and sent orders to Captain Villagra to burn the
fort of Caldera immediately, and withdraw with all the
people and ships that he had with hiui, and come to Manila.
DON FRANCISCO TELLO. 139
This was speedily executed, for the captaiu and soldiers of
the garrison hoped for nothing else than to dismantle it and
come away. When the Jolo men saw the Spaniards abandon
the country, they were persuaded that they would not re-
turn again to Mindanao, and that they had not sufficient
forces for it, and they gained fresh spirits and courage, to
join with the people of Buhahayen on the river, and to arm
a number of caracoas and other craft, to make an expedition
against the coast of Pintados, to plunder and make captives.
The people of Tampacan lost all hopes of being again
assisted by the Spaniards, and of their return to the river,
since they had also abandoned the fort of Calclera and left
the country ; and in order to avoid war and the injuries
which they would suffer from their neighbours the people of
Buhahayen, they made an agreement and united with them,
and all turned their arms against the Spaniards, promising
to themselves that they would make many incursions into
their country and gain much plunder. So they got their
jBeet ready and appointed two chiefs as heads of it, of those
who lived on the river of Mindanao, nained Sali and Silonga:
and in the month of July of the year '99, in the season of
the south-westerly winds, they left the river of Mindanao,
making for the islands of Oton and Panay and the neigh-
bouring isles, with fifty caracoas, and in them more than
three thousand fighting men, with arquebuses, campilans,
carasas, and other arms with handles, and many pieces of
artillery. Passing by the island of Negros, they went to
the river of Panay, and going as far as its principal town,
five leagues up the river, where there was an alcalde mayor
and some Spaniards, they sacked and set fire to the houses
and churches, and took prisoners many Christian natives,
men, women and children, committing many murders, cruel-
ties and injuries upon them, and folloAving them in boats
more than ten leagues up the river, without leaving any-
thing standing. For the alcalde mayor and those who
140 OP THE GOYEl.'NJIENT OF
could took flight towards the inountaius in tlie inner part
of the country, and so the enemy had greater opportunity'-
to do what he pleased. They went out of the river of
Panay with their fleet loaded with the property which they
had pillaged, and with Christian captives, and burned all
the boats that there were in the river before leaving. They
did the same in the other islands and villages which they '
passed by, and then returned to Mindanao, without being
attacked by any one, with much gold and property, and
more than eight hundred captives, besides those they left
slain. In Mindanao they divided the spoil, and remained
agreed to get read}^ a larger fleet for next year, and return
to make war with more preparation.
This daring attack of the Mindanaos did a very great
injury to the islands of the Pintados, as much by what they
did there, as by the fear and terror which the islanders felt
for them, since they were in the power of the Spaniards,
who kept them subject and tributary, and disarmed, so
that they neither protected them from their enemies nor left
them the means to defend themselves, as they used to do when
there were no Spaniards in the country: in consequence of
this, many towns of peaceable and subject Indians rose up and
withdrew to the Tingues,^not choosing to come down to where
they had their houses, and magistrates, and the Spaniards,
amongst whom they were distributed.^ They had, as they said
daily, the desire to rise up in rebellion, all of them, but, by
means of some promises and presents from proprietors and
monks, they were appeased and brought back again, with
much regret and vexation at the injuries they had received.
And although these injuries were felt with regret in Manila,
and still more those which were expected from the enemy in
futui'e, as the governor was ill provided with ships and the
rest of what was needful for defence, nothing more was
done than to regret them, and sot them to the account of
' In the interior. ^ Encomenderos.
DON FRANCISCO TELLO. 141
the injury wliicli had been suffered, by raising the camp of
the river of Mindanao, and dismantHng the fort of Caldera.^
As soon as the weather allowed of it, the Mindanao and
Jolo men returned with a large fleet of more than seventy
vessels, well armed with more than four thousand fierhtinsr
men, with the same chiefs, Silonga and Sali, and other
chiefs of Mindanao and Jolo, against the same islands of
Pintados, with the determination to take and sack the
Spanish town of Arevalo, which was built in Oton. Captain
Juan Grarcia de Sierra, chief alcalde of that province, having
heard of their setting out, and of the design entertained by
the enemy, attended to what was most necessary, and
collected in the town all the Spaniards who resided there
and in the district, and shut himself up in it with all of
them, repairing, as well as he could, a wooden fort which
it possessed, into which he gathered the women and pro-
perty ; and with the Spaniards, who might be seventy
men, with their arquebuses, he waited for the enemy. The
enemy, who wished to attack the river of Panay another
time, passed by the island of Negros to the town of Arevalo,
anchored there close to the native town, and landed one
thousand five hundred men with arquebuses, campilans,
and carasas ; and, without stopping- anywhere, made for the
Spanish town, which was the object of their attack. The
Spaniards, divided into troops, came out to meet them,
firing upon the enemy, and attacked them so suddenly that
they forced them to turn their backs and return to embark
in their caracoas, and in such confusion that many Mindanao
men were killed before they could embark. Captain Juan
Garcia de Sierra, who went on horseback, pursued the
enemy so closely to the water^s edge, that, cutting off the
legs of his mare with campilans, they brought him to the
' See Appendix II for the subsequent history of Mindanao, and the
fort of Caldcra,
142 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
ground and killed him. The enemy embarked with great
loss of men, and halted in the island of Guimaraez, which
is in sight of the town, and there mustered their people, the
wounded and killed, who were not few, and amongst them
one of the principal chiefs and head men. They made a
great show of grief and regret, and made for Mindanao,
sounding their bells and tifas, without stopping any more
at Pintados, carrying away from this expedition little profit
or gain, and much loss and injury to their people and repu-
tation, which, when they arrived at Jolo and Mindanao, they
felt much more deeply. To remedy this event, they pro-
posed to return at the first monsoon against Pintados with
more ships and men, and this they agreed upon.
When treating further back of the affairs of Japan, an
account was given of the loss of the ship San Felipe in
Hurando, in the province of Toza ; and of the martyrdom
of the barefooted Franciscan monks in Nangasaki,i and of
the departure of the Spaniards and monks who had re-
mained there, with the exception of Fray Geronymo of Jesus,
who, changing his habit, concealed himself in the interior
of the country; and how after Taicosama had given an
answer to the Governor of Manila, through his ambassador,
Don Luis Navarrete, excusing himself for what had hap-
pened, he had been moved, at the persuasion of Faranda
Quiemon and his supporters, to send a fleet against Manila,
and had provided Faranda with rice and other provisions in
order to despatch him, and he had begun to prepare the
fleet, and had not managed to bring it to the point which
he had promised, so that the affair had been deferred, and
had so remained. That which happened afterwards was, that
Taicosama fell ill in Miaco of a severe illness, of which he
died ; although it gave him an opportunity to dispose of his
succession and of the government of the kingdom, and that
the empire should be continued to an only son of his of ten
' These arc the Japanese martyrs who were canonised by H. II. Pius
IX on tin Stli June, 1S62.
DON FRANCISCO TELLO. 143'
years old. For wliicli purpose he fixed his choice on the
greatest Tono^ lord^ in Japan^ named Yeyasudono^^ lord of
Qiianto^ which are some provinces in the north^ who had
sons and grandsons, and more influence and power in Japan
than any other in the kingdom. He called him to court,
and said to him that he wished to marry his son with his
gran daughter, the daughter of his eldest son, and for him
to succeed to the empire. He celebrated the marriage, and
left the government of Japan till such time as his son should
be older, to Teyasudono, in partnership with Guenifiun,
Fungen, Ximonojo, and Xicoraju, his great confidantes and
councillors, through whose hands and names the afiairs of
his administration had passed for some years, in order that
all together should continue to administer them after his
death, until his son was of age to govern in person : whom
he left named and accepted by the kingdom as his suc-
cessor and supreme lord of Japan. Taicosama having died
in the year 1599,^ the five governors put his son in custody
under a guard in the fortress of tJsaca, with the service and
state due to his person, and they remained in Miaco
governing, which they were occupied with for some time,
so that the pretensions of Faranda Quiemon to make an
expedition against Manila ceased altogether, and were not
again talked of. As the affairs of Japan are never settled,
but have always proceeded with disturbances, they could
not last for any long period in the state in which Taico left
them, for, with the new government and the arrival at
court and in other provinces of Japan of the Tones, lords,
captains, and soldiers, whom the Combaco during his life-
time had occupied (in order to divert them from the affairs
of the kingdom) in wars with Coray and the King of China,
the Japanese began to be in a state of disunion and dis-
turbance, so that the four governors entertained suspicions
1 The Dutch Memoralle Embassies call the Regent Ongoschio, and state
that Taicosama died of dysentery Sept. IG, 1598, at the age of sixty-
four, having reigned fifteen years.
144 OP THE GOVERNMENT OP
and differences with YeyasudonOj fearing, from his manner
of governing and from his proceedings, that he was pre-
paring, as he was so powerful, to take for himself the
empire, excluding and taking no account of the son of
Taico, married to his grandaughter. This flame burned
still higher, for many Tones and lords of the kingdom felt
in the same manner in this respect ; and, now either from
a desire for the succession of the son of Taico, or because
they wished to see matters in disorder, so that each one
might profit by it^ and this was the most likely, and not
affection for Taicosama, who, as an usurper, had been more
feared than loved. These persons persuaded the governors
to face Yeyasudono, and check his designs. Thus excited,
they opposed him so thoroughly, that they entirely declared
themselves, and it suited Yeyasudono to leave the kingdom
of Miaco, and go to his kingdom of Quanto, to put himself
in safety, and return with large forces to Court to be
obeyed. The governors, seeing what was intended^ were
not negligent, and collected men, and formed a camp of
two hundred thousand fighting men : with these united
most of the Tones of Japan and its lords. Christians and
Grentiles, and the less number remained among the pai'tisans
of Yeyasudono, who came down as speedily as he could
from Quanto, in search of the governors and their army, to
give them battle with a hundred thousand men, but good
troops, of his own kingdom. The two armies joined, and a
battle was fought on equal terms, in the course of which
various things happened which made the event doubtful
until many people passed over from the side of the
governors to that of Yeyasudono, and the improvement of
his affairs was perceptible, and victory declared in his
favour. Many having been killed, and many lords, those
who remained, for few escaped, fell into the hands of
Yeyasudono, and amongst them the four governors.
Having destroyed the greater number of the Tones, and
DON FRANCISCO TELLO. 145
deprived others of their lordships and proviuces^ aud
reappointed everything anew amongst persons devoted to
his party, he ordered a special execution of the governors
(after returning to court, triumphant over his enemies, and
in possession of the whole kingdom), by having them
crucified and their ears cut off, aud he had them carried
through the streets of the principal cities of Usaca, Sacay,
Fugimen, and Miaco, in carts, until they died on the crosses,
with other tortures. As these were the men by whose counsel
and artifices Taico a few years before had done the same
thing to the barefooted friars whom he martyred, it may be
understood that God chose to punish them in this world
also \vith the same rigour.
Thus Yeyasudono remained in the supreme government
of Japan, as Taico had held it, without taking out the son
Avhom he left from the fortress of Usaca ; on the contrary,
he set more guards over him ; and changing his name, as
is the custom of the rulers of Japan, he called himself
Daifusama for greater dignity.
Fray Geronymo of Jesus, companion of the martyrs, who
remained hid in Japan on account of the persecution by the
tyrant Taicosama,passed the time in the interior of the country
amongst the Christians, with his habit changed, so that,
although he was carefully searched for, they Avere not able
to discover him ; until after Taicosama was dead, and Daifu
had made himself master of the government, w^ien he came
to Miaco, and received an order to make himself known to
a servant of Dayfu, and to tell him many things of the
Philippines and of the King of Spain, and of his kingdoms
and provinces, particularly of those which he possessed in
New Spain and Peru, from which the Philippines depended, '''
and with which they had correspondence, and how good it
Avould be for Dayfu to possess the friendship and have
dealings with the Spaniards. This servant had an oppor-
tunity to repeat all these things to Dayfu, who for some
L
146 OP THE GOVERNMENT OP
time had desired to have the trade which the Portuguese
had established in Nangasaki, in his own kingdom of
Quanto, to give it more importance, as he was its natural
sovereign, and it seemed to him that it might be arranged
by means of what Fray Geronymo related ; so he had him
brought before him, and, asking him who he was, the friar
related how he had remained in Japan after the martyrdom
of his companions ; that he was a monk, and of those whom
the governor of Manila had sent, during the life of Taico
Sama, to treat of peace and amity with the Spaniards, and
they had suffered, as was well known, after converting
Christians, and had established some hospitals and houses
at Court, and in other cities of Japan, to cure the sick, and
perform other works of piety, without pretending to any
reward or advantage other than the service of God, and
the teaching souls in that kingdom the faith and path by
which they had to save themselves, and the service of their
neighbours. In this, and in works of charity, especially
to the poor, as he and those of his order made profession,
they lived without seeking or holding any goods or property
upon earth, and maintained themselves only with the alms
which were given them for that purpose. After this, he
related to him who the King of Spain was, and of his being
a Christian, and what great kingdoms and states he
possessed in all parts of the world, and that New Spain,
Peru, the Philippines, and India, were his, and that he
governed all this, and maintained the faith of our Lord
Jesus Christ, true God, who created the universe. The
friar explained to him other things relating to the Christian
religion, as well as he could, and said that, if he wished
for the friendship of His Majesty, and of his vassals in
Manila, he would be able to assist in establishing it with
them, and with the Viceroys of New Spain and Peru, which
would be very useful and profitable to him and all his
kingdoms and provinces of Japan.
DON FRANCISCO TELLO. 147
This last matter, of the friendship and trade of the
Spaniards, on account of the profit and benefit which might
be obtained from it, was more to the taste of Dayfusama
than what he had heard of their religion ; and though he
did not reject it, nor say anything about it, yet at this
interview, and in others with Fray Geronymo (who now
had appeared in public with his religious habit, by permis-
sion of Dayfusama, who gave him what was required for his
maintenance), Dayfusama only treated of friendship with
the governor of Manila, and of the Spaniards coming from
there with their ships and goods every year to Quanto,
where they would have a port and established trade, and
that the Japanese should sail thence to New Spain, where
they were to have the same amity and trade ; and on hearing
that the voyage was long, and that it required Spanish
ships in which to perform it, he proposed that the governor
of Manila should send masters and workmen to build them,
and that, in the said kingdom and principal port of Quanto,
which it has been said is in the northern part of Japan, a
country of mountains, abounding in mines of silver, which
gave no profit, because there was no one who knew how to
work them. Fray Geronymo and the companions whom he
might prefer amongst the Spaniards who came there, should
have their house and dwelling, Hke as those monks of the
company of Jesus had theirs with the Portuguese in Nan-
gasaki. Fray Geronymo, who desired by whatever means
ofiered, to restore the cause of his monks, and the conversion
of Japan by his labour, as he had begun during the lifetime
of the mart}TS, and this end only moved him, did not doubt
that he could once and several times facilitate the desires of
Daifusama, and assured him that they would certainly be
realised by his means, and that in nothing was there any
difficulty to impede this ; upon which Dayfu showed himself
favourable, and more well affected towards the afiairs of
Manila than his predecessor Taico had been, and he assured
L 2
148 OP THE GOVERNMENT OF
that he would give a good reception to the Spaniards in
JapaUj and that their ships which should come there in
distress^ or in any other way, should by his orders be
equipped and refitted with all they wanted^ and he would
not consent to any Japanese going out to plunder or commit
any injury in the coasts of the Philippines. And because
he learned that in that year six ships of Japanese corsairs
had gone out of the island of Zazuma^ and other ports of the
lower kingdoms, which had captured and plundered two
Chinese vessels which were entering Manila with their
merchandise, and had done other mischief on its coast ; he
immediately ordered them to be sought for in their kingdom,
and more than four hundred men having been taken prisoners,
he caused them to be crucified. He also ordered that for
the future the ships that went each year from Nangasaki to
Manila with flour and other goods, should not be so many
in number, but only as many as were sufficient for the
supply of Manila, with the permission and good pleasure of
its governor, so that they should not cause loss or injury to
that place.
As Daifu pressed Fray Geronymo every day more with
respect to what he had taken upon himself. Fray Geron3nno
told him that he had already written, and would write again,
about those matters to the governor and the Royal j^udiencia
of Manila ; and he entreated of Dayfu, that a servant and
person of his house should be the bearer of these letters and
message, so that they might go with more credit and
authority. Dayfu approved of this, and despatched them
with Captain Chiquiro, a pagan Japanese and one of his
servants, who carried a present of various weapons to the
governor, and the letters of Fray Geronymo, without any
special letter from Dayfu, only that Fray Geron^'mo said that
he wrote in the name of Dayfu ; and he made much entreaty
and explained the better state whicli the aifaii-s of peace and
' S,ith;iiiniv.
PON FRANCISCO TELLO. 119
amity were in between Japan and the Philippines, and gave
an account of what Dayfu promised and assured ; and that to
establish this more securely, he had promised him that the
Spaniards should go with their ships of trade to Quanto ; and
that the governor was to send masters and workmen ti)
build ships for navigation between Japan and New Spain,
and that there was to be trade and friendship with the Vice-
roy of that country, and that Dayfu had already given him
leave for monks to come to Japan to make Christians, and
found churches and monasteries, and he had given him a
good site for one in Miaco, where he was staying, and it
would be the same in the other parts and towns of Japan,
where they pleased. This, Fray Geronymo added to what
Daifu had offered, and he said it with artifice and cunning, in
order to move the monks of the Philippines so that all of
them should more eagerly undertake to push the business
with the governor and the High Court, so that they should
agree to all this with greater facility^ not to lose what Fray
Geronymo said he had obtained.
During the same government of Don Francisco Telle, in
the year 1600, towards the end of October, a ship arrived
from the province of Camarines, bringing news, that two
ships had entered and anchored in one of its bays in the
northern part, twenty leagues from the mouth of the channel
and Cape of Espiritu Santo : they were a flag-ship and
admiraFs-ship well provided with artillery, witli foreign
crews, who had, as friends of the Spaniards, requested and
obtained by barter from the natives, rice and other provisions
of which they were short ; immediately after, they weighed
and went out, making for the channel and entered it, having
left a few feigned letters for the governor Don Francisco
Telle, to say that they were friends, and came with the per-
mission of His Majesty to Manila for their trade. From this,
and from a negro, who throwing himself into the sea,
escaped from these ships to the island of Capul, and through
150 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
an Englishman^ whom the natives arrested on shore, it was
understood that these ships were from Holland, whence they
had sailed, in company with three other ships, with patents
and documents from Count Maurice of Nassau, who was
named Prince of Orange, to make prizes in the Indies : and
that they had entered the South Sea by the Straits of Magel-
lan, and of the five ships three had disappeared, and these
two, the flag-ship and admiral's- ship, had run along the coast
of Chili, and there taken two vessels, and having turned
away from the coast of Lima, had put out to sea and made their
voyage without stopping anywhere, shaping their course
for the Philippines, where they had entered with the inten-
tion of plundering what they might fall in with : and they
were informed that a galloon named Santo Tomas was
expected from New Spain with the money for the merchan-
dise of the cargoes of two years, which had been sent from
Manila to New Spain; also that within a few days merchant
ships would begin to arrive from China, from which they
could fill their hands. They knew that there were no
galleys or armed ships in that season which could attack
them, and they determined to come to the mouth of the
bay of Manila, and pass the time there, supplying them-
selves with the provisions and refreshments which would
enter the city : and this they carried out. In the flag-ship
named Maurice there went as commander Oliver de Nort of
Amstradam, with a hundred men, and twenty-four pieces of
brass^ cannon; this ship was one of those which a few years
before was with the Count of Leste at the taking of the
city of Cadiz.^ In the admiraFs ship, named Concordia,
there was as captain Lambert Viesman of Eotterdam, with
forty men and ten pieces of artillery. When these ships
1 This man was John Calleway of London, a musician, as stated in
Van Noort's account.
^ Bronze de cuchara.
' In 1596 an Euglisli fleet sacked Cadiz.
DON FRANCISCO TELLO. 151
were seen on the coast of Chili^ the Viceroy Don Luis de
Velasco^ who governed Peru, sent to seek and pursue them,
along the coast of Peru and New Spain as far as California,
a fleet well supplied with artillery and brilliant soldiers,
which sailed from the Callao of Lima, under the command
of Don Juan de Yelasco ; they were unable to find the
enemy, as he had left the coast and taken sea room, pur-
suing his voyage to the Philippines : and in a storm which
overtook the Peru fleet whilst returning from California, its
flag-ship was lost, with all hands, for it never again ap-
peared.
The governor, Don Francisco Tello, seeing that this
corsair was making incursions among the islands, according
to advices from some captains and soldiers, whom he had
sent by land along the coasts of the isle of Luzon that they
might prevent his throwing men on shore and doing injury
to the towns ; and hearing of other small light boats which
the enemy had within sight, considered how to remedy this
extremity, which seemed on this occasion to be very difii-
cult, both because he found himself without any kind of
rowing barges or ships with high bulwarks with which to
put out to sea, and also because he had but little soldiery in
the camp, for the greater part of it had been taken away by
Captain and Sergeant-major Juan Xuarez Gallinato, and was
with him in the province of Pintados, with galleys and galliots,
and other craft occupied in defending the inhabitants from the
vessels of the Mindanao and Xolo men, who continually
made descents to plunder them ; and he was preparing for
the expedition to Jolo, which it was intended should be
made in the first monsoon, for it could no longer be deferi-ed.
The governor, finding himself hard pressed on this occasion,
and that the Dutch enemy was able to inflict great injury
and make many prizes, and go ofi" with them, leaving the
country ruined, summoned the High Court and communicated
the state of aflairs, and requested the auditors to assist him
152 OF THE GOVERNMENT OP
iu person^ as might be fitting. It was settled what ought
to be done, which was^ to put the port of Cabit^ which was
inside the bay, in a state of defence, so that the enemy
should not make himself master of it, and of the magazines,
artillery and stocks for the ships ; at the same time at once
to use diligence in arming a few ships with which to put to
sea, and present some front to the enemy (if no more could
be done), so that he should not be so thoroughly established
in the country, and should go away from the islands; since,
finding everything so defenceless and without resistance, it
was natural that he would remain until he had carried out
his designs. The execution of this was committed to Dr.
Antonio de Morga, and the licentiate Telles de Almazan
was charged with remaining in the city, together with the
governor president, for its defence; and from thence he was
to provide and supply the port of Cabit and Dr. Antonio de
Morga with what he might require for what was under his
charge. Dr. de Morga went out of Manila the same day,
which was the last day of October of the year six hundred,
with some soldiers and munitions ; and he put it iu a state
of defence with a hundred and fifty men well armed, hack-
but men and musketeers, who always guarded the port day
and night from their guard-houses and posts, and in the
points that required it. He collected the- ships that were
in port close to the town, as near as possible to the building
yard, where a lateen-rigged vesseP was building, and a ship
of Sebu, and another a small vesseF belonging to some
Portuguese, which had come from Malacca with merchandise.
For the defence of these he put in position on the beach
twelve pieces of brass cannon^ of middling size, and two of
greater range, which were placed on a point at the entrance
of the port; the fire of all these defended the port, and the
' Galizabra. ' Patache.
■^ De artilleria- de Ironce de cuchara : the cucliara appears to have boon
a ladle with which the charge of powder was placed in the gun.
DON FRANCISCO TELLO. 153
ships in it. On the beach further on, a rampart was made
with wood and planking, filled in with earth, behind which,
if the enemy should enter, the soldiers would cover and
defend themselves with their artillery. The auditor having
thus put this port in a state of defence, set about com-
pleting the ship o*n the stocks (although much work was
wanting to it), to launch it, and fit it with sails, and at the
same time he caused the ship of Sebu to be refitted ; and,
looking after these works, he hurined them so much that
within thirty days he hoisted the yards on the galizabra
and on the ship of Sebu, and furnished them with artillery,
putting on board of each eleven guns of middling and
larger size, which were sent to him from Manila, besides
those which were in the port.
The corsair came to the mouth of the bay, which is eight
leagues from the port of Cabit ; he did not venture to make
a dash into the port, as he had thought of doing, for he had
heard from some Sangley men who went out to sea in
champans that it was already defended, but he was not in-
foi^med that they were arming to come out against him, nor
that there was any preparation or forces at that season for
this purpose, and so he allowed himself to remain at the
mouth of the bay, both ships and their boats moving about,
changing from one side to the other on various days, and
seizing the small vessels which came in to the city with
provisions, without any of them escaping him, and anchor-
ing at night under the shelter of the land; all this at a
distance of four leagues from the mouth of the bay, without
going further away, so as to be nearer at hand for the
opportunities which might ofier.
Dr. Antonio de Morga kept a few small and light vessels
within sight of the enemy, under the shelter of the land,
which every day brought him news of the place in which the
enemy was anchored, and of what he was doing, which was
to have quietly stationed himself, placing his guard every
154 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
day towards evening on the deck v^^ith drums and banners,
and firing his musketry, so that the forces which the corsatr
carried were estimated, and the larger and best portion of
them were in the flagship, which was a good and handy
ship. The auditor also took measures that no champan or
other vessel should go out of the bay, so that the corsair
should not get information of what was going on; and when
affairs were at this point, he informed the governor of what
had been done, and that if he thought fit the Portuguese
vessel might also be armed, to go out in company with the
two ships, the galizabra and the 8 ant Antonio of Sebu,
and that he had laid an embargo on it, and equipped
it for that purpose. Ammunition, and some provisions of
rice and fish were provided for the two ships, and it re-
mained to equip them with sailors and fighting men to go
out in them : of these there was but little supply, the sailors
hid themselves and feigned sickness, and one and all shewed
themselves ill inclined to go out to an affair of more risk
and peril than of personal profit : captains and private
soldiers of the city, who were not receiving pay or rations
from the king, and who were able to go on the expedition,
did not offer themselves to the governor for it, and if any
one were ready to do so, he dissembled until he should
know who was to go as commander of this fleet : for, although
some army captains might have taken the command, the
governor was not inclined to give it them in charge, nor
would the others have chosen to go under their orders, for
each one presumed, and claimed for himself, that he could
be the leader, and that no other neighbour of theirs was to
give them orders. The governor was prevented from going
out in person, and he saw that all the townspeople shewed
the intention that if Dr. Antonio de Morga went out with
the fleet they would go with him, and would not take account
of the difficulties which presented themselves. The governor
having heard of the desire of those who were able to embark,
DON FRANCISCO TELLO. 155
and ttat by other means lie would not be able to effect wliat
was sought for, and seeing that the deferring the matter
was each day a very great detriment to it, he summoned
the Auditor to the city and set the business before him ;
and_, in order that he should not excuse himself from it, he
issued an act, which he then caused to be notified to him
by the secretary of the government, ordering him on behalf
of His Majesty to embark and go as general and chief of
the fleet to search and pursue the corsair, because otherwise,
according to the state in which affairs were, they could not
meet with the result which was most suitable. As it appeared
to the Auditor, that if he omitted to do this, blame would
be cast upon him for having allowed to pass so pressing an
occasion for the service of God and of His Majesty, and for
the good of the whole country, and that the affairs of war
had been under his charge, and he had managed them by
sea and land; and it might be reckoned ill against him if he
turned his back on this conjuncture, which sought him of
itself, especially as the governor made out documents for
this, to cover his responsibility : so he obeyed what was
ordered him by the act of the governor, which, with his
reply, was word for word as follows : —
Ad of the Governor Don Francisco Tello, and Reply of
Dr. Antonio de Morga.
In the city of Manila, the first of December of one thousand
six hundred years, the lord Don Francisco Tello, knight of
the order of Santiago, governor and captain general of these
Philippine islands, and President of the Royal High Court
of Justice which resides in it, said : Whereas, two ships of
the Enghsy enemy have come to these islands, after con-
' Here and in another document English has been put by mistake for
Dutch.
156 OF THE GOVEKNMKNT OV
sultation and in concert with the High Court, it was" pro-
posed to fit out armed ships to go out against them, and
for this purpose it was agreed that Dr. Antonio de Morga
should go to the jDort of Cabit to direct the fitting out and
equipment of the said armed ships and the defence of that
port, as it apjDears by the act and resokition which was
passed upon that matter, in the book of the afiairs of the
administration of this present year, to which reference is
made. And, in execution of the said resolution, he has
until now attended to the defence of the port, and to the
fitting out and equipment of the said fleet, which consists of
the ship San Diego^ of Sebu, and the galloon 8an Bartolome,
which he caused to be finished on the stocks and launched
in the sea, and a small vessel which came from the city of
Malacca ; and a galliot and other smaller boats, which have
been fitted out with the care and diligence which he has
used in this business. The said fleet is in such good con-
dition, that very shortly it may set sail: nevertheless, the
said enemy is near this city, on the coast of the island of
Miraveles. As many captains, gentlemen and persons of
importance of this republic have understood that the said
auditor would make this expedition, they have offered to go
and serve in it (at their own expense) in his company the king
our sovereign; and great jjreparation of men and provisions
has been made with this intention, which expedition would
fall to the ground and be undone if the said auditor were
not to proceed with this fleet in pursuit of the aforesaid
enemy, and it would not obtain the result which is expected
of it, so much for the service of God our Lord, and for the
good of this country ; the more so, as the said auditor is
experienced in the business of war, and has been at other
times general of the forces of His Majesty, and by his
nomination; and has been lieutenant of the captain general
for some years' in this kingdom, of which he has given a
' In other passages this ship is named San Antonio.
DON FRANCISCO TELLO. 157
good account^ and he is wqII looked up to and loved by the
men of war, and is the person who is most fitting, accord-
ing- to the state of affairs, and other just considerations
which bear upon it, so that this expedition may have a
result and not be undone ; or at the least be not deferred
with loss and prejudice. For all this, the governor has
ordered and orders the said auditor, that since he has
fostered this business, and by his own exertions has put it
on the good footing in which it is, and all the people who
are not on the pay list (who are many) are prepared to go
for his sake, that with all possible speed he shall prepare
himself to go as general and commander of the said fleet in
search of the enemy, for which the necessary documents and
instructions will be given him ; because thus it is expedient
for the service of the king our sovereign, on whose behalf I
command him to do this and fulfil it, giving him for this,
during the time which he may occupy with it, as President
of the Eroyal High Court of Justice, leave of absence, and
exoneration from attending to the business of the said High
Court ; which he gave formally to make the said absence,
and so he issued it, ordered, and signed with his name,
Don Francisco Tello : before me, Gaspak de Azebo.
In the city of Manila, the first of December of one
thousand six hundred years, I, the secretary of the govern-
ment, notified the act above-contained to Dr. Antonio de
Morga, Auditor of this Royal High Court, who said •} That
from the first day of the month of November ultimate he
has occupied himself, by commission from the Royal High
Court of these islands, in all which the said act mentions,
> The Governor-President of the High Court and Dr. Antonio de
Morga, carried the traditions of the law court into their new career at
sea, for our author's instructions, which are drawn up like a legal docu-
ment, were served upon him like a writ, the secretary indorses a memo-
randum of the service, and then follows the return of De Movga to tlie
citation.
158 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
and in the execution of it he hais done the utmost which
has been within his power, and the expedition is on the
good footing and condition which is known ; and that if it
is for its good result, and for what is expected from it, his
person and fortune are at the disposition and convenience of
the service of the king our sovereign; he is ready to employ
it all for it, and to do what has been ordered and commanded
him by the said president ; and so he has no other will or
desire than for what might be for the service of God, and
of His Majesty ; upon which may your lordship order and
direct what may be found to be most expedient, and so he
will fulfil it, and he has signed it with his name.
Doctor Antonio de Morga.
Gaspar de Azebo.
Dr. Antonio de Morga, without asking or taking anything
from the king^s exchequer, provided himself with all that
was requisite for the expedition ; and assisted several ne-
cessitous soldiers, who came to offer themselves, besides
many other persons of importance who did so likewise ; so
that within eight days more, there was already a sujfficient
quantity of people for the expedition, together with
abundance of provisions, arms, and marine stores ; and all
embarked. What with adventurers, and the paid soldiers
whom the governor gave to the auditor of those whom he had
in the camp, with Captain Augustin de Urdiales, there were
enough to arm both ships, each carrying about a hundred
fighting men, without reckoning gunners, sailors, and ship-
boys ; for of these there was a less supply than what was
needed. The governor appointed as admiraP of this fleet.
Captain Juan de Alcega, an old soldier, and experienced in
these islands ; and as captain of the paid soldiers who were
to go in the admiraFs ship, Juan Telle y Aguirre ; and as
sergeant-major of the fleet, Don Pedro Tello his kinsman ;
' Second iu command.
DON FRANCISCO TELLO. 159
and he appointed the other officers and employments^ and
gave the nomination and title of general of the fleet to Dr.
Antonio de Morga, and the instructions as to what he was
to do in the course of the voyage and expedition^ closed and
sealed, with orders not to open them until he had got out to
sea, outside of the bay of Manila, which were as follows.
Instructions of the Governor, for Doctor Antonio de Morga.
That which Doctor Antonio de Morga, auditor of the
Royal High Court of Law of these Philippine Islands, and
captain-general of the fleet which is going to seek the
English enemy, has to do, is the following : —
Firstly, as there is information that the English enemy,
against whom this fleet has been prepared, is in the cove of
Maryuma, and if perchance he should have notice of our
fleet, he might take to flight, without its being possible to
attack him; it is ordered, that the fleet go out with the
greatest speed possible, in search of him, in order to join and
fight him until he be taken or sunk ; by the favour of our
Lord.
Item, in fighting with the said enemy, as well with
artillery, as by boarding, (for this should be attempted with
all the care and diligence that may be), as the weather may
best admit of: if the enemy should take to flight in sight
of the fleet, it will follow him until the desired result is
obtained.
Item, if at the time the fleet goes out to the said enemy,
he should have absented himself from this coast, and there
should be news of his having gone along it to any other of
these islands, the fleet will seek him and pursue him uutil it
has taken or sunk him ; and if the enemy have left these
islands, it will follow him as far as it can, for in this it is left
to its discretion, so that the object be attained.
Item, forasmuch as in a council of war held on the second
day of the present month and year, by the master of the
160 OF THK GOVERNMENT OF
camp, and sotne captains who were present^ they gave their
opinion^ that if there was no certain information of the course
and direction which the enemy had taken, the fleet should
follow the coast of Ilocos, steering for the straits of Singapore,
by which it is supposed the enemy would have to pass to
continue his voyage : notwithstanding the said council of
war, if it should happen that the general should have no
information of which course the enemy has made, in that
case he will do what he thinks most expedient, as one who
is present at the circumstance ; and as the enemy and the
occasion may suggest to him ; endeavouring to attain the
object of our desire, which is, to reach and destroy the
enemy.
Item, if the fleet should fall in with any other of the
enemy's corsairs, or others, going about these islands, or
which should have come out of them doing them injury,
whether English, Japanese, TeiTenates or Mindanaos, or of
any other nation, it will endeavour to chastise or attack
them in such manner that in this also (if it should happen)
some good efiect should be made.
Item, if the enemy is captured (as is hoped with the
favour of God our Lord), the people will be preserved alive,
and the fleet will bring the ships with it.
Item, the spoil which may be found in the said ships,
will be divided and distributed in the manner usual on such
occasions amongst those who gain the victory.
Item, good care must be taken that the people on board
the fleet be peaceable and well disciplined; and with re-
spect to this, let that be followed which is usual on similar
occasions.
Item, let there be good order with respect to the provi-
sions and munitions carried by the fleet, and the expenditure
of both with much moderation ; more especially if the fleet
goes to a distance from these islands.
Item, if perchance, after closing with the aforesaid enemy.
DON FRANCISCO TELLO. 161
or following after him, he should go away from these islands,
and the object having been accomplished, the fleet will en-
deavour to return as shortly as possible to the islands ; and
if the weather do not allow of its returning until the setting
in of the monsoon, it will endeavour to keep together, and
the fleet is to be provided and refitted with everything ne-
cessary on account of his Majesty, so that it may perform
its voyage with the greatest celerity and safety possible.
Done in the city of Manila, the tenth of December, of the
year one thousand six hundred.
Don Francisco Tello.
By order of the Governor and Captain-General,
Gaspar de Azebo.
The auditor with all his people went to the port, and he
put them on board the two ships, taking as flagship the
Sant Antonio of Sebu, on account of its being more roomy
for the supplementary men whom he was taking with him,
and left the Portuguese vessel because the Governor had
taken off" the embargo, to allow the Portuguese to return to
Malacca without losing time. He equipped two caracoas
for the service of the fleet, with Indian crews, and two Spa-
niards to direct them. They went out of the port of Cabit,
and set sail (after having confessed and communicated), on
the twelfth of December, 1600, taking as chief pilot Alonzo
Gomez, and on board the flagship Padre Diego de Santiago,
with a lay brother of the company of Jesus, and Fray Fran-
cisco de Valdes of the order of St. Augustine ; and on
board the admirals ship Fray Juan Gutierrez, with another
companion of the same order, for whatever might occur re-
quiring their ministry.
The same day both ships of this fleet came to anchor at
night close to the town and anchorage of the island of
Miraveles, in the mouth of the bay ; and as soon as it was
M
162 OP THE NAVAL ACTION
daybreak, a rowboat^ put out from shore, in whicli came
tlie sentinels, wbom the auditor had sent the day before
hurriedly to get him certain information of where the cor-
sair was. They told him that when the fleet came out of
the port at Cabit, the enemy had weighed also from where
he was anchored on the side of the Friar's port, and had
crossed with both ships, taking their boats inboard to the
other side in the open sea, and they had seen him anchor
after nightfall in front of the point of Baleitegui, where he
had remained. With this information the auditor under-
stood (that it was possible) that the corsair had news of the
fleet which was getting ready, and of its coming out, and
that he had weighed from where he was at anchor, and
since he had taken his boats aboard, he was going out to sea
to get out of the way of the fleet. He at once sent the
same news to .the admiral, and opened the governor's in-
structions, and seeing that they ordered him to seek the
enemy (with all diligence) and pursue him, and endeavour
to flght with him, he was of opinion that he should shorten
the work before him and not lose time, nor let the enemy
get further ofl". Agreeably to this, the fleet spent this day
of Sta. Lucia, the thirteenth of December, in making bul-
wark nettings, preparing the artillery, getting ready the
arms, distributing the men to quarters, and preparing to
fight next day, on which it was expected they would fall in
with the corsair. The auditor sent special instructions in
writing to the admiral of what he was to do and observe for
his part, principally that on finding themselves with the
enemy, both ships were to board and fight the corsair's
flagship, which was the ship in which he carried all his
forces, and other things which will be understood from the
instructions which were given to the admiral, which were
as follows : —
' Barangay.
FOUGHT BY DR. DE MORGA. 163
Instructions of Doctor Morga for the Admiral Juan
de Alcega.
The order wliich is to be observed by Captain Juan de
Alcega, Admiral of this fleet of the King our Sovereign, in
the course of this voyage and navigation, is the following :
Firstly, because the object with which this armament has
been made, is to look for and pursue the English ships,
which at present have entered among these islands, of which
there is information that they are near these parts, and in
conformity to the instructions given by the governor and
captain-general of these islands, they are to be sought for
and pursued with all care and dihgence, wheresoever they
may be able to be met with, in order to close with the afore-
said enemies, take them or send them to the bottom. Care
must be taken that the admiraFs ship go well prepared, and
the sailors, soldiers and gunners all in readiness, so as to be
able on their side to effect the above-mentioned object on
this occasion.
Moreover, the admiraFs ship will follow the flagship of
this fleet to leeward of her (unless it were necessary to go to
windward for the navigation of the ship or to overhaul the
enemy), and attention will be paid to the smaller vessels
which accompany this fleet, that they do not remain behind
nor fall ofi"; this without prejudice to the navigation and
voyage, and keeping close company with the flagship, which
is what is of most importance.
Item, if there is an opportunity to close with the enemy,
the admiral will endeavour to do so, together with the flag-
ship, or without her, in case the flagship should be to lee-
ward, or in a position not to be able to do this so quickly,
for the flagship will endeavour with all speed and dihgence
to come to the admiral's assistance on any occasion.
Item, if the enemy is found with the two ships which he
m2
104 OF THE NAVAL ACTION
possesses^ an attempt is to be made to enter and board the
flagship, which is the ship in which he carries his chief
strength, and the flagship of this fleet will do the same.
But in case the enemy's flagship should not be within reach,
and his admiral's ship should be in a position to be brought
into action, this will be attempted.
Item, whenever this fleet attacks the enemy and boards
him, it must be contrived that both ships, the flag-ship and
admiral's ship, should both board on the same side, and if
this cannot be done, care shall be taken that the artillery
and musketry do not hit our own ships and men, and that
in this as much care and attention be bestowed as possible.
Item, on boarding the enemy, it must be endeavoured to
grapple with him, and cut down his sails, so as that he
should not cast off, and before throwing men aboard of him,
make sure of the harpings and deck of the enemy, sweeping
them and clearing them so that it be with the least risk
possible to our men.
In the course of this navigation in search of the enemy,
no muskets nor arquebuses are to be fired nor drums
beaten until after discovering him, nor will any artillery be
fired, because it must be managed to catch the enemy at
anchor, and that he be not warned of the fleet which is in
pursuit of him.
If the admiral's ship were in any extremity, so as to
*■ require assistance, she will fire a gun from the side on
which the flag-ship may be, which will be a signal for
assistance ; and notice is given that the flag-ship will do
likewise in case of being in a similar extremity.
Item, if the flag-ship should hoist a flag on the shrouds,
it will be a signal for a summons to a council of war, or
other matter important to the admiral, who Avill come to
the flag-ship with the boat which may be most convenient.
Item, of the two caracoas which go with this fleet, one of
them will go close to the admiral's ship, as near as possible
for its sei'vice and requirements.
FOUGHT BY UR. DE MORGA. 165
Item, care will be taken that the munitions and provisions
be expended by reckoning, and with as much economy as well
may be, on account of the distance to which this voyage
may be prolonged.
Item, an endeavour must be made for all these vessels to
sail in company, and no fixed point for rendezvous is named,
in case of any of the ships parting company on account of a
storm or other necessity, because the designs of the enemy
and the course which he will foltow are not known. Only
it is to be noted that all have to go in search and pursuit of
Mm, until chasing him out (if no more can be effected) from
all these islands, and leaving them free and assured against
the said enemy ; thus taking information of the course
followed by the enemy, it will be the most certain method
for the ship which should part company to follow that course,
in order to rejoin the fleet.
Item, inasmuch as the governor and captain general of
these islands gave the charge of captain of infantry to
Captain Juan Tello y Aguirre (who is on board the admiral^ s
ship), with respect to the men whom I should appoint under
him, I appoint them by this present. The troops of in-
fantry receiving pay who are embarked on board the
admiraFs ship, during the time they are so, and that this
expedition lasts ; which men the admiral will make over to
the said Juan Tello y Aguirre, that, as their captain, he may
hold them under his command, rule and discipline them.
All this is what has to be observed and attended to (for
the present) in pursuance of this voyage, and I give it as
instructions to the said admiral, and other persons whom it
concerns, in confoi^mity with those which I hold from the
governor and captain general of these isles, and in faith of
it, I have signed it with my name, on board the flag-ship,
off the island of Miraveles, Wednesday, thirteenth of
December of one thousand six hundred years.
Doctor Antonio de Morga.
IGO OF THE NAVAL ACTION
At the same time the auditor sent to inform the admiral
that the fleet would weigh anchor from where it was a little
after midnight^ and would go out of the bay to sea, setting
as much sail as possible, so that at dawn it should be off"
the point of Baleitigui, to windward of where the enemy
had anchored on Tuesday night, as the sentinels had stated.
At the hour appointed, both vessels, the flag-ship and
admirals ship, weighed from Miraveles, and, the wind
serving them, though light, they sailed the rest of the
night, making for Baleitigui, without the two caracoa
tenders having been able to follow them, the sea being
ruffled by a fresh north-west wind, so they crossed to the
other side by the inner part of the bay, under shelter of the
island ; and when day broke both ships found themselves
off the point, and discovered, at a league to leeward and
seaward, the two corsair shijDS at anchor ; which, as soon as
they recognised our ships, and that they carried captain^s
and admiral's flags at their gaflPs, weighed anchor and set
sail from where they were (after the flag- ship had reinforced
herself with a boatful of men taken from her consort, which
put out to sea), and the flag-ship remained hove to, firing
a few pieces at long range at our fleet. Our flag-ship,
which could not answer him with artillery, because the
ports were closed, and the ship hauling on the starboard
tack, determined to close with the enemy, and grappled
with his flag-ship on the port side, sweeping and clearing
his decks of the men that stood upon them, and threw upon
them a banner and thirty soldiers, and a few sailors, who
took possession of the poop, castle and cabin, and captured
their colours at the gaff and poop, and the standard which
floated at the stern of white, blue, and orange colours with
the arms of Count Maurice. The mainmast and mizen were
stripped of all the rigging and sails,^ and a large barge was
• This is confirmed by the plate given in the Dutchman's account,
where the main -shrouds are represented as cut away. See plate.
FOUGHT BY DR. DE MORGA. 167
taken which he carried at the stern. The enemy, who had
retreated in the bows below the harpings, seeing two ships
fall upon him with such resolution, sent (as surrendering)
to ask the auditor for terms, and whilst an answer was
being given him, and whilst the Admiral Juan de Alcega,
in obedience to the instructions which the auditor had given
him the day before, should have boarded at the same time
as the flag- ship and have grappled, as he thought that that
business was already accomplished, and that the corsair^s
consort was getting away, and that it would be well to
capture her : leaving the flag-ships, he followed astern of
Lambert Yiesman, crowding sail, and chased him until he
came up with him. Oliver de Nort, who saw that he was
alone, and with a better ship and artillery than what the
auditor had, did not wait any longer for the answer to the
terms which he had at first asked for, and began to fight
again with musketry and artillery. The combat was so
obstinate and hardly fought by both sides, that it lasted
more than six hours between the two fiag-ships, with many
killed on both sides ; but the corsair had the worst of it all
the time, for of all his men there did not remain alive more
than fifteen, and those much damaged and knocked to
pieces. Ultimately the corsair's shf)3 caught fire, and the
flame rose high by the mizenmast and part of the poop. It
was necessary for the auditor, not to risk his own ship, to
call back the banner and men which he had in the enemy's
ship, and cast loose and separate from her, as he did,
and found that his ship, from the force of the artillery
during so long a fight (being a slightly built ship), had a
large opening in the bows, and was making so much water,
that she could not overcome the leak, and was going down.
The corsair seeing his opponent's work, and that he was
unable to follow him, made haste with his few remain-
ing men to put out the fire on board his ship, and
having quenched it, he took to flight with the foremast
168 OF THK NAVAL ACTION
which had remained ; and^ damaged in all parts, sti'ipped
of rigging and without a crew, he reached Borneo and
Sunda, where he was seen so harassed and distressed, that
it seemed impossible for him to na^^gate or go on any fur-
ther without being cast away. The flagship of the Spa-
niards, which was fully occupied in attempting to find a
remedy in the extremity to which she was reduced, could
not be assisted, being alone and so far from land, so that she
sunk and went down in so very short a time that the men
could neither disembarass themselves of their arms, nor
provide themselves with anything which could save them.
The auditor did not abandon the ship, although some sol-
diers got possession of the boat which was carried at the
stern to save themselves in it, and told him to get into it,
after which they made off and went awa}'-, so that others
should not take it from them. When the ship sunk, the
auditor went on swimming for four hours, with the flag of
" the poop and standard of the enemy, which he carried about
him, and at last reached land at an uninhabited island two
leagues from there, very small, named Fortuna, where also
some of the people of the ship arrived in safety, of those
who had most strength to sustain themselves in the sea.
Others perished and \rere drowned, who had not disarmed
themselves, and this difiiculty overtook them when they were
exhausted by the long fight with the enemy. Those who died
-^ on this occasion were fifty of all sorts, and the most im-
portant were the Captains Don Francisco de Mendoza, Gre-
gorio de Vargas, Francisco Rodriguez, Graspar de los Rios,
killed fighting with the enemy ; and drowned in the sea,
the Captains Don Juan de Zamudio, Augustin de Urdiales,
Don Pedro Telle, Don Gabriel Maldonado, Don Cristoval
de Heredia, Don Luis de Belver, Don Alonzo Lozano, Do-
mingo de Arrieta, Melchoir de Figueroa, the chief pilot
Alonzo Gomez, the padre Fray Diego de Santiago, and the
brother his companion. The admiral, Juan do Alcega,
FOUGHT BY DR. DE MORGA. 169
liaving come up with Lambert Viesman^ a little after mid-
day, captured him with little resistance ; and although later
he saw pass by at a short distance the ship of Oliver de
Nort, making off and very much battered, he did not follow
him, and without stopping any more he returned with his
ship to Miraveles, leaving the prize with some of his own
men whom he had put on board to follow him. Neither did
he seek for his flagship, nor take any other steps, supposing
that if any unfortunate event had happened, blame might
be imputed to him for leaving the flagship alone with the
corsair, and having gone after Lambert Yiesman, without
orders from the auditor, and in disobedience of the orders
which he had given him in writing ; and fearing that if he
joined him after the loss that ill would befall him. The
auditor found his ship's boat at the islet of Fortuna, together
with the boat of the corsair, and a caracoa which arrived
there, and when it was night he took away in these boats
the wounded and people who had escaped, so that on the
following day he got them ashore in Luzon, at the bar of Ana-
zibu, in the province of Balayan, thirty leagues from Manila,
where he equipped and supplied them as shortly as he
could. Besides that, he explored the coast and islands of
the district with swift boats, seeking fbr the admiraPs ship
and the captured corsair. This prize was carried into
Manila, with twenty-five men alive and the admiral, ten
pieces of artillery, and a quantity of wine, oil, cloth, linen,
arms and other goods which were on board. The governor
caused the admiral and Dutchmen of his company to be
executed with the garotte,^ and this was the end of this ex-
' A el alinirantey Olandeses de su compania, hizo dar cjarrote el governa-
dor : from this phrase, the governor seems to have ordered this execution of
his own authority, without trial or the intervention of the High Court ;
it is unfortunate that the author omits to state the ground of their exe-
cution. Since the independence of Holland was not recognised by-
Spain till 1609, it was most probably because these Dutchmen were
170 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
pedition ; and thus ceased the injury which it was under-
stood that the corsair would effect in these seas, if he had
been allowed to remain in them with the object he sought,
although so much to the detriment of the Spaniards by the
loss of the flagship, which would not have happened if the
order had been observed which the auditor had given.
The governor, Don Francisco Tello, gave a certificate of
this event to the auditor, which is as follows : —
Certificate of the Governor Don Francisco Tello, of that
ivhich hai^ioened in the egcpedition against the Dutch corsair.
Don Francisco Tello, knight of the habit of Santiago,
Governor and Captain-General in these Philippine Islands,
and President of the High Court and Royal Chancery, which
resides in them, etc., etc.
I certify to the gentlemen who may see this present, that
in the past year of one thousand six hundred, a squadron of
Dutch armed ships under the command of Oliver de Nort,
after passing through the Straits of Magellan to the South
Sea, arrived at these islands in the month of October of the
aforesaid year, with two armed ships, and entered amongst
the islands, effecting some captures and losses, and at
length stationed itself off the entrance of the bay of ^this
city of Manila, with the design of laying in wait for the
ships and merchandise which were coming from China, and
for the galloon Santo Tomas which was expected from
New Spain, with the silver of two years belonging to the
merchants of this kingdom. By a decision of the said
Royal High Court of the thirty-first of October of the said
year. Doctor Antonio de Morga, the senior auditor of this
High Court, was commissioned and charged to go at once
rebels. If the ground was that they were pirates, the Dutchmen's own
account of their burning villages, etc., where there were no Spaniards,
is more damaging to themselves than the statements of De Morga, and
enough to make them out to have been hostes humani generis.
DON FRANCISCO TELLO. 171
to the port of Cabit^ and place and hold it in a state of de-
fence ; and to prepare and equip a fleet to go out against
the said corsair. In this business the auditor occupied himself
in person with much care and diligence^ fortifying and defend-
ing the said port^ andhe completed on the stocks^ and launched
into the sea a middle-sized ship, and armed and equipped
another belonging to private persons which was in the port ;
and on both he set the yards and rigging in the space of
forty days. And in order that the expedition might be made
with more speed, and to obtain a larger supply of men used to
war, and of what was most necessary, I ordained and ap-
pointed (for, according to the state of affairs at the time,
they could not be managed by any other person), the said
auditor on the first of December of the same year to go out
with the fleet as its general to seek the enemy, and fight
with him till he should be destroyed, and to drive him out
of these islands ; which the auditor did, and accomplished
in this manner. On the twelfth day of the said month of
December he set sail with the two ships of his fleet from
the port of Cabit, and on the fourteenth of the same month,
at dawn, he sighted the corsair outside of the bay of this
city, off* the point of Baleitigui, with his two ships, flagship
and admiral's ship, and he followed them till he got close to
them ; and the two fleets having got ready for action, they
engaged each other, and the said auditor in his flagship
with much gallantry and resolution attacked the flagship of
the corsair and boarded her (for she was a large and strong
ship with much artillery and many fighting men), and he at
once threw on board of her a standard of infantry with
thirty arquebuseers and a few volunteers and sailors, who.
took possession of the stern castle and cabin, and the flags
that were flying ; these men at the end of the action re-
treated to our ship, on account of the strong fire which at
last began to rage on board of the enemy ; and so the ac-
tion and fight was carried on by both sides, and lasted more
172 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
thau six hours, with much artillery, musketry and arque-
buses that were fired from all parts. In another direction
the enemy ^s consort, which was under the command of
Lambert Viesman, was conquered and captui'ed, with the
crew, artillerj^, and other things on board of her. The two
flagships, having cast loose and separated on account of the
fire which had sprung up, and our ship taking in much
water at the bows, the enemy took to flight with only the
foremast which remained, with almost all his men killed,
having lost his boat, and the standard and flags on the gaff
and poop, stripped of his yards, sails and rigging, and the
ship leaking in many parts, he ran before the wind, and it
has been understood from various accounts which have been
received, that he passed by Borneo with only fifteen or six-
teen men alive, and most of them crippled and wounded,
and a few days later he was entirely lost close to the Sunda.
The same auditor, with the men in his company, underwent
much labour and danger ; because, besides some persons of
importance who died fighting, on account of the ship having
a large leak in the bows, as has been said (from being a
weak ship and not built for armament, and unable to stop
or overcome the water which poured in), she went down the
same day, when part of the people on board were drowned
from being wearied with fighting and not having got rid of
their arms ; and the auditor, who never would leave the
ship, nor abandon her, when she sank, took to the water
with the rest of the people and saved himself by swimming,
carrying with him some of the enemy ^s colours, to an unin-
habited island named Fortun, two leagues from where the
.action was; and the next day, in a few small boats which
he found, he brought away the people from there and put
them in safety on the land of this island. In all which cir-
cumstances the auditor has proceeded with much diligence
and valour, exposing himself to all the risks of the battle,
and afterwards of the sea, without their having been given
DON FRANCISCO TELLO. 1 70
him before or since in recompense of tliese services^ salary
or expenses, or any other advantage ; on the contrary, he
furnished and spent out of his own property all that was
necessary for his equipment in the expedition, and assisted
some volunteer soldiers who went in it. Of the prize pro-
perty which was won in the corsair admiral's ship which
was carried into this city, he would not have, nor did he
take away anything ; on the contrary, the portion of it
which might have belonged to him, he ceded it and passed
it over to the king our sovereign, and to his royal exche-
quer. In this manner the end and intent which was aimed
at was followed out, of destroying and finishing the said
corsair, as much to the service of God and of his Majesty as
for the good of this kingdom. As all the above-mentioned
facts are established more at length by acts, depositions,
and other inquiries which have been made with respect to
this exjjedition ; and at the request of the said Doctor An-
tonio de Morga I have given him this present signed with
my name, and sealed with the seal of my arms, which is
done in Manila, the twenty-fourth day of the month of
August, of the year one thousand six hundred and one.
Don Francisco Tello.
[_Note. — The corsair was not made an end of, for Oliver de
Nortreturned to Rotterdam in safety, through the misconduct
of Juan de Alcega, who besides disobeying his orders in the
first instance to board the Dutch flag-ship, subsequently let
her go past him without pursuing her when she was dis-
abled by De Morgans ship. Our author's statements on the
whole agree with those of his antagonist, as will be seen by
the following Dutch account of the voyage of Oliver van
Noort and of his action with the auditor, taken from the
Recueil des voyages qui out servi a V etahlissement et aux
progres de la Gompagnie des hides orientales, formee dans
les Provinces -TJnies des Pais Bas. Seconds Edition, reveue
174 VOYAGE ROUND THE WOKLD
par VAutheur et consider ahJement augmentee. A Amsterdam.
Aux depens d'Estienne Roger, marchand, Uhraire, chez qui
Von trouve un assortiment general de musique. m.dcc.xvi.
Tome ii_, p. 1 .^
" " A certain number of inliabitants of tlie United Pro-
vinces, named Peter van Beveren, Huyg Gerritz, Jolin
Benninckj and some otliers_, liaving in the year 1598 formed
a company for commerce, treated with Oliver de Noort, a
a native of Utregt, to take the conduct of their ships.
Their design was that he should pass through the Straits of
Magellan, and traffic on the coasts of America, in the South
Sea, named by the Spaniards Mar del Sur, and go all
round the globe, if he was able to do so/'
With this object they equipped two ships, one named the
Maurice, and the other Henry Frederick, and two yachts
named the Concord and the Hope, which all together were
manned by 248 men of all ages. Oliver de Noort, captain
general of this little fleet, embarked in the Maurice as admiral.
James Claasz, of Ulpendam, commanded the Henry Frederick
as vice-admiral. Peter de Lint had the command of the
yacht Gonco7-d, and John Huidecooper that of the Hope.
All these crews having gone to Rotterdam, by order of
the Council of Admiralty of that town, at the request which
was made to it to that effect by the company which fitted
out the expedition, they were assembled on the 28th of
June, 1598, and the naval regulations, named Artykel-brief,^
' This work is by De Constantiu, as appears from a dedicatory-
epistle to Monseigneur de Chamillart, Controleur General des Fijiances.
There is another edition, Rouen, 1725, Chez Jean Baptiste Machel^ le
jeune. A very abridged account of Oliver van Noort's voyage, in English,
is contained in John Hamilton IMoore's Complete Collection of Voyages,
vol. i, pp. 45-47 ; also in Robert Kerr's Voyages^ vol. x, pp. 112-129.
2 The paragraphs between inverted commas are translated, the rest is
abridged.
2 This statement, with the other above, that they were to traffic on the
coasts of America seems to exclude the idea that they were duly com-
missioned by letters patent to take prizes ; further on a letter given by
■ De Morga states that Van Noort was forbidden to attack any one.
OF OLIYEE VAN NOORT. 175
were read to tliem, so that they should conform to it. These
regulations had before been submitted to Prince Maurice,
who had approved and confirmed them, and all the men of
the crews took an oath to observe them.
^'The 13th of September, 1598, the two ships Maurice and
Concord went out of the port of Goeree, and the Henry
Fyedericl' and the Hope having joined them from Amsterdam,
thej sailed together for Plymouth, where an English pilot,
who had sailed in these distant regions with Thomas Candish,
was to pick up his baggage which he had left there. The
21st they went out of Plymouth with a fresh north-east
wind."
The Dutch fleet arrived at Princess Island on the 10th
December, 1598, and at Rio de Janeiro on the 9th February,
1599; at both these places they got into difiiculties and
skirmishes with the Portuguese. On the 3rd June they
landed their sick on the small island of Sta. Clara ; in a
fortnight all were cured of the scurvy except five who died.
On the 17th of December, 1598, the council of war had
condemned Hans Yolkerts of Heligoland, a pilot, to be
deserted, and this was executed ; he was abandoned on the
shore of the mainland near Prince's Island : on the 1 8th of
June, 1599, John Claasz, a gunner, and Girard Willemsz
Prins, a gunner, were condemned to be deserted. On the
21st June, the Dutch left Sta. Clara, after burning the
Concord, which leaked. The name of the Hope was changed
to that of Concord ; and James Jansz Huydecooper, captain
of the Hope, having died on the 5th October, 1599, Peter
Lint, captain of the old Concord, was appointed to the HojJe,
now named Concord. On the 5th November, 1599, they
attempted the passage of the Straits of Magellan, having
spent fourteen months on the voyage there, and already
lost nearly a hundred men. They did not get through the
Straits, however, till the 29th February of 1600. At the
176 VOYAGE IIOUNIJ THE WORLD
entrance of the Straits the vice-admiral, James Claasz,
refused to obey orders, and said he had as much authority
as the commander-in-chief. On the 28t,h December a court-
martial was assembled on board the Maurice, and the vice-
admiral put in arrest, and three weeks given him to prepare
his defence. Lambert Biesman, first clerk, was provisionally
appointed vice-admiral. The 2nd of January, 1600, the
crews were still 151 men : on the 8th a boat from the
Maurice went to the shore in the straits, and was attacked
by savages, and had two men killed ; the ships advanced
but slowly, and were at times driven back. On the 24th
January the vice-admiral was brought before the court-
martial for his defence; he was found guilty, and condemned
to be deserted in the Straits of Magellan. On the 26th, in
execution of the sentence, he was put ashore, with a little
bread and wine, and the prospect of dying of hunger or of
being eaten by the savages.
"After the execution, the admiral ordered general prayers
in all the ships, and that all should be exhorted to profit by
this example, and to do their duty well. Captain Peter de
Lint was made vice-admii-al, and in his stead Lambert
Biesman was made captain of the Concord."
On the 27th February the ships again set sail with a
favourable wind, and got out of the Straits on the 29th
February ; on the 8th March the crews of the three ships
mustered 147; on the 14th the vice-admiraPs ship had dis-
appeared; on the 21st they sighted land of the continent of
Chili. On the 24th they saw a vessel, which at first they
took for their vice-admiraPs ship ; making her out to be a
Spaniard, they chased her, and on the 26th she was captured
by the Concord. The prize was named the Buen Jesus, of
sixty tons, and carried flour and other provisions. On the
28th March the Dutch entered the port of St. lago in boats,
and carried off the ship Los Picos, of one hundred and sixty
tons, and burned some other small vessels. On the 5th
-Tolio fy- 2S
or OLIVER VAN KOORT. 177
April, Oliver de Noort set at liberty tlie captaiii of the Buen
Jesus, named Don Francisco de Ibarra, and Ms crew ; he
retained the pilot named Juan de Sant Aval, and two negro
slaves, and two ship-boys of mixed race. On the 6th,
James Dircksz of Leiden, a sailor, was condemned and shot
for stealing the bread of some other sailors, and a jar of
oil from the hold. On the 7th, the Dutch burned the prize
Los Picos : half the cargo of tallow was still on board. '^On
the 25 th April, Nicolas Pietersz, the master of the prize
Buen Jesus, came on board the admiral to tell him that one
of the negroes whom he had detained, named Manuel, had
declared to him that in that same ship there had been three
barrels full of gold, that he had assisted in taking them on
board, and that during the night of the chase Captain
Francisco de Ibarra had had them cast into the sea for the
Dutch not to profit by them. Upon receipt of this news
the admiral had the pilot examined again, and the other
negro named Sebastian ; at first they denied it, but being
put to torture, they acknowledged all. They said that there
were fifty-two small cases, containing each four arrobas, full
of gold, and besides, five hundred bars of gold, weighing
eight, ten, and twelve pounds, so that altogether there was
10,200 lbs. of gold; and that the captain had so scrupulously
cast all in the sea, that when they told him that there was
still a little more concealed in the hold, he had it brought
out and thrown away, so that not a piece should remain.
The admiral did not fail to search the vessel again all over,
but nothing was found, except in the pilot^s hose, where
there was a little bag with just a pound of gold."
As the Dutch had heard from the Spanish pilot of thiee
ships of war from Lima that were looking after them, they
made sail for the Philippines, with the intention of touching
at the Ladrones, and seeking the island of Buena Vista or
Guam in thirteen degrees north latitude. " On the 30th
of June of the same year, 1 600, the admiral and council of
N
OF OLIVER VAN KOORT. 177
April, Oliver de Noort set at liberty the captain of the Bueii
Jesus, named Dou Francisco de Ibarra, and his crew ; he
retained the pilot named Juan de Sant Aval, and two negro
slaves, and two ship-boys of mixed race. On the 6th,
James Dircksz of Leiden, a sailor, was condemned and shot
for stealing the bread of some other sailors, and a jar of
oil from the hold. On the 7th, the Dutch burned the prize
Los Picos : half the cargo of tallow was still on board. ''On
the 25th April, Nicolas Pietersz, the master of the prize
Buen Jesus, came on board the admiral to tell him that one
of the negroes whom he had detained, named Manuel, had
declared to him that in that same ship there had been three
barrels full of gold, that he had assisted in taking them on
board, and that during the night of the chase Captain
Francisco de Ibarra had had them cast into the sea for the
Dutch not to profit by them. Upon receipt of this news
the admiral had the pilot examined again, and the other
negro named Sebastian ; at first they denied it, but being
put to torture, they acknowledged all. They said that there
were fifty-two small cases, containing each four arrobas, full
of gold, and besides, five hundred bars of gold, weighing
eight, ten, and twelve pounds, so that altogether there was
10,200 lbs. of gold; and that the captain had so scrupulously
cast all in the sea, that when they told him that there was
still a little more concealed in the hold, he had it brought
out and thrown away, so that not a piece should remain.
The admiral did not fail to search the vessel again all over,
but nothing was found, except in the pilot^s hose, where
there was a little bag with just a pound of gold.^^
As the Dutch had heard from the Spanish pilot of three
ships of war from Lima that were looking after them, they
made sail for the Philippines, with the intention of touching
at the Ladrones, and seeking the island of Buena Vista or
Guam in thirteen degrees north latitude. *' On the 30th
of June of the same year, 1 600, the admiral and council of
178 VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD
war resolved to have the Spanish pilot thrown into the sea,
because, although he ate in the admiral's cabin and was
very civilly treated, he had gone as far as to say, in the
presence of some of the crew, that he had been poisoned ;
a malignant imagination, which he had conceived because
he had fovmd himself ill. He even had the impudence to
maintain this imposition in presence of all the officers.
Besides this, he had not only sought to escape himself, but
had solicited the negroes and ship-boys to do the same.-*'
On the 15th August the prize Buen Jesus was abandoned,
as it was very leaky. * * *
On the 14th October they sighted land of the Philippines,
which they believed to be the Cape of Espiritu Santo : on
the 16th, while they were at anchor off the coast, a canoe
came off with a Spaniard on board ; he did not venture to
come very near, so the Dutch hoisted Spanish colours and
dressed up a sailor as a monk, when he took courage and
came on board, where the admiral received him well, and
told him that they were French who had a commission from
the King of Spain to go to Manila, but that the length of
the voyage had put them in want of refreshments ; he also
said that their pilot was dead, and that was why they had
entered that bay without knowing where they were. The
Spaniard, whose name was Enrique Nunez, told them they
were in a bay called La Bahia, seven or eight leagues to the
north of the Straits of Manila ; and he ordered the Indians
to fetch them rice, fowls and pigs, which they did, but
would only take money in payment. On the 1 7th October
another Spaniard came with a halbard; he was named
Francisco Rodriguez, and was sergeant of all the district.
Most of the Indians were naked ; some were clothed with
a linen di-ess, others in Spanish fashion with doublets and
hose. "They are weak people, and have no arms, so that the
Spaniards easily master them. They pay a ti-ibute of three
reals, that is a little less than throe florins of IIt)lland,
OF OLIVER VAN NOORT. 179
a head, both men and women, of more than twenty years of
age. There are veiy few Spaniards in each district ; they
have a priest for each, whom the inhabitants hold in great
veneration, so much so, that it is only for want of priests
if they do not hold all these islands in servitude, for there
are even places where there are neither priests nor Spaniards,
and nevertheless they cause the tribute to be paid there/'
In the afternoon the admiral dismissed Enrique Nunez
and made him a respectable present, because they had
obtained much fresh provisions through him : a sailor named
James Lock, who spoke good Spanish, was ordered to go
with him on shore. Every one in this country believed
that these ships had a commission from the King of Spain,
and without this belief the people would not have shown
such good will.
'' On the 1 8th October they saw a Spanish captain and a
priest come off to the ships. The captain had leave to come
on board, bat the priest remained in the canoe. After the
first compliments, he asked the admiral to show him his
commission, because it was forbidden them to trade with
strangers. The general showed him the commission which
he held from Prince Maurice, which caused him great
astonishment, for he had thought these two ships from
Acapulco, a port of New Spain.
"As James Lock was still on shore, the general sent
back one of the Spaniards with a letter, by which he asked
for him to be sent back, failing which he would carry off in
his stead the captain who was with him, and who was named
Eodrigo Arias Xiron. Next day the priest came back, and
asked of the admiral an assurance in writing to set free the
captain as soon as Lock was restored to him ; this was
done, and some presents were also given to the captain."
After that time no more provisions were supplied : the
Dutch had taken on board two Indians who were well
known at Capul. The 20th, at dawn, they made for the
N 2
180 VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD
Manila straits. On the 21st the Concord found a Spanish
vessel with twenty-five measures of rice and seven hundred
fowls ; the crew had abandoned it and fled. They unloaded
it and sunk it: the Indian pilot said it belonged to a Spaniard,
who was to take in some planks and go on to Manila. The
24th they entered the Manila straits, and came near the isle
of Capul, and anchored off a sandy bay and village to the
west of the island. On the morning of the 25th they saw
that the inhabitants of the village had run away. '^ On the
27th, as no one appeared, the admiral sent some men on
shore, and fired at the houses with large cannon to frighten
the inhabitants. At the noise a Chinaman came from
another village to the Dutch, who took him to the admiral.
They could not understand him, but he made signs that he
would bring provisions ; and a present was given him^ and
he was promised money for anything he brought. The
sailors who had gone on shore left there one of their number,
named John Calleway, of London, a musician and player on
instruments. They did not know how he had separated
from them, and suspected that the Indians had attacked him
on seeing him far from the others : one of the Indian pilots
was also detained. The following night the other pilot,
who had been taken in La Bahia, jumped into the water and
escaped, in spite of the good treatment he had received
from the admiral. He was named Francisco Telle, from
the name of the govei'nor of Manila, who had presented him
at baptism. For the Spaniards act in that manner in that
country : they pay some honour to the Indians when it costs
them nothing, and give them even some small commission
to win them over.
"On the 28th the admiral landed with thirty-two men and
caused several villages to be set on fire,^ whose inhabitants
had run away with their property, so that nothing was
found there, and no Indian made his appearance." * * *
' Soo note, p. 1G9.
OF OLIVER VAN NOORT. 181
" The night of the 22nd October the negro Manuel, who
was on board the Concord, got down into the boat and
escaped, contrary to all the promises which he had made of
remaining in the service of the Dutch. The admiral then
had the other negro, named Sebastian, examined, who
owned that he had been acquainted with the design of his
comrade, and that he had had the same intention, but that
he had not thought the opportunity which Manuel had
availed himself of sufficiently safe.
" The admiral, seeing the ingratitude of these negroes,
and that all the good treatment practised towards them was
of no use, and that they were always disposed and ready to
betray the Dutch, ordered Sebastian's brains to be blown
out with an arquebuse, so as not to be again exposed to his
treasons. Before dying, he again said that all that the
Spanish pilot and he had before declared respecting the
gold which had been in the prize Buen Jesus was true.
" The 31st October part of the crew went again on shore
to seek for victuals : they found in a certain place more
than thirty measures of rice, but they saw no one. Every
one had run away to hide in the woods. They then again
burned four villages, each of fifty or sixty houses."
On the 1st November the two Dutch ships again sailed
for Manila : on the 5th they saw a canoe and sent a boat to
fetch*it ; it contained nine Indians, two of whom they kept
to show them the way to Manila, the rest were let go.
" Letters were found in their possession, with an author-
isation from the governor, under the seal of the King of
Spain, which were addressed to a priest who lived in a place
named Bovillan, sixty leagues from Manila. The contents
of these letters were to the efiect that complaints had been
made to the governor on the subject of certain Spaniards
who had much ill-treated the Indians ; and the governor
gave orders to the priest to take informations on these
acts, and to transfer the guilty to Manila at the king's
expense."
182 VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD
On the 6th November^ after remaining for some days
sheltered behind an island four leagues from Capul, on
account of contrary winds and calms^ they captured a boat
which ran on shore^ and the men escaped into the woods :
this boat carried four Spaniards and some Indians^ and was
taking half a barrel of powder, a quantity of balls and
pieces of iron : the admiral unloaded the boat and had it
sunk. One of the Spaniards came, and, on the promise of
the Dutch not to hurt him, let himself be taken on board :
from him they learned that the boat was going to Soubon
to go to make war on the Moluccas, whose people had been
plundering some of the Philippines. On the 7th they saw
a Chinese vessel of 100 or 120 tons, which they call a
champan : the master of it, a Chinese of Canton, had learned
Portuguese at Malacca, and was of great assistance to the
Dutch ; he informed them that there were two large ships
of New Spain and a little Flemish vessel bought from
people of Malacca anchored at Cabite, the port of Manila,
two leagues from it ; that this port was defended by two
forts, but that they then had neither cannon nor soldiers.
He also said that the houses of Manila were very crowded,
that the town was surrounded by a rampart. More than
15,000 Chinese live outside. Every year four hundred ships
come from Chincheo in China with silks and other goods,
and take silver coin in return; they came between Christmas
and Easter. Also two ships were expected in November
from Japan, with iron, flour and other victuals : there was
a little island called Maravilla, about fifteen leagues from
the town, with a good anchorage. From there it would be
easy to reconnoitre the country.
On the 9th November the two ships weighed, and on the
11th they anchored half a league off" an island named
Banklingle. On the 15 th, as they were still at anchor, they
discovered two boats going to Manila with their cargoes as
tribute. This adventure supplied them with two hundred and
OF OLIVER VAN NOORT. 183
fifty fowls and fifty pigs, for which the admiral gave the Indians
a few pieces of cloth and a letter to the governor of Manila,
saying he would come and visit him. On the 16th they
again set sail, and captured two canoes with thirty pigs and
one hundred fowls going to Manila : the Indians were set
free, and charged with another letter to the governor
begging him. not to take it ill that they carried off his
tributes, because the Lord had need of them. The 21st the
wind was so contrary that the two ships had to return to
Banklingle : here they took another Chinese champan, quite
new; the crew had escaped to the woods. During the
night the champan, which had been taken before on the
7th, and in which James Thuniz had been put as pilot with
five other Dutchmen and five Chinese, set sail; the crew
called out to ask the admiral if they were to steer south.
The admiral sent to tell them to stop and cast anchor again.
It is not known what became of that champan, for it was
not seen again : the Chinese were suspected of having cut
the Dutchmen's throats and of having carried off the vessel.
The master and pilot of the champan, who had been all this
time detained on board the admiral's ship, made as much
noise as if the Dutch had been the cause of this loss ; they
complained bitterly, and bore with impatience the loss of
their champan and merchandise, protesting that they knew
nothing of what had happened. * * *
On the 24th the ships came to the bay of Manila, and
could not fetch the island Mix'abilis, and anchored on the
west side of the bay, behind a point twelve leagues from
the town.
On the 3rd December, 1600, the admiral's ship was at
anchor, and the Concord under sail : she discovered a large
ship and captured her, and brought the captain and some of
the chief men of the crew aboard of the admiral. It was
one of the Japanese ships which the Chinese master had
said was coming. The admiral received the Japanese
184 VOYAGE eou>;d the world
captain well, his name was Jamasta Cristissamundo : the
admiral asked him for some provisions, on which he sent
twenty-nine baskets of flour, eight baskets of fish, some hams
and a wooden anchor with its cable. The admiral gave him
three muskets and some pieces of stuff: he also asked for
a passport and flag, and the admiral gave him one in the
name of Prince Maurice. In acknowledgment the captain
gave him a Japanese boy of eight years old : he then made
for Manila.
On the 9tli the Concord brought in a boat loaded with
wine, which the Spanish crew had abandoned : the wine
tasted like the spirits made from a kind of cocoa nut ; the
wine was divided between the two ships, and the boat
sunk : more boats with fowls and rice were captured.
''The morning of the 14th December, which was a Thurs-
day, when they had their topmasts struck, they saw two
sail come out of the straits of Manila, they took them at
first for frigates ; but as they approached it was seen that
they were lai'ge ships, and it was known that they came to
challenge. At once the topmasts were raised, and the
artillery and other arras were got in readiness to receive
them.
" The Manila admiral, who had taken the van, came
within range of the cannon of the Dutch ; and after that
these had discharged their broadside, he came and grappled
with the Dutch ship, and part of his crew sprung on board
of her, with a furious mien, carrying shields and gilded
helmets, and all sorts of armour; they shouted frightfully,
' Amayna Perros, Amayna,' that is to say, ' Strike dogs,
strike your sails and flag.'
" The Dutch then went down below the deck, and the
Spaniards thought they were already masters of the ship,
the more so, that they were seven or eight to one. But
they saw themselves all at once so ill treated with blows of
pikes and musketry, that their fury was not long in slacking.
OF OLIVER VAN NOORT. 185
Indeed, there were soon several of them stretched dead
upon the deck.
" However the Spanish vice-admiral was also bearing
down upon the Dutch admiral, but there is much probability
that he thought that his countrymen had already gained the
mastery, for he went off in chase of the yacht, which had
set her topsails and had gone to leeward of the admiral.
" The Manila admiral remained all day grappled with the
Dutchman, because his anchor was fast in the cordage^
before the mast of the latter, and the anchor tore the deck^
in several places, which left the Dutch crew much exposed.
Meantime the Spaniards frequently discharged their broad-
sides at them, and the others did not fail to answer them.
But at last the Dutch began to slacken their fire, seeing
that there were already a great many of them wounded.
^"^The admiral having perceived this slackness, went below
the deck, and threatened his crew to set fire to the powder
if they did not fight with redoubled ardour. This threat had
its efiect : they regained courage, and there were even some
wounded men who got up and returned to the fight.
" On the other side the enemy was not less disheartened,
and part of his men had abandoned the Dutch ship. There
were close by two Chinese champans full of people, but
they did not venture to come any nearer on account of the
cannon. So the Spanish crew, instead of continuing their
attack, only made efibrts to cast loose, in doing which they
had very great difiiculty.
" However, the Dutch kept discharging their heavy guns
upon the ship : at last the Manila admiral got away, and a
little while after he was seen to sink, which he did so fast
that he went down almost in the twinkling of an eye, and
disappeared entirely, masts and all. Then the Spaniards
were to be seen trying to prolong their life by swimming
> Font de cordes and ce pont. This should probably be bulwarks aud
not deck.
186 VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD
and crying out Mlscrlcordla, seeming to be about two
hundred^ besides those wlio were ah-eady drowned or killed.
" The Dutch squared their fore yard, for their main yard
had been cut down and their shrouds cut away. But what
alarmed them most was the fire, which, from the continual
discharges which they had made, had caught between decks,
so much so that they had reason to fear that all would be
burned. They succeeded, however, in extinguishing it, and
then they rendered their prayers of thanksgiving to God,
who had delivered them from so many dangers.
" When they saw themselves out of danger they lay to, to
repair damages, passing amongst many of their enemies
who were still swimming, and whose heads, which appeared
above water, they pushed under whenever they could reach
them.^ Two dead bodies of Spaniards had remained on
board : upon one of them was found a small silver box, in
which were little papers full of recommendations and devo-
tions to various Saints, men and women, to obtain their
protection in perils.
" On the side of the Dutch there were seven men killed
and twenty-six wounded, so that on board the admiral there
remained only forty-eight persons, both of wounded and
sound. When they got the ship under sail, they saw the
Manila vice-admiral and the yacht Concord at more than
two leagues off; and they thought the Spaniards had got
possession of her, because it seemed to them that her flag
was down, and that the Manila flag was still flying. Besides,
they did not consider it possible for the yacht, which no
longer had more than twenty-five men of the crew, including
ship-boys, and which was a weak ship, to resist such a ship,
which was fully of six hundred tons burden.
' See note, p. 169, and the plate taken from Oliver van Noort's
voyage, in Dutch, the edition of Rotterdam, by Jan van Waesberghen
ende by Cornelis Clacssz tot Amstelredam, anno 1602, Bib. Imp. Paris,
O -V^iii . This feat is similar to that performed in those seas more
recently with 'J'erry's breech-loading rifle.
OF OLIVER VAN NOORT. 187
" The two Spanisli ships had each crews of about five
hundred men^ both of that nation and Indians^ and ten
pieces of cannon. They were the same ships which go
every year from Manila to Mexico, laden with silk and other
rich merchandise. They had been armed to drive away the
Dutch from these coasts, where they will not permit any
foreign nation to come and traffic, and a crowd of Indians
had been employed in them, who, having been instructed by
the Spaniards, knew well how to handle a musket and other
arms. The governor of Manila and of all the Philippines
was named Don Francisco Tello de Meneses,
'' The admiral having saved himself by his valour and by
that of his men, made his course towards the island of
Borneo, which is one hundred and eighty leagues from
Manila, to refresh his crew there and refit his ship, which
was in nowise in condition to sustain an attack from the
Spanish vice-admiral, or to disengage the yacht."
On the 16th December they ran along the island of
Boluton at five leagues from the coast : on the 26th they
put into a bay of Borneo, and left it on the 5th January,
1601 : by the 10th February they got through the straits
between Java and Baly, passed near the Cape of Good
Hope on the 24th April, and returned to Rotterdam about
midday of August 26, 1601, after a voyage of three years.] ^
• Tins voyage of the first Dutch circumnavigator was popular in
Holland, as appears from the numerous editions of it, the following
list of which is taken from a Memoire Biblior/rcqyhique sur les voyages
des navigateurs Neerlandais^ by Tiele, published by F. Muller of Amster-
dam, 1867. One copy of 1602 with the plates was priced at eighty
florins.
1. Extract of Kort Verhael reyse by Olivier van Noort, Rotter-
dam, Jan van Waesberghe, 1601, 4to, oblong. (Mr. Lenox of New
York has a copy of this.)
2. Beschryvinghe van de Yoyagie om den geheelen Werelt Cloot,
ghedaen door Olivier van Noort van Utrecht, Generael over vier
schepen, etc. Rotterdam Jan v. AVaesbergen, and Amsterdam Cornelis
188 OP THE GOVERNMENT OP
In the same year, IGOOj two ships loaded with merchan-
dise left Manila for New Spain ; the flag-ship was the Sta.
Margarita, whose commander was Juan Martinez de Guil-
lestigui, who the year before had arrived with this command;
and the ship San Geronymo, under Don Fernando de Castro.
Both met with storms in the voyage, in thirty-eight degrees
latitude and six hundred leagues from the Philippines, and
suffered great hardships : at the end of nine months that
they had been at sea, many persons having died, and much
merchandise lost and thrown overboard, the San Geronymo
put in to the Philippines, ofi" the islands of the Catenduans,
outside the channel of Espiritu Santo, and there was
wrecked, the crews having been saved. The flag-ship
Sta. Margarita, after the death of the commander and
most of the crew, reached the Ladrone islands, and anchored
at Zarpana^ where the natives, who came out to the ship,
and saw it so solitary and battered, entered within, and
took possession of it, and of the goods and property which
the ship carried : they took with them to their towns the few
people whom they found on board alive ; some they killed,
and others they kept in various villages, maintaining them
and giving them good treatment. The Indians carried the
gold chains and other things of the ship hung round their
Classz, 4to, oblong, twenty-five plates. No date given. This edition
is supposed to be the second.
3. Another edition, same title, 1602, 4to, oblong, same plates.
4. Another edition, 1602, 4to, oblong, same plates. (This or the
third edition in Dutch is in the Bib. Imp., Paris. German type.)
6. Another in Dutch, 4to, oblong, 1618, same plates. (Roman type,
two copies of this edition are in the Bib. Royale, Brussels.)
6. An abridgment and some additions : no date.
7. Edition of 1648, title printed, not engraved like the earlier.
8. 1649; 9. 1650; 10. 1652; 11. 1663; 12.1684; 13.1708; 14.1764.
There were two French editions, folio, 1602 and 1610 : this accounts,
perhaps, for the subject of the plate being engraved uj^on it in French
in the Dutch editions. Van Noort was born at Utrecht in 1568, and
died after 1611.
DON FRANCISCO TELLO. ] 89
necks^ and they suspended them to the trees, and put them
in their houses, hke people who did not understand the use
of them.
In May of 1601 the galloon Santo Tomas arrived at the
Philippines from New Spain, with passengers and soldiers
and the return proceeds of the merchandise which had been
overdue and deferred in Mexico. The licentiate Don Antonio
de Ribera Maldonado came aS commander of the ship, and
to be auditor in Manila. A small vessel sailed in company
with them from the port of Acapulco, but being unable to
sail as much as the Santo Tomas, after a few days voyage, it
remained behind. When they arrived off the Ladrone
Islands some native boats came off to the ship, as their
custom is, and brought them five Spaniards of the crew of
the Sta. Margarita, which had been lost there the year
before, from whom the news of that wreck was learned, and
also that as many as twenty-six Spaniards had remained
alive in the towns of those islands, and that if they would
stop two days with the ship the natives would bring them.
The monks and people who came in his company tried to
persuade the commander to wait in that place, since the
weather was calm, to fetch away these men from the islands,
where they had now been for a year; and some more spirited
persons offered to go themselves ashore to seek for them,
either in the galloon's boat or in the Indian boats : this the
commander would not allow of, as he thought time would be
lost, and his navigation exposed to risk. Without leave
from the commander. Friar Juan, a poor lay brother, who
came as head of some barefooted Franciscan friars who were
on board the ship going to the Philippines, jumped into
one of the Ladrone vessels, and the Indians carried him on
shore to the island of Guan, where he remained with the
Spaniards whom he found. The galloon Santo Tomas with-
out any more delay pursued her voyage, to the great grief
and regret of the Spaniards on shore at seeing themselves
190 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
left amongst those barbarians; some of them died there
later of illness and other fatigues. The galloon arrived at
the Philippines^ making for the cape of Espiritu Santo and
harbour of Capul, at the conjunction of the moon, and a
change of weather^ and the land so covered with thick clouds
that it could not be seen till the ship was close upon it, nor
did the pilots or sailors know it, nor the part in which they
were; and, running in the direction of the Catenduans, they
entered a bay, called Catamban, twenty leagues from the
channel, where they found themselves embayed, and so
much wind and sea astern of them, that the galloon went
upon some rocks near the land, where it was very near
being lost that night with all hands. As soon as it was
day the commander went on shore in the boat, and had the
ship made fast to some rocks ; and as the weather did not
improve, and the ship was now in gi^eater danger of being
lost, and the cables with which she was made fast would
give way, he determined to discharge the cargo there as
quickly as might be with the boat. They at once set about
this, and brought away all the people, the silver, and much
of the goods and property, until, with country boats, the
Spaniards and Indians of that province carried it all to
Manila, a distance of eighty leagues, partly by sea and the
rest by land : they left the ship, which was new and very
handsome, there cast away, without being able to derive
any profit from it.
The daring and audacity of the Mindanao and Jolo men
in making incursions with their fleets into the islands of
Pintados, had reached such a pitch that it was now ex-
pected they would come as far as Manila, plundering and
inflicting losses ; so that, in order to restrain them, the
governor Don Francisco Tello determined, in the beginning
of the year 1602 (deriving strength from weakness), that
the expedition to Jolo should be made without further
delay to chastise and subdue it, by means of the forces and
DON FRANCISCO TELLO. 191
men whom Captain and Sergeant-major Jvian Xuarez Galli-
nato held in Sebu and the Pintados : and by sending him
some more men^ ships and provisions, with the necessary
documents and instructions, for him to enter the island,
chastise its king and inhabitants, and pacify and reduce it
to obedience to His Majesty. By this means, until there
should be an opportunity for going to the affair of Mindanao,
which lies very near Jolo, the audacity of the enemy would
be checked, and bringing the war into his country he would
not come forth to inflict loss. Captain Gallinato went off
to this expedition with two hundred Spanish soldiers, ships,
artillery, and the provisions that were required for four
months, which it was thought the expedition might last, and
with Indians as crews for the ship, and for other matters of
service that might occur. Having arrived at Jolo, and at
the bar of the river of this island, which is two leag-ues
from the principal town and dwellings of the king, he
landed his men, the artillery, and the provisions that were
needed, leaving his ships with a sufficient guard. The
islanders were all in the town and dwelling-s of the king-
which are on a very high hill above some cliffs, which have
two roads for ascending them by such narrow paths and
ways, that people can only go by them following one another
in single file. And they had fortified the whole, and
palisaded it with palms and other logs, and placed many
small cannon, and collected within provisions and water for
their maintenance, with a supply of arquebuses and arms,
and without any women or children, for they had taken
them out of the island, and had requested succour from the
people of Mindanao, Borneo and Terrenate ; and they ex-
pected it, as they had had notice of the fleet which was
preparing against them in Pintados. Gallinato determined
to place his camp close to the town before this succour
should arrive, and to assault the fort, having quartered him-
self at a distance of half a league, in a plain close to the
192 OF THE GOVERNMENT OP
ascent. He sent some messages to the king by interpreters^
and to the chief men of the island, calHng on them to sur-
render, and that they would thus be acting in the best way
for themselves. Whilst he was waiting for the answer, he
fortified his quarters in that spot, entrenching himself
wherever it was necessary, and placing his artillery so as to
be of use to him, and keeping his men in readiness for
whatever might occur. An answer was returned with
deceptive and feigned phrases, making excuses for the
excesses they had committed, and for not then doing what
was asked of them, putting him off with hopes that they
would do it later ; all this with the object of detaining him
in that spot (which is very sickly) until the rains should set
in, and that they should have consumed their provisions,
and the succour which they expected should arrive. After
this answei", as it seemed to them that with it the Spaniards
were more careless, a large crowd of people came down in
a great hurry from the fort with arquebuses, and arms with
handles, campilans and carazas; they might be more than
a thousand men, and together they attacked and assaulted
the quarters and camp of the Spaniards. This could not be
done with sufficient secresy for the Spaniards not to see it,
and have time, before they arrived, to put themselves in
readiness to receive them ; as they did, for they let them all
come together in a body as far as within the quarters and
trenches, and when they had discharged their fireai-ms, then
the Spaniards gave them a discharge, first with the artillery
and then with the arquebuses, which, killing a great number,
made them tui-n back in flight to the fort. The Spaniards
continued in pursuit of them, wounding and killing, as far
as halfway up the ridge; for as beyond that the paths were
so narrow and craggy, they retreated before the quantity
of light pieces which were discharged from the heights, and
the large stones which were sent rolling down upon them,
aud returned to their quarters. For several other days
DON FRANCISCO TELLO. 193
efforts were made to ascend to tlie fort^ but notMng was
effected ; upon which Gallinato^ judging that the war would
be much drawn out, from what had been seen of it, built
two forts, one where he kept his ships for the defence of
them and of the port; and the other half a league further
on, in a suitable place, in which they could take refuge and
communicate with the camp. They were of wood and
fascines, armed with the artillery they had brought, and the
Spaniards shut themselves in them ; and from time to time
they sallied out, making incursions as far as the enemy's
fort, in which he was always shut up, without ever choosing
to come down or to yield : and he was convinced that the
Spaniards could not remain long in the island. Gallinato
saw that the rains were fast setting in, and his men were
getting sickly, and his provisions running short, and that
he had not accomplished what he had intended, and that it
could not be done with the resources which remained to
him, and that the enemy from Mindanao, with other allies of
theirs, declared that they were going to drive the Spaniards
out of Jolo > so he sent advices of all that had happened to
the governor of Manila, with a description of the island and
fort, and the difficulties which the enterprise presented, by
means of Captain Pedro Coleto de Morales, in a swift
vessel, towards the end of May 1602,^ in order to obtain
instructions as to what he was to do, and succours of more
men and provisions, which were needed; and he charged
him to return speedily with the answer.
"When, in the kingdom of Cambodia, the Mussulman
Ocuna Lacasamana and his partisans killed Diego Belloso
and Bias Ruyz de Hernan Gonzalez, and the Castilians and
Portuguese in their company, it was related that Juan de
Mendoza Gamboa in his ship, with Padre Fray Juan Maldo-
nado and his companion, Don Antonio Malaver, Luys de
Villafane and other Spaniards who escaped by embarking in
' A.H. Zilhiijeh, 1010.
194 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
this ship^ went away down the river towards the sea, defend-
ing themselves against some prahus of Cambodians and
Malays, who pursued them until they got outside the bar.
Juan de Mendoza performed his voyage along the coast to
Siam, where his principal business was; and, having arrived
at the bar, he ascended the river to the city of Odia/ the
court of the king, who received the letter and embassage of
the governor Don Francisco Telle, though with less state
and courtesy than Juan de Mendoza would have wished.
He then set about the business of his merchandise, and
was so stingy in the matter of making some presents and
gifts to the king and his favourites that he had great diffi-
culties in bargaining for what he wanted, and the king was
even inclined to take from him the artillery in his ship, having
got a longing for it. Juan de Mendoza fearing this, sunk
it in the river with buoys, in a jalace where he could again
get it up when he should have to depart : and he left in the
ship, for appearances, only one iron gun and some light
cannon. There was in Odia a Dominican Portuguese monk,
who since two years back resided in that court, administer-
ing the Portuguese who busied themselves there in trade :
amongst them were some whom the king had brought out
of Camboja and Pigu, in his wars with both kingdoms.
These and other Portuguese had had some distui'bances in
the city with Siamese, and had killed a servant of the king,
who; as he was little inclined to pardon, had roasted some
of the delinquents ; and as to the rest of them, and the
monk, he did not allow them to go out of the city, nor from
the kingdom, although they had asked his permission, and
pressed for leave to go away. Seeing themselves without
liberty and less well treated than they had used to be, and
threatened with danger every day, they settled with Fray
Juan Maldonado that, when his ship should depart, they
' This name means the court, wliicli was then higher up tiic river
than Bangkok.
DON FRANCISCO TELLO. 195
sliould be secretly embarked and taken out of the kingdom.
He undertook tliis ; and now that Juan de Mendoza had
concluded his business, although not as he had desired,
because the king did not give him an answer for the
governor, and put it off, and his merchandise had not made
much profit, he determined upon the advice of Fray Juan
Maldonado to get up his artillery some night, and depart
with all speed down the river, and that the same night the
Portuguese friar and his companions, who might be twelve
men, should come out of the city secretly, and wait on the
river eight leagues from there in an appointed place, where
he would take them on board. This was executed, and the
king, on hearing of the departure of Juan de Mendoza with
his ship, without his leave or dismissal, and that he was
taking away the monk and the Portuguese whom he was
keeping at his court, was so indignant that he sent forty
prahus with artillery and many soldiers in pursuit, to capture
them and bring them back to the court, or to kill them.
Although Juan de Mendoza made all the haste he could to
descend the river, as it was a ship without oars and the
sails did not always serve, and the distance was more than
seventy leagues, the Siamese overtook him in the river.
Juan de Mendoza put himself in defence when they drew
near, and with his artillery and musketry hit them so hard
that they feared to board him : notwithstanding they came
up several times, and managed to enter, and threw in
artificial fire, which gave the Spaniards much work, for the
fight lasted more than eight days day and night, until they
had arrived near the bar, when, to prevent the ship escaping
them, all the prahus, which had remained from the past
engagements, attacked together, and made the last effort in
their power. Although the Siamese could not carry out their
intentions, and got the worst of it in the number of killed
and wounded, the Spaniards did not'fail to suffer great loss;
for there died in the fight the pilot Juan Martinez de Chave,
o 2
196 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
the companion of the friar Juan Maldonado^ and eight other
Spaniards ; and Fray Juan Maldonado was badly wounded
with the ball of a small cannon_, which broke his arm^ and
the captain Juan de Mendoza got some dangerous wounds.
Upon this the Siamese returned up the river, and the ship
went out to sea much battered, and the weather not very
favourable for crossing by the shoals to Manila, nor for
Malacca, which lay nearer to them ; so they shaped their
course for Cochin China, where they put in and joined
a Portuguese ship which was there, and waited for her to
make her voyage to Malacca, to sail in her company. There
Fray Juan Maldonado and the captain Juan de Mendoza
grew worse of their wounds, and both died. Fray Juan
Maldonado left a letter, written a few days before his death,
for his prelate and order of St. Dominic, in the Philippines,
giving them an account of his journeys and labours, and the
occasion of his death, informing them of the quahty and
substance of the affairs of Cambodia, to which he had beeu
sent, and of the slight foundation and motives that there
were for giving themselves so much trouble about that
undertaking, and the slight utility that could be hoped for
from it ; and he charged it upon their consciences not again
to become the instruments for returning to Cambodia.^ The
ship and its cargo went to Malacca, and there all was sold
by the intervention of the judge for the deceased; and some
of the Castilians who remained alive came to Manila sick,
poor and necessitous after the hardships which they had
undergone.
The affairs of Maluco each day assumed a worse appear-
ance, because the ruler of Terrenate was making war openly
^ Death allowed the poor friar to speak openly : he had perhaps uow
discovered that Diego Belloso and Ruyz Bhis thought more of them-
selves than of the service of God, or even of that of His Majesty. It
will be remembered that those adventurers made use of the Dominican
monks to promote their objects and obtain the governor's consent to
their exi^edition to Cambodia. See pages 46, 52, 87.
DON PEANCISCO TELLO. 197
upon his neighbour of Tidore, and upon the Portuguese
with him ; and he had admitted some ships which had come
to Terrenate from the islands^ of Holland and Zealand by
way of India, for their trade : and by means of them he had
sent an embassage to England and to the Prince of Orange,
respecting peace, trade and commerce with the English and
Dutch : to this he had received a favourable answer, and he
expected shortly a fleet of many ships from England, and
from the islands, by whose favour he expected to do great
things against Tidore and the Philippines. Meantime, he
had got in Terrenate some Flemings and Englishmen, who
had remained as pledges, with a factor who busied himself
with the purchase of cloves : these people had brought many
good weapons for this trade, so that the island of Terrenate
was very full and well supplied with them. The King of
Tidore and the captain major wrote every year to the
governor of the Philippines, giving him information of what
was going on, so that it might be remedied in time, and
succour sent to them : and once there came to Manila
Cachil Oota, brother of the King of Tidore, a great soldier,
and one of the most famous of all Maluco; they always
received men, provisions and some munitions : what they
most desired was that an expedition should be sent oppor-
tunely against Terrenate, before the English or Dutch came
with the fleet they were expecting : this could not be done
without an order from His Majesty, and much preparation
and appliances for a similar enterprise. The same message
was always sent from Tidore, and ultimately, during this
government of Don Francisco Telle, Captain Marcos Dias
de Febra returned with this request, and brought letters to
the governor and to the High Court from the king and
from the captain major Ruy Gonzales de Sequeira, relating
» It is not to be supposed that our author was ignorant of Dutch
geography : ' islands' is an Arabic idiom, as in that language Spain is
usually called jezirah, an island.
198 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
wliat was going on, and the necessity that existed at least
to send succour to Tidore, The king wrote especially about
this to Dr. Antonio de Morga (with whom he used to
correspond) the letter which follows, written in the Portu-
guese language, and signed in his own.
To Doctor Morga, in the Philq^pine Islands, from the King
of Tidore.
I rejoiced exceedingly at a letter from your worship,
written on the eighth of November last, by which I parti-
cularly understood your great sincerity in recollecting me
and my affairs, for which may God reward you with long
life and prosperity for the service of the King, my lord.
For I understand that he keeps you in these islands with
the intention of increasing your state, which I am not un-
aware is the same thing as a remedy for this island and
fortress of Tidore. I have written to the governor, and to
the High Court about the succour which I beg for, since I
have asked so often, as it is so necessary to bring it ; for
by this the injury may be checked, which later may cost
much to the King our lord. Do you favour me in this, or
at least for what may be necessary for this fortress, for it
will render a great service to God, and to the King, my
lord. God preserve your worship with life for many years.
From this island of Tidore to day eighth of March of 1601,
The King op Tidoee.
The bearer of this, who is Marcos Dias, will give your
worship a flaggon, with a little bottle of Moorish brass
workmanship. I send this that your worship may remember
this your friend.
Marcos Dias returned to Tidore in the first monsoon at
the beginning of the year six hundred and two, with an
answer to his embassage, and the succour which it requested
of provisions, munitions, and a few soldiers, with which
DON PEDKO DE ACUflA. 199
he was satisfied, until there was an opportunity to make with
due preparation the expedition from Manila to Terrenate,
as was desired.
CHAPTER VII.
Of the Government of Don Pedro de Acufia, Governor and President of
the Philiijpines ; and of that which happened in his time, until he
died in June of the year 1606, after having returned to Manila
from INIaluco, having accomplished the conquest of the isles subject
to the King of Terrenate.
In the month of May of six hundred and two, four ships
arrived at Manila from New Spain, with a new Governor
and President of the High Court, named Don Pedro de
Acuna, Knight of the Order of St. John, Commander of
Salamanca, who had just been Governor of Cartagena, on
the main land. He was received into the government with
much satisfaction on the part of all the country, for the
necessity which was felt of some one who should be as
experienced in warlike matters as vigilant and careful in
administration. Don Francisco Tello, his predecesor, who
waited for his successor, had to remain in Manila until the
following year of 1603, when, in the month of April, he died
of a sudden illness. The new governor, seeing that affairs
were in such extremities and required setting up, and so
little substance in the royal exchequer for doing it, thought
his lot was not so good as he had imagined when he was
appointed ; for the state of affairs obliged him to risk part
of his reputation, without being able to remedy them in as
short a time as was expedient. He took courage as far as
was possible, and omitted no personal labour wherever it
was required. He began with what was to be done inside
Manila and its neighbourhood ; putting galleys and other
vessels on the stocks, which Avere very much wanted to de-
200 OF THE GOVEKNMENT OP
fend the seas^ wtiicli were full of epemies and corsairs from
other islands^ especially people of Mindanao. He proposed
going at once to visit the provinces of Pintados in person,
in order sooner to remedy the necessities of that part, which
was what caused most anxiety, and he was obliged to defer
it for some months in order to attend to the affairs of Japan
and Jolo, and of the ships which were to sail to New Spain,
for all happened at the same time, and had to be provided
for.
Chiquiro, the Japanese, having arrived at Manila, gave
his message and present to the governor, Don Pedro de
Acuna, who had only been a few days in the government ;
the business was at once entered upon, and the answer to
be returned gave much matter for reflection how it was to
be framed most expediently; since, although it was held to be
an advantage and of great profit to possess the friendship of
Dayfusama, and a matter of necessity to secure and establish
it, even should it be by overcoming some difiiculties, and
although the navigation and commerce with Quanto did not
altogether suit the Spaniards, nevertheless his desire should
be satisfied by sending him a ship with some merchandize ;
but that the rest, concerning trade and friendship with New
Spain, and the sending of masters and workmen to build
ships in Japan, for that navigation which Dayfu was so
urgent about, and which Fray Geronymo had assured him
would be done, was a grave matter, and impossible of
being put in execution, as being very injurious and preju-
dicial to the Philippines, because their chief security with
regard to Japan is that the Japanese have no ships and do
not know how to navigate, and on the occasions on which
they have entertained the design of coming against Manila it
has fallen through on account of this impediment, and to send
them master builders and workmen, to build for them and
teach them to build Spanish ships, would be to give to them
those arms which they were in want of for the destruction
DON PEDRO DE ACuflA. 201
of the Spaniards, and the navigation of the Japanese to
New Spain, and theii' making long sea voyages would be
very inexpedient ;^ and both affairs were of great import
and consideration, and such that the governor could not re-
solve them (neither could it be done in Manila) without an
account being given of them to His Majesty, and his viceroy
of New Spain, whom they so much concerned. In order to
take a course in this business, and not to retard the return
of the Japanese officer with his answer, a moderate present
was sent to Daifu by the same ship which had come, con-
sisting of Spanish articles in return for those the Japanese
had brought, and he was to tell him of the good will with
which the governor accepted the friendly disposition shown
towards him by Daifu, and the peace and amity with the
Spaniards, and all the rest of what he was doing in their
behalf; and he, the governor, would keep and observe the
same conduct on his part, and that he would send this same
year a Spanish ship with merchandise to Quanto, in confor-
mity to the desire expressed, and that shortly. With respect
to the navigation which he wished to make to New Spain,
' These considerations were very narrow, and contrary to the inter-
national obligations of mutual assistance incurred by the Spaniards by
their trading with Japan ; such treatment of Japan furnished that
country with an additional motive for secluding itself and declining
relations, the benefits of which were so one-sided : however, the Spaniards
themselves may have felt this only nine years later, for, according to
the Dutch Memorable Embassies^ part i, p. 163, a large Spanish ship,
commanded by Don Kodrigo de Riduera, came from Mexico to Worm-
gouw, near Yeddo, in August of 1611 ; these Spaniards were requesting
permission from the Japanese emperor to sound the Japanese ports,
because the Manila ships were frequently I6st on the voyage to New
Spain, for want of knowledge of those ports. "Moreover, these same
Spaniards requested permission to build ships in Japan, because, both
in New Spain and in the Philippines, there was a scarcity of timber fit
for ships, and also of good workmen."
In the Philippines there was no scarcity of timber, so that the state- /
ment to that effect was either an error of the Dutch author, or a pretext
on the part of the Spaniards.
202 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
and tliat for that purpose master shipwriglits should be sent
to him to construct ships for that voyage^ it was an affair
which, although the governor would endeavour to effect it,
and to give him satisfaction in all respects, it was not within
his power to decide without first rendering an account of it
to His Majesty, and to his viceroy in New Spain, because
he had neither power nor authority over matters outside his
government of the Philippines, but that he would immedi-
ately write and treat of this matter, and he hoped it would
be there settled satisfactorily, and that until the answer re-
turned from Spain, which perforce would be a delay of thi'ee
years on account of the distance, Daifu would forbear with
patience, since more was not in his power, neither could he
do anything else. [A message was sent to Fray Geronymo
de Jesus] ^ to satisfy Daifu with the best words he could find
to entertain him, but not to embarrass himself with him
from that time forward by promising to facilitate for him
such affairs as these. With this despatch the Japanese
Chiquiro departed with his ship, which was so unfortunate
in the voyage that it was wrecked off the head of the
island Hermosa, without either the ship or the people being
saved j it was not till a long time later that news of this
was received in Japan or in Manila.
Upon the receipt of the letters of Fray Geronymo de
Jesus, relating the changes which had taken place in Japan,
and the permission which he said he held from Daifu to
make Christians and build churches, not only the barefooted
friars of St. Francis, but others of the orders of St. Dominic
and St. Augustine put themselves in motion to go over to
Japan, and lose no time, and each one hurried to the
1 I have supplied these words, which seem to have been omitted either
here or at the beginning of tlie message to Daifusama ; for it was Fray
Geronymo and not Chiquiro wlio had made these promises of master
shipwrights, and the governor of INIanila could give instructions to the
friar but not to the Japanese oflicer.
DON PEDRO DE ACUflA. 203
Japanese ships and captains tliat were at the time in Manila,
and had come with flour and were then going back, to beg
of them to take them ; especially the order of St. Dominic
sent four monks to the kingdom of Zazuma, with Fray
Francisco de Morales, prior of Manila, at their head, in a
ship which was going to that island and province, saying
that its king had sent to call them — for this province only
had not yet made submission to Daifusama. The order of St.
Augustine sent two monks to the kingdom of Firando, in
a ship belonging to that port, and as their head. Fray Diego
de Guevara, prior of Manila, having understood that they
would be well received by the king of that province. The
order of St. Francis sent, in the ships which were going to
Nangasaki, Fray Augustin Rodriguez, who had been before
in Japan in company with the martyrs, and a lay friar to go
to Miaco, to be companions to Fray Geronymo de Jesus.
Although some difficulties occurred in the mind of the
governor with respect to these monks leaving Manila, and
their going to Japan in such a hurry, yet from the urgent
instances which all used with him, they did not have the
effect of preventing his giving them leave to depart. The
friars arrived at the provinces for which they set out, and
were received in them, though with more coolness than
they had been led to expect, and they had fewer commodi-
ties for their maintenance than what they required ; wliilst
in the affairs of the conversion, in which they had imagined
that they were going at once to produce a great effect, there
was less disposition than they had hoped, for very few
Japanese became Christians ; and in truth the kings and
tones of those provinces entertained them rather for the
purpose of opening in their country, by means of them,
trade and commerce with the Spaniards, which they desired
for their interests, than for the sake of the religion, to which
they were not inclined.
The governor, Don Pedro de Acuiia, in fulfilment of what
204 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
he had written, that he would send a ship to Quanto,
equipped and at once sent out to sea a middle-sized ship,
named Santiago el menor, with a captain and the requisite
officers and crew, and some goods of coloured woods, horns
of deer, raw silk, and other things. This ship sailed with
orders to go to Quanto, where it would find barefooted
Franciscan friars, and sell its goods, and it was to come
back with the return produce, and with the permission of
Daifusama, to Manila; in this manner all that seemed
necessary in the affairs of Japan, in the state they then were
in, was attended to and provided for.
Daifusama, sovereign of Japan, who was waiting for his
servant Chiquiro, whom he had sent to Manila with Fray
Geronymo's letters, pressed him so much respecting the
affairs he had at heart, and of which he had treated with
him, that the friar, the better to satisfy him, and seeing that
Chiquiro delayed his return, and that few arguments availed
to satisfy him, asked permission to go in person to Manila,
where he would treat and settle these affairs with the
governor by word of mouth, and would bring him an
answer ; and he added that he left in the court Fray
Augustin Rodriguez, and another companion, who had then
already come to him, as pledges of his return. The king
granted it to him, and gave him an outfit, with which Fray
Geronymo shortly came to Manila, where he learned of
the despatch which Chiquiro had taken with him, and began
to treat of his business with the governor, Don Pedro de
Acuna, saying that Chiquiro had not arrived in Japan,
which caused it to be suspected that he had been lost.
The governor^s ship not being able to double the head of
Japan in order to pass to the Northern district, put into
the port of Firando, where the Augustine monks had estab-
lished themselves a short time back, and anchored there.
The captain sent advices thence to Miaco, of how he had not
been able to get on to Quanto, with letters for the mouks.
DON PEDKO DE ACUflA, 205
and the present that was to be, given to Daifu. Tlie friars,
the companions of Fray Geronymo, gave him the presents
which had come for him, and told him that the governor
had sent that ship at his disposition and orders_, and that
the weather had not permitted it to go to Quanto.
Daifasama accepted it, though he did not show that he was
convinced by what they told him, but rather that these were
compliments to entertain him, and gave orders at once that
the ship should ejffect its barter, and should return with some
things which he sent to the governor, and that thencefor-
ward it should go to Quanto, as it had been promised him ;
and with this the ship returned to Manila.
Fray Geronymo de Jesus arrived in so short a time at the
Philippines, as has been related, that he had an opportunity
to treat with the governor Don Pedro de Acuna of the
business he had been charged with ; and it was promised
that ships should continue to be sent to Quanto to keep
Daifusama contented. Fray Geronimo then returned to
Japan carrying with him a good present from the governor
of a rich Yenetian mirror of a large size, glass, clothes of
Castile, honey, some large China jars,^ and other things
which it was known would be to the taste of Daifu. The
friar, on his arrival, was well received by Daifu : he gave
him to understand the message he brought, and how his
servant Chiquiro had been well despatched by the new
governor, and nothing else could have happened to him
than a shipwreck, since he had not turned up in so long
a time ; and he presented the things he had brought, with
which Daifu was much pleased.
When the governor first entered upon his office, he found
upon the stocks at Cabit two large ships, which were being
finished in order to perform the voyage that year to New
Spain. One, belonging to Don Lays Dasmariiias, which, by
an agreement which had been made with Don Francisco
1 Tibor.
206 OP THE GOVERNMENT OP
Telle, the ex-governor, was to go with a cargo of merchan-
dise; and the other, the Espiritu Santo, which had been
lj>uilt by Juan Telle de Aguirre and other townsmen of
Manila, and it was to perform the voyage with the goods
of that year, on account of the builders, the galloon remain-
ing, after arriving in New Spain, as the property of His
Majesty, according to an agreement and contract made with
the same governor Don Francisco Telle. Don Pedro de
Acuiia made so much haste in preparing both ships for sea,
that he sent them out of pert with their cargoes in the first
days of July of the said year of 1602, Don Lope de Ulloa
going as general in the Esinritu Santo, and Den Pedro
Flores, in command of the Jesus-Maria. Both ships went
on their voyage, and in thirty-eight degrees encountered
such great storms, that they were several times on the point
of being lost, and they hghtened themselves of much of the
merchandise which they carried. The ship Jesus-Maria put
in to Manila with difficulty, having been for more than
forty days among the Ladrone Islands, without being able
to pass them, during which time it had an opportunity of
recovering all the Spaniards who remained alive of those
who had been left with the ship Sta. Margarita ; and
among them Fray Juan, indigent friar, who had jumped
into a boat of the natives out of the galloon Sto. Tomas,
when it passed by there the year before. Five other
Spaniards were in ether islands of these Ladrone Islands,
who were net able to come, though measures were taken
to get them brought. The natives brought Fray Juan in
their own boat to the ship, and the others also, with much
affection and friendliness, and after they had been treated on
board the ship, which they entered without fear, and had
received iron and other presents, they went away crying and
shewing much regret for losing the Spaniards. The ship
Esinritu Santo, with the same difficulties, put into Japan,
being unable to de anything else, having cut away her
DON PEDRO DE ACUilA. 207
mainmastj and entered a port of Firando, twenty leagues
from the place were the Augustine monks had established
themselves on their arrival the same year from Manila^ and
where also the ship had put in which was going to Quanto.
The port had good anchorage^ but the entry and going out
of it were very difficulty because it was a channel with
many windings^ with cliffs and high mountains on either
hand, and as the Japanese with their boats towed and con-
ducted the ship to bring it in, there w^as less difficulty.
When it was within they set a Japanese guai'd over it_,
and those who went on shore were not permitted to return
to the ship ; the provisions which they supplied to them
were not all that were necessary nor at proper prices, on
which account, and much soldiery having come into the
port from all the district, and the general having been asked
to give up the sails, which he always excused himself from
doing, he feared that they wished to take the ship and the
merchandise, as had been done at Hurando, in the case of
the ship San Feliije, in the year ninety-six. He was suspi-
cious, and from that time forward watched with more atten-
tion, without leaving the ship or permitting his men to
leave her, or that any of the merchandise should be dis-
charged. Together with this he despatched to Miaco his
brother, Don Alonso de Ulloa, with Don Antonio Maldo-
nado, as bearers of a reasonable present to Daifusama, and
to ask him to grant them leave and equipment to go out of
that port again; these performed their joui'ney by land.
Meantime in the ship they suffered much molestation from
the Japanese of the port and their captains, for they were
not satisfied with the presents which they gave them to
keep them in good humour, but they also took by force
what they saw, and gave to understand that the whole
was theirs, and that soon they would have it in their power.
Fray Diego de Guevara, an Augustin, who was prelate in
Firando, came to the ship, and told the general that he had
208 OF THE GOVERNMENT OP
put into a bad port of infidels and bad men^ who would
take his ship and plunder it^ and that he should try if
he could get it out of there_, and take it to Firando,
where he resided, and meanwhile watch and guard as
best he might. When the friar was returning to his
house with some pieces of silk, which they gave him in
the ship for his new church and monastery in Firando, the
Japanese did not leave him anything, and took it away,
saying that all was theirs, and he went without them.
There were on shore as many as a dozen and a half of
Spaniards belonging to the ship, who were detained with-
out liberty, and who had no opportunity of returning on
board ; and although the general gave them notice, as he
had taken the resolution to get out of the port as he could,
to make an effort to come to the ship, they could not all of
them do so, only four or five of them. So, without waiting
any longer, having turned out of the ship the Japanese
guard that were on board, set the foretopsail and spritsail,
loaded the artillery, and arms in hand, one morning he got
the ship in readiness to weigh, and the anchor apeak. The
Japanese rowed about the channel of the- entrance of the
port with many boats and arquebusiers, stretching across it
a thick cable made of slender canes, and they made it fast
on both sides, so that the ship should not go out. The
general sent to reconnoitre what they were doing in a small
boat with six hackbut men, who, having come near, were
attacked by some boats of Japanese who came to take them;
but, defending themselves with their arquebuses, they got
back to the ship, and told the general that they were closing
the outlet of the port with a cable ; and this being looked
upon as a bad sign, the ship was at once steered against
the cable to break it, and a negro, to whom the general
promised his liberty, offered to go with a large chopper
lowered over the bows to cut the cable when the ship
reached it.
DON PEDRO DE ACUl'lA. 209
The cliannel was cleared of the boats which were iu it
with artillery and arquebuse discharges, and on reaching
the cable, what with the force with which the ship went,
and the good nse which the negro made of his chopper, the
cable parted, and the ship passed through it. There re-
mained to get through the many turns which the channel
made before opening into the sea ; it seemed impossible for
a ship to get through them which was going out in haste,
but God permitted it to pass through all, as though each
turn had its breeze on purpose. The Japanese, who had
come up in greater numbers, with their arquebuses, to the
rocks and cliffs wherever the ship passed within range, did
not neglect to molest her with many volleys, by which they
killed one Spaniard in the ship and wounded others ; the
ship did the same, and with the artillery hit some of the
Japanese, who, not being able to prevent the ship going
out, remained without her. The general seeing himself out
at sea, free from the past danger, and that a light north
wind was beginning to blow, thought it best to venture to
make the voyage to Manila, rather than seek and enter
another Japanese port, and having set a jury mast^ instead
of the mainmast, and the North wind gi-owing fresher every
day, in twelve days he crossed over to Luzon, by Cape
Bojeador, and came off the mouth of the Bay of Manila,
where he found the ship Jesus-Maria, which also came in
distress by the channel of Capul ; and the two ships in com-
pany, as they had gone out of the port of Cabit five months
before, returned to put in there in distress, with much loss
and damage to the exchequer.
Don Alonso de Ulloa and Don Francisco Maldonado, who,
while this was going on in the port where they had left
the ship Esjpiritu Santo, had arrived at Miaco, gave their
embassage and present to Daifusama, who, on being in-
formed who they were, and of the entry of their ship into
' U7ia cabria, sheei's.
P
210 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
Japan, and that they were from Manila, received them well,
and iu a very short time despatched them, and gave them
chapas (passports) to the effect that the tonos and governors
of provinces, where the ship had put in, should let it and
its people go away freely, and that they might occupy them-
selves with refitting it, and obtain all that was requisite, and
that all that had been taken from them, whether in a small
or a large quantity, should be restored to them.
Whilst this despatch was preparing, ne^vs arrived at
Miaco of the ship having gone out of port, and of the en-
counter which had ensued thereupon with the Japanese, of
which they again complained to Daifu. He showed his
regret at the departure of the ship and at the inconvenience
to it, and at the excesses of the Japanese, and issued new
chapas for the restitution of all the property, and a catan
from his own hand, with which justice should be executed
upon those^ who had been guilty in this matter, and
ordered that the Spaniards should be set at liberty, who
had remained in the port, and that their property should be
restored to them. With this dispatch the Spaniards left the
port, and recovered what had been taken from them. The
ambassadors and the others returned to Manila in the first
vessels which sailed, carrying with them eight chapas of the
same tenour from Daifusama, ordering that in whatever
ports of Japan Manila ships might ari-ive they should be
treated and received well, without any offence being done to
them thenceforward. When they arrived at Manila they
delivered these edicts to the governor, who gives them to
the ships which go to New Spain, for what might happen
to them in the voyage.
At the same time that the governor, Don Pedro de
Acuna, entered upon the government, the captain and
^ From contemporary descriptions of Japan, it is probable, as the
emperor sent a sword of his own, that tlie guilty would execute justice
u])on themselves and perform hara-kiri.
DON PEDRO DE ACUilA. 211
sergeant-major^ Pedro Cotelo de Morales, arrived from
Joloj with the message and advices of Juan Xuarez Galli-
nato respecting the state of affairs of tliat island, whither
he had gone with an armament in the beginning of the same
year ; and the governor, desiring, on account of the import-
ance of the affair, to make as great an effort as possible, de-
termined to send him provisions and succours of some
soldiers, which was done as soon as could be, and an order
was sent to him to do his utmost at least to chastise the
enemy, even if he could do nothing of greater importance, and
according as the business might allow of an opportunity, he
should go to do the same in the river of Mindanao, return-
ing by Pintados. When this despatch reached Jolo,
Gallinato was already so worn out, and his men so sickly,
that the fresh troops that were brought only served to
enable them to get out of the place ; and, without under-
taking anything else, he raised the camp, set fire to the forts
which he had built, and embarked and came to Pintados,
leaving the people of Jolo and their neighbours of Mindanao
in greater spirits and disposition to come to Pintados, and
the inner parts of the island, as they did do.
The governor, without delaying longer in Manila, went
away with little preparation, in a galliot, with other small
boats, to the island of Panay and town of Arevalo, to see
with his own eyes what their necessities were, in order to
remedy them. He left the affairs of war in Manila under
the charge, during his absence, of the licentiate, Don
Antonio de Ribera, auditor of the High Court.
As soon as the governor left Manila, the auditor had
plenty to occupy him ; for a squadron of thirty caracoas,
and other vessels of Mindanao, entered among the islands,
making prizes, as far as Luzon and its coasts, and having
captured some vessels which came from Sebu to Manila,
they made prisoners ten Spaniards, and amongst them a
woman and a priest, and Captain Martin de Mandia, and
f2
212 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
they carried tliem off with them. They entered into Cah-
laya, burned the church, and carried off many persons of
all conditions amongst the natives into captivity. Thence
they went to the town of Valayan to do the same thing, and
the auditor having got news of the enemy in Manila, had
already put it in a state of defence, with fifty Spaniards and
a captain, and some vessels, which was the cause of their not
venturing to enter into the town or into its bay ; but they
crossed over to Mindoro, and in its principal town led
captive a large number of men, women, and children of the
natives, taking from them their gold and their property,
and burning their houses and the church, where they made
prisoner the prebendary Corral, the priest of that parish.
So they filled their vessels, and others which they took there
with captives, gold and property, and moved about the port
of Mindoro as leisurely as if they were in their own country,
though it was only twenty-four leagues from Manila. Cap-
tain Martin de Mendia, prisoner of these corsairs, offered for
himself, and for the other Spaniards who were made captive,
that if they let him go to Manila he would fetch the ransom
of all of them, and would go with it, or would send it
within six months to the river of Mindanao, and if not, that
he would return to put himself in their power. The chief
who came as head of the armament acceded to this, with
certain pacts and conditions, and made the other captives
write, so that what was agreed upon should be fulfilled, and
with that let him leave his fleet ; he came to the city, and at
his relation the auditor sent ships and munitions, and more
soldiers to Valayan than what there were in that place, with
orders to go out without delay in pursuit of the enemy, and
they would find him in Mindoro. The Captain, Caspar
Perez, who was charged with this in Valayan, did not start
as quickly as was requisite in order to find the enemy in
Mindoro, for when he arrived they had gone out of that port
six days before, returning to Mindanao laden with vessels
DON PEDRO DE ACUllA. 213
and spoils. He Tvent in tlieir pursuit somewhat leisurely,
and the enemr having put in with his fleet into the river of
a small uninhabited island, to get wood and water, there
passed by at this moment the governor, Don Pedro de Acuiia,
who was hastily returning to Manila from the town of
Arevalo, where he had heard of the incursion of this corsair ;
he passed by so close to the mouth of this river, in two
small champans, and a viceroy,^ and so few people, that it
was a wonder he was not seen and captured by the enemy.
He was informed of the enemies stopping there by a boat
with natives which came out escaping ; and the governor
having met Gaspar Perez a little later, made him make more
haste, and gave him some of the people he had with him, to
guide him to where they had left the corsairs the day before.
They went to attack them, and the corsairs by means of sen-
tinels whom they had now placed outside of the river in the
sea, knew the fleet was coming, and went out of the river in
haste and took to flight, lightening themselves by throwing
into the sea goods and captives, so as to run more swiftly. The
caracoas that belons-ed to the first and second in command
of the Mindanao men looked up the vessels which were
remaining' behind, makinsf them lio-hten themselves, and
row with all the force they had of paddles" and sails. The
fleet of the Spaniards, which consisted of heavier ships,
could not make such an effort as to overtake them all, also
because the enemy stood out into the offing without fear of
the high sea that was running, like one who is flying, though
some of the vessels of Gaspar Perez being swifter, got
among the enemy's ships, and sunk some caracoas and took
two j the rest escaped, though with great danger of being
lost. The fleet returned, without having effected anything
else, to Manila, where the governor had already arrived, with
much regret and vexation at things having reached the pitch
' Virey^ a kiud of vessel.
^ Buzeyes.
214 OF THE GOVERNMENT OP
that these enemies, who had never ventured to come out of
their houses, should be so proud, and emboldened to come
up to tlie very gates of the city, inflicting so many losses
and injuries.
Some years back. Lis Majesty had commanded that Portu-
guese India should prepare a fleet for the taking of the
fortress of Terrenate, in Maluco, which was in jjossession of
a Mussulman, who had usurpingly risen and made himself
master of it, and driven out the Portuguese that were in it.
The necessaiy preparation for this expedition was made (in
India) of ships, munitions, and people; and a hidalgo,
named Andrea Furtado de Mendoza, was chosen as general
of this expedition : he was a soldier of experience in the
affairs of India, who had gained victories of much name and
fame, by sea and land in those parts, and latterly had gained
a very notable one at Jabanapatan, He came out of Goa,
with six galloons of the kingdom, and fourteen galliots and
fustas, and other craft, with fifteen hundred fighting men,
provisions and munitions for the armament. From the
storms which he encountered before reachino" Amboino, the
fleet was so dispersed that the galleys and fustas could not
hold on with the galloons nor follow them, and only three
galleys and fustas reached Amboino in company with the
galloons, and the other ships put into Goa and other for-
tresses along that course. The isle of Amboino was in re-
volt, and the fort which the Portuguese held there in great
straits, so that it seemed fit to Andrea Furtado de Mendoza,
while his fleet was collecting, and the galliots and other
vessels which had been dispersed in the voyage, and while
succour was coming, which he had sent to ask for from the
fortress of Malacca, to detain himself at Amboino, (which is
eighty leagues from Maluco) to pacify the island, and some
towns of the district, and reduce them to submission to the
crown of Portugal. In this he was occupied for more than
six months, having had encounters with the enemy and the
DON PEDKO DE ACUiIa. 215
rebels, in wliicli he always came out victorious, and lie
obtained the result which he had aimed at, leaving every-
thing reduced and pacified. But seeing that his ships did
not come, neither did the succour which he had sent for
from Malacca arrive, and that it became obligatory upon him
to go to Terrenate, which was the principal cause of his
having been despatched, for which expedition he had a less
number of men than what was necessary, and the greater
part of his munitions and provisions being expended, he
determined on sending to the governor of the Philippines,
to inform him of his arrival with an armament, and of what
he had done at Amboino, and how he had to go against
Terrenate, and that on account of part of his ships having
been dispersed and separated from him, and his having been
detained some months in those undertakings, he had fewer
soldiers than he could have desired, and was in want of
several things, especially provisions, and he entreated the
governor, since this affair was so important, and so much for
the service of his Majesty, and that so large a sum had been
spent on it out of the exchequer of the crown of Portugal,
to favour and succour him by sending him provisions and
munitions, and some Castilians for the enterprise, and if all
this was in Terrenate by January of six hundred and three,
when he would be before that fortress, the succour would
reach him in very good time. He sent this message with
his letters to the governor and to the High Court, by padre
Andre Pereira, a Jesuit, and Captain Antonio Fogoza, who
accompanied him, in a despatch boat from Amboino. In
Manila they found the governor, Don Pedro de Acuiia, and
entered upon the business with him, availing themselves of
the High Court and religious orders, and telling great things
of their Portuguese fleet and the brilliant soldiers who came
in it, and of the valour and renown of their general in
all that he had undertaken, and certifying with that the
good result of the assault on Terrenate on this occasion.
21(3 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
especially if tliey got from Manila tlie succour and assistance
for which they had come^ and which it was just that they
should give to them, since it was given from the Philippines
whenever the king of Tidore and captain major of that
fortress asked for it, and his Majesty had so commanded,
and with the more reason and foundation on such an occa-
sion as this.
Although Don Pedro de Acuiia, from the time he had been
appointed to the government, had the desire and intention
of making an expedition against Terrenate, and whilst he
was passing through Mexico had spoken of this affair with
those who in that place had some knowledge of Maluco, and
he had sent from New Spain to the court of his Majesty, to
the Jesuit brother Gaspar Gomez, who had been many years
in Manila and in Maluco in the time of the governor Gomez
Perez Dasmariiias, to ask him to speak to his Majesty on
his behalf of this affair, and he had hopes that he should
make this expedition, nevertheless it seemed to him
necessary to accede (without declaring his own desires,) to
that which Andrea Furtado begged for, and giving him
greater advantages, both for the importance of the thing
itself, and also that by giving it so much assistance the
general and his messengers should not give as an excuse,
if they did not meet with success, that they asked the
governor of the Philippines for aid and succour, and that he
had not given it them, and that it should not be understood
that he had omitted to do so because he himself was intend-
ing to make the expedition. Don Pedro de Acuna con-
sulted with the High Court upon the matter, and it was of
opinion that ho should send to the Portuguese fleet, by the
time which they had named, the aforesaid succours, with
more than had been asked for. This having been resolved
upon, it was put in execution, to the great satisfaction of
Padre Andrea Pereira and Captain Antonio Fogaza, who in
the end of the year 1 602 went away despatched from the
DON PEDRO DE ACUUA. 217
Pliilippiues, taking in company with them the ship Sta. Poten-
ciana, and three large frigates, with a hundred and fifty well
armed Spanish soldiers, ten thousand fanegas of rice, one
thousand five hundred jars of palm wine, two hundred salted
cows, twenty cases of sardines, conserves and medicines,
fift}' hundredweight of powder, cannon balls and bullets,
cordage and other munitions, all under the command of the
captain and sergeant-major, Juan Xuarez Gallinato, who had
by this time come from Jolo, and was in Pintados, with
orders and instructions as to what he had to do, which was
to conduct that succour to Terrenate, to the armament of
Portugal which he would find there, and to be at the orders
and in obedience to its general. He made his voyage
thither in fifteen days, and anchored in the port of Tal-
angame, of the island of Terrenate, two leagues from the
fortress ; he found there Andrea Furtado de Mendoza, with
his galloons at anchor, who was waiting for what was being
sent him from Manila, at which he and all his people
rejoiced greatly.
In the month of March of this year of 1603, there entered
into the bay of Manila a ship from Great China, in which,
as the sentinels announced, there came three great mandarins,
with their insignia as such, and they came out of the ship
and entered the city with their suite. They went straight,
in chairs carried on men^s shoulders, veiy curiously made of
ivory and fine woods and gilding, to the royal buildings of
the High Court, where the governor was waiting for them
with a large suite of captains, and soldiers throughout the
house and in the streets where they had to pass. When
they arrived at the doors of the royal buildings, they were
set down from their chairs, and entered on foot, leaving in
the street their banners, equipage, lances, and other insignia
of much state which they had brought ; and went as far as
a large hall, well fitted up, where the governor received
them standing up, the mandarins making many low bows
218 OP THE GOVERNMENT OF
and courtesies after their fashion^ and the governor answer-
ing them in his. They told him, by means of the inter-
preterSj' that the king had sent them, with a Chinaman
whom they had brought with them in chains, to see with
their own eyes an island of gold, which he had informed
their king was named Cabit, and was close to Manila, which
was in the possession of no one ; and that he had asked the
king for a quantity of ships, and that he would bring them
back laden with gold ; and if it was not as he had stated,
let them punish him with death : and they had come to
ascertain the truth of the matter and to inform their king of
it. The governor replied to them in few words beyond
giving them a welcome, and inviting them to rest in two
houses which had been prepared for them within the city,
where they and their people could lodge, and that their
business would be talked of later. Upon this they went
out again from the royal buildings, and at the door mounted
their chairs on the shoulders of their servants, who wore
coloured clothes, and they were carried to their lodgings,
where the governor ordered them to be abundantly pro-
vided with whatever they required for their maintenance
during the time of their stay.
The arrival of these mandarins seemed suspicious, and
that they came with a different intention from that which
they announced, because, for people of so much understand-
ing as the Chinese possess, to say that the king sent them
on this business, seemed to be a fiction f and amongst
the Chinese themselves, who came to Manila about the
same time with eight merchant ships, and those who were
established in the city, it was said that these mandarins
came to see the country and its condition, because the king
wished to break off relations with the Spaniards, and to
^ Narjuatatos^ according to Caballero's dictiouary an American word.
- It prol^ably was only a pretext; yet the prevalent idea in Europe at
that time of an Eldorado was not less extravatiant.
DON PEDKO DE ACcflA. 219
send a large fleet before the year was out, with a hundred
thousand men, to take the country.
The governor and High Court were of opinion that they
should be watchful in guarding the city, and that these
mandarins should be handsomely treated, but that they
should not go outside of the city, nor be allowed to ad-
minister justice (as they w^ere beginning to do among the
Sangley men), at which they felt some regret : they were
desired to treat of their business, and then return shortly to
China, without the Spaniards letting themselves appear
conscious or suspicious of anything else than what the
mandarins gave out. The mandarins had another interview
w4th the governor, and he said to them more clearly, and
making rather a joke of their coming, that it caused amaze-
ment that their kino- should have believed what that China-
man they had got with them had said ; and that even had
there been in truth any such gold in the Philippines, the
Spaniards would let it be carried away, the country be-
longing as it did to His Majesty. The mandarins replied
that they understood well what the governor explained to
them, but that their king had bid them come, and they
were bound to obey him, and bring him an answer, and
that ha\ang done their business, they had fulfilled their
duty and would return. The governor, to shorten the
matter, sent the mandarins with their prisoner and sei'vants
to Cabit, which is the port, two leagues from the city,
where they were received Avith many discharges of artillery,
which were fired at the time they disembarked, at which
they shewed much fear and timidity; and when they landed
they asked the prisoner if that was the island of which he
had spoken to the king : he answered that it was. They
asked him where was the gold : he replied that all that they
saw there was gold, and that he would make it good with
his king. They put other questions to him, and he alwa^'s
made the same answers, and all was taken down in writing.
220 OF THE GOVERNMENT OP
in tlie presence of some Spanish captains who were there
with private interpreters ; and when the mandarins had
ordered a basketful of earth to be taken from the ^round^
to carry it to the King of China ; and when they had eaten
and rested, they returned the same day to Manila with the
prisoner. The interpreters said that this prisoner had said,
when hard pressed by the mandarins to answer to the
purpose the questions they put to him, that what he had
meant to say to the King of China was, that there was
much gold and wealth in the possession of the Spaniards
and natives of Manila, and that if a fleet and men were given
him, he offered, as a man who had been in Luzon and knew
the country, to take it, and bring back the ships laden with
gold and riches. This, together with what the Chinese had
said at first, seemed of much importance, especially so to
Don Fray Miguel de Benavides, archbishop-elect of Manila,
who knew the language, and that it went much further than
what the mandarins had implied. The archbishop, there-
fore, and other monks, warned the governor and the city,
publicly and secretly, to look to its defence, because they
held it as certain that a fleet from China would shortly come
against it. The governor at once despatched the mandarins
and put them on board their ship with their prisoner, having
given them a few presents of silver and other articles, with
which they were pleased. Although, according to the opinion
of the greater number of the townspeople, the coming of
the Chinese against the country was a thing very contrary
to reason, yet the governor began in a covered manner to
make preparation of ships and other things for the purpose
of defence; and he hastened to complete considerable repairs
which he had begun to make in the fort of Santiago, at the
point of the river, constructing a wall with its buttresses in
the inner part which looks to the parade, of much strength
for the defence of the fort.
At the end of April of this year 1603, the eve of St.
DON PEDRO DE ACUHA. 221
Pliilip and St. James, fire broke out in a small house of
reeds^ occupied by some Indians and negroes of tlie hospital
for the natives of the citj, at three in the afternoon, and
reached other houses so quickly, and driven by a rather
fresh wind so that it could not be got under, it burned
houses of wood and stone, including the monastery of St.
Dominic, the house and church of the royal hospital of the
Spaniards, and the royal magazines, without leaving an
edifice standing amongst them. Fourteen persons, Spaniards,
Indians, and negroes, were killed in this fire, and among
them the licenciate Sanz, canon of the cathedral ; two
hundred and sixty houses were burned in all, with much
property that they contained ; and it was understood that
the loss and damage amounted to more than a million.
Ocuiia Lacasamana, the Malay Mussulman, assisted by
the mandarins of Cambodia, and his partisans, and by the
stepmother of the King Prauncar, had killed and put an
end to Bias Euyz de Hernan Gonzales and Diego Belloso,
and the Castihans and Portuguese and Japanese of their
party who were in the kingdom, and his audacity had reached
such a pitch, that at last he also killed the king himself,
through which the kingdom became divided into factions,
and there were greater disturbances than ever had been
before : God pei'mitting it, both for His just judgments and
because Prauncar could not be deserving to enjoy the good
fortune he had obtained in being restored to the throne of
his father, since he had lost it together with his life ; neither
did Bias Ruyz de Heruan Gonzales and Diego Belloso, and
their companions deserve to enjoy the fruits of the labour
of their expeditions and victories, since these were changed
into a disastrous and cruel death when it appeared that they
held them most secure and assured to them ; for perhaps
their designs and pretensions were not so adjusted to the
obligations of conscience as they ovight to have been :
• Zacate : hence zacatal, a place of reeds, a tliicket.
222 OF THE GOVERNMENT OP
neither did God choose that the Malay should remain un-
punished.
Wlien this Malay understood that he was about to get
the best position in the kingdom of Cambodia^ after having
killed the Castilians and Portuguese and their captains, and
the natural and legitimate king who had favoured them^ he
found himself more deceived than he had imagined, be-
cause the disorders and insurrections of provinces induced
some powerful mandarins, who held for and sustained the
soundest party, to join together and revenge the death of
king Prauncar with arms. So they turned them against
Ocuna Lacasamana and his Malays, and giving battle to him
on different occasions, they conquered and routed him. So
much so, that the Malay was obliged to escape by flight,
with the rest of his men who survived, from Cambodia, and
go over to the kingdom of Champa, conterminous to it,
with the design of disturbing it, and making war on the
usurper who possessed it, and of making himself master of
the whole, or of such part of it as he could. Neither did this
turn out well for him, because althoug-h he broug-ht war
into the country, and the disturbances which he caused in
Champa gave a great deal of trouble to the usurper and his
partisans, at last he was routed and killed, and ended by
paying in person misei-ably for his sins.
The mandarins of Cambodia seeing themselves free from
the Malay, and the kingdom still in a disturbed state as he
had left it, and without any male heir descending from
Prauncar Langara, who died in the Laos country, turned
their eyes to a brother of his, whom the king of Siam had
taken prisoner and carried off with him in the war which he
waged with Langara, and whom he kept in the city of Odia,
as it seemed to them that this person had the best right by
legitimate succession to the kingdom of Cambodia. They
sent an embassy to Siam requesting him to come and reign,
and to the king of Siam, who held him captive, to ask him
DON PEDRO DE ACUllA. 223
to allow it. The king thought well of it, and with some
arrangements and agreements which he made with his
prisoner, he gave him his liberty, and six thousand soldiers
to serve and accompany him. With these he came to Cam-
bodia at once, and was received readily in Sistor and other
provinces, and established in the kingdom, and from these
provinces he went on reducing and pacifying the more
distant ones.
This new king of Camboja, who from being a captive of
the king of Siam, came to reign through such extraordinaiy
events, and such various accidents, (for whom God held
this good fortune reserved, and reserves other things of
greater estimation if he know how to continue in the
future that which he has begun to do) caused search to be
made for Juan Diaz, the Castilian soldier who had remained
out of the company of Bias Ruyz de Hernan Gonzales ; and
ordered him to go to Manila, and tell the governor from him
how he was in possession of the kingdom, and what had
happened with regard to the death of the Spaniards, and
of his nephew Prauncar, who had not been in any way to
blame for it ; and that he recognised the friendship which
Langara, his brother, and Langara^s son had experienced
from the Spaniards during their difficulties, and how well
disposed he was to continue in friendship and relations with
them j and that he again requested, if it pleased the
governor, that he would send some monks and Castilians
to be present at his court, and make Christians of those
who might wish to become it.
Juan Diaz arrived at Manila with this message and em-
bassage, and many promises, and finding Don Pedro de
Acuna in the government, he explained to him the business.
The governor was of opinion that it would be well not to
close the door upon the preaching of the Holy Gospel in
Camboja, which in this manner God had again opened, and
he agreed to do what the king asked of him. In the
224 OP THE GOVERNMENT OF
begiuning of the year 1603 he sent a frigate to Cambodia
with four Dominician monks^ at the head of whom was
Fray Yiligo de Santa Maria_, Prior of Manila^ and five
soldiers for their company ; amongst them was the same
Juan Diaz. They were to give the king the answer to
his message in confirmation of the peace and amity which
he desired^ and according to the disposition they might
find, the monks were to remain at his court, and send
word what they thought of the situation. This frigate
reached Cambodia, with a fair wind, in ten days' voyage,
and the monks and soldiers in their company having gone
up to Chordemuco, the king received them with much satis-
faction. Immediately he built them a church and gave
them rice for their maintenance, and liberty to preach and
make Christians. As this seemed to the monks the work of
Heaven, and that many labourers might be employed in it,
they at once sent word to Manila of their good reception and
condition hj the same frigate, having asked the king's per-
mission for it to return to Manila. The king gave it, and the
supplies required for the voyage, and at the same time sent
a servant of his with a present of ivory tusks and benzoin
and other rarities for the governor, with a letter from him-
self, thanking him for what he had done, and asking him
for more monks and Castilians. Fray Yiiigo de Santa Maria,
with another companion, embarked in this frigate, to come
and give a better narrative of what he had met with ; he
died of illness during the voyage ; his companion and
those who sailed in the frigate reached Manila in May of
1603, and gave an account of what had happened in
Cambodia.
About the end of the same month of May two ships
arrived at Manila from New Spain, commanded by General
Don Diego de Zamudio, with the ordinary succours for the
Philippines. News was brought that Fray Diego de Soria,
of the order of St. Dominic, bishop of Cagayan, had remained
DON PEDKO DE ACUflA. 225
in Mexico, and that lie was bringing the Bulls and pallium
for the archbishop elect of Manila, and for Fray Baltasar de
Covarrubias, of the order of St. Augustine, bishop of Cama-
rines, on account of the death of Fray Francisco de Ortega.
In the same ships were two auditors for the High Coux-t of
Manila, the licentiate, Andres de Alcaraz and Manuel de
Madrid y Luna.
The captain and sergeant-major, Juan Xuarez Gallinato,
with the ship Sta. Potenciana and troops which she carried to
Maluco to succour the Portuguese armament which Andrea
Furtado de Mendoza brought against the fortress of Terre-
nate, found those forces in the port of Talangame ; as soon
as this succour arrived, Andrea Furtado put on shore the
Poi'tuguese and Castilian forces, with six pieces of cannon,
and marched with them along the shore in the direction of
the fortress to plant a battery. He spent two days in arriv-
ing before the fortress, and getting through some passes
and gullies which the enemy had fortified. Having arrived
at the principal fortress, there was hard work to plant the
artillery, for the enemy sallied out frequently against the
camp and impeded it. Once they reached the doors of the
very quarters, and would have done great damage there had
not the Castilians, who were nearer to the entrance, pre-
vented them, and pressed the Muslims so much, that some
of them being killed, they turned back and shut themselves
up in the fortress ; at the same time five pieces were planted
wathin range of it. The enemy, who had as many men as
were necessary for the defence, and much artillery and muni-
tions, inflicted much loss on the camp, whilst the cannon in
battery produced no effect of any importance, being ill supplied
with powder and munitions. So that what Gallinato and
his people had heard on joining the Portuguese fleet, of
the small supplies and equipments which Andrea Furtado
had brought for so great an enterprise, was seen and experi-
euced in a short time. That they might not all perish.
226 ■ OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
Andrea Furtado^ after taking the opinions of all the officers
of his camp and fleet, withdrew his artillery and camp to the
port of Talangame. He embarked his people in his galloons,
and made sail for the islands and fortresses of Amboino and
Banda, where he had been at first, taking for the supply of
his fleet those provisions which Gallinato had brought to
him ; and he gave him leave to return to Manila with the
Castilians ; this he did, in company with Ruy Gonzales de
Sequeira, captain-major of the fortress of Tidore, who had
just ceased holding that post, and who, in another ship, left
that fortress with his family and merchandise ; and they
arrived in the beginning of the month of July of this year
1603, bringing a letter from the General Andrea Furtado to
the gfoveruor Don Pedro de Acuna, which was as follows : —
Letter ivhich the General Andrea Furtado de Mendoza wrote to
'Don Pedro de Acuiia from Terrenate, on the 2bth March,
1603.
There are no misfortunes in the world, however great they
may be, that some benefit is not obtained from them. From
all those which I have undergone in this expedition — and
they are infinite — the result to me has been to know the zeal
and spirit which your lordship displays in the service of His
Majesty, for which I envy you and hold you as my master ;
and affirm that what T should most value in this life is that
your lordship might hold me in the like estimation ; and that
as to some one particularly belonging to yourself, you should
command me in what is for your service.
The succour which your lordship sent me arrived in time,
the Divine favour permitting it, for that it was which gave
this fleet to His Majesty, and the lives of all those who this
day preserve them ; and by what has happened in this ex-
pedition His Majesty will understand how much he owes to
your lordship, and how little he owes to the captain of
Malaca ; for he was, in a measure, cause that the sei'vico
DOK PEDKO DE ACUnA. 227
of His Majesty has not been pei-formed. When the succour
which your lordship sent me arrived^ this fleet was without
any ammunition^ as it was two years since we had left Goa,
and it was all spent and expended on the occasions which
had presented themselves. This being understood, that it
may not be imagined that through neglect of mine the ser\'ice
of His Majesty was not performed, I disembarked on the
shore, which I got possession of, the enemy losing many of his
men, and I established the last trenches at a hundred paces
from the enemy\s fortress ; I had landed five heavy battering
cannon, and in ten days battering a large piece of the ram-
part was in ruins, in the part where all his forces were. During
these days all the powder that was in the fleet was expended,
nothing remaining with which to load its artillery even once ;
and if it should happen to me (of which I have no doubt) to
meet any squadron of the Dutch, I shall be bound to fight
with them ; this was the jDrincipal cause of my raising the
siege, after pressing the enemy severely both by hunger,
and having during the course of the war killed many of his
captains and soldiers. From this your lordship will judge
of the state I was in of vexation and gi'ief. God be praised
for all, since He has been so pleased, and may He permit
that the principal enemies in these parts may become vassals
of His Majesty.
I depart to Amboino to see if I find succour there, and
should I find suflacient, and if there is no urgent necessity in
other parts of the South which oblige me to go to its assist-
ance, I shall return to this enterprise, and will send fuU
news of it to your lordship ; and if I do not find there the
succour which I hope for, I must go to Malaca to refit, and
in whatever place I may be, I will always send notice to
your lordship. I write to His Majesty, and am giving him
a long account of the affairs of this enterprise, pointing out
to him that it cannot be accomplished, nor maintained in
future time unless it is done by the orders of your lordship,
q2
228 OF THE GOVERNMENT OP
and succoured and reinforced from the government of tte
Philippines, seeing that India is so far, and that it cannot
be succoured thence in less than two years^ time. Your
lordship should advise His Majesty in conformity with this,
so that he may be disabused in this particular of Maluco ;
and I trust in God that I shall be a soldier of your lordship.
I do not know with what words to thank your lordship
or enhance the mauy favours which you have conferred upon
me j which have all been set forth to me both by Antonio
de Brito Fogaza and Tomas de Araux, my servant. These
are things which can neither be recompensed nor paid for,
except by risking life, honour and property in whatever
occasions may present themselves for your lordship's service ;
and should they present themselves it will be seen that I
am not ungrateful for the favours I have received; the chief
of which, and that which I most valued, waCs your lordship^s
sending me Juan Xuarez Gallinato with this succour, and
Sr. Don Tomas de Acuiia, with the other captains and
soldiers : for to point out to your lordship the deserts of
each would be never to come to an end.
Juan Xuarez Gallinato is a person of whom your lord-
ship should make much account on all occasions that may
offer, for he deserves it in all respects. In this expedition
and enterprise he conducted himself so satisfactorily — with
such zeal and discretion, that it was clear that he had been
sent by your lordship, and had served under the banner of
such distinguished captains, so that I shall greatly rejoice
to know that your lordship (on account of the services which
he has rendered to His Majesty in these parts, and to me),
has shown him many favours. That which I have judged to
be most worthy of being remembered of this expedition, is
that in the course of this war the proverb of the old Portu-
guese women has been broken, and between Sjaaniards and
Portuguese there has not been one angry word spoken,
both eating together at the same board ; but this your lord-
DON PEDEO DE ACuflA. 229
sliip must atti^bute to your own good fortune^ aud to tlie
understanding and experience of Juan Xuarez Gallinato.
Sr. Don Tomas [de Acuna] conducted himself in the war
not like a gentleman of liis age, but like an old soldier, full
of experience. Your lordsliip should make much of this
relation, for I trust that you will be another father to him.
The sergeant-major conducted himself in this war as a
good soldier, and he is a man whom your lordship should
esteem, for I give my word for it that the Manilas do
not contain a better soldier than him ; and I shall esteem it
highly if your lordship honour him, and do him especial
favours on my account. Captain Yillagra fulfilled his duty
well, and so did Don Luys ; in short, all without exception,
soldiers, great and small, behaved so well in this enterprise,
and on this account I remain under such obligations to them,
that I would wish to see myself now before His Majesty, so
as not to leave his feet until he had filled them all with
honours and gratifications, since they so well deserve them.
In conformity with this I shall always feel especial pleasure
if your lordship confer honours and favours upon them all in
general. Our Lord preserve your lordship for many years
as I, your servant, desire. From the port of Talangame, in
the island of Terrenate, twenty-fifth of March of ] 603.
Andrea Furtado de Mendoza.
On the tenth of [July of]^ the same year the ships
Esjpiritu Santo and Jesus-Maria went out of the port of
Cabit, following two other smaller vessels which had cleared
out fifteen days before, with the merchandise of the Philip-
pines, to make the voyage to New Spain. The general of
these ships was Don Lope de Ulloa, and in the admiraPs
ship, named Esiyiritu Santo, Doctor Antonio de Morga,
went away from the islands to fill the place of Alcalde of the
court of Mexico. Before going out of the bay, a violent
1 The mouth is omitted in the text.
230 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
head-wind met both ships, and from three in the afternoon
till the morning of the next day (although they were an-
chored with two thick cables, under shelter of the land, and
the topmasts struck) they went on dragging with the heavy
seas and wind upon the coast, with thick weather, and
grounded upon it, in Pampanga, ten leagues from Manila.
The bad weather lasted three other consecutive days ; so
much so that it was thought impossible that these ships
could get out and perform the voyage, the season being now
much advanced, and the ships very large and heavily laden,
and they were much imbedded in the sand. Advices were at
once sent by land to Manila, from whence they brought some
Chinese ships, and cables and anchors, and with great exer-
tions, which were used in this matter, both ships, each one
separately, were fitted with tackle and cordage, which they
made fast to the poop, waiting for the spring tide, and by
force of capstans and of men, they got out the ships, drag-
ging them by the sterns, for more than a league through a
bank of sand, into which they had entered until they got
them afloat on the day of St. Magdalen, the twenty-second
of July. They at once set sail again, the ships having re-
ceived no injury, and making no water ; and performed the
voyage and navigation to New Spain with light and in-
sufficient winds. A violent gale from the south-south-west,
with heavy showers, hail and cold, overtook the ship Espiritu
Santo, on the tenth of November, in forty-two degrees lati-
tude, and in sight of land, upon which the wind was driving :
the ship was several times nearly lost upon it, and was in
great distress, the rigging rent, and the crew worn out with
the voyage and cold. The storm lasted till the twenty-second
of November, and on that day in the morning, whilst the ship
was in tlie trough of the sea, with topmasts struck, a water-
spout of water and hail came upon it, with much darkness ;
and a thunderbolt struck the ship amidships, descending the
mainmast : it killed three men, and wounded and crippled
DON PEDRO DE ACUflA. 231
eight other person s^ and entered the hatches, opening the
main hatch with a blaze, showing the interior of the ship.^
Another thunderbolt fell down the same mast amongst all
the people, and stunned sixteen persons, some of whom
were speechless and senseless for all that day : it went out
again at the pumj)-dale. The following day the wind shifted
to north-north-east, when the ship set sail and coasted the
land with plenty of wind, till the nineteenth of December,
when it made the port of Acapulco, finding in it the two
smaller vessels which had sailed first from Manila. Three days
later General Don Lope de Ulloa entered the same port of
Acapulco, with the ship Jesus-Maria, having encountered the
same storms as the ship Espiritu Santo ; and since they had
parted company, on leaving the channel of Capul of the Philip-
pines, they had not seen one another again in all the voyage.
The same year of 1603, the governor, Don Pedro de
Acuiia, sent the ship Santiago from Manila to Japan, with
merchandise, and orders to make its voyage to Quanto, to
satisfy the desire and will of Daifusama : four monks, the
most important of their order in Manila, were embarked in
that ship for Japan, news having been received of the death
of Fray Geronymo de Jesus ; these were Fray Diego de
Bermeo, who had been provincial. Fray Alonso de la Madre
de Dies, Fray Luys Sotelo, and another companion.
When the ships Jesus-Maria and Esjjiritu Santo had
sailed for New Spain, and the Santiago with the four
monks for Japan, there remained the affair which had been
started by the coming of the Mandarins from China, and
more opportunity for attending to it, for finding themselves
unoccupied by other business, they had nothing to do but
put themselves on their guard against the Sangleys, and
busy themselves with their suspicions that these people
would cause mischief in some unexpected manner : this
the Archbishop and some monks gave assurance of, and
' This passage is very obscure.
232 OF THE GOVKKNMENT OF
spoke of it in public and in secret. At this season there
were a great many Chinese in Manila and its neighbourhood;
some of them were baptized Christians in the villages of
Baibai and Minondoc^ on the other side of the river opposite
the city, and the rest of them, pagaiis, were occupied and
dwelling in these same villages, and in the shops of the
Parian in the city, as merchants, and exercising all other
employments : the greater number of them were fishermen,
quarrymen, coal dealers, carriers, masons, and day-labourers.
There was always more security with regard to the mer-
chants, as they were a better sort of people, and much inte-
rested in behalf of their property : in respect of the oth ers
there was not so much, although they were Christians, be-
cause as they were poor and covetous people, they would be
inclined to any meanness. It was always understood, how-
ever, that they would with great difficulty make any change
or move, unless a powerful fleet came from China, upon
which they could rely. Every day conversation went on
increasing upon this subject, and with it suspicion, because
some of the Chinese themselves, both pagans and Christians,
in order to show themselves to be friends of the Spaniards,
and free from all blame, gave notice that in a short time
there was to be an insurrection, and said other thingfs to the
same purpose, which although they always appeared to the
governor to be fictions, and the exaggerations of that
nation, were not credited by him, yet neither was he so
careless of them as not to watch and j^rovide himself without
ostentation for whatever might occur : and he endeavoured
to keep a good guard in the city, and the soldiery well armed,
and at the same time the principal Chinese merchants
satisfied and in good humour, giving security to their
lives and properties. The natives of Pampauga and other
provinces of the district were ordered to supply the city
with rice and provisions, and to come to its assistance with
their persons and arms whenever it should be necessary.
DON PEDRO DE ACUl'lA. 233
He took the same steps with some Japanese who were in
the city ; as all this was done with some publicity, for it
could not be in secret where so many were concerned, one
and all became convinced that the occasion was certain to
arise, and even many now desired it, to see the game begun,
and have an opportunity to lay their hands on something.
From this time forward they began to persecute the Sangley
men by word and deed, both in the city and in the country dis-
tricts, where they lived scattered about; the natives, Japanese^
and soldiers in the country districts, depriving them of their
property and subjecting them to other ill-treartment, and
calling them dogs of traitors, and saying that they knew
they intended to rise, but that first they would kijl them all,
and in a very short time ; that the governor w;as making
preparations for that purpose. This alone was sufficient
motive for the Chinese to find themselves in the necessity of
doing what they had not thought of doing.^ Some more
cunning and avaricious undertook to raise the spirits of the
others, and set themselves up as heads, telling them that
their perdition was certain in consequence of the determina-
tion which they saw the Spaniards had taken, unless they
anticipated them, for they were so many in number that it
would not be difficult for them to fall upon the city and take
it, and kill the Spaniards and take their property, and be-
come masters of the countiy, with the assistance and
succour which would come at once from China when the
good beginning which had been given to the business
should be known there. They added, that to carry this out
effectually it would be well to make a fort and quarters in
some secret and strong place not far from the city, where
their people could join together and take shelter, and where
they could collect arms and provisions for the war, and which
^ This observation of De Morga's may be applied to other cases where
a like timidity and openly expressed suspicions have driven an opiJosite
party, or one belonging to another race, into acts of violence.
234 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
at the least would serve to secure tlieir lives from the injury
which was expected from the Spaniards. It was understood
that the principal promoter of these things was a Christian
Sangley, who had been very long in the country^ named
Juan Bautista de Vera, a rich man much favoured by the
Spaniards, feared and respected by the Sangleys/and who
had been many times their governor, and had many god-
children and dependents, for he had become very much of a
Spaniard and high-spii-ited. This man, with cunning and
duplicity, did not go out of the city at this time, nor out
of the houses of the Spaniards, to give them less cause of
suspicion of himself; and from that place, by means of his
confidants, he pushed on the business, and to make himself
more certain of the result, and to know the number of people
of his nation whom he had ready, and to keep a list of them,
he had ordered his friends with dissimulation to bring him
each of them a needle, which he feigned that he wanted for
a certain work which he had to do ; and he went on putting
these into a little bos, out of which he took them, and
found that there were enough people for the purpose
which he designed. The building of this fort or quarters
was then at once begun, a little moi-e than half a league
from the town of Tondo, a hidden place between some lakes
and marshes ; they put in it some rice and other provi-
sions, and some arms of little importance, and the Sangleys
began to collect there, particularly the poor people, common
men, and day labourers ; for those of the Parian and officials,
although they had been solicited to do the same, would not
take that resolution, and remained quiet, taking care of
their houses and property. Every day the disquiet of the
Sangleys went on increasing, for this and the information
given to the governor and to the Spaniards kept them in a
greater state of anxiety and excitement, and caused them
now to talk more publicly of the affair. The Sangleys seeing
that their business was being discovered, and that delay
DON PEDEO DE ACUllA. 2oO
miglit be very prejudicial to them^ although they had agreed
that the rising should be on St. Andrew's day, the last day of
November, determined to anticipate it, and to lose no more
time, and on Friday, the 3rd of October, the eve of St. Fran-
cis, they collected together very hastily in the before-men-
tioned fort, so that when the night had set in there were in
it two thousand men. Juan Bautista de Vera, acting the part
of a good robber, being the chief and leader of the treason,
came at once to the city and told the governor that the Sang-
leys were in insurrection, and that they were collecting toge-
ther on the other side of the river : he was at once arrested,
put under a guard and in confinement, being suspected of his
evil designs, and aftei-wards was executed. The governor
ordered the troops of the country and city to be called out
without sound of drum, and for all to be under arms. Night
had hardly set in when Don Luis Dasmariilas, who lived
close to the monastery and church of Mindoc on the other
side of the river, came in great haste to the city to inform
the governor that there was a revolution amongst the
Sangleys, and to ask him for twenty soldiers to go over to the
other side to guard the before-named monastery. Cristoval
de Axqueta, sergeant-major of the camp, passed over with
these men, in company with Don Luis ; and every hour the
noise increased during the silence of the night, which the
Sangleys made as they assembled together, sounding horns
and other instruments of their fashion. Don Luys remained
guarding the monastery with the people whom he brought
from Manila, into which he had gathered many women and
children of the Christian Sangleys along with the monks.
The sergeant-major then returned to the city, giving an
account of what was going on. The drums beat to arms,
because the noise and clamour of the Sangleys, who had
come out to set fire to some houses in the countiy, was so
great that it seemed that they were levelling them. They
first burned a country-house of stone belonging to Captain
236 OP THE GOVERNMENT OP
Estevan de Marquina^ where he was with his wife and
children, without any one escaping, except a little girl, who
remained wounded and hidden in a thicket. From there
they went on to the town of Laguio on the bank of the
river and burned it, killing a few of the Indian inhabitants,
for the rest, came flying to the city; where the gates were
already shut and all the people with arms in their hands
leaning over the walls, and in other convenient posts, for
whatever might occur, till dawn. The enemy, who now had
a greater number of men, withdrew to his fort, to sally out
thence again with more power. Don Luys Dasmariiias,
who was on guard at the church and monastery of Minondoc,
expecting every hour that the enemy was going to fall upon
him, sent to the governor to ask for more men; and he
sent him some paid soldiers and inhabitants of the city,
under the captains Don Tomas Bravo de Acuila, his nephew,
and Juan de Alcega, Pedro de Arzeo, and Graspar Perez, by
whose advice and opinion he was to be guided on this occa-
sion. In the city all was confusion, clamour, and outcry,
particularly among the Indian women and children who
came to seek safety in it ; and although to make sure of the
Sangleys of the Parian, their merchants were invited to
place themselves in the city with their property, they did
not venture to do so, for they had always understood that
the enemy, with the power of numbers he possessed, would
take the city and massacre the Spaniards, and all would be
in danger, so they preferred to remain in their Parian in order
to join the party which should get the best of it. Don Luys
Dasmariiias, with the succour which the governor sent him,
being of opinion that it was expedient to seek the enemy
at once, before they finished collecting together and swelling
their numbers, left seventy soldiers under Graspar Perez in
Minondoc, and with the rest of the troops, who might be a
hundred and forty men of the best of the hackbutteers, he
went to the town of Tondo to fortify himself in the church,
DON PEDRO DE ACCflA. 237
whicli was of stone^ where he arrived at eleven o'clock in
the morning. The Chinese had the same intention^ and
fifteen hundred of them arrived at the same place and time.
A skirmish took place between both parties to gain pos-
session of the monastery^ which lasted one hour; and
Gaspar Perez, with the men who had remained in Minondoc,
came up to succour the Spaniards. The enemy retreated
to his fort with the loss of five hundred men, and Gaspar
Perez returned to his post, where also remained Pedro de
Arzeo. Don Luys Dasmarinas, stimulated by this fortunate
engagement, determined to go forward at once with the
men he had with him in pursuit of the enemy, in the greatest
heat of the sun, and without resting his men. He sent the
ensign Luys de Ybarren to reconnoitre, and he brought
news that the enemy was in great numbers and not far oflP.
Although Juan de Alcega and others begged Don Luys to
make a halt and rest his troops, and wait for an order from
the governor as to what he was to do ; the desire which he
felt not to lose this opportunity was so great that, calling
upon his men to follow him with hard and provocative words,
he went forward until he reached a swamp. Having got
out of this they suddenly entered a savannah where the
enemy was, who, on seeing the Spaniards, all together with
cudgels and some catans, and a few arms on handles, sur-
rounded them on all sides. Don Luys and his men, unable
to retreat, fought valiantly, killing many Sangleys, but at
last, as these were so many, they cut all the Spaniards to
pieces, without any more escaping than four badly wounded,
who brought the news to Manila. This event was of great
importance to the Sangleys, both because so many soldiers
died in this place, and of the best of the Spaniards, and
also on account of the arms which they took from them, and
which they were short of, so that they flattered themselves
that the accomphshment of their design was more certain
and secure. The following day, the fifth of October, they
238 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
sent the heads of Don Liiys_, Don Tomas, and of Juan de
Alcega, and of other captains to the Parian, telling' the
Sangleys that since they had killed the best men in Manila,
they should rise and join with them, and unless they did so,
they would come over at once and kill them. The confusion
and grief of the Spaniards in the city was so great, that it
prevented their making the preparations and using the assi-
duity which the business required; but the necessity in which
they saw themselves, and the spirit of the governor and his offi-
cers, made every one keep to his post, under arms, upon the
walls, and having to the best of their ability manned the gates
of the town towards the Parian and Dilao, and all that front by
which the enemy might make an attack, they put a piece of
artillery over each gate, with their best men, amongst whom
there were monks of all the orders. This day, Sunday, the
enemy finding themselves in high spirits with the victory of
the day before, and their army increased with more men
who had flocked to them, came against the city, burning
and destroying all that they passed, and crossed the river,
for there was no vessel with which to oppose them, as all
the vessels were in the provinces of Pintados. The enemy
entered the Parian, and with much fury attacked the city
gate, from which they were driven back with the fire fi'om
the arquebuses and muskets, and the loss of many Sangley
men ; they then went to the church of Dilao, and from
thence, with the same determination, brought up some
scaling ladders to the gate and wall, which was lower, and
met with the same resistance and loss ; upon which they
retreated with much loss to the Parian and to Dilao towards
night. The Spaniards spent all the night in guarding the
walls and prepai'ing themselves for the next day; and the
enemy, in the Parian and Dilao, wore making carts, screens,
ladders, fire machines, and other inventions, by which to
get close to the wall and assault it, and burn the gates, and
set fire to everything. The following day (Monday) at day-
DON PEDRO DE ACUflA. 239
break, the Sangley men collected together with these war-
like implements, and putting their best men and the best
armed in front, they attacked the wall with great courage
and determination ; the artillery dismounted the machines
they were bringing up, and so much resistance was made
and loss inflicted that they again withdrew to the Parian
and Dilao. Juan Xuarez Galliuato, with some soldiers and
a troop of Japanese_, sallied out of the Dilao gate, against
the Sangleys ; they arrived as far as the church, and the
Sangley men turning round upon them, the Japanese got
into confusion, and were the cause of all having to retreat
and take shelter behind the walls, the Sangleys following
them as far as that.
At this juncture Captain Don Luys de Velasco entered
Manila, coming from Pintados, with a good caracoa, into
which a few ar'quebuseers were put, and others in boats
under its protection, which by the river got up to the Parian
and Dilao, and harassed the enemy who was there estab-
lished, both that day and the two following days, so much
so that they made them evacuate those posts : these vessels
set fire to the Parian, and burned it entirely, and pursued
the enemy wherever they were able to do so. The Sangleys
seeing that their cause was declining, and that they could
not effect the object which they had aimed at, determined to
withdraw from before the city, having lost more than four
thousand men, and to send word to China, so that they
might send them assistance ; aud, in order to maintain
themselves, they decided on dividing their forces into three
bands in different districts, one to go to the Tingues of
PassiCj the others to those of Ayombon, and another to the
lagoon of Bay and San Pablo, and Abatangas. On the
Wednesday they entirely abandoned the city, and divided
as has been said, marched into the interior of the country.
Don Luys de Velasco, by the river, and some soldiers and
armed Indians, who from all quarters came up to the succour
240 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
of Manila,, with some Spaniards who guided them, and the
monks their teachers, followed in pursuit of them, exhaust-
ing them in such a manner that they killed and put an end
to those who were going to the Tingues of Passic and to
Aj'onbon ; the greater number and mass of the Chinese
passed to the lagoon of Bay and the mountains of San
Pablo, and to Batangas, where they thought themselves
more secure ; they burned the villages and churches, and all
that they found in their path, and fortified themselves in
those places. Don Luys de Velasco continued in pursuit of
them with seventy soldiers, every day killing many of their
people, and on one occasion Don Luys followed up the enemy
so closely, that he was killed and ten soldiers of his com-
pany, and the enemy again fortified themselves in San
Pablo and Batangas, with the hope of being able to main-
tain themselves there until the assistance from China should
arrive.
The governor fearing this mischief, and desirous of making
an end of the enemy, and that the country should become
entirely tranquil, sent the captain and sergeant-major, Cris-
toval de Axqueta Menchaca, with some forces to seek the
enemy and make an end of him. He set out with two
hundred Spaniards, soldiers and adventurers, three hundred
Japanese, and fifteen hundred Indians, Pampangos, and
Tagals, on the twentieth of October, and took such skilful
measures that he found the Sangleys fortified in San Pablo
and Batangas, and with little or no loss of his own men, he
fought with them and killed and massacred them all, without
any of them escaping, except two hundred whom he brought
alive to Manila for the galleys. He was occupied in this
twenty days, and this put an end to the war. There re-
mained in Manila but very few merchants, who had been
well advised enough to place themselves and their property
with the Spaniards inside the city, which, when the war
began, did not contain seven hundred Spaniards who could
bear arms.
DON PEDRO DE ACuflA. 241
When tlis war was at an end tlie want and difficulties of
the city began ; because as there were no SangleySj who
exercised various arts, and brought all the provisions, neither
was any food to be found to eat, nor shoes to wear, not even
for very excessive prices. The native Indians are very far
from fulfilling these offices, and even have much forgotten
husbandry, the rearing of fowls, flocks, cotton, and weaving
robes, as they used to do in the time of their paganism, and
for a long time after that the country had been conquered.^
In addition to this it was understood that, after the revolu-
tion which had just been gone through, the ships and mer-
chandise of China would not come to the islands ; and above
all, they lived not without fear and apprehension that in-
stead of them an armament would come against Manila to
avenge the death of the Sangleys. All this together
weighed down the spirits of the Spaniards, and after having
despatched this news by way of India to the Court of Spain,
by Fray Diego de Guevara, prior of the monastery of
St. Augustine of Manila, who, from various circumstances
which happened to him in India, Persia, and Italy, through
which he travelled, could not reach Madrid until two years
had elapsed; they also at once despatched Captain Marco
de la Cueva, accompanied by Fray Luys Gandullo, a Domini-
can, to the city of Macao in China, where the Portuguese
reside, with letters for the captain-major and the chamber of
that city, advising them of the insurrection of the Sangleys,
and of the result of the war, in order that if they heard any
rumour of an armament in China, they might send informa-
tion of it. At the same time, they carried letters from the
governor for the Tutons, Aytaos, and visitors of the pro-
vinces of Canton and Chincheo, giving an account of the
outbreak of the Chinese, which obliged the Spaniards to
kill them. Marcos de la Cueva and Fray Luys Gandullo
' See Appendix II with reference to the Chinese in the Philippines,
and the textile fabrics of the Philippine islanders.
R
242 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
having arrived at Macao, they found that there was no news
of any armament, but that everything was quiet ; although
the insurrection and much of what had happened was ah'eady
known through some Sangleys who had come in champans,
flying from Manila on that occasion. In Chincheo it was at
once known that these Spaniards were at Macao, and the
captains Guansan Sinu and Guachan^ very rich men ac-
customed to trade with Manila, came to look for them, and
having informed themselves of the truth of what had hap-
pened, they received the letters directed to the Mandarins
to take and deliver them ; and they encouraged other mer-
chants and ships of Chincheo to go to Manila that year, for
they did not venture to do so, which was very beneficial, for
by their means a great part of the want from which Manila
was suffering was supplied. Having despatched this busi-
ness, Marcos de la Cueva supplied himself with some gun-
powder, saltpetre, and lead for the magazines, and, leaving
Macao, sailed to Manila, where he entered in the month of
May, to the general satisfaction of the city at the news which
he brought, which they shortly began to see confirmed by
the arrival of thirteen ships with provisions and merchandise
from China.
In this year 1603, when the month of June had set in, two
ships were sent from Manila to Spain, under the command
of Don Diego de Mendoza, whom the Viceroy, the Marquis
of Montesclaros, had sent that year with the ordinary suc-
cours for the islands ; the flagship was Nuestra Seriora de los
Remedlos. and the admiral's ship Sant Antonio.
Many rich persons of Manila, terrified by the experience
of the past troubles, embarked in these ships with their
families and property for New Spain, especially in the
admiral's ship, with the greatest quantity of wealth that has
left the Philippines. Both ships met with such violent
storms in the voyage — in thirty-four degrees latitude — before
passing Japan, that the flagship put in in distress into Manila,
dismasted, and haviiig suffered great losses b}'^ throwing cargo
DON PEDRO DE ACuflA. 243
overboard, and the admiral's ship was swallowed up by the
sea, without any person on board being saved. This was one
of the great losses and calamities which the Philippines
underwent after those that had passed.
The rest of this year, and the year sixteen hundred and
five, until the despatching of the ships to go to Castile, were
spent by the governor in restoring the city, and providing
it with supplies and munitions, with the special object and
care that the determination, which he expected from the
Court, to make the expedition to Maluco, (and of which he
had received advices and promises) should not find him un-
prepared, so as to cause him to defer that expedition. In this
he acted with great judgment and foresight, for at this same
time the master of the camp, Juan de Esquivel, had arrived
from Spain, with six hundred soldiers at Mexico, where more
men were enrolled, and great preparations made of munitions,
supplies, money and arms ; which the viceroy, by order of
His Majesty, sent from New Spain in March of this year
[1605] to the governor for him to go to Maluco, all which
arrived safely and in good time at Manila.
A little while after the ships for New Spain had left
Manila, and those which the viceroy had despatched from
that country had arrived, the archbishop, Don Fray Miguel
de Benavides, died of a long illness, aad his body was buried
with the general prayers and acclamation of the city.^
About the same time during this year ships continued
coming from China with goods, and thi'ough their principal
captains Don Pedro de Acuna received three letters of the
same tenour, copied into Castilian,- from the Tuton, the
Haytao, and the Visitor general of the province of Chincheo,
» In 1605, this was the last year mentioned. This archbishop seems
to have been a principal cause of the disturbances and ma.?saci-e of
the Chinese, by taking a leading part in exciting suspicion against
them.
- TrasnntaJas.
R.2
244 OF THE GOVERNMENT OP
respecting the affair of the insurrection which the Sangleys
had made, and tlieir chastisement, which said thus :
Letter from the Visitor of Chinclieo in China ; written for Bon
Pedro de Acuiia, governor of the Philippines.
To the great captain general of Luzon.
Having known that the Chinese who went to buy and sell
in the kingdom of Luzon have been killed by the Spaniards,
I have inquired into the cause of these deaths, and have
prayed the king to do justice upon all who have been the
cause of so great evil, that a remedy may be provided for
the future, and that the merchants may have peace and
tranquillity. In former years, before I came here as Visitor,
a Sangley named Tioneg, with three Mandarins, by the per-
mission of the king of China, went to Luzon, to Cabit to
seek for gold and silver, which was all a deception, for
neither gold nor silver was found ; and on this account I
prayed him to chastise this deceiver Tioneg, in order that it
might be known and understood what righteous justice is
done in China. It was in the time of the ex-viceroy and
eunuch when Tioneg and his companion, named Yang lion,
told the aforesaid falsehood, and I afterwards prayed the king
to cause to be transferred all the documents of the affair of
Tioneg, and to give orders to bring the said Tioneg, with
the process, before himself; and I myself saw the said
documents, and perceived that all which the said Tioneg had
spoken was a falsehood. And I wrote to the king, saying
that through the lies which Tioneg had spoken, the Castili-
ans had suspected that we intended to makp war upon them,
and that on this account they had killed more than thirty
thousand Chinese in Luzon : and the King did that which I
entreated of him, and so punished the said Yang lion, order-
ing him to be killed, and he ordered Tioneg^s head to be
cut off, and set up in a cage ; and the Chinese people who
died in Luzon wore not to blame. And I with others, wo
DON PEDRO DE ACDDA, 245
treated of tliis matter with the king^ that he might decide
what his will was in this and in another business — which was
that two English ships had arrived near these coasts of
ChincheOj a very dangerous thing for China, so that the king
might see what he had to do in these two so serious matters.
Also we wrote to the king that he should order the two
Sangleys to be punished, and after having written the
above-named matters to the king, he answered us, saying,
for what purpose had the English ships come to China ? if
perchance they were coming to plunder, that they should at
once send them thence to Luzon ; and that they should tell
the people of Luzon not to give credit to knaves and lying
people of the Chinese, and that the two Sangleys should at
once be put to death who had shown the port to the English :
and with regard to the rest of what we had written to him,
that our will and pleasure should be done. After having re-
ceived this {ive send) our messages to the governor of Luzon,
that his lordship may know the greatness of the king of
China and of the kingdom, for he is so great that he governs
all that the moon and sun shine upon, and also that the go-
vernor of Luzon may know by how much reason and judg-
ment this so great kingdom is governed, which kingdom no
one for a long time back has ventured to insult, and although
the Japanese have attempted to disturb Coria, which belongs
to the government of China, they have not been able to
effect it, but on the contrary, have been driven out of it, and
Coria has remained in great peace and tranquillity, as the
people of Luzon know very well by report.
Last year, after that we learned that through the lie of
Tioneg, so many Chinese had been killed in Luzon, many of
us mandarins collected together to concert in representing
to the king that he should avenge himself for so many deaths,
and we said that the country of Luzon is a miserable country
of little importance, and that in old times it was the abode
only of devils and serpents, and that from so great a number
246 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
of Sangleys having- for some years back gone to trade with
the Castilians, it has become so much ennobled ; in which
country the said Sangleys have laboured so much, raising
the walls, building houses and tilling gardens, and in other
works of much advantage to the Castiliaus ; and these things
being so, why have not the Castilians held this in considera-
tion, nor been grateful for these good works, instead of hav-
ing with such great cruelty killed so many people : and
although we wrote two or three times to the king respecting
what has been mentioned, he answered us, having been an-
gered on account of the above-mentioned events, saying that
for three reasons it was not expedient to take revenge nor
make war on Luzon. The first, because the Castilians, for a
long time and until now, are friends of the Chinese ; the second
reason was because it could not be known whether the Casti-
lians or the Chinese would obtain the victory ; and the third
and last reason, because the people whom the Castilians had
killed were vile people, and ungrateful to China, to their
country, fathers, and friends, since so many years had passed
that they did not return to China ; which people, the king
says, he did not hold in much value for the above-men-
tioned reasons ; and he only commanded the viceroy, the
eunuch, and me, to write this letter by this ambassador, in
order that the people of Luzon may know that the king of
China has a great heart, great long-suffering, and much
clemency ; since he has not commanded to make war on the
people of Luzon, and well may his rectitude be perceived
since also he has punished the lie of Tioneg ; and since the
Spaniards are wise and discreet persons, how do they not
feel grief at having killed so many people, and repent them-
selves of it, and entertain kindliness of heart towards the
Chinese who have remained ? because if the Castilians have
a good heart towards the Chinese, and the Sangleys return
who have survived from the war, and the money which is
owing be paid, and the property which has been taken from
DON PEDRO DE ACUllA. 247
the SangleySj there will be friendship between that kingdom
and this, and each year there will be trading ships ; and if
not, the king will not give leave for trading ships to go ; on
the contrary, he will order the construction of a thousand
ships of war, with soldiers and the kinsmen of the slain, and
with the other nations and kingdoms which pay tribute to
China; and without sparing anyone they will make war,
and afterwards the kingdom of Luzon will be given to those
people who pay tribute to China. The letter of the visitor
o-eneral was written on the twelfth of the second month.
Which according to our reckoning is March of the twenty-
third year of the realm of Vandel. That of the eunuch^ was
written on the sixteenth of the said month and year ; and
that of the viceroy on the twenty-second of it.
The governor answered these letters, by the same messen-
gers, civilly and authoritatively, giving explanations of the
event, and justifications of the Spaniards, and offering to re-
new amity and trade with the Chinese, and to restore to
their owners the goods and property which had remained in
Manila, and that liberty would be given in due time to the
prisoners whom he had got in the galleys, whom it was in-
tended to make use of first for the expedition to Maluco,
which was in preparation.
The entrance into Japan of the barefooted Franciscan
monks, and of the Dominicians and Augustine friars continued
in various provinces, both in the Castilian ship itself, which this
year was sent to the kingdom of Quanto, as well as in other
Japanese ships which came to Manila with their silver and
flour to trade ; this with the permission and license of Daifu,
now named Cubosama ; who this year sent by a servant of
his certain arms and presents to the governor, in return for
' The Arab travellers of the ninth century mention that eunuchs were
employed in China, especially for the collection of the revenue, and that
they were called thoucam.
248 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
otliers wliicli tlie governor had sent to liim^ and answered
liis letter by the following letter.
Letter of Vaifnsama, Sovereign of Japan, to the Governor
Don Pedro de Acuna, in the year one thousand six hundred
and Jive.
I have received two from your lordship^ and all the gifts
and presents according to the list, an.d amongst those which
I have received, I was greatly pleased with the wine made
of grapes. In former years your lordship requested leave
for six ships to go {to Ja'pan) and last year leave for four,
which petitions I always granted ; but this has given me
great displeasure, that amongst the four ships which your
lordship asks leave for, one should be that of Antonio, who
set out on his voyage without my orders, which was to act
with great licence, and with contempt of me. Would per-
chance the ship which your lordship wishes to send to Japan
be sent without my permission ? Besides this, your lord-
ship and others have frequently made representations to me
about the sects in Japan, and many losses have been suffered
in that respect : this, not even I can grant it, because this
region is named Xincoco, which means dedicated to the idols,
which from the time of our ancestors until now have been
honoured with the highest praise, and their deeds I alone
cannot undo or destroy. For which reason it is by no means
expedient that your faith should be promulgated or preached
in Japan, and if your lordship desire to maintain friendship
with these realms of Japan and with me, do that which I de-
sire, and that which is not my pleasure never do it. Lastly,
many have told me that many Japanese, bad and perverse
men, who go to that kingdom (of the Philippines) and re-
main there many years, afterwards return to Japan. This is
a cause of great displeasure to mo, and so from this time
forward will your lordship not permit any of the Japanese to
come in the ships which come here ; and in the other
DON PEDRO DE ACUUA. 249
matters will your lordship endeavour to act with counsel and
judgment, and in such manner that henceforward they should
not be to my displeasure.
As that which the governor most desired was to make the
expedition to Terrenate, in Maluco, and that this should take
place shortly, before the enemy grew more powerful than
what he was, for he had news that the Dutch, who had
got possession of the island and fortress of Amboino, had
done the same in the island of Tidore, and driven out the
Portuguese who were settled in them, and had introduced
themselves into Terrenate, and set up a factory for the clove
trade. So when the despatches for this enterprise arrived from
Spain in June of 1 605, and the troops and supplies which
at the same time were brought from New Spain by the
master of the camp, Juan de Esquivel, the governor spent
the remainder of the year in getting ready the ships, men,
and provisions which he thought necessary for the under-
taking, and leaving in Manila what was requisite for its
defence, and he set out, in the beginning of the year 1606, for
the provinces of Pintados, where the fleet was collecting.
On the fifteenth day of February, the fleet was prepared
and in order ; it consisted of five ships, four galleys with
poop lanterns, three galliots, four champans, three funeas,
two English launches, two brigantines, a flat-bottomed boat
for artiller}^, and thirteen tall frigates of lofty bulwarks, with
one thousand three hundred Spaniards, regular soldiers, cap-
tains and ofl&cers, men hired for the expedition, and adven-
turers. Amongst these forces were some Portuguese captains
and soldiers, with the captain-major of Tidore, who had been
in that island when the Dutch gained possession of it ; they
had now come from Malacca to go on this expedition. There
were also four hundred pioneers, Indians, Tagals, and Pam-
pangos of Manila, who came at their own expense with their
ofiicers and arms to serve ; and a quantity of artillery of all
250 OF THE GOVERNMENT OP
kinds, munitions, warlike implements and supplies for nine
months, Don Pedro de Acufia sailed with all this armament
from the point of Hilohilo, near the town of Arevalo, in the
island of Panay, and coasting along the isle of Mindanao,
put into the port of Caldera, to take in water, wood, and
other things which were wanted.
The governor went on board the galley Santiago, taking
under his immediate command the other galleys and rowing
vessels. The ship Jesus-Maria was flagship to the other
ships, and carried the master of the camp, Juan de Bsquivel;
Captain and Sergeant-major Cristoval de Azcueta Menchaca
was vice-admiral of the fleet. When the fleet had done
what it required in Caldera it weighed from that port; and
on setting sail, the flagship, which was a heavy ship,
could not fetch her way, and the currents cast her on shore
in such a manner that she went on the beach, where she was
lost; the people, artillery, and part of the munitions and
stores which she carried, were saved. After setting fire to
the ship, and taking from her all the iron-work and bolts
which they could, to prevent the Mindanaos availing them-
selves of them, the fleet continued its voyage ; the galleys
coasting along the isle of Mindanao, and the ships and
other craft standing out to sea, making their course, all of
them, for the port of Talangame, of the isle of Terrenate.
The ships, though with some impediments, first sighted the
isles of Maluco ; and having been recognised by a large
Dutch ship, with good artillery, which was anchored in
Terrenate, this ship fired a few heavy pieces at our ships,
and after that retreated within the port, where it fortified
itself under shelter of the land, with its artillery and crew
and the Terrenate men. The master of the camp passed on
with the ships to the island of Tidore, where he was well
received by the Muslim chiefs and cachils, because the king
was absent, having gone to be married in the island of
Bachan. There the master of the camp found four Dutch
DON PEDRO DE ACUnA. 251
factors wlio traded for cloves ; from them lie got informa-
tion to the effect that the ship that was at Terrenate was
from Holland — one of those that had come out from Amboino
— and had taken possession of Tidore, and driven out the
Portuguese, and that it was taking in cloves ; and was
expecting other ships of its convoy, because they had made
friendship and treaties with Tidore and Terrenate to obtain
support for themselves against the Castilians and Portu-
guese. The master of the camp at once sent to call the
king of Tidore, whilst he there refreshed his ships and crews,
and made gabions and other implements required in war ;
and waited for Don Pedro de Acuiia, who, with his galleys,
by the fault of the pilots, had fallen off thirty leagues to
leeward of the isle of Terrenate, as far as the isle of Celebes,
or, as it is otherwise named, Mateo. Reconnoitring this
island, he returned to Terrenate, and passing in sight of
Talangame, he discovered the Dutch ship. He wished to
reconnoitre her ; but seeing that her artillery struck the gal-
leys, and that the master of the camp was not there,
he went on to Tidore, where he found him, to the great
satisfaction of all, and there they passed the rest of the
month of March. At this time the king of Tidore came with
twelve well-armed caracoas, and showed satisfaction at the
arrival of the governor, to whom he made many complaints
of the tyranny and subjection under which he was held by
the Sultan Zayde, king of Terrenate, by the assistance of
the Dutch. He promised to go and serve His Majesty in
person, and, with six hundred Tidore men, in the fleet.
Don Pedro accepted, and made presents to him ; and with-
out delaying any longer in Tidore, nor occupying himself
about the ship which was in Talangame, he considered the
chief business about which he had come. He sailed on the
last day of March, making for Terrenate; that day he
anchored in a cove between the town and port, and the king
of Tidore did the same with his caracoas. That same night
252 OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
the Dutch ship weighed and went to Amboino. The follow-
ing day, the first of April, at day-break, they landed the
men with some labour, with the design that they should
march by the beach, which was a verj straight and narrow
pass, as far as the fortress, in order to plant the artillery
with which they were to batter it. As it appeared to the
governor that harm would ensue from the narrowness and
insufficiency of the pass, he sent up to the higher ground
a number of pioneers to open another road for the rest of
the army to go by, and to cause a diversion to the enemy in
several parts. By this measure the camp was brought close
to the walls, though a great number of Terrenate men had
sallied out to prevent it. The out-posts of the camp were
under the charge of Juan Xuarez Gallinato, with the cap-
tains Juan de Cuevas, Don Rodrigo de Mendoza, Pasqual
de Alarcon, Juan de Cervantes, Captain Yergara, Cristoval
de Villagra, with their companies. The other captains were
stationed with the main body of the army; and Captain Del-
gado had command of the rear-guard, the master of the
camp attending to all parts. The army arrived under fire
of the enemy^s artillery, which opened fire hurriedly. The
governor went out to see how the army was formed, and
leaving it posted, returned to the fleet to have the battering
guns brought up, and refreshments for the soldiers. Between
the army and the walls there were some high trees, in which
the enemy had posted some sentinels, who could look over
all the field ; they were driven out, and our sentinels were
placed there, and from this high position they could give
notice of what passed in the fortress. Captain Vergara, and
after him Don Rodrigo de Mendoza, and Alarcon, sallied
out to reconnoitre the wall, the rampart of Our Lady,^ and
> The Malays could not have given it this name, so that either the
S2:)aniards must have given it the name to distinguish it, or have so
named it after mariam, the IMalay name for a cannon, the origin of
wliich is unknown, and which may have misled the Spaniards. Unless
DON PEDEO DE ACUilA. 253
tlie pieces which it had on the ground ; and a low wall of
stone without mortar^ which ran as far as the mountain,
where there was a bulwark, at which it terminated, which
they call that of Cachiltulo, and which was armed with
pieces of artillery, and many wall-pieces, musketeers, arque-
buseers, and men with pikes and other arms of their fashion,
lining the wall for its defence. When they had seen all and
reconnoitred it, though not without loss, for the enemy had
killed six soldiers with their artillery, and wounded with a
mu-sket-shot Ensign Juan de la Eambla in the knee, they
returned to the brigade. It was a little more than mid-day
when an elevated position was discovered towards the bul-
wark of Cachiltulo, from which it was possible to harass the
enemy and drive him from the wall. Orders were given to
Captain Cuevas to occupy it with twenty-five musketeers.
Having done this, the enemy sent out a body of men to
prevent it. A skirmish was engaged, and the Muslims
turned, retreating to their wall. Cuevas followed them,
and pressed them so closely that he stood in need of assist-
ance. The watchmen in the trees gave information of what
was going on, and the Captains Don E-odrigo de Mendoza,
Alarcon, Cervantes, and Vergara, came to their relief with
halbards and lances brought to the charge,^ and followed
the enemy so quickly and with such resolution that they
entered over the walls behind them, though with some of
their men wounded ; and Captain Cervantes was thrown
back down from the wall and his legs broken, of which he
died." Captain Don Rodrigo de Mendoza, following the
enemy, who was retreating, ran along the inner side of the
wall as far as the cavalier of Our Lady ; and Vergara in the
the strong point or key of a fortification was at that period dedicated to
Our Lady.
1 Picas volantes.
^ If this captain was a relation of the great Cervantes, the fact of
Don Quixote having been pubHshed only the year before, and not having
obtained immediate celebrity, would account for De Morga's omitting
to state that such Avas the fact.
254 OF THE GOVERNMENT OP
other direction, along the face of the wall leading to the
bulwark of Cachiltulo, going forward as far as the mountain.
By this time all the forces had rushed up to the wall, and
helping each other they climbed over it, and entered the
place in all directions, with the loss of some soldiers killed
and wounded. The troops were detained by a trench which
was further on than the fort of Our Lady, for the enemy
had withdrawn into a shed^ fortified with much musketry
and arquebuses, and four field-pieces. They fired their
arquebuses and muskets at the Spaniards, and discharged
at them darts hardened in the fire, and hacacaes of their
fashion. The Spaniards rushed at the shed ; and a Dutch
artilleryman, trying to fire a large swivel-gun, with which
he would have done much harm, being confused, could not
succeed in firing it, and threw away the linstock on the
ground, and turned his back and fled. Following him, the
enemy did the same, and abandoned the shed, flying in
difierent directions. Those who could, embarked with the
king and some of his wives, and Dutchmen in a caracoa,
and four flat boats which they kept ready equipped near the
fort of the king, into which Captain Yergara entered shortly
after and found it quite empty. Don Eodrigo de Mendoza and
Villagra followed the enemy a long distance towards the
mountain, killing many of their men ; so that, at two in the
afternoon, the town and fortress of Terrenate was completely
captured ; and over it the banners and standards of Spain
were now hoisted, without its having been necessary, as
had been expected, to batter the walls, and at so little cost to
the Spaniards. Their killed were fifteen men, and the
wounded twenty more. All the town was reconnoitred, and
its extremities, as far as a small fort named Limataen, with
two pieces of artillery, and two others which were close to
the mosque on the side of the sea. The pillage of the place
was not of much importance, because they had already taken
' Jacal and xacal^ a shod or Imt. CahnUero^s Diet.
DON PEDRO DE ACUllA. 255
away wliat was of most value, and the women and children
to the island of the 'Moor/ where the king went in his flight,
and shut himself up in a fortress which he had there. Some
country goods were found, and a large quantity of cloves ;
and in the Dutch factory two thousand ducats, some cloths,
linen pieces, and many arms ; and in various places good
Portuguese and Dutch artillery, and many wall-pieces and
munitions which were taken for His Majesty. A guard
was set over what had been won ; and with some guns
which were brought up from the fleet the place was put in
a state of defence, the governor having given orders and
provided for the rest as was most expedient.
Cachil Amuxa, the principal chief of Terrenate, nephew
of the king, with other Cachils came to make peace with the
governor, saying that he and all the people of Terrenate
wished to become vassals of His Majesty, and that they would
have given in their submission to him a long time before,
if their king had not prevented it ; for as a proud man, and
fond of his own opinion, although he had been advised to
give the fort up to His Majesty, and make himself subject
to him, he had never chosen to do so, having been always
encouraged and inspirited by the success which he had met
with on other occasions : this had been the cause of his now
finding himself in the wretched condition in which he was,
and he ofiered to induce the king to come from the fortress
of the Moor, if security for his life were given him. Don
Pedro de Acuna received this Muslim well, and Pablo de
Lima, a Portuguese, one of those whom the Dutch had turned
out of Tidore, a man of importance and well known to the
king, having volunteered to go in his company, he des-
patched them with a written safe conduct, as follows :
8afe Conduct of Don Pedro de Acima, for tJte
King of Terrenate.
I, Don Pedro de Acuna, governor and captain gene-
256 OF THE GOVERNMENT OP
ral and president of the Pliilippine islands, and general
of this army and fleet, say, that under the signature of my
name, I give security for his life, to the King of Terrenate,
for him to come and sjDeak to me ; to him, and to such per-
sons as he may bring with him ; reserving to myself the
disposal of all the rest according to my will, and of this I
give security in the name of His Majesty. And I command
that no person of this fleet cause any vexation to him, or to
anything belonging to him ; and that all observe and respect
what is herein contained. Done in Terrenate, on the 6th
of April, of the year one thousand, six hundred and six
vears. 'W ''^ Don Pedro de AcufiA,
Within nine days Cachil Amuxa and Pablo de Lima re-
turned to Terrenate, with the king, and prince his son, and
others of his kinsmen, Cachils and Sangajes^, under the
before-mentioned safe conduct, and placed themselves in the
hands of the governor, who receeived them with friendship
and honour. He lodged the king and his son in a good
house in the town, with a guai'd of one company. The king
restored the villages of christians, which His Majesty had
possessed in the island of the Moor, at the time when the
Portuguese lost the fortress of Terrenate. He placed his
person and kingdom in the hands of His Majesty, and gave
up a quantity of muskets and heavy artillery which he had
in some forts of the said island. The governor did not dis-
possess him of his kingdom, but on the contrary, allowed
him to choose two of his own people, who should be satisfac-
tory to the govei-nor, to govern. The king, the prince his
son, and his Cachils and Sangajes, swore fealty to His Ma-
jesty, and in the same manner, the Kings of Tidore and
Bachan,and the Sangaje of La Bua took the oaths, and capitu-
lated and promised not to admit the Dutch in the Maluco,
neither them, nor other nations for the clove ti-ade ; and
1 SaiKjujy^ a Malay title. Marsden.
DON PEDRO DE ACUllA. 257
that as vassals of His Majesty, they should on all occa-
sions come and serve him with their persons, forces, and
ships, whenever they were sumnioned by whoever should
have the command of the fortress of Terrenate ; and that
they should not molest any Muslims who might wish to
become Christians, and that if any bad Christian should
go to their country to throw off his religion, they should
give him up ; and other things which were expedient. In
this way, the great and small remained contented and satis-
fied, seeing themselves free from the tyranny with which the
King of Terrenate treated them. The governor remitted
to them the payment of a third part of the tribute, which
they used to pay to the king, and gave other advantages to
the Muslims. After that, he traced out another fortress in
modern fashion, on an eminent position and very suitable,
and left it commenced, and in order that until it was com-
pleted, the existing fortification should be in a better state
of defence, he reduced it to a lesser extent than what it
then covered, making new cavaliers and bastions, which he
left completed with ramparts of earth, with fortified gates.
In the island of Tidore he left another fortress begun, close
to the town in a good site, and having set in order all that
seemed necessary in Terrenate and Tidore, and in the other
towns and fortresses of the Maluco, he returned with the
fleet to the Philippines ; he left in Terrenate the master of
the camp, Juan de Esquivel, as his lieutenant and governor
of Maluco, with a garrison of six hundred soldiers, five
hundred of whom in five companies remained in Terrenate,
with a large forge and workshop of blacksmiths, sixty-five
pioneers, thirty-five quarrymen, two galKots, and two brig-
antines well armed, and with a crew of rowers : and in Tidore
another company of a hundred soldiers, under the command
of Captain Alarcon, with munitions and provisions for a year
in both fortresses. And the better to secure the state of
affairs of the country, he took and brought away with him
s
258 OF THE GOVERNMENT OP
the King of Terrenate^ and his son the prince, and twenty-
four Cachils and Sangajes, the nearest relations of the king,
giving to all of them good entertainment and much ho-
nour, and explaining to them the object for which he was
taking them away, and that their return to Maluco depended
on the security and tranquillity with which the Muslims
should continue to conduct themselves, and on their obedi-
ence and service to His Majesty. The three Portuguese
galliots returned to Maluco, taking with them the Dutchmen
who were in Maluco, and the Portuguese captains and sol-
diers, who had come in them for this expedition. With the
rest of the armament the governor entered with victory, into
Manila, the last day of May of 1606, where he was received
with joy and praises by the city : giving thanks to God for
so fortunate and rapid success in an enterprise of so much
weight and importance.
During the time that the governor was in Maluco, the
royal High Court of the Philippines governed them in his
absence, and desired to turn out of the city a quantity of
Japanese, for there were amongst them turbulent people,
and of little safety to the town. When this was carried
into effect and harm done them, they resisted, and the affair
reached such a pitch that they took up arms to prevent it,
and the Spaniards were under the necessity of resorting to
them also. The business reached the point that both par-
ties wished to give battle, but this was deferred by various
means, until by the assiduity of some monks, the Japanese
calmed down, and afterwards they embarked those who were
easiest to get rid of, though much to their displeasure. This
was one of the occasions of greatest peril to which Manila
has been exposed, because the Spaniards were few in number,
and the Japanese more than fifteen hundred, courageous
and high spirited men, and if they had come to an engage-
ment in this conjuncture, the Spaniards would have passed a
bad time of it.
— THE ROYAL AUDIENCIA. 259
When the governor entered Manila, he at once occupied
himself with the affairs of the government, and especially
with the despatch of the two ships which were to go to New
Spain, attending in person in the port of Cabit, to the
equipping and lading of them, and the embarcation of the
passengers. He felt himself rather indisposed, from his
stomach, which obliged him to return to Manila, where he
took to his bed : the pain and vomiting increased so rapidly
that, no remedy having been able to be found for them, he
died in great suffering on St. John's day, to the great grief
and regret of all the country. The king of Terrenate espe-
cially, showed it and expressed it, for he had always received
from him much honour and good treatment. It was sus-
pected that his death had been a violent one, from the
severity and symptoms of the illness ; and the suspicion in-
creased, because the doctors and surgeons having opened
his body, declared from the signs they saw in it, that he had
been poisoned, which made his death a greater subject of
pity and grief. The High Court buried the governor in the
monastery of St. Augustine of Manila, with the pomp and
state which was due to him personally and to his office. The
High Court having again assumed the government, des-
patched the ships to New Spain, by which way news was
sent to His Majesty of the taking of Maluco, and of the death
of the governor.
The flagship which carried Don Rodi-igo de Mendoza as
general and captain made a speedy voyage to New Spain
with these news. The admiral's ship, though it departed
from the islands at the same time, was delayed more than
six months : it had to throw into the sea eighty persons who
died of sickness ; and many others infected by it died in the
port of Acapulco on landing, amongst whom was the licen-
tiate Don Antonio de Ribera, auditor of Manila, who was
coming as auditor to Mexico.
On the arrival of these ships it was understood that since
260 OP THE GOVERNMENT OP
the death of Don Pedro de Acuna, and the High Court hav-
ing assumed the government, the affairs of the islands had
undergone no change ; but that their commerce was Hmited
and narrowed by the prohibition which prevented the send-
ing of more than five hundred thousand dollars each year
to the islands out of the proceeds of the sale of their mer-
chandise in New Spain, so that want was sufi'ered, and it
appeared a small sum for the many Spaniards and consider-
able bulk of the trade, by which all classes were maintained,
as they had no other gains or means. Moreover, although
the conquest of Maluco had been of so great importance, on
account of those islands themselves, and the chastisement
which would favour the reduction of other revolted islands,
especially Mindanao and Jolo, from which the Philippines
received so many injuries ; this affair was not yet established
securely, both because the Mindanao and Jolo men still con-
tinued to make descents in their war boats on the provinces
of Pintados, and carried off plunder as they were accustomed
to do, and this would last as long an expedition was not
made against them with much purpose : also because the
affairs of Maluco did not fail to give much trouble to the
master of the camp, Juan de Esquivel, who governed them,
as he had little security on the part of the inhabitants, who
as a Mussulman people, and of their own natural disposition,
were pliable and inconstant, unquiet and ready for war and
disturbance ; at every moment, and in different parts, they
rose in arms and insurrection, and although the master of
the camp and his captains laboured to put them down and
pacify them, they were unable to bring the necessary reme-
dies in so great a matter. The soldiery and provisions were
being expended, and the succours which were sent from
Manila could neither be so well timed nor in such quantity
as was desired, on account of the risks of the voyage, and
the necessities of the royal exchequer.
No less prejudicial to everything was the arrival at this
THE ROYAL AUDIENCIA. 261
time at Maluco of the ships of Holland and Zealand^ which
were so much interested in the islands,, and had put their
affairs there on such good footing that they came in squad-
rons by the Indian navigation, to recover what they had
lost in Amboino and Terrenate, and other islands. Supported
by them, the Muslims revolted from the Spaniards, who had
much on their hands with them, and still more with the
Dutch, as they were numerous, and enemies of more import-
ance than the natives.
The interests of the Dutch in these parts are great, both
for the trade in cloves and other drugs and spices, and be-
cause they are of opinion that in these parts they open a
door to the subjugation of the East ; for, overcoming all
things, and the difficulties of the voyage every day with
greater facility, they come to these isles with larger fleets ;
and if a remedy be not applied to this evil in good time, and
very fundamentally, it will shortly grow so much that later
it will be incapable of receiving any.
The English and Flemings used to make this voyage by
the straits of Magellan ; and the first was Francis Drake,
and a few years later Tomas Escander,^ passing by Maluco.
Ultimately Oliver del Nort, a Fleming, with whose fleet
that of the Spaniards fought near the Philippine isles, at
the end of the year 1600; where his admirals ship, com-
manded by Lambert Biesman, was taken, and the flag-ship,
with the loss of nearly all the crew, and much battered,
took to flight ; afterwards it left the Philippines, and was
seen in the Sunda and straits of Java in such distress that
it seemed impossible for it to navigate, and it was lost, as
was related in its place."
This corsair, though so much distressed, had the good
fortune to escape from the hands of the Spaniards, and with
1 This person is the same as Thomas Candlish, whose voyage is some-
times quoted by Oliver de Xoort.
- See p. 172.
262 LETTER RELATING TO
great travail and difficulty returned with the ship Maurice,
and only nine men alive^ to Amsterdam, on the twenty-sixth
of August of the year 1601. He wrote a relation of his
voyage and of what happened in it_, with plates of the battle
and the ships, which afterwards was translated into Latin,
and Theodore de Bri (German) printed it in Frankfort in
the year 1602 ;i and both relations are going about the
world as a very prodigious thing, and as containing such
great labours and perils.
The same information was given by the pilot Bartolome
Perez, of the island of Palma, who, coming from England
by way of Holland, spoke to Oliver de Nort, who recounted
to him his voyage and hardships ; as the licentiate Fernando
de la Cueva relates in his letter dated in the island of Palma,
the last day of July of the year 1604, written to his brother
Marcos de la Cueva, residing in Manila, and one of the
volunteers who was on board the Spanish flagship which
fought the corsair. It is as follows : —
In this letter I reply to two of yours, one of July of 1601,
and the other of July of 1602 ; and in both you give me an
account of having been shipwrecked and having escaped by
swimming ; and long before that I had seen your letters
I had learned the event, and it kept me in great anxiety,
and even in much grief, in respect of what was said in these
parts, and the belief that you might be concerned in the
matter. Thus it was for me a singular satisfaction to be
assured that you remained with life and health, with which
the rest may be arrived at, and without which human trea-
' This German edition of Oliver van Noort forms an appendix to
Theodore de Bry's Mnth Fart of America, printed at Franckfurt, by
Wolffgang Richter, IGOl : the appendix was printed by Matthew Becker,
at Franckfurt, 1602. The plates on copper are different from those of
the Dutch edition of Oliver van Noort. This ninth volmne of De Bry's
America is catalogued 10,003 c in the British Museum. As much as
15,000 francs has lately been given for a complete copy of De Bry's voyages.
OLIVER VAN NOORT. 263
sure is of no value. By way of Flanders (v^hence every
day we receive ships in this island) I learned long before
all that had happened, though not with so many details ;
for Oliver de Nort, who was the Dutch general with whom
the engagement took place, arrived in safety in Holland,
with eight men, and himself nine, and without a penny.
When he went out of the rebellious states of Holland and
Zealand with five armed ships and merchandise, which
were worth, the principal and merchandise, a hundred and
fifty or two hundred thousand ducats, his design had been,
and he carried orders to trade, buying and selling through
the straits, and in the ports where he might be with friends
or enemies, and not to attack anybody, but only to defend
himself, and to reduce Indians to trade and deal with
him. Having all arrived together at the straits, three ships
parted company there with storms, and these must have been
lost, because till this day there has been no news of them.
Seeing that he had suffered such losses, and that he could
not by trade restore his loss, or because he did not find an
easy entrance and reception among the people of Peru, he
determined to exceed his orders, and make this voyage one
of robbery, and he posted himself at the mouth of the river
to wait for the ships : the rest happened which you know.
Oliver de Nort is a native of the city of Rotterdam, whither
he arrived with a wooden anchor,^ without having anything
else with which to moor his ship, nor any having remained
to him ; they say it is of a very heavy wood of the Indies,
and it is hung up at the door of his house for its size. He
arrived (as I have said) nine men in all, and in great distress,
and by a miracle, and he has printed a book of his voyage,
with pictures of the ships, and many other particulars of the
things which happened to him, and the hardships they under-
went in the engagement and during the whole voyage, as
^ This was the anchor that the Japanese captain gave him, as well as
a Japanese cable, in the bay of Manila, on the 3rd December, 1600.
264 OLIVER VAN NOORT.
mucli for his own glorification as to stimulate others to simi-
lar deeds. A pilot of this island, named Bartolome Perez,
was captured and carried off to England before the peace or
truce, and came through Holland, where he talked at length
with Ohver, who gave him a long account of all that
had happened, which is known to all, and he has spoken of
it in this island, before this voyage. Bartolome Perez says
that he gave great praise to the people, [the Spaniards] and
said that in his life he never saw more brilliant soldiers, and
that they had won the deck of the ship, and all the upper
parts ; and he called out beneath the deck to set fire to
the powder, and that with this it was understood that the
Spaniards went out of his ship,^ from fear of blowing up,
and they got an opportunity to escape, but so distressed
that it seemed a miracle their having reached port. He
[the pilot] says that he saw the anchor and the book^ and
in what concerns the book, here it is. I have given you
this relation on account of what you tell me in yours, since
you considered them as wrecked, and in order that so sin-
gular an event should be known in those parts.
Now the Dutch make the voyage much more speedily and
safely, going and returning by way of India, without touching
at its ports or coasts, until they enter by the islands of the
Javas^ greater and lesser, and Sumatra, Amboino, and the
Malucos ; as they know them so well, and have so much
experience of the great profits which they there obtain, it
will be hard to drive them out of the East, where they have
done such great injuries in spiritual and temporal matters.
> At p. 150 it is stated that Oliver van Noort's ship had been at the
taking of Cadiz by the Conde de Leste, that is to say, the Earl of Essex:
twenty-two Dutch ships sailed in his fleet.
2 What we now call Java used to be called Java major, and the
island of Bali was Java minor.
ACCOUNT OP THE PHILIPPINES. 265
\
CHAPTER VIII.
Account of the Philippine Islands, and of their Inhabitants, Antiquity,
Customs, and Government, both during the time of their paganism,
and since the Spanish conquest, with other particulars.
The isles of the eastern ocean, adjacent to further Asia,
belonging to the crown of Spain, by the demarcation of
Castile, and her seas and countries of America, are commonly
called by those who navigate to them the western isles ;
because from first leaving Spain, until reaching them, the
navigation to them is by the path which the sun follows from
east to west, and for the same reason, they are called eastern
by those who navigate by way of Portuguese India, from
west to east : both encircling the world by opposite voyages,
until they come and meet in these islands, for they are many
between great and small, which are properly called Philip-
pines, and are subjected to the crown of Castile. They are
within the tropic of Cancer, and extend from twenty-four
degrees north latitude, as far as the equinoctial line, which
passes through the islands of Maluco. There are many others
on the side of the line, in the tropic of Capricorn, which
extend as far as twelve degrees towards the south. The
ancients affirmed, that one and all they were desolate and
uninhabited ; now experience has shown that they had been
mistaken, there being found in them good climates, many
peoples, provisions and other things convenient for human
life : with many minerals, rich metals, gems and pearls,
animals and plants, of which nature has not been sparing.
All the isles of this great archipelago, between great
and small, are innumerable, those which are the Philippines
by name and government, maybe forty large islands, besides
other smaller ones, all continuous ; the principal and best
known are named Luzon, Mindoro, Tendaya, Capul, Burias,
266 DESCRIPTION OF
Mazbate, Marinduque, Leite, Camar, Ylabao^ Sebu^ Panay,
Bohol, Catenduanas, Calamianes, Mindanao, and others of
less name.
The first island which the Spaniards conquered and settled
was Sebu, where the conquest commenced, and was followed
up in all the surrounding islands : these are inhabited by
people natives of these same islands, who are named Biza-
yas, and by another name, Pintados (Picts) ; because the
men of most importance, from their youth, tattoo the whole
of their body ; pricking it in the appointed places, and
throwing over the blood certain black powders, which never
come out. But as the capital of the government and the
principal town of the Spaniards was transferred to the isle
of Luzon, which is a very large island, and nearer and more
opposite to Great China and Japan, it will be treated of first,
for much of what is said of it applies generally to the others,
whose specialities, and whatever particular matters each one
may possess, will be noted in their place.
This island of Luzon, from the point or head by which
the Philippine islands are entered by the channel of Capul,
which is in thirteen degrees and a half north latitude, to the
other extremity in the province of Cagayan, which they call
the cape of the Boxeador, opposite China in twenty degrees,
is more than two hundred leagues in length. In some parts
its width is much narrower than in others ; especially in the
middle the island is so narrow, that from sea to sea there
are less than thirty leagues. The whole island is of more
than four hundred leagues' circumference.
The temperature of this island is not one only ; on the
contrary there is much variety in different parts and pro-
vinces of it. The head and beginning of the island near the
channel, is temperate in the interior, though the sea-shores
are hot : and where the city of Manila is built, the site is
hot from being low and near the sea ; but in the neighbour-
hood, not far from the city, there are lands and towns which
THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 267
are mucli cooler^ where the heat is not disagreeable : the
same is the case at the other extremity of the island^ oppo-
site to China and Cagayan. The seasons of the year of
winter and summer are the reverse of what they are in
Europe, because usually in all the islands the rains are from
the month of June till that of September, with many heavy
showers, whirlwinds, and storms by sea and land ; and the
summer is from October till the whole of May, with a serene
sky and calms at sea ; though in some provinces the winter
and the rains begin earlier than in others, and in those of
Cagayan, winter and summer are almost similar, and fall
at the same time as in Spain.
The people who inhabit this great island of Luzon in the
province of Camarines, as far as near the provinces of Manila,
both in the maritime districts and in the interior, are
natives of this island, of middling stature, of the colour of
boiled quinces, well featured, both men and women, the
hair very black, scanty beard, of a clever disposition for any-
thing they undertake, sharp and choleric, and resolute. All
live by their labour, gains, fishing and trade, navigating by
sea from one island to another, and going from one province
to another by land.
The natives of the other provinces of this island as far as
Cagayan are of the same sort and quality, except that it is
known by tradition that those of Manila and its neighbour-
hood were not natives of the island, but had come to it, and
settled there in bygone times, and that they were Malays,
natives of other islands and remote provinces.
In various parts of the island of Luzon there are a
number of natives of a black colour, with tangled hair,^ men
and women, not very tall in stature, though strong and
with good limbs : these men are barbarians and of little
capacity, they have no houses nor settled dwelHngs ; they
go in troops and bivouac in the mountains and craggy
' Cahellos de pasas.
268 DESCRIPTION OF
ground, changing their abode according to the season from
one place to another, maintaining themselves with some
little tillage, and sowing of rice, which they do tem-
porarily, and with the game which they shoot with their
bows,i in which they are very dexterous and good marks-
men ; also with the mountain honey, and roots which grow
in the earth. They are barbarous people with whom there
is no security, inclined to murder, and to attack the towns
of the other natives, where they do great mischief without
its having been possible to take measures to prevent them,
nor to reduce them to subjection, nor bring them to a state
of peace, although it is always attempted by good and evil
means, as opportunity or necessity demands.
The province of Cagayan is inhabited by natives of the
same colour as the other inhabitants of the island, though
of better shaped bodies, and more valiant and wai-like than
the rest; their hair is long, hanging down over their
shoulders. They have been in insurrection and rebellion
twice since they were first reduced to submission, and there
has been much work on different occasions to subject them
and pacify them again.
The costume and dress of these inhabitants of Luzon,
before the Spaniards entered the country, usually consisted
of, for men, coats of cangan without collars, sewed together
in front, with short sleeves, coming a little below the waist,
some blue, others black, and a few of colours for the chief men,
these they call chininas ; and a coloured wrapper folded at
the waist and between the legs, so as to cover their middles,
and half-way down the thigh, what they call hahaqiies; their
legs bare, and the feet unshod, the head uncovered, and a
1 Flechan con sus arcos. This and a statement of De Quiros, p. 68,
contradicts an ojiinion referred to by Mr. Boyle, p. 252 of his Adven-
tures among the Di/aks of Borneo^ respecting the ignorance of the bow of
the Dyaks, which pa.ssage seems to imply that other South Sea islanders
are supposed to share this ignorance. These abwiginal savages of
Manila resemble the Pakatans of Borneo in their mode of life.
THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDERS. 269
narrow cloth wrapped round it with which they bind the
forehead and temples, called potong. Chains of gold wound
round the neck, worked like spun wax, and with links in
our fashion, some larger than others. Bracelets on the
arms, which they call calomhigas made of gold, very thick
and of different patterns ; and some with strings of stones,
cornelians and agates, and others blue, and white stones
which are much esteemed amongst them. And for garters
on their legs, some strings of these stones, and some cords
pitched and black wound round many times.
In one province which they call the Zamhals they wear
the front half of their head shaved, and on the skull a great
lock of loose hair. The women in the whole of this island
wear little frocks with sleeves of the same stuffs, and of
all colours, which they call varos ; without shifts, but some
white cotton wraps folded from the waist downwards to the
feet ; and other coloured garments fitting the body like
cloaks, which are very graceful. The great ladies wear
crimson, and some silk and other stuffs woven with gold,
and edged with fringes and other ornaments. Many gold
chains round the neck, calomhigas (bracelets) on the wrists
and thick earrings of gold in the ears, rings on the fingers
of gold and precious stones. The hair is black, and tied
gracefully with a knot on the back of the head. Since the
Spaniards are in the country many Indians do not wear
bahaques (waist cloths) but wide drawers of the same stuffs
and wrappers, and hats on their heads. The chiefs woi^e
braids of beaten gold, and of various workmanship, and
used shoes ; the great ladies also were daintily shod many
of them with shoes of velvet, embroidered with gold, and
white robes like petticoats.
Men and women, and especially the great peeple, are
very cleanly and elegant in their persons and dress, and
of a goodly mien and grace ; they take great care of their
hair, rejoicing in its being very black ; they wash it with
270 DESCRIPTION OF
the boiled rind of a tree^ which they call gogo, and they
anoint it with oil of sesame prepared with musk^ and other
perfumes. All take miich care of their teeth^ and from
tender age they file and make them of equal size, with
stones and instruments, and they give them a black colour,
which is perpetual, and which they preserve till they are
very old, although it makes them ugly to look at.
They very generally bathe their whole bodies in the
rivers and creeks, both young and old, without hesitation,
for at no time does it do them any harm ; and it is one of
the chief medicines they are acquainted with ; when a little
child is born, they immediately bathe it and the mother
likewise. The women have for their employment and
occupation, needlewoi-k, in which they excel very much, as
in all kinds of sewing ; they weave coverings, and spin
cotton, and serve in the houses of their husbands and
fathers. They pound the rice for their meals and prepare
the other victuals. They rear fowls and sucking pigs, and
take care of the houses, whilst the men are attending to
the labours of the field, their fisheries, voyages and gains.
The women, married and unmarried, are not very chaste,
and the husbands, fathers, and brothers are but slightly
jealous or careful in this matter. They and the women are
so interested and covetous, that if money is forthcoming,
they easily allow themselves to be overcome, and when a
husband finds his wife in adultery, without difficulty he is
calmed and appeased ; though since they know the
Spaniards, some of them who set up claims to know more
than others have at times killed the adulterers. In their
visits and in going about the streets and to the temples,
both men and women, and especially the principal ones,
walk very slowly and pay attention to their steps, and with
a large following of male and female slaves, and with silk
parasols which they cai*ry as a precaution against sun or
rain. The ladies efo in front and their maids and slaves
THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDERS. 271
behind, and behind them their husbands, fathers, and
brothers, with their servants and slaves.
Their ordinary food is rice, ground in wooden mortars,
and boiled, which is called morisqueta, this is the ordinary-
bread of all the country, boiled fish, of which there is great
abundance, and flesh of swine, deer, and wild buffaloes,
which they call carabaos. They prefer the taste of meat
and fish, when it has begun to spoil and stink. They also
eat boiled camotes, which are sweet potatoes, French beans,
quilites, and other vegetables, all sorts of plantains, guavas,
pine-apples, custard-apples, oranges of various sorts, and
other kinds of fruits and vegetables in which the country
abounds.
What is used for drink is a wine made from the tops of
cocoa-nut palms and nipal trees, of which there is great
abundance, and they are grown and cultivated like vines,
though with less labour and tillage. When the sap' is
taken from the palm, they distil it in retorts with their little
stoves and instruments, of a greater or less strength, and it
becomes spirits, and this is drunk in all the islands, and
it is a very clear wine, like water, but strong and dry ; and
if it is used with moderation it is medicinal for the stomach,
and against colds and all rheums ; and mixed with wine of
Spain it makes a sweet liquor, very wholesome and well-
tasted.
In the feasts, marriages, and meetings of the natives of
these islands, the principal thing is to drink this wine, day
and night without ceasing, all sitting in a circle, some sing-
ing, others drinking, with which they frequently get drunk,
without this vice being held amongst them as dishonourable
or infamous.
The weapons of these people are, in some provinces, bows
and arrows ; but in general throughout the isles they use
lances with well-made blades of a middling size, and shields of
• Tnla, Tagal word licor and mosto. Tagal Diet.
272 • PHILIPPINE WEAPONS.
light wood, with their handles fixed on the inside, which
cover them from head to foot, which they call carasas. At
the waist, a dagger four inches wide, the blade ending in a
point, and a third of a yard in length, the hilt of gold or
ivoiy, the pommel open with two cross-bars or projections,
without any other guard : they are called bararaos^, and are
two-edged, in sheaths of wood or buffalo horn, elegantly
worked. With these they strike with the point, but more
usually with the edge. They are very dexterous, when they
reach their adversary, if they lay hold of his hair with one
hand, with the other they at one blow cut oflf his head with
the hararao, and carry it away ; for afterwards they keep
them hung up in their houses, where they can be seen, which
they do ostentatiously, in order to be considered as valiant
men, and as men who have avenged themselves of their
injuries on their enemies."
Since they have seen the Spaniards use their arms, many
of them handle arquebuses and muskets very dexterously ;
and before that time they had small brass cannon, and other
pieces of cast-iron, with which they defended their forts and
towns, though their powder was not as fine as what the
Spaniards used.
Their boats and ships are of many kinds, for on the rivers
and creeks within the country, they use canoes made of one
very large tree, and others with benches made of planks and
built with keels ; also vireys and barangays, which are
vessels very swift and light, and low in the water, joined
together with wooden bolts, as slender at the stern as at the
bows, which contain many rowers on both sides, who with
• Balarao, a dagger, Bisay word. Tagal Dictionary of Fray Domingo
de los Santos, Manila, 1835.
^ This contradicts an opinion that head hunting in Borneo was a
modern and a recent innovation, which is mentioned in Mr. Boyle's
Adventures in Borneo, see pp. 318-319, for some very sensible remarks
by that unprejudiced observer on this custom; the only other people
who now practise it are the Montenegrins.
PHILIPPINE VESSELS. 273
buzeyes or paddles, and with oars/ row outside the vessel,
timing^ their rowing to the sound of some who keep singing
in their language, things to the pui'pose, by which they
understand whether they are to hasten or retard their row-
ing. Above the rowers there is a bailio or gangway made
of canes, upon which the fighting men stand, without
embarassing the crew of rowers ; upon this a number of men
go in proportion to the size of the ship, and there they
manage the sail which is square and of sail-cloth, and hoisted
on sheers made of two thick bamboos which serve as a mast,
and when the ship is large, it also carries a foremast of the
same form, and both sheers, with their tackle for loweringr
them upon the gangway, when the wind is contrary, and the
helmsman on the poop to steer. They carry another scaffold-
ing of canes on the gangway itself, upon which when the
sun is hot or it rains, they spread an awning of mats woven
with palm-leaves, very thick and tough, which they call
cayans,^ so that all the ship and its crew are covered and
sheltered. There is also another scaffolding of thick canes
on both sides of the vessel along its whole length, strongly
attached, and which skims the water, without impeding
the vessel's way, and serves as a counterpoise, to prevent
the vessel from capsizing or foundering, however much
sea there may be, or force of wind may press on the sail.
And it may happen that all the hull of the vessel will fill with
water, for they are undecked, and it will remain just under
the surface, until the water is got rid of, and baled out,
without sinking on account of these outriggers. These ves-
sels are commonly used in all the islands, from* ancient times,
and others still larger, which are called caracoas, and lapis,
and tapaques, to carry their merchandise, which are very
convenient as they are very capacious and draw little water ;
' Gaones, gayong, an oar. Tagal Dictionary.
"^ Jostrando.
' Carang^ an awning. Tagal Dictionary.
274 TREES, TIMBER,
and tliey draw them up very easily asliore every night at
the mouths of rivers and in creeks, where they always navi-
gate, without putting out to sea or leaving the land. All
the islanders know how to row and manage them. There are
some so large that they carry a hundred rowers on each side,
and thirty soldiers above them for fighting, and the ordinary
vessels are varangays and vireys of fewer rowers and people ;
and now in many of them, instead of the wooden bolts, and
sewing of the planks, they nail them with iron nails, and the
helms and prow with a beak head are in the Castilian
fashion.
The country is in all parts much overshadowed with trees
of various kinds of timber, and fruit trees, which beautify
it throughout the year, both on the sea-coast and in the
interior, in the plains and the mountains ; it is very full of
large and small rivers, of fresh sweet water running to the
sea ; and all these rivers are navigable and are full of fish,
very savoury and of many kinds. For this reason there is a
great abundance of timber, which is cut down and sawn,
and is dragged to the rivers, and is brought down by their
means. This timber is veiy good for houses and buildings,
and for the construction of large and small ships : and there
are many very straight thick trees, light and pliant, for
making masts of ships and galloons : so that any ships can
be fitted with masts of one piece of timber, without any
necessity for fishing them, or making them of pieces ; and
for the hulls of ships, the keel, futtock timbers, top timbers,
and any kind of futtock timbers, compass timbers, transoms,
knees, wedges of the mast, and rudders^, all sorts of good
timber is easily to be found, and good planks for the sides
and decks, and upper works, of timber very suitable to the
purpose.
There are many fruit trees in the country, such as sanc-
' Quilla, estamenaras, barraganetes, y qualquiera otra ligazon, buzardas,
puercaSf y corbatones^ y Haves, y timones.
FRUIT AXD VEGETABLES. 275
tores^ mabolos^ tamariuds^ jack fruit,i custard apples, pa-
paws, guavas, and many oi-ange trees iu all parts of different
kinds, large and small, sweet and sour, citrons and lemons,
plantains of ten or twelve varieties, very wholesome and
savoury, many cocoa-nut palm trees of good taste, from
wliicli they make wine, and a common sort of oil, very medi-
cinal for wounds, and other wild palms on the mountains,
which do not give cocoa nuts ; but their wood is useful, and
from the rind honote is made, which is tow for cordage and
ropes, and this is used for caulking ships. Attempts have
been made to plant olives and quince trees, and other fruit
trees of Spain, but up to the present time they have not
succeeded, except in the case of pomegranates and grape
vines, which give fruit in the second year, and bear very
good grapes abundantly, .three times a yeai', and some fig
trees. Green vegetables of all kinds grow very well and
yield abundantly, but they do not form seed, and it is
always necessary to bring seed from Castile, China, and
Japan.
In the province of Cagayan there are chestnut trees which
give fruit, and in other parts there are pine trees and other
trees, w^hich give very large pine-nuts, with a strong shell
and a pleasant taste, which they call piles.^ There is plenty
of cedar, which is called calanta,^ and a finely coloured wood,
which is called asana,^ ebony, one kind finer than another,
and other costly woods for all sorts of works. The meats
which are usually eaten are, flesh of swine, of which there
is great abundance, and it is very savoury and wholesome ;
cows, of which there are large herds in many parts of the
islands, of breeds from China and New Spain. Those of
China are a small cattle, very good breeders, with very small
crumpled horns, and some beasts shake them ; they have
got a large hump on their shoulders, and they are very
' Nangka, Malay name. - Pili^ Tagal.
^ Calantas, Tagal. * Asana, Tagal.
t2
276 CATTLE, FOWLS,
gentle cattle. There are many fowls like those of Castile,
and others very large, of a breed brought from China, very
well tasted, and which make very nice capons ; some of these
fowls are black in feather, skin, flesh and bones, and of a
good taste. Thei-e is much rearing of geese, and of
swans, ducks, and tame pigeons brought from China. Flesh
of wild game is very abundant, such as deer and wild boars,
and in some parts porcupines ; many buffaloes, which they
call caravaos, which are bred in the fields, and are very fierce
— there are others more tame which are brought from China,
of which there are a great number; they are very handsome,
and are only used for giving milk, which is thicker and
better tasted than that of cows.
Goats and kids are reared, though from the dampness of
the country, they have not a good taste, and grow sickly
and die from this cause, and because they eat some poisonous
herbs. Although ewes and rams have been brought many
times from New Spain, they never, multiply, so there is none
of this cattle, for the temperature and pasture up to the
present have not seemed to suit them. There were neither
horses, nor mares, nor asses in the islands until the Spaniards
had them brought from China and imported them from New
Spain ; asses and mules are very rare, but horses and mares
are in sufiicient quantity, and some estates are becoming
stocked with them ; those which are born in the country,
which are of cross breed, (the greater number), turn out
well and of good colours, well conditioned, willing to work,
and of middling height. Those which are brought from
China are small, very sturdy, of long step, vicious, quarrel-
some, and ill-conditioned. Some horses of good colours are
brouo-ht from Japan, well-shaped, of much mane, large fet-
locks, leg bones, and front hoofs, that they seem like dray-
horses, the heads rather large, hard in the mouth, slow
runners, but of a good step, spirited and of much mettle.
HORSES, BIRDS. 277
The daily feed of these horses is g-reen provender^ all the
year round, and rice in the husk, which keeps them very fat.
Fowls and field birds are in great abundance, also wild
birds of extraordinary colours and very showy ; but there
are no singing birds for cages, although they bring from
Japan some larks smaller than those of Spain, very sweet
songsters, which are called ^?n&aros.^ There are many doves,
woodpigeons, other doves of veiy green plumage, of coloured
feet and beak, others are white with a coloured spot on their
breast, like a pelican. Instead of quails there are some birds
which look like them, but smaller, which they call povos,^ and
other smaller singing birds.'^ Many wild cocks and hens,
very small, and tasting like partridge. There are herons,
royal, white, grey, flycatchers (doral) , and other shore birds,
ducks, wild ducks (lavancos), crested cranes (ayrones), sea
crows, eagles, eagle-owls, and other birds of prey, though
none ai-e used for hawking. There are jays and thrushes, as
in Spain, storks and cranes. There are no peacocks, rabbits,
nor hares, although they have been turned out ; it is under-
stood that the wild animals which are in the mountains
and fields have eaten and destroyed them, such as cats and
foxes, badgers, and greater and smaller rats, of which there
are great numbers in the country, and other land animals.
In all the islands there is an innumerable quantity of
monkeys, large and small, with which sometimes the trees
are covered. Parrots, green and white, but stupid at talk-
ing, and parroqueets, beautifully marked with green and
other colours, which do not talk either. In the mountains
1 Camalote^ for gamaloie, a plant like maize, with a leaf a yard long
and an inch wide: this plant grows to a height of two yards and a haK;
when green it serves for food for horses. Caballero's Dictionary,
Madrid, 1856.
- Larks; in Japanese, _^-Ja-ri. Medhnr&t's Japanese Vocabulary ^^.b9.
3 According to Mallat, i, 179, and the Tagal Dictionary, this should
lie pO'fO.
* Miiynelas nitiwre^^ diminutive of muiua, a talking bird.
278 SERPENTS, CROCODILES,
aad towns thei^e are many serpents of various colours, the
common ones are larger than those of Castile ; some have
been seen in the mountains of an extraordinary size, and much
to be wondered at. The most dangerous are some slender
ones less than an ell in length, which dart from the trees,
where they generally remain, upon those who pass under,
and bite them, and the venom is so efficacious that the per-
son dies raging within the twenty-four hours.
In the rivers and creeks there are many very large scor-
pions, and a great number of caymans, very cruel and blood-
thirsty, which very frequently drag the natives out of the
washing boxes which they use, and they do great mischief
to the horned cattle and stud horses when they go to drink,
and though great fishing and slaughter of them is made,
they never diminish, for which reason the natives put inside
the water, in the rivers and creeks, fences and inclosures
of thick grating where they bathe in security from these
monsters ; which they fear so much, that they revere and
venerate them as if they possessed a superiority over them,
and all their oaths and execrations, and those which are of
any importance amongst them — even amongst the Chris-
tians — are thus, may the cayman kill him, which they call in
their language Btihaya, and it has happened that people
have sworn falsely or broken their promises, and after that,
an accident has happened to them with the cayman, and
God has so permitted it for the authority and purity of truth,
and the affirming it which they have offended against.
The fisheries of the sea and rivers are exceedingly abund-
ant in all sorts of fresh and saltwater fish, and all the coun-
try people use it for their ordinary food. There are plenty
of good sardines, congers, sea bream, which they call bacoco,
dace, skate, bicudas and tanguingues, soles, plantanos and
taraquitos, needle-fish, dorados, eels, large oysters, mvissels,
par^cbcs, crabs, shrimps, sea spiders, center fish, and all sorts
of shell fish, sliad, white fish, and in the river Tagus of Caga-
FISH. 279
van, in their season, a great quantity of bobos, wbicb come
down to spawn at the bar ; and in the lagoon of Bonbon many
tunny fish are killed in their season, not so large as those of
Spain, but of the same make, flesh and taste. In the sea there
are many mai'ine fish, such as whales, sharks, caellas, marajos
bufeos, and others not known, of exti-aordinary shape and
size. In the year 1596, during a great storm which fell
ujDon the islands, a fish was cast ashore on the coast of
Luzon, towards the province of Camarines, so great and de-
formed, that although it was stranded in water of more
than three and a half fathoms deep, it could not again get
afloat, and there it perished. The inhabitants said they had
never seen a similar animal, nor any other of that form ; its
head was of extraordinary size and ferocity, and on the fore-
head it had two horns, which fell towards its back ; one of
them was brought to Manila, it was covered with its skin or
leather, without hair or scales, and it was white, and twenty
feet in length, of the thickness of a man's thigh at the root,
and it went growing proportionately more slender towards
the point ; it was somewhat curved, and not very round,
and, as far as could be perceived, all solid. It caused much
astonishment to those that saw it.i
In the island of Luzon, at five leagues from Manila,
there is a fresh water lagoon with much fish, into which
many rivers enter, and the water issues to the sea by the
river which comes out of it, and goes to Manila ; it is called
the lagoon of Bay. It is thirty leagues in circumference,
and has an uninhabited island in the middle, with much game.
On its shores there are many towns of the natives, who sail
upon it, and cross over it ordinarily in their boats; at times
it is very stormy, and dangerous to sail upon with the
noi'th winds, which make it rage very much, though sound-
ings are easih^ found.
There is another lagoon at twenty leagues from Manila,
' Xo tisli is known answering to tliis cUscription.
280 FISH, PICKLES.
iu the province of Bonbon of the same name, not so large
but very full of fish. The method of the natives for catch-
ing them, is by making inclosures of bejucos, which are
canes or reeds, solid and very pliable, and tough, they are
slender, and are twisted into cables and other cordage for
their vessels. They catch the fish inside these inclosures
which are made fast in a ring with stakes, and in creels
which they make of these canes ; and the most ordinary
ways are with watch-towers^ and fishing-nets, and other
small drag-nets, and with strings and hooks by hand. The
most usual food of the natives is a fish as small as pejerreys;
this they dry and cure in the sun and wind, and cook it in
various ways, and they like it better than larger fish, and
amongst them its name is laulau.
Instead of olives, and other fruits for pickles, they have
a green fruit like walnuts which they call paos ; " there are
some very small, also a larger size, these when prepared
have a good taste ; they also put cucumbers into brine
pickle, and all sorts of vegetables and green sprouts, which
are very pleasing to the taste.
There is much ginger, which is ate green, and with
vinegar, and in preserve ; and much cachumba, instead of
safii'on and other spices. The ordinary dainty in all these
islands, and in many kingdoms of the mainland, of these
parts is the hiiyo. This is made from a tree which has a
leaf of the pattern of the mulberry leaf, and the fruit^ is
like an acorn of an oak, and the inside is white ; this fruit
which is called honga is cut lengthwise in parts, and each
oile of these is put into a wrapper or envelope, which is
made of the leaf, and a powder of quicklime is put in-
' Atarraya^ probably for atalaya^ a raised stand from which watchers
can see when the fish come within the nets.
^ The Tagal Dictionary translates faho^ olives.
3 De Morga describes tlie leaf and fruit as if tliey came off the same
tree: the buyo is the betel, or tambnl, or siri, and is the leaf of a creeper;
and the honya is the aroca or iiinanp, and comes from a palm tree.
BETEL CHEWING. 281
side with the honga, and this composition is put into the
mouth and chewed. It is so strong a thing, and heats so
much that it brings on sleep and inebriates j^ and those
Avho are not used to it, it burns their mouths with
pain. The saHva and all the mouth become coloured
like blood, and marked for a long time; it is not of a bad
savour ; it is spit out of the mouth when no more juice
remains in it which is called za2oa. Whatever of it has
passed into the stomach they find verj beneficial, for
making it comfortable, and against various illnesses; it
strengthens and preserves the teeth and gums from all
rheums, decay, and aches, and they relate of it other
wonderful efiects. What has been seen of it is that the
natives and Spaniards, laymen and clergy, men and women,
all use it so commonly and habitually, that morning and
afternoon, in assemblies and visits, and alone in their
houses, all their treats and luxury consist in dishes and
salvers for hnyos much gilt, and well arranged, as chocolate
is served in New Spain ; in these buyos poison has been
given to many persons, of which they have died poisoned,
aud this is a very common occurrence.
The natives when they go out of their houses, especially
the great men, ca.rry with them for state and show their
small boxes which are called huccetas^ of buyos ready made
up, and the leaf and nut and quicklime separately ; with
these curious boxes of metal and other materials, and
scissors and other tools for making buyos with care and
1 Apparently De Morga did not use tambul, and his experience seems
to resemble Mr. Boyle's, who compares the effect with that of " a school-
boy's first pipe of shag:" he says, 'however, that the Sarawak officers
assured him it never had had any stimulating effect upon them. I never
heard of it before as a stimulant, but only as a stomachic : I never tried
it however myself.
2 It is not clear who call these caskets by this name. I imagine it to
be the Spanish name, properly spelt buxeta. The King of Calicut's
betel box is called buxen in the Barcelona MS. of the JMalabar coasts.
OftO
VAPJOUS POISONS.
neatness^ wherever they stop they make and use them^ and
in the Pai-iaus which are the markets^ they are sold^ ready
prepared, and the materials for making them.
The natives of these islands very commonly use for
poisons the herbs which are to be found everywhere of this
kind, they are so deadly and efficacious that they produce
wonderful efiects. There is a lizard usually to be found in
buildings, of a deep green colour, a span in length, and of
the thickness of three fingers, it is called chacon ; they put
it inside a bamboo box and shut it up ; and gather up
what this animal slavers during its confinement, which is
a very strong poison (as it has been said) when mixed in
food or drink, however small the quantity may be. There
are other herbs which the natives know and gather for the
same need, some dry and others green, for mixing with
food or for fumigation ; and others which kill by only
touching them with the hands, or the feet, or by sleeping
upon them ; and they are so skilful in making up com-
positions of these, that they temper them, and apply them
in such manner that they produce their efiect at once, or
after long or short periods as they choose, even should it be
at the end of a year; in which way many people frequently
die miserably. Especially Spaniards, who are little circum-
spect, and ill-governed, and abhorred for the ill usage
with which they treat the natives with whom they have
dealings, either in the collection of their tributes, or in other
things in which they employ them against their will, with-
out its being possible to remedy it. There are some
poisonous herbs, which when the natives gather them they
carry with them a provision of counter-herbs, and in the
isle of Bohol, there is one of such quality that in order to
cut it from the scrub in which it grows they approach it
from the windward, because even the wind which passes
over it is deadly. Nature has not left this danger without a
remedy, because in the same islands other herbs and roots
ANTIDOTES. 283
are found, whicli possess such power and virtue, as to undo
and correct the poison and malice of the others, and they
are aj^plied in cases of necessity. Thus, when it is known
what poison it is that has been given, it is not difficult, if
recourse be had in time, to remedy it by giving the counter-
herb which is antagonistic to that poison ; and sometimes it
has happened that pressure has been put upon the person who
was suspected of having done the mischief to make him bring
the counter-herb, and so the patient has been cured. There
are also other counter-herbs of general use both for pre-
servation against poison, as well as for counteracting it
when taken, but the most certain and efficient remedy is
some little flies or cochineals of a purple colour, which are
found in the isles of Pintados in some shrubs, which when
shut up in a clean hollow cane, with the mouth closed,
breed and multiply therein ; a little ground rice is put
inside for them to feed upon, and visiting them every eight
days, that rice is taken away and fresh is given them, and
so they remain alive. If six of these little flies are taken in
a spoonful of wine, or of water, for they have no bad smell,
and taste of water-cresses, they produce a wonderful effect ;
and they are often taken even on going out to invitations,
or to dinners which are at all suspicious, and they preserve
and make sure against any risk of poison.
All these islands are in many parts rich in gold washings,
and in ore of this metal, which the natives extract and work ;
although since the Spaniards are in the country, they proceed
more slowly with this, contenting themselves with what they
have already got in jewels, and from a far distant time, and
inherited from their predecessors, which is a large quantity,
for he must be a very poor and wretched person, who does
not possess any chains of gold, bracelets, and ear-rings.
In the province of Camarines, in Paracali, they work some
washings and mines, where there is good gold upon copper,
also in Ylocos this mei'chandise is dealt in, because at
284 GOLD ORE.
the back of this province, which is on the edge and coast of
the sea, tliere are some high and craggy mountain ranges,
which run as far as Cagayan, on the slopes of which many
islanders dwell, in the interior of the country ; these are
not yet subdued, nor has any entrance been made amongst
them, they are named Ygolotes. These possess rich mines,
and many of them of gold upon silver, from these they
extract only as much as they require for their wants ; and
they descend with this gold, without completing its refine-
ment or bringing it to perfection, to trade with the Ylocos
in certain places, where they exchange the gold for rice,
swine, and buffaloes, wraps, and other things of which they
are deficient ; and the Ylocos finish the refining it, and get-
ting it read}^, and by their means it is dispersed over the
whole country. And although steps have been taken with
these Ygolotes to discover their mines, and how they work
them, and the method they possess for extracting the metal,
there has been no means of knowing it ; because they are
apprehensive of the Spaniards, who would go to look them
up for the sake of the gold ; and they say, that they keep it
better taken care of in the earth than in their houses.^
In the other islands there is the same plenty of mines and
gold washings, especially in the Pintados, river of Botuan,
in Mindanao, and in Sebu, where a mine is worked, and
good gold extracted, named Taribon, and if the industry
and labour of the Spaniards were applied to working the
gold mines, as much would be extracted from any of these
isles, as from the other provinces in the rest of the world :
' Et sic melius situm qimm term cehxt. Fernando de los Rios (Thevenot,
vol. ii) says that there was nincli gold in the mountains forty leagues
from the city, in the province of Pangasinan, and that Guido de La-
bazarris, the governor, SL>nt some soldiers to search for it, but they re-
turned in a sickly state, and suppressed all knowledge of the mines, so
as not to be sent back there. The Doniiuican monks also suppressed
all knowledge of the mines, on account of the tyranny of Avliich gold
liad been the cause in the West Indies.
PEARLS, CHINA JARS. 285
but attending to other gains more than to this, as will be
said in its place, this was not attempted with design or
purpose.
On some of the coasts of these islands there are pearl
oysters, particularly in the Calamianes, and some very large
and clean, and orient, have been obtained. Xeither is the
working of this branch attended to, and in all parts, in the
shells of the ordinary oyster, grains of seed-pearl are found,
and oysters as large as a buckler, with which they manufac-
ture curious things. Likewise there are very lai'ge turtles
in all the isles, and the natives obtain their shells, and sell
them as merchandise to the Chinese and Portuguese, and
other nations, who come to seek them, and value them highly
for the rarities which they make with them.
In any of these islands, on the coasts, a quantity of small
white snails are found, which they call sicjuey ; the natives
collect them, and sell them by measure to the Siamese,
Cambodians, Pautan men, and other nations of the mainland,
where th.ej serve as coin, and they trade with them, as they
do in New Spain with cacaos.
The horns of the caravao are goods sent to China, and
skins of deer, and coloured wood to Japan. The natives
turn everything to use with these nations, and derive great
profits from them.
In this island of Luzon, particularly in the provinces of
Manila, Pampanga, Pangasinan, and Ylocos, there are to be
found amongst the natives, some large jars^, of very ancient
earthenware, of a dark colour, and not very sightly, some of
a middle size, and others smaller, with marks and seals, and
they can give no account from whence they got them, nor
at what period ; for now none are brought, nor are they
made in the islands. The Japanese seek for them and value
' Tilor. See description of similar jars fetching very high prices, the
best called <7«si^, 1500 to 3000 dollars, the second kind 400 dollars ^ o£100
amongst the Dayaks, in Mr. Boyle's Adventures in Borneo^ p. 93.
286 AMBEKGRIS, CIVET.
them, because they have found out that the root of a herb
which they call cha, which is drunk hot, as a great dainty,
and a medicine, among the kings and lords of Japan, does
not keep or last except in these jars, upon which so high a
value is set in all Japan, that they are the most valued
precious things of their boudoirs and wardrobes ; and atibor
is worth a high price, and they adorn them outside with fine
gold, chased with great elegance, and they put them in
brocade cases ; and there are some tibors, which are valued
and sold at two thousand taels of eleven reals each, and less,
according as each one is, without its detracting from its
value, its being cracked or chipped ; because this does no
harm for keeping tea inside it. The natives of these islands
sell them to the Japanese, at the best price they can get,
and take pains to find them for these gains ; although now
few are to be found, on account of the haste with which they
have been sought up to this time.
Sometimes the natives have found large pieces of amber-
gris on the coasts, and as they see that the Spaniards
value it, now they know it, and have made profits from it ;
and last yeai-, 1602, the natives in the island of Sebu found
a good piece of ambergris, which when their collector, [en-
comendero) heard of, he took it secretly and exchanged it
on account of their ti-ibutes ; and they say that it weighed
a good many pounds. Afterwards he brought it out, and
sold it a higher price by the ounce.
In the isle of Mindanao, in the province and river of Bu-
tuan, which is pacified and committed to the Spaniards,
the natives have another means of gain, bringing much
profit, for there are many civet cats, though smaller than
those of Guinea ; they obtain the civet and barter it. They
do this easily, for when there is no moon they go out to hunt
them with nets, and catch many cats, and taking the civet
from them, they let them go again. They also take a few
and put them in cages, and soil them in the islands at low
prices.
BABUYTANES AND CATENDUANES ISLES. 287
A great deal of cotton grows in all the islands, and tliey
spin it, and sell it in skeins to tlie Chinese and other nations
who come for it ; and with it they also weave wrappers of
various sorts, which they also sell, and others made of plan-
tain leaves which they call medrinaques.^
The islands of Babuytanes" are several small islands at
the head of the province of Cagayan. The principal means
of gaining their livelihood of the inhabitants is, coming to
Cagayan in Tapaques (skiffs) with pigs, fowls, and other sup-
plies, and lances of ebony, which they sell. These are not
placed under Spanish collectors, neither is tribute taken from
them, nor are there Spaniards amongst them, as they are
people of less reason and culture, and so no Christians have
been made amongst them, neither have they magistrates.
There are other islands at the other extremity of the island
of Luzon, opposite the province of Camarines, in fourteen
degrees north latitude, near the strait of Espiritu Santo,
named the Catenduanes. They are thickly inhabited by
natives of a good disposition, all placed under Spanish
collectors, with churches and catechisers, and a chief alcalde
who administers justice to them : the greater part of them
till the ground, and others occupy themselves with gold
washing, and trading from one island to another, and to the
mainland of Luzon, which is ver}^ near them.
The isle of Luzon has, on the coast and southern side, at
a short hundred leagues from the cape of Espiritu Santo, by
which the strait of Capul is entered, a bay thirty leagues
round, which has a narrow entrance, and in the middle of it,
1 Jferi/iaque^ the modern name in Spain for a crinoline, said to be an
Indian word in some dictionaries. Of other words which have passed
into vernacular Spanish from the East Indian Archipelago, I have at
present only found champurrar, to mix liquors, from the Malay tchampur
of the same meaning ; this has passed into Algerine French as champoraux
(from champurrado)^ meaning hot coffee and spirits in about equal
quantities.
- This name seems to be Malay, Bahu-iitan, wild swine.
288 BAY OP MANILA.
there is an island across, whicli makes it narrower, called
Miraveles, which may be two leagues in length, and half a
league wide. It is high ground, and well wooded with many
trees ; it contains a town of fifty persons, where the watch-
man of the bay has his house and residence. At both points
there are channels for entering into the bay, one on the south
side, of half a league wide, with a rock in the middle which
is called the Friar ; and the other on the north side much
narrower, and through both any large ships can enter and go
out. All the bay has good soundings and a clean bottom,
with good anchorage in all parts. From these entrances to
the town of Manila and bar of the river there are eight
leagues ; and at two leagues to the south of Manila, there is
a large cove with a point of land which conceals it, in which
is a native town called Cabit,i from which this cove takes its
name, which serves as a port for ships. It is very capacious,
and sheltered from the south-westers, and the winds from
the S.S.W., W., W.S.W., N.N.W., and N. points, and has
good anchorage, clean, and in easy soundings. Very near
the land there is a good entrance of more than a league and
a half in width, for ships to go in and out. This bay all
round is very well supplied, and abounds in all sorts of fish-
eries, and is well peopled with natives. Above Manila there
is a province of more than twenty leagues named Pampanga,
with many rivers and creeks which water it, and the outlet
of all this water is into the bay : this province is well
peopled by natives, with great abundance of rice, fruit, fish,
meat, and other provisions.
The bar of the river of Manila, which is in this bay,
close to the town of Manila on one side, and to Tondo on
the other, has little water on it, on account of some sand
banks, which with the floods change their positions, and
• Cavite derives its name from the Tagal word cavit, a creek, or bend,
or hook, for such is its form. Manila derives its name from a plant
called mani by the islanders. Mallat, i, 17G and 163.
PHILIPPINE PORTS. 289
become obstructions ; so tliat although when once the bar
is passed the river contains sufficient depth of water for any
ship, yet unless they are frigates, and vireys, and other small
craft, they cannot pass to enter the river, and in what con-
cerns galleys, and galliots, and Chinese vessels, which draw
little water, they are obliged first to dischai^ge their cargoes,
and enter with spring tides and by towing ; so they anchor
in the bay outside the bar, and as there is not so much
security there, they enter the port of Cab it.
At twenty leagues from the channel of Capul, in the same
isle of Luzon, there is another good port, sheltered from the
south-westers, with a good entrance and anchorage, called
Ybalon, Here ships which have put in under stress of the
south-westers find shelter, and wait till the wind shifts for
entering Manila, which is eighty leagues off.
On the coasts of Pangasinan, Ylocos, and Cagayan, thei'e
are some ports and bars into which ships can enter and re-
main, such as the cove of Marihuma, the port of the Frayle,
of Bolinao, the bar of Pangasinan and that of Bigan, the bars
of Camalaynga at the mouth of the river Tagus, which goes
up two leagues to the principal town of Cagayan, without
mentioning other rivers, bars and coves, and shelters of
less importance, for smaller vessels, along all the coasts of
this island.
Close to this great island of Luzon there are many other
islands, large and small, very near to it, peopled by the same
inhabitants as Luzon, with gold washings, tillage, and other
employments, such as Marinduque, isle of Tablas, Mazbate,
Burias, Banton, Bantonillo, and others of less importance.
Among these, the nearest to Manila is the island of Mindoro,
which is more than eighty leagues long, and about two
hundred in circumference. It contains many towns of the
same natives, and on the side which is opposite to the pro-
vinces of Balayan and Calilaya it is so near and close to the
island of Luzon that it makes a strait with strong currents
u
290 NAVIOATION.
and races, by whicli ships pass to and fro to go to Manila,
witli much force of wind and current, and the strait may be
half a league wide. In this part the principal town of the
isle of Mindoro is situated, with a port called the Varadero,
for large ships, besides other roadsteads and bars which the
whole island contains for smaller vessels. There are many
native towns on all the shores of this island, and all abound
in rice and provisions, and gold washings, and woods and
game.
The Cape of Espiritu Santo, which has to be sighted to
enter the Philippine Islands by ships coming from New Spain,
is in an island called Tendaya, in barely thirteen degrees ;
and twenty leagues further along the coast^ leaving this
Cape Espiritu Santo to the south, is the island of Viri, and
many others are now sighted, through which a passage
opens to the isle of Sebu, through a strait called San Juan-
iilo, which these islands make, and which is not very good
or safe for large ships. More to the north, having left this
passage, the isle of Capul is reached, which makes a strait
and channel with many currents and races, through which
ships enter. Before reaching this strait, there is a rock or
islet in the middle, called San Bernardino. The strait is
made by the coast of the island of Luzon and that of the
island of Capul : the channel may be a league in length and
less in width.
At the outlet of this strait, after having entered it, three
small islets are sighted in a triangle, which are called
the (naranjos) orange tree islands, they are high and free
from rocks, upon which ships are driven with the violent
currents, and exertions are made to escape from them. They
are uninhabited ; but the other islands are large, and contain
many towns of natives, and all sorts of provisions and sup-
plies.
From this part towards the south, are the islands of Bis-
ay as, also called Pintados, which are many, and thickly peopled
BISAYAS ISLANDS. 291
with natives ; and those of most name are Leite^ Ybabao,
Camar^ Bohol^ the isle of Negros, Sebn, Panay, Cuyo, and
Calamianes. All the inhabitants of these islands, both men
and women, are well featured, and of a good disposition, and
more well conditioned, and of more noble conduct than the
inhabitants of the isle of Luzon, and other neighbouring
isles.
They are different from them in their hair, which the men
wear cut in a cue, like the ancient Spanish fashion, and their
bodies painted with many designs, without touching the
face. They wear very large eai"rings in their ears of gold
and ivory, and bracelets of the same material ; head-dresses
twisted round their heads, very hollow like turbans, with
graceful knots, and much striped with gold ; jackets with
tight sleeves, without collars, with skirts half way down the
leg, fastened in front, of medrinaque and coloured silks.
They do not wear shirts nor drawers, but bahaques (waist
cloths) of many folds, so that their middles are covered when
they take off the jackets and skirts. The women are good
looking and pleasing, very elegant, and slow in their gait,
their hair black and long, and tied up on the head; their
wrappers are twisted round the waist, and hang down over
them ; they are of all colours, and their jackets of the same,
without collars. They all go, men and women, without
cloaks or other covering, and barefoot, with much adorning
of gold chains, earrings, and wrought bracelets.
Their weapons are long knives, curved like alfanges,'
lances and shields ; they use the same boats as the people of
Luzon ; they have the same labours, fruits, and occupations
as all the other islands. These Bisayas are people less in-
clined to agi'iculture, and are skilful in navigation, and eager
for war and expeditions, on account of the pillage and cap-
tures, which they call Mangubas, which is the same as to
go out to rob.
' Like the Malay parami latnk of Boi-neo.
u2
292 ISLE OF SEBU,
In the island of Sebu, close to the principal town there
is a fine harbour for all sorts of ships, with a good
entrance ; and sheltered in all weather, of good soundings
and good anchorage, besides other ports and bars of less
name and importance, such as there are in all these islands
for smaller vessels.
The isle of Sebu is more than a hundred leagues in
circumference, it abounds in provisions, mines, gold-wash-
ings, and is inhabited by natives.
Beyond it there are other very good and well peopled
islands, especialty the isle of Panay, which is large, of more
than a hundred leagues circuit, with many native towns,
with a very great abu.ndance of rice, palm wine, and all
provisions. It has some large rich towns in what is called
the river of Panay, and the principal one is Oton, with a
bar and harbour for galleys and ships ; and stocks for build-
ing ships of large size, and great plenty of timber for con-
struction.
There are many natives skilled in building any sort of
ships, and close to this island there is an islet of eight
leagues in circumference, very full of natives who are all
carpenters, and very good workmen ; they follow no other
employment or livelihood, and without having a tree to
speak of in the whole island, they exercise this art with
much dexterity and excellence, and all the islands supply
themselves with artisans for carpentry from this place,
which is called the island of the Cagayans.
After the island of Sebu, next comes the island of Min-
danao, which has a circuit of more than three hundred
leagues, and Jolo Avhich is small; and lower down the
island of P)Orneo, which is very large, more than five
hundred leagues in circumference. All these islands are
thickly inhabited, though this island of Borneo is not
subdued, nor that of Mindanao entirely, but only the
river of Botuan and Dapitan, and the province and coast
of Caragan.
PLOW OP THE TIDES. 293
Below this island, before reaching that of Borneo, are the
islands of the Calamianes, which are a great number of
islands, large and small, thickly peopled with natives, with
some provisions and tillage ; though what they chiefly
follow is their voyages for barter and profit from one island
to another, and their fisheries ; and those who live nearer
Borneo go cruising, and plundering the natives of other
isles.
The ebb and flow, and the spring and neap tides in these
islands, are so varied that there is no certain rule ; either
on account of the great currents which there are amongst
so man}^ islands, or for some other secret of nature with
respect to the flux and reflux which the moon causes, of
which no certain reason has been able to be discovered ;
because although during the moon's opposition the tides
are higher, and during the March moon they flow higher
than during the whole remaining part of the year, yet in
the tides of every day there is so much variety, that it
causes surprise. Some days there are two equal tides
(between day and night), other days there is only one; at
other times the flow during the day is low, and that during
the night is greater; and generally they have no fixed
time ; for it will happen that it is high tide at noon, and
the next day it will be many hours either earlier or later,
and one day the tide will be little, and the following day
when it is expected to be less, it will be very much
higher.
The language of all the Pintados and Bisayas is one and
the same, by which they understand one another, speaking
and writing, with letters and characters which they have
of their own, and which resemble those of the Arabs; the
usual writing of the natives is on leaves of trees, and on
canes, upon the bark ; for in all the islands there are many
with the joints of enormous size, and the roots are very
thick and solid trees.
294 LANGUAGE AND WRITING.
The language of Luzon and the islands of its neighbour-
hood is very different from that of the Bisayas ; and in the
isle of Luzon the language is not all the same, for the
Cagayans have one language, and the Ylocos another;
the Zambals have a language of their own, the Pam-
pangos have one diffex-ent from that of the others ; those
of the province of Manila who are called Tagals have a
very abundant and copious language, with which they ex-
press with elegance whatever they wish, in different ways
and manners, and it is not difficult to learn nor to
pronounce.
They write very well in all the islands, with some
characters something like Greek or Arabic, which are in all
fifteen ; three are vowels, which serve for our five ; th e
consonants are twelve, and they one and all with points
and commas combine and signify whatever it is wished to
write, as fully and easily as is done with our Spanish
alphabet.
The way of writing was on canes, and now on paper,
beginning the lines from the right hand to the left, in the
Arabic fashion ; almost all the inhabitants, both men and
women, write in this language and there are very few of
them who do not write it very well and with correctness.^
^ A Relation of the Philippine Islands, by a monk who had resided
there eighteen years, given by Thevenot, gives a plate (which has been
reproduced here) of the Tagal alphabet, which consists of twelve con-
« C, I. o. u. ■
La. cci. ciu-. ^« - «ct, la. ma. ma. pa, sa. ta. ya.
6e.Li. ce.ci. Lo.bu. co.ou. 7ic.ni.vn.7iu.
sonants and three vowels, wliich serve as live: the consonants, when not
marked by any point, arc pronounced with a; if they bear a i:)oint above.
HOUSES. 295
This language of the province of Manila extends over all
the province of Camarines and other islands which are not
conterminous to Luzon, with little difference between that
of one part and another ; except that in some provinces
they speak with more culture than in others.
The buildings and houses of the natives of all these Philip-
pine isles are of oue-same kind, and their towns also; because
they always construct them on the sea shore between rivers
and creeks ; the natives usually collecting together in
quarters and towns wherever they sow their rice and own
their palms, nipa trees, plantain groves, and other trees,
and apparatus for fisheries and navigation ; and fewer
number inhabit the interior of the country, who are the
Tinguians, these also seek for sites by rivers and creeks on
which they settle for the same objects.
The houses and dwellings of all these natives, are usually
founded upon posts and piles [arigues^,) high above the
ground, with small rooms and low roofs, covered over and
tiled with leaves of the palm, each house by itself, without
one joining on close to another. At the bottom they
are fenced in with stakes and canes, inside which they rear
their fowls and animals, and sift and pound their rice ; the
ascent into the house is by means of ladders that can be drawn
up, made of two bamboos ; above they have the galleries'"'
open for use, fathers and sons altogether, with little adorning
and furniture in the house, which they call bahaudin.^
they are pronounced Tinth e or i ; if the point is below, they are pro-
nounced with o or u. The Tagals have learned from the Spaniards to
write from left to right ; formei'ly they wrote from top to bottom.
' Arigues. M. Mallat, vol. ii, p. 161, says, the theatre is built on
high piles, and adds in a parenthesis the word (arigues)^ so that it is
apparently still in use, and must be the Spanish corruption of the Tagal
hcdigui^ a post, column, pillar. Ang. manga santos, manga haligui sa
Santa Igiesia. The saints are pillars of the church. Tagal Dictionarg^
Manila, 1793, reprint of 1835.
- Batalanes, Tagal word for corri^lor, galk'ry.
•■' Bahag^ Tagal a liousc.
296 CHIEFS AND EULEES.
Besides these houses, which are the ordinary ones, and
belonging to people of less importance, there are the houses
of the great men, built upon trees and thick piles {arigues),
very roomy and commodious, well constructed of timber and
planks, large and strong, furnished and fitted with all that
is necessary, with much more splendour and substance than
the others, but like the rest covered with leaves of the palm
called nipa, which protect from the rain and sun much more
than either shingles or tiles, though there is greater danger
from fire.
The natives do not inhabit the lower part of their houses,
because they rear their birds and animals in them, and on
account of the humidity and heat of the earth, and for the
number of rats, which are very large and mischievous both
to the houses and seed in the fields : also, because as they
are usually built on the beach, and on the shores of rivers
and creeks, the lower parts are bathed in the waters, and so
they leave them open.
In all these isles, there were neither kings nor rulers who
goveimed them, after the manner of other kingdoms and
provinces ; but in each island and province, the natives re-
cognised many of their number as chiefs, some greater than
others, and each one with his partizans and subjects divided
into quarters and families, and they obeyed and respected
them ; some of these chiefs maintained friendship and cor-
respondence with others, and at times wars and disputes.
These chiefdoms and lordships were inherited by filiation
and succession from father to son, and their descendants ;
and in default of them, the brothers and collaterals suc-
ceeded. Their duty was to rule and govern their subjects and
partizans, and assist them in their wants and necessities ;
and what they received from their subjects was, to be greatly
respected and venerated by them, and served in their wars,
navigation, and labours of tillage and fishery, and the con-
struction of their houses, which they always came to assist
CHIEFS AND RULERS. 297
iu, wlieu they were summoned by tlieir chief, with great
punctuality. They also paid them tributes of the fruits which
they gathered in, which they called buiz, some giving more,
others less ; the descendants of the chiefs and their kinsmen,
were respected in the same manner, although they had not
inherited the lordship, all these being esteemed as nobles,
and persons exempt from the services of the other plebeians,
who were named Timaguas.^ The same nobility and chief-
ship was preserved amongst the women, as amongst the men,
and when any of these chiefs was more spirited than others,
in war or in other occasions, such an one brought round
him a larger number of partizans and of men, and by him the
others were governed, even though they were chiefs also: they
retained in their own hands, however, the lordship and special
government of their own party, which amongst them is named
barangai, having datos (chiefs) and other special messengers
who attend to the administration of the barangay."
The supremacy which these chiefs had over the men of
their barangay, was so great, that they held them as subjects,
for good and evil treatment, and disposed of their persons,
children, and property at their will, without opposition, and
without having to give an account to any one ; and for small
causes of anger, and on trifling occasions they killed and
wounded them, and reduced them to slavery ; and it has
happened, that for having passed in front of the chiefs whilst
they were bathing in the river, or for having raised the eyes
to look at them disrespectfully, or for other similar causes,
that these subjects have been made slaves of for ever.
Whenever any of the natives had suits or differences with
others, in matters of property and interests, or with respect
to injuries and damage done to their persons, ancients of the
same faction were named, who heard them, the parties being
present ; and if proofs were to be presented they brought
' Pronoimced Timawa.
- In the Tagal dictionary Balamjaij. a quarter, a district.
298 LAWS AND CUSTOMS.
there their witnesses, aud according to what appeared, they
at once judged the cause, in accordance with what had been
the usage of their predecessors on similar occasions : and
that decision was observed and executed without other reply
or delay.
In all the islands these laws were, in the same manner, by
tradition of the usages of the ancients, without keeping any-
thing written : in some pi-ovinces the customs were different
from what they were in others ; in some matters, though in
most things they agree and were in conformity, generally
throughout the island.
There are three classes of persons amongst the inhabitants
of these islands, and into which their republic is divided ;
the nobles, who have already been spoken of; the Timaguas
who are the same as plebeians ; and slaves belonging both to
the nobles and the Timaguas.
O
These slaves were established on several different footings ;
some were in entire servitude and slavery, like those whom
we hold, and these were called Saguiguilires, who served
within the houses, and the children who were born of them
the same.
There are others who have their own houses inhabited by
themselves and families away from the house of their lord,
and they come at times to assist them at seed time and"
harvest, and as rowing crews Avhen they embark, and in
building their houses when the}^ build them, and to serve in
their houses when there are distinguished guests or cere-
mony : and they are under the obligation, each time and
whenever the lord sends to call them, to come to his house
and serve him in these employments without any pay or sti-
pend, and these slaves are called Namamahayes, and their
children and descendants are slaves of the same quality. Of
these slaves, Saguiguilires and Namamahayes, there are some
who are entire slaves, and others half slaves, and others
quarter slaves. And it haj)pLMis in this wise, if the father
LAWS AND CUSTOMS. 290
or the mother were either of them free, and they had au only
son, he would be half free and half enslaved ; if they had
more than one son they were divided in this manner ; the
first would follow the condition of the father, freeman or
slave ; and the second that of the mother : and if there were
uneven numbers, the last odd one remained half free and
half enslaved ; and those who descended from these, being-
children of a free father or mother were only a foui'th part
slaves, from being the children of a free father or mother,
and of a half slave. These half slaves, whether Saguiguil-
ires or Namamahayes, serve their lords every other month.
And such is the nature of their slavery.
In the same manner it happens, in partitions between heirs,
that a slave may fall to the lot of several, and he serves each
one the time which pertains to him. When a slave is not so
entirely, but only a half or a quarter slave, he has the right,
on account of that part of him which is free, to compel his
lord to emancipate him for whatever may be just; and this
price is taxed and regulated for persons according to the
quality of their enslavement, whether Saguiguilir or Nama-
mahay, half a slave or a quarter slave : but if the slave is
so entirely, the lord cannot be compelled to exchange or
emancipate him for any price.
Amongst the natives, the common price of a slave, if a
Saguiguilir, usually is, at the most ten taels of fine gold,
which are worth eighty dollars, and if he is a Namamahay,
half of that sum. And the rest are in the same pi'oportion,
taking into consideration the persons and their age.
There is no certain beginning- or cause from whence these
enslavements began amongst these natives, because all of
them belong to the islands, and are not foreigners : it is to
be understood that they made these slaves during their wars
and differences, and what is most certain is that those who
were most powerful took aud made slaves of the others on
slight grounds and occasions ; and most frequently on ac-
300 LAWS AND CUSTOMS.
count of loans and usurious contracts, which were current
amongst them^ the payment, stock and debt increasing with
dela}^, until they remained as slaves. Thus all these en-
slavements have violent and unjust beginnings, and most of
the suits and pleadings between the natives, with which
they occupy the judges, are upon these subjects, in the
matter of civil law ; and with these they occupy the confes-
sors with regard to their consciences.
These slaves are the principal property and resource
which the natives of these isles possess, as they are very
useful to them, and necessary for their farms and husbandry;
and amongst them they are sold, exchanged and bought
like any other merchandise, from one town to another, and
from one province to another, and likewise from one island
to another. For which reason, and to escape from so many
lawsuits as there would be if these enslavements were ex-
amined into with regard to their origin and foundation, they
are preserved and maintained, as they were before main-
tained.
The marriages of these natives commonly and usually
were and are, nobles with nobles, Timaguas with those of
the same quality, and the slaves with those of their class ;
at times the different classes intermarry. They used to
have one wife with whom they married, as with the real wife
and mistress of the house, who was called Ynasaba ; and be-
sides her, others as friends. The children of the first were ^
held to be legitimate, and complete heirs of their fathers ;
and those born of the others as not being so, and they left
them a portion by appointment, but they did not inherit.
The marriage portion was brought by the man, and his
parents gave it him, and the wife brought nothing to the
marriage, until she had inherited from her family. The
marriage solemnity consisted in no inore than the coming to
an a«rreomcnt of the parents and relations of the contractino-
parties, and in the payment of the portion which was agreed
LAWS AND CUSTOMS. 301
upon, to the father of the bride, and in the assembling to-
gether of all the relations in the house of father of the wife,
to eat and drink all day till they fell down. At night the
husband took her away to his own house and authority, and
there it ended. They used to separate and dissolve these
marriages for trifling causes, with the consideration and
judgment of the relations of both parties, and of the elders
who interfered in it : and then the marriage portion which
had been received was returned to the husband, whom they
name Yigadicaya, unless it happened that they separated on
account of a fault on the part of the husband, for in that
case it was not returned, and the parents of the wife re-
tained it in their possession.
The property which they had acquired together was di-
vided equally, and each one disposed of his own, and if
either had any means of gain in which the consort did not
participate or know of, that party acquired the sole posses-
sion of them.
They used to adopt one another in the presence of the
relations, and the adopted son gave and made over what he
actually possessed to him who adopted him ; and upon that
he remained in his house and power, and with the right of
inheriting from him amongst the other sons.
Adulteries were not punishable corporally ; on the adul-
terer paying to the injured man that which was appointed by
the judgment of the elders, and was agreed upon by them,
the injury was remitted, and the husband had received satis-
faction and preserved his honour, and continued hving with
his wife without there being more talk about that matter.
In the case of inheritance, all the legitimate sons inherited
equally from their parents the property acquired by them ;
and if there were any moveable goods or landed property
which they had received from their fathers, and they had no
legitimate sons from an Ynasaba, this property went to the
nearest relations and collaterals of that stem ; this was the
302 LAWS AND CUSTOMS.
case either by will or without one ; iu executing a will there
was no more solemnity than to leave it written, or spoken
by word of mouth before known persons.
If any noble was loi'd of a Barangay, his eldest son of his
Ynasaba succeeded him in this, and in default of him, the
next ; and failing male children, the daughters in the same
order : and failing legitimate successors, the succession re-
turned to the nearest relation in the lineage and family of
the chief, the last possessor.
If any native who had female slaves entered into relations
with any one of them, and had children of her, the chil-
dren and the slave (the mother) became free ;^ but if he had
no children by her, she did not become so.
These children of slave women, and those had of married
women, were held to be ill-born, and did not succeed with
the other heirs to the inheritance, neither were the fathers
under any obligation of leaving them anything ; neither if
they were sons of nobles did they inherit the nobility or the
chieftainship of their fathers, nor the privileges of nobility,
but they remained and were reckoned in the number and
order of the other Timaguas, plebeians.
The contracts and business treaties of these natives were
usually illicit, each one seeking how he might best attend
to his own business and interests.
Loans with profit were very ordinary and much practised,
very excessive interest being customary, so as to double and
increase the debt, all the time it was deferred, to the whole
extent of the principal ; and the debtor and his children,
when he possessed nothing else, became slaves.
Their usual way of trade was by barter of one thing for
another, in provisions, cloths, cattle, fowls, lands, houses,
crops in the ground, and slaves ; also fisheries, palms, nipa
' Such is the law throughout most parts of Asia; in Slain the woman
becomes free without having children. It Is only In America that
fathers could and did sell their own children into slavery.
LAWS AND CUSTOMS. 303
trees, and woods ; and sometimes a price intervened, which
was paid in gold, according to the agreement made ; also in
metal bells brought from China, which they value as precious
ornaments ; these are like large pans, and are very sonorous,
and they strike upon them at their feasts, and carry them
in their vessels to the wars, instead of drums or other in-
struments. Often there were long terms and delays for
some payments, and sureties who intervened and bound
themselves, but always with profits and usurious interest,
which was very excessive.
Crimes were punished at the suit of the aggrieved parties ;
robberies especially with greater severity, by reducing the
thieves to slavery, and sometimes by death ; it was the same
with respect to insults by words, especially those offered
to the chiefs ; tliey considered many things and words as
the greatest outrage and insult, when said to men or women,
and they were less easily forgiven and with more difficulty
than things done against the person, such as wounding and
actual violence.
No account was taken of seductions, violations, and in-
cests, unless they were done by a Timagua with a noble
lady ; and it was very ordinary for a man who married to
have been for lonsr time living- in intimate relations with
the sister of the woman whom he was going to marry ; and
even before living with his wife, to have had access for a
long time to his mother-in-law, more especially if the bride
were of tender age, until she was grown up, and this in the
sight of all the relations.
The bachelors are called Bagontaos, and the unmarried
girls, Dalagas. One and all are people of little continence,
and from early youth they come and live together with faci-
lity and little secresy, and without its being a cause of re-
gret or resentment amongst themselves ; neither do the
fathers, brothers or relations feel any resentment, more es-
pecially if there is any material interest in the matter, as a
little goes a long way vvnth any of them.
304 CUSTOMS.
All the time these natives lived in their paganism, it
was never heard that they had fallen into the unmention-
able sin against nature; but after the Spaniards entered
the country, from communication with them, and still more
with that of the Sangleys who have come from China, and
who are much given to that vice, something of it has adhered
to them, both to men and women, and not a few measures
have had to be taken against this matter.
Los naturales de las islas Pintados, especialmente las
mugeres, son muy viciosas y sensuales, y la malicia entre
ellos a inventado raaneras torpes, de juntarse las mugeres y
los varones, y an acostunibrado nna, que desde muchachos,
los varones hazen un agujero, con artificio en su miembro
viril, por junto a la cabeza, y encajan en ella una cabezuela
de serpiente, o de metal, o marfil, y pasanle un pernete de lo
mismo por el agujero, para que no se les saiga, y con este
artificio, se juntan con la muger, sin poderlo sacar, despues
del coito, en mucho rate, de que se envician y deleytan de
manera, que aunque vierten mucha sangre, y reciben otros
daiios pasan por ellos ; llamanse estos artificios, Sagras, y
ay muy pocas, por que despues que se hazen Cristianos,
se anda con cuydado, para quitarselas, y no consentir que
lo usen, que se a remediado en la mayor parte.^
There were herbalists and sorcerers very generally amongst
these natives ; they were not prohibited nor punished
amongst them so long as they caused no special mischief;
which could rarely be ascertained or known.
There were also men who had for employment to ravish
and take away the virginity of damsels ; and they took
' Thomas Candish mentions having seen this custom in the island of
Capul of the Phihppines, and assigns a motive for it different from that
given by De JSIorga. The more probable origin of it is that given by-
Mr. Eyre for a somewhat similar custom in Australia: "This extra-
ordinary and inexplicable custom must have a great tendency to prevent
the rapid increase of the population." Central Australia, vol. i, p. 213.
RELIGION. 305
these to tliem^ and paid the men to do it, considering it to
be a hindrance and impediment when they married if they
were virgins.
In the matter of their religion they proceeded more
barbarously and with greater blindness than in all the rest ;
because, in addition to being gentiles, and having no know-
ledge whatever of the true God, neither did they cast about
in their minds to discover Him by the way of reason, nor
did they fix their thoughts on any. The devil deceived
them in general with a thousand errors and blindness ; he
appeared to them in various horrible and fearful forms, and
forms of savage animals, so that they feared and trembled
at him ; and adored him usually by making figures of those
forms, which they kept in caverns and special houses, where
they offered perfumes and sweet smells, and food and fruit,
and they called them anitos.^
Others worshipped the sun and moon, making feasts and
getting drunk at the conjunction ; and some adored a bird
which there is in the mountain woods, marked with yellow,
which they call batala •} and in general they adored and
reverenced the caymans, whenever they saw them, going
upon their knees, and raising their hands to them, on
account of the injuries which they receive from them, under
the idea that by this they would be appeased and would
leave them.
1 Mr. Boyle describes (p. 205) two models of a male and female alli-
gator made of mud the size of life in a secluded glade of the jungle,
made by the Dayaks of Borneo, encircled by a rough palisade : he was
told they were to keep off the antus from the paddy fields ; these
alligators and a doubtful figure in a cavern at Bidi were the only evi-
dence he could gain of any religious feeling among the Dayaks. IVIr.
Boyle writes antu, which is near the anito of the Philippines. Captain
Sherard Osborne, at Keddah, writes untu, and so it is pronounced at
Penang; Marsden writes antu.
- The dictionaiy of Fray Domingo de los Santos gives Bathala as the
Tagal name for God the Creator, in contradistinction to idols, which it
says were called anito, and lie -ha or statues.
306 RELIGIOUS BELIEF
The oathsj maledictions, and promises are all, as has been
said before : May the Buhayan eat you if you do not speak
the truth, or fulfil what you promise, and similar things.
In all these islands there were no temples, nor public
houses for the worship of idols, but each person made and
kept in his house his anitos, without ceremony or certain
solemnity; neither were there priests or monks to administer
rehgious affairs, except a few old men and old women,
whom they call Catalonas, great sorcerers and witches who
deceive the rest of the people, who communicated to them
their desires and wants, and they answered them a thousand
absurdities and lies ; and they performed prayers and other
ceremonies to the idols for their sick, and believed in omens,
superstitions which the devil persuaded them to, and accord-
ing to which they said the sick man would get well, or that
he would die. These were their methods of cure and the
steps they took, and the use of auguries for all occurrences
sought for in various ways. In all this there was so little
attendance, show and pomp, or foundation, which God per-
mitted, in order that in these parts the preaching of the
holy Gospel should find them in a better disposition, and in
order that they should more easily know the truth, and that
there should be less to do in taking them out of their dark-
ness, and the errors in which the devil had kept them for
many years. Never had they sacrificed men to him, as is
done in other kingdoms. They believed that there was
another life, with rewards for those who had been valiant
and done great deeds, and with punishments for those who
had done evil, but they did not know how, nor where this
would be.'
» This description would probably aj^ply better to the Dayaks, than
others -which have been given of them, denying all religious belief. In
the same way Mr. Eyre (vol. ii, p. 355) says: "The natives of Now
Holland, as far as yet can be ascertained, have no religious belief or
ceremonies : a Deity, or great First Cause, can hardly be said to be
acknowledged." This statement is however entirely contradicted in the
OP THE ISLANDEKS. 307
They buried their dead in their own houses^ keeping
their bodies and bones in boxes for a long time, and
venerating their skulls, as if they were alive, and they had
them still present. In their funeral rites they had neither
pomp nor assemblages, but only the members of the family
and house, where, after having wept for the deceased, all
was changed to feasting and di'unkenness amongst all the
relations and friends.
A few natives of the island of Borneo began to come with
their trade to the island of Luzon a few years before the
Spaniards subjected it, especially to the towns of Manila
next page by the account given to Mr. Eyre by the natives of the
Murray of the origin of the creation, which is, "that there are four
individuals living up among the clouds called Nooreele, a father and his
three male cliildren, but there is no mother." (This is the Hindu
system of creation by a Supreme Power with three emanations.) "The
father is all powerful and of benevolent character. He made the earth,
trees, etc., gave names to every thing and place, placed the natives in
theii' different districts, telling each tribe that they were to inhabit such
and such localities, and were to speak in such and such a language. It
is said that he brought the natives originally from some place over the
waters to the eastward. The Nooreele never die, and the souls (ludko,
literally a shadow) of dead natives will go and join them in the skies
and will never die again." Mr. Eyre also quotes the statement of 'Mi.
Moorhouse that the natives round Adelaide "believe in a soul or spirit
(itpitukutya) separate and distinct altogether from the body, which at
death goes to the west, to a large pit, where the souls of all men go.
When all are dead, the souls will return to their former place of resi-
dence, go to the graves of their forsaken bodies, and inquire, are these
the bodies that we formerly inhabited? The bodies will reply, "we are
not dead, but still living." The souls and bodies will not be reunited ;
the former will live in trees during the day, and at night alight on the
ground, and eat grubs, lizards, frogs, and kangaroo rats, but not
vegetable food of any description. The souls are never again to die,
but will remain about the size of a boy eight years old." So that these
natives, so far from being without a religion, recognised the Divinity
under the attributes of the Almighty, the Creator, the Eternal, and the
Merciful, and believed in the last day, and the resurrection of the dead,
and life everlasting : and in this case again it is not possible to assert
that there are any children of Adam who do not know their Lord.
X 2
308 RELIGION.
and Tondo ; and the people of the two islands intermarried.
These people of Borneo are Mussulmans, and they were in-
troducing their sect amongst these natives, giving them
short prayers and ceremonies and forms to be observed, by
means of some gazizes^ whom they brought with them: and
already many, and the greatest chiefs, were beginning
(although by piecemeal) to become Muslims, circumcising
themselves, and taking Muslim names, so that if the entrance
of the Spaniards had been longer delayed, this sect would
have extended over all the island, and even throughout the
others ; and it would have been difficult to have uprooted it
from them. The mercy of God remedied it in time ; so
that, as it was but in the very beginning, it was banished
from these islands, and they were free from it throughout
all that the Spaniards have subdued, and placed under the
government of the Philippines, while it has been much
propagated and spread in the other islands which are out-
side of this government ; for already the natives of nearly all
of them are Mahomedan Moors, directed and instructed by
their gazizes and morabits, who come to preach and teach
them continually, from the straits of Mekkah and the Red
Sea, from whence they navigate to these islands.
The entrance of the Spaniards into the Philippines since
the year 1564, and the subjection and conversion which has
been effected in them, and their mode of government, and
that which during these years His Majesty has provided
and ordered for their good, has been the cause of innovation
in many things, such as ai-e usual to kingdoms and pro-
vinces which change their faith and sovereign. The first
has been that, besides the name of Philippines, which they
took and received from the beginning of their conquest, all
the islands are now a new kingdom and sovereignty, to
which His Majesty Philip the Second, our sovereign, gave
' Kasis. This is another instance of the misapphcation of this Arabic
term, which means excUisively a Christian priest.
ESCUTCHEON OF THE PHILIPPINES. 309
the name of new kingdom of Castile, of wliich, by his royal
privilege, he made the city of Manila the capital, giving to
it, as a special favour among others, a coat of arms with a
crown, chosen and appointed by his royal person, which is
a scutcheon divided across, and in the upper part a castle
on a red field, and in the lower part a lion of gold, crowned
and rampant, with a naked sword in the dexter hand, and
half the body in the shape of a dolphin upon the waters of
the sea, signifying that the Spaniards passed over them
with arms to conquer this kingdom for the crown of Castile.
The commander-in-chief, Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, first
governor of the Philippines, founded the city of Manila, in
the isle of Luzon, in the same site in which Rajamora had
his town and fort (as has been said more at length), at the
mouth of the river which pours out into the bay, on a point
which is formed between the river and the sea. He occupied
the whole of it with this town, and divided it among the
Spaniards in equal building plots, with streets and blocks of
houses regularly laid out, straight and level, leaving a great
place, tolerably square, where he erected the cathedral church
and municipal buildings ; and another place of arms, in
which stood the fort, and there also the royal buildings :
he gave sites to the monasteries and hospital and chapels
which would be built, as this was a city which would grow
and increase every day, as has already happened ; because,
in the course of time which passed by, it has become as
illustrious as the best of the cities of all those parts.
The whole city is surrounded by a wall of hewn stone of
more than two and a half yards in width, and in parts more
than three, with small towers and traverses at intervals j it
has a fortress of hewn stone at the point, which guards the
bar and the river, with a ravelin close to the water, which
contains a few heavy pieces of artillery which command the
sea and the river, and other guns on the higher part of the
fort for the defence of the bar, besides other middhng-
310 FORTIFICATIONS
sized field guns and swivel gunSj with vaults for supplies
and munitions, and a powder magazine, with its inner space
well protected, and an abundant well of fresh water ; also
quarters for soldiers and artillery-men, and a house for the
commandant. It is newly fortified on the land side, in the
place of arms, where the entrance is through a good wall,
and two sahent towers furnished with artillery which com-
mand the wall and gate. This fortress, named Santiago,
has a detachment of thirty soldiers, with their officers, and
eight artillery-men, who guard the gate and entrance in
watches, under the command of an alcayde who lives within,
and has the guard and custody of it.
There is another fortress, also of stone, in the same wall,
at the distance of the range of a culverin, at the end of the
wall which runs along the shore of the bay ; this is named
Nuestra Senora de Guia : it is a very large round block,
with its courtyard, water and quarters, and magazines and
other workshops within ; it has an outwork jutting out
towards the beach, in which there are a dozen of large and
middle-sized guns, which command the bay, and sweep the
wall which runs from it to the port and fort of Santiago.
On the further side it has a large salient tower with four
heavy pieces, which command the beach further on, towards
the chapel of Nuestra Senora de Guia. The gate and
entrance of this is within the city, it is guarded by a de-
tachment of twenty soldiers, with their officers, and six
artillery-men, a commandant, and his lieutenant, who dwell
within.
On the land side, where the wall extends, there is a
bastion called Sant Andres, with six pieces of artillery,
which can fire in all directions, and a few swivel guns ; and
further on another outwork called San Gabriel, opposite the
parian of the Sangleys, with the same number of cannon,
and both these works have some soldiers and an ordinary
guard.
OP MANILA. 311
The wall is sufficiently high, with battlements and turrets
for its defence in the modern fashion: they have a circuit of
a league, which may be traversed on the top of the walls,
with many stairs on the inside at intervals, of the same
stonework, and three principal city gates, and many other
posterns to the river and beach for the service of the city in
convenient places. All of these gates are shut before night-
fall by the ordinary patrol, and the keys are carried to the
guard-room of the royal buildings ; and in the morning,
when it is day, the patrol returns with them and opens the
city.
The royal magazines are in the parade ; in them are
deposited and kept all the munitions and supplies, cordage,
iron, copper, lead, artillery, arquebuses, and other things
belonging to the royal treasury, with their special officials
and workmen, who are under the command of the royal
officers.
Close to these magazines is the powder magazine, with
its master, officials, and convicts, in which, on ordinary
occasions, thirty mortars grind powder, and that which is
damaged is refined,
In another part of the city, in a convenient situation, is
the cannon foundry, with its moulds, furnaces, and instru-
ments, founders, and workmen, who carry on the works.
The royal buildings are very handsome, with a good view,
and very roomy, with many windows opening seaward and
to the parade; they are all of hewn stone, with two courts
and high and low corridors with thick pillars. The gover-
nor and president resides in them with his family ; there is
a hall for the Royal High Court, which is very large and
stately, a separate chapel, a chamber for the royal Seal,
offices for the clerks of the council of the court, the clerk
of the court,^ and the clerk of the government, and other
^ Escribano de camara de la audiencia, escribano de hi audiencia.
312 MONASTERIES.
rooms for the royal exchequer, and the administration of the
royal oiBcials, and a large porch opening to the street, and
two large doors where the guard-room is placed ; it contains
a company of paid hackbut-men, who every day enter with
their banner to mount guard. There is another house oppo-
site, across the street, for the royal exchequer and the per-
son who has it under his charge.
The houses of the municipality, which are in the great
square, are of hewn stone, and have a good look out, and
handsome halls ; in the lower part is the prison, and the
court-houses of the ordinary alcaldes.
In the same square is situated the cathedral church, built
of hewn stone, with three naves, its chancel and choir, with
stalls and seats, surrounded with gratings, and ornamented
with an organ, lecterns, and the rest of what is requisite,
with a sacristan and his apartments and offices.
Within the city is the monastery of St. Augustine, which
is very large and well supplied with dormitories ; it has a
refectory and offices; a temple is being completed, which is
one of the most sumptuous edifices that there are in those
parts ; this convent in general contains fifty monks.
The monastery of St. Dominic is within the walls, and
may consist of forty monks ; it was of stone, and very well
constructed in regard to the church, dwelling-house, and all
the offices ; it is being newly rebuilt much better than it
was, for it was entirely burned in the fire of the city in the
year 1603.
The monastery of St. Francis is further on; it is well
built of stone, and a new church is in the course of con-
struction ; it may consist of forty bai-efooted monks.
The college of the company of Jesus is founded close to
the fort of Nuestra Seilora de Guia ; it is composed of twenty
monks of their order, with a good house and church of stone;
they promote the study of latinity, the arts, and cases of
conscience, and close to them a college and assemblage of
HOSPITALS. 313
Spanisli students_, with their rector, who wear cloaks of red-
dish yellow frieze and coloured hoods.-^
In another part there is a good conventual house, with its
stone church, called San Andres and Sta. Potenciana, a royal
foundation, in which lives a lady rector, and other con-
fidential assistants, with a parlour and circular door, where
women in distress and maidens of the city are taken in under
the form of religious retirement ; and some go forth thence
to be married, and others remain there permanently in the
workshops and choir ; His Majesty assists them with a part
of their maintenance, and the rest is provided out of their
own labour and property ; they have their major domo and
a priest as administrator.
In another part there is a royal hospital for Spaniards,
built of stone, with a doctor, apothecary, surgeons, ad-
ministrators, and servants, with its church, sick rooms, and
set of beds, in which all Spaniards are cared for and attended;
in general it is very full. It is under royal patronage, and
His Majesty provides it Avith most of what it requires ; it
has as superintendents three barefooted Franciscan monks,
who are of great use for the corporeal and spiritual cherish-
ing of the sick. It was burned down in the fire of the past
year of 1603, and is now being rebuilt.
There is another hospital of Mercy, under the charge of
the community of that name, which was founded in the city
of Manila by the brotherhood of Mercy of Lisbon, and the
other brotherhoods of India; and, under Apostolic Bulls,
for the purpose of works of charity, burying the dead, main-
taining shamefaced poor people, portioning orphan girls,
and relieving many misfortunes; in this hospital they take
in the sick slaves of the city, and give lodgings to poor women.
Close to the monastery of St. Francis is the hospital for
the native inhabitants, under royal patronage, which was
founded, by means of alms, by a holy Franciscan lay friar,
^ Becas, stripes or strips of stufiF added to students' gowns.
314 DESCEIPTION OF THE
named Fray Juan Olemente, in whicli a great number of
natives are cured of all sorts of infirmities, with mucli care
and delicate attention ; it lias a good liouse and ofiices of
stone_, and the barefooted Franciscan friars administer it; in
this are employed three priests on the establishment, and
four lay brothers of exemplary life, who are doctors, sur-
geons, and apothecaries of the hospital ; they are so skilful
and well qualified that many wonderful cures are wrought
by their hands, both in medicine and surgeiy.
The streets of the city are well lined with houses, most of
them of stone, and some of wood, many of them roofed with
clay tiles, and others with nipa palm leaves; they are goodly
houses, high and spacious, with large rooms, many windows,
and balconies, and iron gratings to deck them out; and every
day more are being built. There may be about six hundred
houses within the walls, without reckoning as many more of
wood, outside in the suburbs ; all these are the dwellings
and abodes of Spaniards.
The streets, squares, and churches are in general very full
of people of all sorts, especially Spaniards, all dressed and
equipped neatly in silks, men and women, with very choice
clothes, and all sorts of costumes, on account of the facility
which there is for this. So that this is one of the towns
most praised by the strangers who flock to it of any in the
world, both on this account, and by reason of the great
plenty and abundance of provisions and other necessaries for
human life which are there to be found, and at moderate
prices.
Manila possesses two outlets for recreation, one^ is by
land by the point named Nuestra Seilora de Guia, nearly a
league along the beach, which is clean and very smooth, and
^ The " Calzada," the Hyde Park of Manila, is often a double line of
carriages extending nearly half a mile in length, and containing elegantly
dressed women going out for evening exercise. Manila is really a gay,
populous, and expensive place. Mr. Consul Farren, April 22, 1845.
CITY OF MANILA. 315
by a street and town of the natives called Bagunbayan, as far
as a chapelj an object of great devotion^ named Nuestra
Senora de Guia^ and the road continues for a good distance
as far as a monastery and mission of St. Augustine monks^
called Mahalat.
The other promenade is by a gate of the city^ to a native
town named Laguio, from which it continues to a chapel of
San Anton^ and to a monastery and school of barefooted
Franciscans^ a place of much devotion named La Candelaria,
near to the city.
This city is the capital of the kingdom, and of the govern-
ment of all the islands, and the metropolis of the other cities
and towns ; in it reside the High Court and Chancery of His
Majesty, and the governor and captain general of the
islands.
It possesses a Town Council, with two ordinary alcaldes,
twelve perpetual magistrates,- a chief constable,^ a royal
standard bearer, a clerk of the council, and other officials.
The archbishop of the Philippines resides in this city, with
a metropolitan church, with all its dignities, canonries, pre-
bends, and half prebends, chaplains, sacristans, choir of
music and of organ-chaunt, and minstrels, and all the pomp
and decoration with which the divine service is celebrated
gravely and solemnly; it has, as its suffragans, the three
bishops, who are in the islands of Sebu, Cagayan and
Camarines.
There is a royal chest with three royal officials, factor,
accountant, and treasurer, through whom the royal revenue
of all the islands is administered.
From this city of Manila the ships are despatched, which
every year perform the voyage to New Spain, with the mer-
chandise and ventures of all the islands, and thither they
return from New Spain with the proceeds of this merchan-
dise, and with the usual succours.
1 By the gate of Sauta Lucia. Mallat. - Itegidores.
^ Alyuazil mayor.
316 DESCRIPTION OF OTHER
Here is permanently established the camp of paid soldiers^
which His Majesty ordered should be kept up in the islands.
In Manila, likewise^ are stationed some galleys with their
general and captains, and other armed ships of lofty bul-
warks, and smaller craft in the country fashion, to attend to
the necessities of all the islands.
The great mass of ships from China, Japan, Maluco, Bor-
neo, Siam, Malaca, and India, which come to the Philip-
pines with their merchandise to trade, all flock to the bay
and river of Manila, and there sell and exchange for trans-
mission to the other islands and towns.
The city of Segovia was founded in a province of this
same island of Luzon, in the time of Don Gonzalo Honquillo,
the third governor ; it consists of two hundred Spanish in-
habitants, dwelling in wooden houses on the banks of the
river Tagus, two leagues from the sea and port of Cama-
laynga ; it has a foi't of stone close to the city, for the de-
fence of it and the river, with some artillery, and its com-
mandant ; in general it contains, besides the inhabitants,
one hundred paid soldiers, arquebusiers, with their officers,
under the command and rule of the chief alcalde of the pro-
vince, who is commander in warlike affairs.
A bishop resides in this city, with a church, though at
present without dignitaries or prebendaries; there is a town
council, with two alcaldes, six magistrates, and a chief con-
stable ; it abounds in all sorts of provisions and delicacies,
at very cheap prices.
The city of Cazeres was established in the province of
Camarines, of the same isle of Luzon, in the time of Dr.
Sande, governor of the Philippines ; it may consist of one
hundred Spanish inhabitants, with a town council, alcaldes,
magisti'ates, and officials. A bishop of this province has
his residence there, with a church, but without dignitaries or
prebendaries, and there is a monastery of barefooted Fran-
ciscans. The government and affairs of war of this province
PHILIPPINE CITIES. 317
are entrusted to a chief alcalde, who is commander in war
time, and resides in Cazeres. It is a place well provided and
supplied with all sorts of victuals at very cheap prices; it is
in the interior of the country, four leagues from the sea,
built on a river bank, of wooden houses.
The fourth city is that of the most holy name of Jesus, in
the island of Sebu, province of Bisayas or Pintados, which
was the first Spanish settlement, and was founded by the
commander-in-chief, Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, the first
governor. It has a fine sea-port, with a clean bottom and
easy soundings, capable of holding a good many ships ; it
has a very good stone fort, with a quantity of artillery, with
its commandant and officers, to guard the port and defend
the city, with a sufficient garrison of paid troops, under the
orders of the chief alcalde, and captain of the province in
war time, who resides in the city. The town may contain
two hundred Spanish inhabitants, with houses of wood ; it
has a town council, two ordinary alcaldes, eight magistrates,
a chief constable, and his officials ; it also has a bishop with
his church, and, like the other cities of these islands, with-
out prebendaries.
This city is well provided with supplies, and the ships
which come from Maluco to Manila touch here by the per-
mission of His Majesty. They have got a large ship for
cargo, which usually leaves their port for New Spain with
merchandise, consisting of the fruits and produce which are
collected in these provinces. This city has a monastery of
AuD-ustine monks and a college of Jesuits.
In the island of Oton, the town of Arevalo was settled, in
the time of the governor, Don Gonzalo Eonquillo, close to
the sea; it may contain eighty Spanish inhabitants, and has
a monastery of the order of St. Augustine, and a parish
church, with a vicar and secular priest, belonging to the
diocese of the Bishop of Sebu.
It has a town council, alcaldes and magistrates, and other
318 CONVERSION OP THE
officials, also a chief alcalde and commander-in-chief for war
of these provinces : the town is very well supplied with all
sorts of provisions at very low prices.
The town of Villa Fernandina, which was founded in the
province of Ilocos, in the isle of Luzon, is without Spanish
inhabitants ; there are very few Spaniards in it : it has a
church with a vicar and a secular priest, of which no men-
tion is now made on account of what has been said ; the
chief alcalde of the province resides in it, and it belongs to
the diocese of the bishop of Cagayan.
Since the conquest and pacification of the Philippine isles
commenced, the preaching of the holy Gospel was under-
taken in them, and the conversion of the natives to our
holy Catholic faith ; and the first who set their hands to
this work were the monks of the order of St. Augustine,
who came over with the commander-in-chief Legazpi in the
fleet which came to discover these islands, and those of the
same order who came later to occupy themselves with this
work : and they laboured in it with much fervour and care,
in such a manner that, finding the hai'vest ripe, they
gathered in the first fruits of it, converting and baptising
many pagans in all parts of these islands.
After them, and at the fame of this conversion, there
came over to these islands, by way of New Spain, bare-
footed monks of the order of St. Francis, and later, monks
of the order of St. Dominic, and of the Company of Jesus,
and more lately barefooted ascetic Augustine monks ; one
and all establishing themselves in the islands, they laboured
in converting and instructing the natives. In this way they
have efiected that there are at present in all the islands
a great number of baptised natives, besides many others,
who, for want of ministers, are waiting in many parts in the
expectation of this benefit, and of priests to administer it to
them. As to instruction by secular clergy, up to the present
time there is little of it, as few of them have come over to
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 319
these islands, and but few have been ordained in them, for
want of students.
The order of St. Augustine has many schools in the
islands of Pintados, and established monasteries, and other
visitations and missions ; and in the isle of Luzon those of
the province of Ylocos, and some in Pangasinan, and all
those of Pampanga, which are many monasteries; and others
which are very good in the province of Manila and its
neighbourhood.
The Dominican order holds the schools of the province of
Cagayan, and others in the province of Pangasinan, in which
they have many monasteries and missions, besides others
which they also administer around the city.
The Franciscan order has some schools and monasteries
around Manila, and all the province of Camarines and the
coast opposite to it, and the lagoon of Bay, which make
a large number of schools.
The Company of Jesus has three large schools around
Manila and many missions, and several others in Pintados
in the isles of Sebu, Leite, Tbabao, Samar, and Bohol, and
others of that neighbourhood, with good persons, careful of
the conversion of the natives.
These four orders have produced much fruit in the con-
version of these isles, as has been said, and in strictest
truth the affairs of the faith have taken a good footing, as
the people have a good disposition and genius, and they
have seen the errors of their paganism and the truths of the
Christian religion; they have got good churches and monas-.
teries of wood, well constructed, with shrines and brilliant
ornaments, and all the things required for the service,
crosses, candlesticks, chalices of gold and silver, many
brotherhoods, and religious acts, assiduity in the Sacraments
and being present at Divine service, and care in maintain-
ing and supplying their monks, with great obedience and
respect ; they also give for the prayers and burials of their
dead, and perform this with all punctuality and liberality.
320 CONVERSION.
At the same time that the monks have taught the natives
matters of rehgion in their schools, they labour to make
them more skilful in things for their advancement, by hold-
ing schools of reading and writing in Spanish for the boys ;
teaching them to assist in the church, plain song, and
chanting with the organ, and playing upon instruments, to
dance and to sing, in which there is already great skill,
especially round Manila ; so that there are very good choirs
of singers and musicians composed of natives, who have
skill and good voices : and there are many dancers and
musicians of other instruments who solemnize and adorn the
feasts of the most holy sacrament, and many others in the
course of the year ; and they represent dramas and plays in
Spanish and in their own language very gracefully. This is
due to the care and assiduity of the monks, who, without
ever wearying, are engaged in what may be of profit to
them.
In these islands there is no province or town of the natives
which resists conversion, and does not desire it; but, as
has been said, in some, their baptism is delayed for want of
labourers to remain with them to prevent their retrogression
or reverting to their idolatries. In this matter the best that
is possible is done, the divisions of the country for instruc-
tion being very large and extensive ; and, in many places,
the monks avail themselves of natives, who are well instructed
and clever, to assist in their missions, by teaching the rest
to pray every day, and to look after them in other matters
touching religion, and bring the heads of families to mass,
and so preserve and maintain them.
Till now the orders which carry on this religious instruc-
tion (by omnimodo and other apostolic regulations) have
effected the conversion, and administered the sacraments,
and managed the spiritual, temporal, and ecclesiastical affairs
of the natives, and have given them dispensations in their
hindrances; but now that there is an archbishop and bishops.
OF THE PHILIPPINES. 321
this is being diminished^ and the management of these aflfairs
is being established in the hands of their vicars, although
the administration of these natives is not so settled or ar-
ranged, by means of justices, or of the visitation and super-
intendence of the bishops, as it is attempted on their part.
The governor and High Court of Manila give their aid as
far as is fitting-, promote, and set on foot, by the best mea-
sures and expedients, the increase of the conversion, and
administration, and religious instruction of the natives ;
such, for instance, as by obliging the tax collectors to come
to the aid of the monks and churches within the collectorates
which they enjoy, by furnishing the stipends and necessary
expenses of the missions ; also providing from the royal ex-
chequer that part which corresponds to it in this matter,
which is not the least portion ; and ordaining, in any other
matters which require providing for, or remedying, with re-
gard to the said missions and improvement of the natives,
that also aid should be furnished by the archbishop and
bishops in what is under their charge and office as pastors.^
1 A letter of Pope Clement VHI, dated March 25, 1592, addressed to
the Bishop of Manila, and to the governor, clergy, monks, coimcil,
magistrates, nobles, encomenderos, and all the people of the Philippine
Islands, congratulates them on the spread of Christianity, and ex-
presses satisfaction at the mission to Rome of Alfonso Sanchez, a pro-
fessed Jesuit priest who had been sent to the late Pope Sixtus V, and to
those "who had followed him ; it exhorts them to persevere in faith and
obedience, and in their exertions for the conversion of the heathen, and
with that object in view, requires them to conform to CathoKc precepts
and make their lives a good example by their hmnanity and good treat-
ment, not only of the Christians, but also of those not yet brought into
the faith. Here is the original paragraph, especially addressed to the
old Christians from Spain : —
"§ 5. Quouiam vero ad vitse cujusque vestnun exemplar nationes istse
(vetustiores Christianos alloquimur), ut videtis, suas tamquam Chris-
tianis, atque Catholicis institutis consentaneas vivendi rationes facile
conformaturaB sunt, a vobis requirimus, ut vestram humanitatem, benigui-
tatemque turn Christianis, turn cseteris ad fidem nondum conversis, illis,
ut confirmentm-, his, ut ad veram Religionem alliciantur, quibiiscumque
Y
322 INQUISITION. CHIEFS.
The Holy Office of tlie Inquisition, which resides in Mexico
of New Spain, keeps in Manila, and in the bishopricks of
the islands, its commissioners, familiars, and officials, for
causes pertaining to the Holy Office, in which there is no
Avant of constant work, on account of the entrance of so
many foreigners in those parts. But this holy tribunal does
not take cognizance of causes relating to the natives, as they
have been so recently converted.
All these islands are peaceful, and are governed from
Manila, having chief alcaldes, magistrates, and lieutenants,
each of whom governs and administers justice in his pro-
vince and district; appeals from their acts and sentences go
to the High Court; and in what concerns the administration
and war, the governor and captain-general provides and
attends to it.
The chiefs, who before held the other natives in subjection,
have now no power over them, in the arbitrary manner
which they were accustomed to ; this was not the least bene-
fit which the natives have received by having come forth
from such servitude. It is, however, the fact that, as regards
the slavery, it has remained from former times on the same
footing as before, and the King our Sovereign commanded,
by his royal orders, that the honours should be paid to the
chiefs that belonged to them, and that the rest should recog-
nise them, and assist them with certain labours, such as
they used to execute in the time of their paganism. This is
the course followed in the case of the lords and possessors
of Barangays, for those that are of the Barangay are under
their governance; and when the lord gathers in his rice they
go for a day to assist him, and likewise if he builds his
house or repairs it ; and this chief, lord of a Barangay, col-
lects tributes from his followers and takes them under his
charge to pay them to the tax collectors.
iu rebus poteritis impertiri velitis." — Bullarium Mapiu7ii., Rome, 1753,
torn. V, p. iii, p. 112.
MUNICIPAL AUTHOEITIiES. 323
Besides these^ each town has a governor, who is elected,
and who, with his constables, who are called vilangos, is the
ordinary administrator of justice amongst the natives, and
hears their civil suits in a moderate quantity ; appeals lie
from him to the first magistrate or chief alcalde of the pro-
vince. The election of these governors takes place each
year by the votes of all the married natives of that town,
and the governor of Manila confirms it, and bestows the
title of governor on the elected, and bids him take the place
of the one who has vacated the ofiice.
This governor, besides the vilangos and clerk before whom
he passes his acts in writing, in the language of the natives
of the province, also has the chiefs, lords of Barangays, and
those chiefs who are not so, under his command and govern-
ment, and at his disposition and orders, for whatever may
occur, collection of tribute, and division or distribution of
personal services ; and they do not sufier the chiefs to do
any injury to the timaguas or slaves whom they have in
their power.
The customs which these natives observed in their pagan-
ism, these same, in as far as they are not contrary to natural
right, they observe since they have become Christians, espe-
cially in their slavery, successions, inheritances, adoptions,
wills, and lawful contracts ; and, in their lawsuits, they
always allege and prove the customs, and according to that,
judgment is given; this is by royal orders; and in other
causes, where there is no usage, and in criminal matters, the
case is decided by law, as among the Spaniards.
All these islands and their inhabitants, when subdued,
were from the first assigned^ to the Royal Crown, that is, the
capital towns, ports, and dwellers in cities and towns ; there
were also places and particular towns in all the provinces
assigned for the requirements and expenses of the royal
exchequer; the rest was all assigned and committed^ to the
• Encomendar, encomienda : an encomendero is more like a Multezim
t2
324 COLLECTION Oe TRIBUTE
conquerors and settlers wlio had served and laboured in the
conquest and pacification and in the war ; and this is under
the charge of the governor, who looks to the merits and
services of the claimants. In the same manner, they always
re-assign the towns which, become vacant ; the assigned dis-
tricts are many and very good in all the islands, and very
profitable, both on account of the quantity of tribute they
yield, and for the value of what they give in tribute. An
assignment lasts by the laws and royal orders, and by the
order and manner of succession in them, for two lives, and,
by permission, it may be extended to a third life, and after-
wards it remains vacant, and is again assigned and newly
filled up.
The tributes which the natives pay to the collectors were
fixed by the first governor, Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, in the
provinces of Bizayas and Pintados, and in the isles of
Luzon and its neighbourhood, at a sum of eight reals,^ as
the whole yearly tribute of each tributary; this they paid in
the produce which they possessed, gold, wrappers, cotton,
rice, bells, fowls, and the rest of what they possessed or
gathered, a price being fixed and a certain value for each
thing, in order that when making payment of the tribute
with any one of these articles, or with all of them, it should
not exceed the value of the eight reals. In this manner it
has gone on till now, the governors raising the prices fixed
and valuations of the produce as has seemed expedient to
them at different times.
The tax collectors have derived very great profits from
collecting in kind; because, after the px'oduce came into
their possession, they used to sell it at a higher price, by
which they largely increased their incomes and produce of
or Iltizamjy than a tax-collector, by which name 1 have translated
encomeudero.
> I'hese reals are larger than reals de vellon, as eight of them go to
a dollar instead of twenty.
OP THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDERS. 32o
their collectorateSj until a few years previously^ when, at the
petition of some monks, and the instances which they made
upon the subject to His Majesty, orders were issued that the
natives should pay their tributes in whatever they chose,
either in kind or in money, without being compelled to any-
thing else ; so that having given their eight reals they would
have fulfilled their obligation. This has been carried out,
and experience has shown that, though this appears to be a
compassionate ordinance, and one favourable to the natives,
it does them a great injury, because, being as they are of
their natural disposition inimical to labour, they neither sow,
nor weave, nor work the gold, nor rear fowls, or other pro-
visions, as they used to do when they had to pay the tribute
in these things j and they easily, without so much labour,
acquire the sum of money with which they acquit themselves
of their tribute. From this it follows that the natives, from
not working, possess less property and substance, and the
country, which was very well supplied and abounding in
everything, commences to feel a want and scarcity of them,
and the holders of the collectorates, both His Majesty, as
well as the individuals who held them, have experienced great
loss and reduction in their value.
When Gomez Perez Dasmarinas went to take the srovern-
ment of the Philippines, he brought royal orders for the
formation in Manila of a camp of four hundred soldiers
enrolled on the pay list, with their officers, galleys, and
other warlike implements, for the defence and security of
the country, in which at first all the Spanish inhabitants had
been employed without any pay. Then it was ordained that
an increase should be made, for each tributary, of two reals
more, in addition to his eight reals, which should be levied
by the collectors at the same time as the eight reals of the
tribute, and that they should bring and pay them into the
royal chest, in which they were placed to a separate account
apart from the rest of His Majesty^s revenue. They were
326 COLLECTION OP TRIBUTE.
applied in this manner — a real and a half for the expenses of
the said camp, and the remaining half real for the stipend
of the prebendaries of the church of Manila, whom His
Majesty suppKes additionally from his chest, so that their
tithes and revenue may suflfice for their maintenance.
These tributes are levied upon all the natives. Christians
and pagans, in the entire sum; excepting in the collectorates
in which there are no missions, the fourth part of the eight
reals, which are two reals, are not taken by the collector for
himself, since he has no religious schools, nor the expense of
them, but he brings them into Manila to a chest, which is
called that of the fourth parts, the proceeds of which from
this source are applied to and spent upon hospitals of natives
and in other works for their advantage, as the governor may
see fit ; and as they go on obtaining missions and monks,
the receipt of these fourths and expenditure of them on these
special works ceases.
In some provinces the number of natives has been reckoned;
thus, by these reckonings, the tribute is levied, and the two
reals are assigned.
In the greater number there has been no census, and the
collection is made by the collectors and their tax-gatherers,
with the chiefs within the collectorate who ave present to-
gether at the time of collection, with the registers and
accounts of past years, from which they strike off the de-
ceased and those who have gone away, and add those who
have grown up or newly come into the collectorate ; and in
making up the accounts, when a shortcoming is observed, an
account is again required, and is made.
The natives are at liberty to change their residence from
one island to another, and from one province to another, and
they pay their tribute for the year in which they make their
change of residence in the place to which they remove; and
they remove from a Christian town where there is religious
instruction to another town which has it too, but not in the
CHANGE OF RESIDENCE OP ISLANDERS. 327
contrary manner may they move from where there is instruc-
tion to a place where there is none/ nor_, in the same town,
may they remove from one barangay to another, nor from
one faction to another. With respect to this, the necessary
instructions are given by the administration, and ordinances
are issued by the High Court, so that this order be observed,
and that all inconveniences should cease from the permanent
removal of the inhabitants from one part to another.
Neither are they allowed to go away from their towns, on
trading expeditions, unless with permission from the gover-
nor or the chief alcalde or justices, and even from the monks,
who have frequently been embarrassed by their going away
on account of the rehgious instruction ; this is to prevent
the natives from wandering about without necessity away
from their homes and towns.
> This was forbidden by paragraph 6 of a Papal Biill : —
X. Diversse ordinationes circa Indos Insularum Philippinarum ad Chris-
tianam fidem conversos.
Gregorius Papa X.TV.
Ad perpetuam rei memoriam cum sicuti nuper accepimus.
Datum Romse apud S. Petrum sub Annulo Piscatoris die 18 Aprilis,
1591. Pontificatus nostri An. I.
§ 6. Et quia nonnulli earundem Insularum, & ordinum prsedictorum
rerum novarum curiosi de una ad aham partem vagantes, aut transeuntes
nuper conversos, et Baptizatos deserunt, ac propterea sunt in causa, ut
interdum, quod maxime dolendum est, ii ad Idolatriam facile revertautur,
& quod multi alii, qui alias ad fidei agnitionem venirent, et accederent
ad Baptismum, ob defectmn ministrorum id negligant, aut in InfideHtate
permaneant ; et e contra ipsi Religiosi etiam Idiomatis illarum partium
ignari, in dedecus suorum ordinum contemnantur, ac debitos fructus
suae prsedicationis in Viuea Domini non producant, difficUioremque
Indonun conversionem reddant. Nos huic malo opportunum remedium
adhibere cupientes, omnibus & singulis cujusvis Ordinis Religiosis, ac
aliis quibuscumque circa Infidelium conversionem, & doctrinse Christiange
eruditionem incumbentibus sub excommunicationis poena, ne de pacifica
ad non pacificam Terram accedere audeant, aut praesumant, nisi de
ejusdem Episcopi, & Prselatorum Religionum expressil liceutia, & mandate
in scriptis obtenta districte iuterdicimus, atque prohibemus." — BuUarUtm
Magyium^ Rome, 1751, tom. v, j)art i, p. 259.
328 PROHIBITION OF ENSLAVEMENT
The natives who hold, slaves pay their tributes for them if
they are saguiguilirs [domestic slaves] , and if they are nama-
mahays living out of their houses [serfs owing corvee] they
pay it themselves for possessing, as they do_, their own
houses and means of gain.
The Spaniards used to hold some of the slaves of these
natives, whom they had bought from them, and others whom
they had acquired as prisoners in some expeditions during
the conquest and pacification of the islands. This was abol-
ished by a Brief of His Holiness^ and by royal letters ; so
that all these slaves, natives of these isles, who were in the
possession of the Spaniards, in whatever way they had been
acquired, were set at liberty; and it was prohibited for the
future for Spaniards to hold them, or to make them captives,
for any reason whatever, nor under colour of there being
war, nor in any other manner ; and the service which they
obtain from these natives is by pay and daily wages, and the
other slaves and captives whom, they hold are caflFers and
negroes, brought by the Portuguese by way of India,
1 By paragraph 7 of the Bull cited above —
" § 7. Postremo, cum sicut accepiinus, charissimus in Christo fihus
noster Philippus Hispaniarum Rex Catholicus prohibuerit, quod nuUus
Hispanus in prsedictis Insulis Philippinis Mancipia, sive servos, etiam
jure belli justi & injusti, aut emptionis, vel quovis alio titulo, vel prse-
textu propter multas fraudes inibi committi solitas facere, vel habere,
seu retinere audeant, & nouuuUi adhuc eadem mancipia, apud se contra
ipsius Philippi Regis edictum, vel mandatum detineant. Nos, ut ijjsi
Indi ad doctrinas Christianas, et ad proprias sedes, & bona sua libere, &
secure absque uUo servitutis metu ire, & redire valeat, ut rationi congruit,
& sequitati ; omnibus & singulis cujuscumque status, gradus, conditiouis,
ordinis, & dignitatis existaut, in eisdem Insulis existentibus persouis, in
virtute Sanctse obediential, & sub excommunicationis poena prsecipimus,
& mandamus, quatenus publicatis praesentibus, qusecumque mancipia, &
servos Indos, si quos habent, seu apud se detinent, ac omni dolo, & fraude
cessante, liberos omnino dimittant, & imposterum, nee captives, nee
servos ullo modo faciant aut retineant, juxta dicti Philijipi Regis edictum,
seu mandatum." From the Bull of Gregory XIV, dated April 18, 1591.
Bullarium^ etc., Rome, 1751, torn, v, pt. i, p. 259.
OP ISLANDERS BY THE SPANIARDS. 329
obtained with justification for the enslavement^ in confor-
mity with the provincial councils and licences of the prelates
and justices of those parts.
The natives of these islands also have personal service
which they are obliged to render to the Spaniards, in some
parts more than in others, and in different manners ; this is
commonly called the Polo : for v/here there are chief alcaldes
and justices, they give and distribute to them by the week
some natives for the service of their houses, paying them a
moderate day^s wages, which usually amounts to the fourth
part of a real each day, and rice to eat ; the same is done
for the monks of the missions, and monasteries and churches,
and for works belonging to these, and for other Avorks of
the community.
They also give rice and provisions of all kinds for prices
which are sufficient and pass amongst these natives, which
are always very moderate ; and the chiefs, bilangos (con-
stables), and fiscals make the division, gather, and take
them from the natives ; and in the same way they supply
their tax collectors when these come to levy taxes.
The chief sei'vice which these natives render is on the
occasion of war, giving rowers and crews for the vireys and
ships which go on expeditions; and pioneers for what is
most necessary in the course of the war, though they are
paid their daily wages.
In the same way they appoint and distribute natives for
the king's works, such as the construction of ships, felling
timber, the yard for making cordage, the cannon foundry^
and the service of the royal magazines, paying them their
stipend and daily wages.
For the rest, in the matter of service of the Spaniards, in
their voyages, works, or any other service which the natives
render, it is voluntary and paid for by agreement ; because
as up to the present time the Spaniards do not work mines,
nor have been addicted to the profits of agricultural labour,
there is no need to employ them in anything of this sort.
330 GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS.
The Spaniards who are in the Philippines reside for the
most part in the city of Manila, which is the capital of the
kingdom, and the chief seat of trade and commerce; and
some tax-collectors live in their provinces and districts, and
other Spaniards dwell in the cities of Segovia, Caceres, the
most holy name of Jesus, in Sebu, and in the town of
Arevalo, where they are settled, and most of them hold
collectorates.
In the Indian towns Spaniards are not allowed,^ except
for the collection of the tribute, when the time for that
arrives, and excepting the chief alcaldes, magistrates and
justices ; and these are not allowed to remain always in one
town of their district, but they must visit it as much as
they can ; and every four months they must change their
house and residence to some other central town or village,
where all the natives may have access and obtain the fruit
of their assistance, and that it may be less onerous for
them in the matter of their maintenance and their ordinary
sei'vice.^
The governor makes appointments to all ojffices, and
when an office is fulfilled or vacated, the High Court sends
to take an account of it, and issues its sentence thereupon ;
and until this is despatched, the official is not appointed to
another post or office.
The governor also appoints commandants of forts, of
companies, and other military offices, in all the cities, towns
and villages of the islands.
Some offices of magistrates and clerks have been sold for
one life, by a royal order, and the sale of them has now
been desisted from, as it appeared that the price given for
' 111 Java also the Dutch restrict Europeans from roamiiig about the
country ; this is a good regulation for the protection of the inhabitants.
■•i These are most salutary regulations : the ordinary service refers to
the service which the natives had to render by turns to the magistrates,
as related above.
MUNICIPAL AUTHORITIES. 331
them was not of much importance, and that the drawback
and disadvantage of making them thus perpetual was greater.
The elections of ordinary alcaldes in all the Spanish
towns are held on New Yearns Day by the town council and
magistracy ; and His Majesty orders the accounts of these
alcaldes and town councils to be taken at the same time
that accounts are taken from the governor and captain-
general of the isles, and they give an account of the ad-
ministration of their revenues and corporation estates ; not-
withstanding this, before this, each year, and at any time
whenever it may seem to him expedient, the governor can
call for their accounts, and have the balances gathered in ;
and with his opinion and authoi^isation the expenditure is
made for things which the towns call for.
The city of Manila possesses a sufficient quantity of
corporate property in the fines^ which its judges impose, for
certain years, and in the corporation estates within and
without the city, and in the charges for reweighing mer-
chandise, and the rents of all the properties, and sites of
the Parian of the Sangleys, and in the monopoly of playing
cards ; all this was granted to it by His Majesty, especially
for the expense of the fortification, and they expend their
resources upon this and the salaries of their officials, and
the agents whom they send to Spain, and in the city holi-
days, the chief of which are the day of Santa Potenciana,
the 19th of May, on which the Spaniards entered and took
the city ; and St. Andrew^s day, 30th of November, which
was when they conquered and drove away the corsair
Limahon. On this day the citizens bring out the city stan-
dard, with a procession to vespers and mass in the church of
St. Andrew, at which all the city, the town council and
magistracy and High Court are present, with all solemnity :
the same takes place at the reception of the governors who
newly arrive in the country, and at festivals for the marriages
^ Fenas de camara.
332 BISHOPS.
of the sovereigns^ and births of princes, and honours and
obsequies of those that die, and on all these occasions as
great a demonstration as possible is made.
The other cities and towns have not, up to the present
time, got as many estates or corporate property, nor re-
quirements upon which to make expenditure, although,
within the measure of their means, they take their part in
all that is of the same kind.
The Spaniards who are in the islands are divided into
five sorts of persons : these are prelates, monks, and eccle-
siastical ministers secular and regular; tax-collectors, settlers,
and conquerors; soldiers, officers, and ofiicials of war, by
sea and land, and of navigation ; merchants and persons
employed in trade and commerce ; officials of His Majesty
for the government, justice, and administration of the royal
exchequer.
The ecclesiastical prelates, it has been already said, are
the Archbishop of Manila, who resides in the city as metro-
politan, with his cathedral church ; he has four thousand
dollars stipend, which is paid yearly from the royal chest :
and the stipend of the dignitaries, canons, prebendaries,
and other ofl&cials of this church is paid in the same way,
for the whole is a royal patronage, and the appointments
are made conformably. His office and jurisdiction is, and
extends over all that is spiritual and temporal and ecclesi-
astical, and the governance of it.
The bishop of the city of the most holy name of Jesus, in
Sebu, and the bishop of Segovia in Cagayan, and he of
Caceres in Camarines, possess the same jurisdiction and
office in their dioceses as suff'ragans of the metropolitan of
Manila, to whom appeals may bo made from their sentences :
and he summons and assembles them for his provincial
councils, when it is expedient. Each of these bishops has
five hundred thousand maravedis^ as stipend for his main-
^ EqurJ to 7<35 dollars, 5 reals, and oO maravedis.
MONKS. 333
tenance from tlie royal chest of Manila^ besides the offerings
and liis pontifical rights^ all which together^ in consequence
of the cheapness and plenty of the country^ is amply suffi-
cient for their maintenance. For the present they have
not got churches with prebendaries, nor is any stipend
allowed them for that purpose.
The regular prelates are the provincials of the four mendi-
cant orders of St. Dominic, St. Augustine, St. Francis^ the
Company of Jesus, and the barefooted Augustines, each of
whom governs his order and visits it : these have in their
hands almost the whole of the religious instruction of the
natives, in what concerns the administration of the sacra-
ments and conversion (by favour), and in conformity with
their privileges and Apostolic Bulls ; in this they maintain
themselves up to the present time : and in judicial matters
they are as vicars of the bishops, with nominations and
powers from them. The barefooted Augustines up to the
present time have no missions, as they have recently arrived
in the islands.
The monasteries are maintained out of some private re-
venues which they possess or have acquired, especially the
Augustines, and those of the Company, and by succours
and allowances which His Majesty has given them. The
Dominicans and Franciscans do not possess nor accept re-
venues or properties ; and they and the others principally
depend upon alms, offerings, and the money offered for the
deceased in the parts where they reside and officiate ; for
this is done both by the Spaniards and also by the natives
with much piety and in abundance, and they also receive
the stipend which the collectorates pay to them for the re-
ligious instruction which they administer : so that they are
well off and have the necessary comforts.
The collectors, conquerors and settlers, who are of the
first comers to the islands, and those who have descended
from them, maintain themselves honourably with the pro-
334 MILITARY AND NAVAL
ceeds of tlieir collectorates, and with some trade and means
of gain whicli they enjoy hke the rest. Of these there are
many persons, who each reside and own houses in the city
and town of Spaniards in the province where they hold their
collectorate, so as not to abandon it, and to be nearer at
hand for their i-equirements and receipt of the tribute.
There are now few living of the first conquerors who won
the country, and came over to its conquest with the com-
mander-in-chief, Miguel Lopez de Legazpi.
The soldiers and military and naval ofiicials used to be the
whole of the dwellers and residents in the islands, who
without any pay or allowances bore arms, and used to go on
all expeditions and pacifications which offered; and they
guarded the forts and strongholds, the cities and towns; and
this was their principal exercise and occupation, being at
the discretion of the governor, who, according to their
merits and services, appointed them to collectorates, offices,
and common lands of the country. ^
In that time the soldiery of the islands was the best exist-
ing in the Indies, of great experience and practice at sea
and land, esteemed and respected by all those nations : they
took a pride in their arms and in giving a good account of
themselves.
After that Gomez Perez Dasmarinas entered upon the
government, a camp of paid soldiers was established of four
hundred men; the arquebusiers had six dollars monthly pay,
and the musketeers eight dollars : there were six captains at
four hundred and twenty dollars yearly pay each, with en-
signs, Serjeants, corporals, banner bearers, and drummers
with pay in proportion ; a master of the camp, with pay of
one thousand four hundred dollars a year ; a serjeant-major,
with captain^ s pay ; an assistant of the serjeant-major and
field-captain, with ten dollars pay a month ; two wardens
and commandants of the two fortresses of Manila, each one
' Aproveckamientos, or profits.
ESTABLISHMENTS. 335
with four hundred dollars a year^ with their lieutenants and
squads of soldier and artillery-men; a general of the galleys
with eight hundred dollars yearly pay; a captain to each
galley with three hundred dollars a year ; with boatswains,
second boatswains, coxswains, alguazils of the galleys,
soldiers, gunners, carpenters, riggers, sailors, pressed men,^
and the rabble of galley slaves, Spaniards, Sangleys, and
natives condemned for crimes. And when convicts are
scarce, good rowers are got from the natives by payment,
for the time that the expedition oroccasionforthe voyage lasts.
In despatching fleets of large ships for the voyage to
New Spain, the ships which are sent carry a general and
vice-admiral, masters and boatswains, storekeepers, stewards,
alguazils, gunners, and artillery-men, sailors, pilots and their
aids, ship-boys, carpenters, caulkers, and coopers, in the
pay of His Majesty, from whose royal chest in New Spain
they are paid, according to what was there established and
settled, and all that is necessary for the fleet is there pro-
vided. Its supplies and appointments are attended to by
the Viceroy of New Spain, whom this has hitherto con-
cerned, although the ships may have been built in the Phi-
lippines and sail thence with the cargo of merchandise for
New Spain, whence they return with the succours of sol-
diery and munitions, and the rest of what is required for the
camp, and with passengers and monks, and with the money
proceeding from the sale of the merchandise.
After that the camp of paid troops was founded for the
forts and expeditions, the other inhabitants and residents
continued to be enrolled, and under the banners of six land
captains, without pay, for indispensable occasions of the de-
fence of the city, but relieved from all other services per-
taining to soldiery, unless they were to offer themselves of
their own free will for any expedition or special occasion, in
order to possess merits and good service by which they
' Concejeles, men sent to service by order of a Municipal Council.
336 TRADE.
might be employed in collectorates which became vacant^ or
in offices, or gain grants of land ; they are not obliged nor
urged to this if they do not hold collectorates. In this way
all have turned to trade, having no other occupation, but
not for that letting themselves forget their military exercise.
His Majesty prohibits all those who draw his pay for the
army in these islands from being merchants, and orders the
governor not to suffer it, nor to embark their goods for
New Spain ; and if this "v^as carried out, it would not be ill.
The merchants and traders form the greater part of the
residents in these islands, on account of the quantity of
merchandise which flows in to them (in addition to the pro-
duce of the country) from China, Japan, Maluco, Malacca,
Siam, and Gamboja, Borneo, and other parts, with which
they make their ventures, and every year embark them in
ships which sail for New Spain : and now for Japan, where
raw silk is very profitable, and whence the proceeds are
brought to them on the return to Manila, and up to this
time the gains have been great and brilliant.
As this trade had so much increased, it had inflicted
great loss and injury on the merchandise of Spain which
was embarked for Peru and New Spain, and upon the royal
duties which used to be levied upon them, and the men of
business in Mexico and Peru had grown eager to trade with
the Philippines by means of their agents and factors; so
much so, that the trade of Spain was, in the greater part,
coming to an end; and they used to send much silver to the
Philippines for their purchases, which in that manner every
year flowed out of the realms of His Majesty into the pos-
session of the pagans; it was prohibited that any persons of
New Spain or Peru should trade with the Philippines, and
they were not to bring Chinese goods to those parts ; and
licence was given to the dwellers and residents in the Phi-
lippines by which they alone might trade in those said
goods, and load and embark them, provided that they take
CHINESE TRADE. 337
or send them with persons belonging to the islands, in order
that they should sell them, and that of the proceeds of the
said merchandise no more should be sent in coin to the
Philippines than five hundred thousand dollars each year.^
Usually there come from great China to Manila a large
number of somas and junks, which are large ships, laden
with merchandise ; and each year thirty usually come, and
sometimes forty ships, and although they do not come in
together in the foi-m of a fleet or convoy, they come in
squadrons, with the monsoon and settled weather, which
most generally is in the new moon of March. They are
from the provinces of Canton, Chincheo, and Ucheo, whence
they sail ; they perform their voyage to Manila in fifteen or
twenty days, and sell their merchandise, and return in time
before the south-westerly gales set in, which is at the end
of May and in the first days of June, so as not to be exposed
to danger in their voyage.
These ships come laden with goods, and bring great
merchants, the owners of the goods, with servants, and the
agents of other merchants who remain in China ; and they
come out of that country with permission from their vice-
roys and mandarins. The goods which they usually bring,
and sell to the Spaniards, are raw silk, in bundles of
the thickness of only two strands, and other silk of inferior
quality, soft untwisted silk, white and of other colours in
small skeins, much smooth velvet, and velvet embroidered
in all sorts of colours and patterns; and others with the
ground of gold and embroidered by hand with the same
material; stuffs and brocades of gold and silver upon silk of
various colours and design, many other brocades, and silver
twist in skeins, upon thread and upon silk, but all the
spangles of gold and silver are false and upon paper;
> De Morga has already said (page 287) that this restriction of the
money sent from Mexico for goods from the Philippines to 600,000
dollars was felt as a hardship in the Philippines.
L
:iob CHINESE TRADE.
damasks, satins, taffetans, and gorvarans ; glossy silks, and
other stuffs of all colours, some finer and better than others;
a quantity of linen made of grass, which they call handker-
chief stuff,^ and white cotton tablecloths of different kinds
and sorts, for all sorts of uses ; musk, benzoin, ivory, many
ornaments for beds, hangings, coverlets, and curtains em-
broidered on velvet ; damask and gorvaran of many shades
of colour, tablecovers, cushions, carpets, caparisons of horses
of the same stuff, and with bugles or seed pearl ; some
peai-ls and rubies, sapphires, stones of crystal, basons,
kettles, and other vases of copper and cast iron, large
assortments of nails of all sorts, sheet iron, tin, lead, salt-
petre and powder, wheat, flour, preserves of oranges, peaches,
viper-root, pears, nutmeg, ginger, and other fruits of China,
hams of pig, and other salt meats, live fowls of good breed,
and very fine capons, much fresh fruit, oranges of all kinds,
very good chestnuts, walnuts, pears, chicueys fresh and
dried, which is a very delicate fruit ; much fine thread of all
kinds, needles, knick-knacks, little boxes, and writing boxes;
* Lencesuelo. This fabric is now called Pina. It is made of threads
stripped from fibres of the leaf of that plant or fruit, and which are
never longer than half a yard. It cannot be woven at all times, as ex-
treme heat or humidity affects the fibre. The machinery employed is of
wood, immixed with any metal, and of rude construction. This fabric
is stronger than any other of equal fineness, and its colour is unaffected
by time or washing. The pieces are generally only 1^ feet wide : the
pries varies from \s. 4c/. to 2s. Qd. per yard. Piiia of a yard wide is
from six reals to a dollar (of eight reals) a yard. All the joinings of the
threads are of knots made by the fingers. It is fabricated solely by
native Indians in many parts of the Philippines, but especially in Ho-
llo. The use of this stuff is extensive, and the value is estimated at
500,000 dollars, or £120,00(J ; the value of the annual export of it to
Europe for dresses, handkerchiefs, collars, scarves, and wristbands, which
are beautifully embroidered at Manila, is estimated at 20,000 dollars
annually. Signor Ortiz of Ilo-Ilo employs continually upwards of two
hundred weavers upon this fabric ; and he has sent a piece made ex-
pTcssly for the Exhibition of 1851. — Mr. Consul Farrcn, January 21,
1851.
I
CHINESE TRADE. 339
beds, tables, chairs, gilt seats painted with all sorts of
figures and designs, tame buffaloes, geese like swans, horses,
some mules and donkeys, and even caged birds, some of
which talk and others sing, and they make them play a
thousand tricks ; and a thousand other gewgaws and orna-
ments of httle cost and price, which are valued among the
Spaniards; besides much fine crockery of all sorts, cangans,
and sines, and black and blue wrappers, tacley, which are
beads of all kinds, and cornelians in strings, and other
beads and stones of all colours ; pepper and other spice ;
and curiosities, to recount all which would be never to come
to an end, nor would much paper be sufiicient for it.
As soon as the ship arrives at the mouth of the bay of
Manila, the watchman who is in the island of Miraveles
goes out to meet it in a light vessel, and having examined
it, he puts on board two or three soldiers as guards, for it
to go and anchor at the bar near the city, and that no one
should laud from the ship, nor enter it from Avithout, until
it has been inspected ; and by the signal which the watch-
man makes by fire from his island, and the notice he sends
in haste to the city of what ship it is, and from whence it
comes, and what people and goods it brings, before it comes
to anchor, the governor and the city generally know all
about it.
On arriving and casting anchor, the royal ofiicers go to in-
spect the ship and biUs of cargo and entry of the goods which
it brings, and at the same time a valuation is formally made of
what they are worth in Manila; because it at once pays
three per cent upon all of them to His Majesty. When the
list and valuation have been made, the merchandise is at
once taken out and discharged in champans, and carried to
the parian, or to other houses and warehouses, which they
have outside the city, and they sell it in full liberty.
No Spaniard or Sangley, or other person is allowed to go
and buy or barter merchandise or provisions, nor anything
z2
340 CHINESE TRADE.
else in the ship, nor, when they have got their goods on
shore in their houses or warehouses, is it allowed to take or
buy them by force or violence ; but the trade must be free,
and the Sangleys may do with their property what they
like.
Usually the price of the raw silk, and silk stuffs, and
wrappers, which is the bulk of what they bring, is settled at
leisure, and by persons who understand the business, both
on the part of the Spaniards and of the Sangleys, and what
is given them for it, is silver and reals, for they do not like
gold, nor any other goods in exchange, nor do they carry
any to China: and all the purchase must be made within the
month of May, a little more or less, in order that the
Sangley may be able to return, and in order that the
Spaniard may have it all in readiness to load it in the ships
which by the end of June sail for New Spain ; though in-
deed those who are most careful of gain and well provided
with money usually effect their bargains later at more
moderate prices, and keep their goods till another year.
Some Sangleys with the same object remain in Manila with
a part of their merchandise, when they have not had a good
sale for it, and go on selling it more at leisure. They are
very experienced and intelligent people in trade, and of
great coolness and moderation for the better carrying on of
their business ; and they are ready to trust and give liberal
facilities to whomsoever they know deals with them honestly,
and will not fail in his payments at the time which is ap-
pointed : on the other hand, as people without a faith or
conscience, and so avaricious, they are guilty of a thousand
frauds and tricks in their merchandise, so that it is neces-
sary to be very attentive, and to know the goods, for the
buyers not to be taken in; they, on their side, are quits
with their bad payments and frauds, so that between both
of them the judges and High Court have much with which
to occup3' themselves.
JAPANESE TRADE. 341
There come likewise every year from Japan, from the
port of Nangasaki, with the north winds at the end of
October, and during the month of March, a few ships with
merchandise, Japanese and Portuguese, which enter and
anchor off Manila observing the same order; the bulk of
what they bring is wheaten fl.our of a very good quality,
for the supply of Manila, salt meats that are highly prized,
some silk stuffs of combined colours, and very smart screens
painted in oil,^ and gilt, fine and well fitted up ; all sorts of
cutlery, many collections of arras, lances, catans, and other
halberds, curiously wrought, small writing boxes, boxes and
caskets of wood, varnished and of curious workmanship, and
other baubles pretty to look at, very good fresh pears,
barrels and kegs of good salted tunny, cages of larks which
are very good, and which they call fimbaros, and other
trifles. In this trade some purchases are also made, with-
out royal duties being levied upon these ships, and the
greater part of these goods are used in the country, and
some serve for cargoes to New Spain. The price is chiefly
paid in reals, though they are not so set upon them as the
Chinese, as they have silver in Japan; and generally a
quantity of it is brought in plate as merchandise, which they
supply at moderate prices.
These ships return to Japan at the season of the south-
westerly gales in the months of June and July ; they carry
their purchases from Manila, which consist of raw silk from
China, gold, stags' horns, and Brazil wood for their dye;
and they also take honey, manufactured wax, palm wine,
and wines from Castile, civet cats, tibor jars for keeping
their tea, glass panes, cloth, and other rarities from Spain.
Some Portuguese ships come each year to Manila from
Maluco and from Malacca with the south-west monsoon; the
goods they bring are cloves, cinnamon, pepper, black and
Caffre slaves, cotton cloths of all sorts, fine muslins, caniqui,
' Bionos al olio, perhaps a misprint for biombos.
342 TRADE WITH MALUCO AND BORNEO.
fine stiff cotton stuff {bofeta), gauze {caza), ramhutis,
and other sorts of stuffs very fine and costly, amber and
ivory, embroidered stuff of aloes, ornamental coverings for
beds, hangings and rich coverlets of Bengal, Cochin, and
other countries, many gilt things and curiosities, jewels of
diamonds, rubies, sapphires, topazes, balashes, and other
fine stones, set and separate ; many pendant jewels for head-
dresses and rarities from India, wine, raisins and almonds,
delicate preserves, and other fruits brought from Portugal
and prepared in Goa, carpets, and small carpets of silk and
fine wools from Persia and Turkey, writing cases, drawing-
room chairs and other furniture daintily gilt, made in Macao,
needlework on white stuffs and silk of combined colours,
chain lace and royal point lace, and other work of much
delicacy and perfection. All these things are purchased in
Manila, and paid for in reals and in gold, and these ships
return in January with the north-east winds, which are
their fixed monsoon ; and for Maluco they take away provi-
sions of rice, wine, crockery, and other baubles which are in
request there, and to Malacca only gold or money, except-
ing a few particular gewgaws and rarities from Spain, and
emeralds: the king's duties are not levied on these ships.
Smaller vessels come likewise from Borneo, belonging to
the natives of that island; they come with the south-
westerly gales, and return with the north-east winds: they,
enter the Manila river, and sell what they bring inside their
ships, which consists of very fine palm mats, highly finished;
some slaves for the natives; sago, which is a certain food of
theirs made of the pith of palm trees ; tibors and large and
small jars, glazed black, very fine, of much durability and
use ; fine camphor, which is produced in that island ; and
although on its opposite coast fine diamonds are found, they
do not come to Manila by this way because the Portuguese
of Malacca barter for them in that part. The purchases of
these Borneo articles are made more by the natives than by
TRADE WITH NEW SPAIN. 343
the Spaniards^ and what they take in return are supplies of
rice and wine^ cotton wrappers^ and other baubles of the
islands which are wanting in Borneo,
A few ships come on rare occasions to Manila from Siam
and Camboja : they bring some benzoin^ pepper, ivory,
cotton cloths, rubies and sapphires badly cut and set, a few
slaves, horns of the female rhinoceros, the hide, hoofs, and
teeth of that animal, and other trinkets ; and on the return
they take those (the trinkets) which there are in Manila.
Their coming and return is between the north-easters and
south-Av esters, during the months of April, May, and June.
The Spaniards make their purchases, gains, and ship-
ments for New Spain of these goods and with the produce
of the islands, which are gold, cotton cloths, medrinaques,
white and yellow wax in cakes ; each one does as best suits
him, and they load them in the ships which are to make the
voyage, valuing and registering them, because they pay two
per cent, export duty into the royal chest of Manila before
they sail, besides the freight of the ship, which is forty
ducats of Castile per ton, which is paid in the port of
Acapulco in New Spain into the royal chest of that port,
besides the duties of ten per cent, on the importation and
first sale in New Spain.
Since the ships which are despatched with this merchan-
dise are on account of His Majesty, and no others are
allowed to navigate, there is usually a great pressure and
difficulty in shipping all the purchases; the governor divides
the shipments amongst all the shippers according to their
respective capital and deserts, examined into by intelligent
persons whom he names for that purpose ; so that each one
knows by the distribution made how much he can ship, and
that quantity only is received into the ship, with full account
and care taken by confidential persons who are present at
taking in the cargo, leaving space for the provisions and
passengers which the ships have to take. AVhen tliey are
344 DUTIES OF THE GOVERNOR
laden and ready to sail^ officials are put at the disposal of
the general who take the merchandise under their charge,
and they set out on the voyage at the end of the month of
June^ with the first south-westers.
This trade and merchandise is so considerable and profit-
able^ and easy to administrate (because it only lasts three
months of the year, from the time that the ships arrive with
the merchandise until those that go to New Spain take it
away), that the Spaniards have not applied themselves to
nor undertake anything else. So that there are neither
agricultural works nor undertakings of any importance, nor
do they work mines or gold washings, of which there ai-e
many, nor do they devote themselves to many other things,
which they might do with great profit if the trade with
China should come to be interrupted ; this trade has been
in this respect very detrimental and prejudicial, and also for
the occupations and labours which the natives used to be
employed in, for now they are abandoning and forgetting
them : besides the loss and detriment of so much silver leav-
ing this port every year to go into the possession of the
pagans, which will never return by any way into the pos-
session of the Spaniards.
The ministers of His Majesty for the government and
justice, and the royal officials for the administration of His
Majesty's finance are the governor and captain-general of
all the islands, who at the same time is president of the
High Coui^t of Manila. He has as salary for all his offices
eight thousand dollars^ a year, and his guard of twelve hal-
berdiers, with a captain of the guard, with three hundred
dollars yearly pay : he issues orders, and despatches by him-
self all that pertains to war and government, with consulta-
tion with the auditors of the High Court in arduous cases ;
and he takes cognisance of criminal causes in the first in-
stance in the case of the paid soldiers, and appeals from this
process go to the High Court.
^ Pesos de minas.
AND AUDIENCIA. 345
He appoints many chief alcaldes, cliief magistrates, lieu-
tenants, and other justices, in all the isles and their pro-
vinces, for the carrying on of the government and of justice
and affairs of war, in the presence of the chief secretary of
the government, appointed by His Majesty, who takes part
with the governor.
Together with this, he is present at the High Court as its
president in all that pertains to it ; in which there are four
auditors and a fiscal, each one with a salary of two thousand
dollars a year, a reporter and a secretary, a chief constable,
with his lieutenants and the warden of the prison of the
Court, a chancellor and registrar, two porters, a chaplain
and sacristan, an executioner, attornies and clerks.' The
High Court takes cognisance of all causes civil and criminal
which are brought before it from all the provinces of its dis-
trict ; these are the Philippine islands, and the mainland of
China, discovered and yet to be discovered ; and it has the
same powers as the Chanceries of Valladolid and Granada
in Spain. Together with this the High Court provides
what is fitting for the good administration, accounts, and
order of the royal exchequer.
The chest of the royal exchequer of His Majesty in the
Philippines and its tribunal consists of three royal officials
whom His Majesty appoints, a factor, accountant, and
treasurer, each of them with a salary of five hundred and
ten thousand maravedis^ a year, with their clerk of the
mines and registers of the royal finance, officers for execu-
tions and officials, who reside in Manila ; from whence they
administer and despatch all that pertains to the royal ex-
chequer in all the islands.
His Majesty possessed, belonging to his royal crowm
of the Philippines, a quantity of encomiendas in all the
provinces of the Philippines, which are collected into his
' Procuradores y recetores.
^ Seven hundred and fifty dollars.
346 REVENUE
royal chest by means of the king's officials, and the collectors
whom they send for that purpose ; these, one year with
another, amount to thirty thousand dollars, free of costs and
expenses.
They collect eight thousand dollars from the tribute of
the Sangleys, Christians, and pagans, one year with another.
They also levy fifths upon all the gold which is obtained
in the islands ; and by a special favour granted for a limited
time, instead of a fifth a tenth is taken. Upon this there is
a declaration that neither fifths nor other duties should be
paid upon the jewels and gold which the natives held from
their ancestors before that His Majesty came into posses-
sion of the country ; for the clear specification of this, and
for the certifying of those jewels, and of those which have
once paid a tenth, and for the measures which are to be
taken in the matter, sufficient provisions have been made.
One year with another ten thousand dollars are raised
from these fifths, for many are kept back.
There enters into the royal chest and is made over to it
the sum of two reals assigned from each tributary for the
pay of the soldiery, and stipend of the prebendaries, which
the collectors receive and bring, in conformity with the
account by which they collect the tributes,^ which is worth
and amounts, one year with another, to thirty-four thousand
dollars.
The fines and costs of justice are taken possession of by
the treasurer of the royal exchequer and enter the royal
chest, and one year with another are worth three thousand
dollars.
The duties of three per cent, on the merchandise brought
from China by the Sangleys ships are worth, one year with
another, forty thousand dollars.
The duties of two per cent, which the Spaniards pay for
' These two reals arc tliosc which were added to tlie triljute of eight
reals, see page 325.
AND EXPENDITURE. 347
the export of the merchandise which they ship to New
Spain, one year with another, amount to twenty thousand
dollars, and the duties on the merchandise and money which
are brought from New Spain to the Philippines amount to
eight thousand dollars more : so that from these sources,
and small matters of less importance, which belong to the
royal exchequer, His Majesty receives in the Philippines
every year a hundred and fifty thousand dollars, a little
more or less.
Besides these, as this is not sufiicient for the expenditure
which is made, every year a succour in money is sent from
the royal chest in New Spain to that of the Philippines,
more or less in quantity, according as the exigency requires;
because His Majesty has made this provision for it from the
proceeds of the duty of ten per cent, which is levied upon
the merchandise from China in the port of Acapulco of
New Spain. This succour enters into the custody of the
royal ofiicials of Manila, and they take charge of it with the
rest of the finance which they administer and gather in.
Out of the mass of this finance of His Majesty the salaries
of the governor and High Court are paid, also the stipends
of the prelates and ecclesiastical prebendaries, and the
salaries of the justices, and the royal ofiicials and their
assistants, the pay of all the military officers and paid
troops ; all tte payments pertain to His Majesty in the way
of stipends for religious instruction and sums for the fabric
and ornaments of churches, gratuities and money to assist
certain monasteries and private persons, the construction of
sea-going ships for the navigation to New Spain, and of
galleys and other vessels for the defence of the islands, ex-
penditure for gunpowder, munitions, cannon-foundry, and
the dock-yard, and the expenditure which has to be in-
curred for expeditions and particular entei'prises in the
islands, and for their defence, and for voyages and business
with the neighbouring kingdoms, which are very ordinary
CONDITION OP THE
and obligatory : in such sort, that the resources which His
Majesty possesses in these isles being so limited and the ex-
penditure so great, the royal exchequer is drained, and
straits and indigence experienced.
Moreover, the proceeds of the duty of ten per cent, and
fi-eight of the ships, which are levied in Acapulco of New
Spain upon the merchandise which is shipped thither from
the Philippines, although they are copious, yet they are not
always sufficient for the expenses which are incurred in
New Spain for the ships, soldiers, munitions, and other
things which are sent every year to the Philippines ; these
expenses usually mount up much higher, and the royal
chest of Mexico supplies the deficiency. So that up to the
present time the king our sovereign has no financial profit
whatever in the Philippines, but on the contrary no small
expense out of his revenues in New Spain ; and he only
endures them for the sake of Christianity and the conversion
of the natives, and with the hope of better results, in other
kingdoms and provinces of Asia, which are looked for by
this means and opening, whenever God shall be so pleased.
Each year the High Court calls for the accounts of the
royal officers of the king's revenue, and the balance is made;
and the accounts are sent to the Tribunal of Accounts of
Mexico.
In the city of Manila, and in all the Spanish towns in the
islands there are Sangleys who have come from great China,
besides the merchants; they have fixed quarters, and occupy
themselves with various employments, and come to seek
their livelihood; they have their parians and shops, and
others go after fisheries and other means of gain throughout
the country among the natives, and they trade from one
island to another with large and small champans.
The ships which come every year from great China bring
these Sangleys, especially to the city of Manila, in great
numbers, for the sake of the profits which they make by
CHINESE IN THE PHILIPPINES. 349
their passage money : and as people are supera,bundant in
China^ and the gains and daily wages run shorty whatever
they obtain in the Philippines is of much importance to
them.
From this arise great difficulties and disadvantages;
because^ besides there being little security in the country
with so great a number of pagans^ they are bad and vicious
people, and from dealing and communicating with them, the
natives make little improvement in their Christianity and
morals : and as they are so many, and great eaters, they raise
the price of provisions and consume them.
It is true, that the city can neither go on nor maintain
itself without these Chinamen, because they are the work-
men in all employments, they are very industrious, and
work for moderate wages. But for this a fewer number
would suffice, and the disadvantage would be avoided of so
many people as there usually are in Manila at the time of
the shipping; besides many who go about the islands under
colour of trade with the natives, and who commit a thousand
evils and offences: and at least they explore all the country,
rivers, creeks, and ports, and they know them better than
the Spaniards do ; and in case of any insurrection or the
coming of enemies to the islands, they will be very detri-
mental and prejudicial.
In order to remedy all this, it is ordained that the ships
shall not bring so many people of this kind, with penalties
which are put in force, and that when they go away to
China, they should carry them back again, and that there
shall not remain in Manila any others than a suitable num-
ber of merchants in the Parian, and the artisans of all
necessary trades, with a written hcence, under severe penal-
ties. In this an auditor of the High Court is each year em-
ployed by special commission, without other assistants; and
in general he leaves, at the request of the Town-Council,
the Chinamen who are required for the sei'vice of all the
350 CONDITION OF THE
trades and employments, and the rest they put them on
board ship and oblige them to go back in the ships which
return to China, with much force and pressure which is
used for that purpose.
These merchants and workmen who remain in Manila,
previous to the insurrection of the year 1603, had their
dwellings in the Parian and its shops, which is a large
closed silk-market, with many streets, at a considerable
distance from the city walls, close to the river, at the place
they call San Graviel,^ in which there is a commandant of
its own, with his court and prison, and officials who ad-
minister justice to them, and watch over them day and
night, that they may be in security, and not commit dis-
orders.
Those who cannot find room in this Parian live opposite,
on the other side of the river, on the side of Tondo, in two
towns called Baybay and Minondoc, under the charge of
the chief alcalde of Tondo, and under the administration of
the Dominican monks who undertake their conversion, and
by that means know the Chinese language.
They have two monasteries, with the requisite ministers,
and a good hospital for the cure of Sangleys ; they have, in
a quarter separate from that of the pagans, a settlement of
baptised Sangleys, with their houses, wives, and families, to
the number of five hundred inhabitants, and every day they
go on baptising others, and establishing them in this settle-
ment. Few turn out well, being despicable people, restless
and vicious, and of bad morals ; and their having become
Christians has not been on account of a desire for their sal-
vation, but for the sake of the temporal comforts which
they there enjoy :^ and in the case pf some of them, the not
being able to return to China for debts and offences which
they have committed there.
All of them indifferently, Christians and pagans, go un-
' (?) San (labriel. - This is still the case.
CHINESE IN THE PHILIPPINES. 351
armed^ and with their own costume^ which consists of long
robes with wide sleeves, made of blue cangan, or white stuff
for mourning ; and the great men wear black silks and
coloured, wide drawers of the same stuff, short stockings of
felt, very wide shoes in their fashion of blue silk, em-
broidered with braid, with many soles, well sewn together,
and other stuffs, the hair long, very black and well cared
for, tied up on the head with a knot, under a small hood or
skull-cap, made of horsehair, close fitting, coming to the
middle of the forehead, and a high round cap of the same
horsehair on the top of all, of different patterns, by which
the employments and quality of each man are distinguished.
The Christians only differ from the rest in wearing their
hair cut short, and hats like the Spaniards.
They are white people, tall in stature, with little beard,
large limbed, and very strong, industrious workmen, and
ingenious in all arts and trades, phlegmatic, people of little
courage, treacherous and cruel when they see their opportu-
nity, and very covetous ; great eaters of all sorts of meat,
fish, and fruit, but drinking little, and what they do drink, hot.
They have a governor of their nation, a Christian, with
his officials and ministers, who hears their suits in their
family and business affairs ; appeals from him go to the
chief alcalde of Tondo or of the Parian, and from all of
these to the High Court, which also pays especial attention
to this nation, and to all that concerns it.
No Chinaman may live or have a house outside of these
settlements, the Parian, Baybay, and Minondoc, nor are
natives allowed to live in their houses, nor to establish
themselves around the Chinese; nor may a Chinaman go
out amongst the islands, nor two leagues from the city
without express permission ; and much less remain at night
within the city when the gates are shut, under pain of death.
There usually are in Manila Japanese, both Christians and
pagans, who remain from the ships which come from Japan,
352 JAPANESE IN MANILA.
though there are not so many of them as of the Chinese.
These have a particular quarter and a site outside the city,
between the Parian of the Sangleys and the quarter of
Laguio, close to the monastery of Candlemas, where the
Franciscan barefooted monks administer them, with inter-
preters whom they keep for that purpose. They are spirited
people, and of good disposition and valiant; they wear their
own costume, which consists of garments {quimony of
coloured silk and cotton reaching half way down the leg,
open in front, wide short drawers, close fitting boots of
chamois leather ; shoes like sandals, the sole of straw well
interwoven ; their heads bare, the to.p shaven as far as the
crown, and the back hair long, tied upon the head with a
graceful bow; they wear large and small catans in their
waists, and little beard ; they are people of noble condition
and conduct, of much ceremony and courtesy, with much
point of honour, and very estimable, and determined in any
case of necessity or difficulty.
Those who are Christians turn out well, and are very
devout and observant of their religion, because nothing
moves them to receive it except the desire for their salva-
tion, on which account there are many Christians in Japan ;
and so they return easily and without reluctance to their
country. The most of this nation that may be in Manila,
for they do not go to other parts of the islands, may be five
hundred Japanese, and from being of the quality of which
they are, they return to Japan without remaining long in
the islands, and so in general very few of them remain : in
everything good treatment is ofiered them, as they are
people who require it; and such is expedient for the good
relations of the islands with Japan.
Few people arrive of the other nations, Siamese, Cambo-
dians, Borneans, Patanis, and of the other islands outside of
the Philippine government, and they return immediately
' Vestis — quiru mono, Collado's Japanese Dictionary, Rome, 1632.
NAVIGATION. 353
with their ships : so that there is nothing particular to be
said of thenij except that care is taken to receive and
despatch them well^ and to get them to return shortly to
their own countries.
Having related with as much brevity as was possible
what the Philippine islands are, and what is current and
practised among them, it will not be out of place to treat of
the navigation which is made to them from New Spain, and
of the return voyage, which is not a short one, nor devoid
of many risks and difficulties, and of the voyage which is
made in the eastern direction.
When the islands were conquered in the year 1574, the
Spanish fleet, in which the general was the commander-in-
chief Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, sailed from the port of
Navidad in the South Sea, on the coast of New Spain and
province and district of Xalisco and Galicia, where the
High Court of Guadalajara resides. For some voyages
later they continued to sail from the same port, until, for
improvement and greater convenience, the despatching of
these ships was removed to the port of Acapulco, more to
the southward on the same coast, in sixteen and a half
degrees latitude, eighty leagues from Mexico, and in its
district; which port is good, sheltered from all weathers,
with a good entrance and anchorage, a good neighbour-
hood, better supplied and with more population than that of
Navidad. There a chief alcalde has been established, with
many Spanish inhabitants, and a treasury of His Majesty,
with royal officers who attend to this despatch.
The departure of the ships which are to sail for the
Philippines, which are despatched yearly on account of His
Majesty, must necessarily be in the season of the north-
east winds, which begin from the month of November and
last till the end of March, and this voyage could not be
performed at any other time, because from June there are
southwesterly gales which are contrary to it.
' Thi.s shuuld be 1.">G4. ■*■ A-
354 NAVIGATION TO
The usual practice is for these ships to be despatched and
to sail at the end of February, and at latest the twentieth of
March; they go westward, making for the islands of Las
Velas, also named the Ladroues, and the island of Guan,
which is one of them, is in thirteen degrees latitude : and
because sometimes on leaving Acapulco the ships meet with
calms, they decrease their latitude from sixteen and a half
degrees, in which that port stands, until they find the north-
erly winds, which is ordinarily the case in ten or eleven
degrees. On this course they alwa^^s sail with the wind
astern, and without altering the set of the sails, with fresh
and favouring north-easters and other moderate weather, a
distance of eighteen hundred leagues, without sighting any
land or island, leaving to the southward the Barbudos and
other islands, they increase their latitude gradually to thir-
teen degrees, until they sight the island of Guan, and
above it, in fourteen degrees, the Carpana : this voyage to
the Ladrone Islands is commonly one of seventy days.
The natives of these islands, who are naked people,
strong-limbed and bai^barous, as soon as they discover the
ships at a distance of four or six leagvies, come out to sea,
making for them, with many vessels, made of one piece of
timber,^ very light and slender, with a counterpoise of bam-
boo to leeward, and the sail made of palm leaves lateen-
shaped; in tiiese go two or three men with paddles and oars,
and a cargo of flying-fish, dorados, cocoa-nuts, plantains,
sweet potatoes, water canes, and some fine mats, and on
reaching the ships they barter them for iron of barrel hoops
and pieces of nails, which are of use to them for their works
and for constructing their vessels. Since the shipwreck and
putting in in distress of some Spaniards in these islands,
some monks and Spaniards have remained with them, and
they approach our ships more readily, and enter inside.
Our ships pass between the two islands of Guan and
' Or, with oae mast.
AND FROM NEW SPAIN. 355
Carpana^ making for the Philippines and cape of Espiritu
Santo, which is three hundred leagues further on_, in barely
thirteen degrees latitude, which is a run of ten or twelve
days with the north-east winds : and it happens that by
sailing rather late south-westerly gales are met with, which
put the navigation in peril, and the islands are entered with
much labour and difficulty. From the Cape of Espiritu
Santo ships pass through the strait of Capul to the islands
of Mazbate and Burias, and from there to Marinduque, and
along the coast of Calilaya to the strait of Mindoro, and to
the shoals of Tuley, and to the mouth of the bay of Manila,
and thence to the port of Cabit, which is a course of a
hundred leagues, since entering among the islands, this is
traversed in eight days : with that this navigation ends,
which is good, and most generally without accidents, if
made in the right season.
The return voyage from the Philippines to New Spain is
now made by these ships with great difficulties and pei-ils,
on account of the navigation being long, and accompanied
by many storms and various temperatures: on which account
the ships set out very well provided with stores, and equipped
in a suitable manner, for each one makes its voyage singly,
making what sail it can, without one waiting for the other,
nor seeing one another during the whole voyage.
They sail from the bay and port of Cabit with the first
setting in of the south-westers, passing between the same
islands and straits, from the twentieth of June and later, for
there is hard work passing between islands, with storms of
rain, until getting out of the strait of Capul. Having got out to
the open sea, they take advantage of the south-westerly
gale, shaping their course eastward as much as possible in
the latitude of fourteen or fifteen degrees.
Then the north-east wind sets in, which is the wind
which generally prevails in the South Sea, especially in low
latitudes, and as this is a head wind, the course is changed
A A 2
356 NAVIGATION TO
and the ship's head, put between north and east as much as
the wind allows of; by which they increase their latitude,
and so the ship is kept on until the south-west wind re-
turnSj and with it, in the latitude in which the ship may be,
it makes its course to the east, and follows it as long as the
wind lasts ; and when it falls light, they set the ship's head
as the wind best allows between north and east, and if the
wind should be so contrary as to be north or north-west,
and that course cannot be made, the other course is shaped,
so as to continue and keep on the voyage without falling off.
At four hundred leagues from the Philippines, the volcanoes
and ridges of the Ladrone isles are seen, which run towards
the north, as far as twenty-four degrees, and amongst them
there are frequently great storms and hurricanes ; and the
Cape of Sestos, the headland of Japan, lies to the north, six
hundred leagues from the Philippines. The ships pass
between other islands which are rarely seen, in thirty-eight
degrees,^ with the same perils and storms, the temperature
cold in the neighbourhood of the islands, Rica de oro and
Rica de plata, and which are seldom reconnoitred : having
left these islands there is a wide open sea, where the
ship can run free with any weather ; this is traversed with
the winds that are met with for many leagues as far as
forty-two degrees latitude, making for the coast of New
Spain and looking for the usual winds which prevail in that
latitude, and which in general are north-westerly, and at the
end of a long navigation the coast of New Spain is reached,
which, from the Cape Mendozino, which is in forty-two
degrees and a half, runs for nine hundred leagues to the
port of Acapulco, which is in sixteen and a half degrees.
' This is probably Jin error for twenty-eight degrees, and these islands
would be the Moiuiin-Sima Islands, between 26° 35' and 27° 45' ; and
Lot's Wife in 29° 51', and Crespo in 32° 46', which are supposed by the
Univers Pittoresque to be the Eoca de Oro and the Roca de Plata of
the ancient maps; and De Morga's plirase, " rica de oro, rica de plata,"
the names of islands in tlie old maps, is to be found in other contcniporary
documents.
AND FROM NEW SPAIN. 357
When the ships are near the coast, and in general they
sight it between from forty degrees to thirty-six, the cold
is very great, and the crews suffer and die of it. Three
hundred leagues before reaching land, signs of it are seen
in [portions of] bad water, of the size of a hand, round and
purple, with a crest in the middle like a lateen sail, which
they call caravels. This sign lasts until reaching a hundred
leagues from the land, when they next discover some fishes,
half the body of the form of dogs, which go frisking one
with another close to the ship ; after these little dogs are seen
the knobsticks fpovvasj , which are sprouts of grass, hollow
and very long, yellow, with a ball at the end, which come float-
ing on the water, and at thirty leagues from the coast are
many very large clumps of grass, which the large rivers
which are in the country bring down into the sea : these are
called floats (balsas), and many dogs by turns with all the
other signs. After this the coast is discovered, which is
very high land, and a clean coast, and without losing sight
of it, the ship runs along it with the north-west, north-
north-west, and north winds, which are usually met with on
this coast, by day towards the land and by night back
again to the sea; decreasing the latitude, and entering a
warmer temperature the island of Cenizas is sighted, and
afterwards that of Cedars ; from thence they go on to sight
the cape of San Lucas, which is the mouth of California.
From there they cross the eighty leagues which it has in
width until sighting the islands of Las Marias, and the Cape
of Currents, which is on the other side of California in Val
de Vanderas, and the province of Chametla; thence they
pass by the coast of Colima, and of Sacatul los Motines and
Ciguatanejo ; and the port of Acapulco is entered, without
any port having been touched at or a landing made since
the channel of Capul of the Philippines during the whole
voyage, which usually lasts five months, a little more or less,
and frequently six months or more time.
358 NAVIGATION, ETC.
By way of India a voyage may be made from the Philip-
pines to Spain, by shaping the course to Malacca, and
thence to Cochin and to Goa, which is a distance of twelve
hundred leagues, and it has to be done with the north-east
winds. From Goa the navigation is by the Indian voyage
to the Cape of Good Hope, and to the Azores Islands, and
from 'them to Portugal and the port of Lisbon, which is a
long and laborious navigation, as is experienced by the
Portuguese, who pursue it every year. From India they
are in the habit of transmitting letters and despatches to
Spain by the Red Sea, by the hands of the Indians, who
send them through Arabia and Alexandria, and thence by
sea to Venice, and from there they go to Spain.
A galloon is usually despatched and sails in some years
from the fortress of Malacca, which goes to Portugal by the
open sea, without touching in India, nor at any of its coasts :
it arrives much more speedily at Lisbon than the ships from
Goa. Its ordinary departure is on the fifth of January, and
it does not delay beyond that time, nor are they used to
anticipate it. Though these voyages, one and all, are not
practised by the Castilians, and are prohibited to them; but
only that voyage which is performed by way of New Spain,
going and returning, as has been related, and without any
better or more speedy way having been discovered by the
South Sea, although it has been attempted.
*^* This translation was begun on the 2nd of April, 1867, and ended
on the 27th of May of 1867. The printing of it was commenced in the
beginning of July 1867, and was not finished till April 1868.
Laus Deo.
359
APPENDIX I.
A Don Cristoval Gomez de Sandoval y Rojas, Duque de Cea.
Ofresco a V. Excelencia este pequeiio trabajo, tan digno de
buena acogida, por la fiel relacion qne contiene, cuanto desuudo
de artificio j ornato ; conociendo mi pobre caudal, lo comence
con temor, animome a pasar adelante, enteuder, que si lo qae se
da, hnbiese de tener igual proporcion con qnien lo recibe, no
habria quien mereciese poner en manos de V. Excelencia, sus
obras, y quedarian en olvido, las que en estos tiempos han hecho
nuestros Espanolcs, en el descubrimiento, conquista y conversion
de las islas Pilipinas, y vai-ios sucesos que a vueltas ban tenido
en los grandes reinos y gentilidades que las rodean ; que como de
partes tan remotas, ninguna relacion lia salido en publico, que
lo trate de proposito, desde sus principios hasta el estado que
ahora tienen. Suplico a V. Excelencia, reciba mi voluntad,
postrada a sus pies ; y cuando esta breve escritura no diere el
gusto que me representa el amor propio (enfermedad del ingenio
bumano), use V. Excelencia conmigo como suele con todos ;
leyendola y disimulando sus imperfecciones, de su prudencia y
mansedumbre, como tan rico destas y otras virtudes, que hacen
con fuerza divina que las cosas altas no estraiien a las humildes,
y han puesto a V. Excelencia sobre su propia y natural grandeza,
en el lugar que tiene, para bien destos reinos, premiando y
favoreciendo lo bueno, corrigiendo y refrenando lo contrario, en
que consiste el buen estado de la vepublica, que dio motivo a
Democrito, filosofo antiguo, para llamar al premio y al castigo
verdaderos dioses. Para gozar desta felicidad, no bay que desear
niugun tiempo pasado, sino contentos con el presente, rogar a
Dios nos guarde a V. Excelencia por largos afios.
D. Antonio ue Mokga.
360
APPENDIX II.
SUBSEQUENT HISTORY OP CALDEKA AND MINDANAO.
After De Morga's time the Mindanao men, in 1G16, burned
the dockyard in Pantao, a port of the isle of Luzon, although
it was defended by soldiers and cannon ; they continued to
infest the coasts of Macalilum, Camarines, Albay and other
places till 1634, when they sacked and burned the town of
Tayahas, eighteen leagues from Manila, and very nearly cap-
tured the Archbishop Fray Miguel Garcia Serrano. Various
fleets were sent against them, and Juan Xuarez Gallinato, the
master of the camp, went a second time to chastise them, and
returned with little better success than the first time. In 1635
the fort of Samboangan was erected by Captain Juan de Chaves,
two leagues from the old fort of Caldera in the isle of Mindanao.
Shortly after the erection of this fort King Corralat had ravaged
the Philippines, and on his return to Mindanao he was attacked
by the Sergeant-major Nicolas Gonzalez, from Samboangan, who
routed his fleet and recovered most of the plunder : in March
1636 the governor of the Philippines took King Corralat's town,
burned a hundred vessels and sixteen villages, and ruined his
kingdom : after that he returned to Samboangan, and subjected
the Basilan men and town of Buhayen. Some of the Mindanao
towns which had been subjected again rose, and Corralat gave
more trouble: in 1657 he brought a fleet against Mariuduqne and
Mindoro ; and though the fleet from Manila did nothing against
the Mindanao fleet, the Spaniards burned several towns of King
Corralat. Shortly after the Chinese corsair Cogsen, who re-
took the island of Formosa from the Dutch, threatened the Philip-
pines and demanded tribute from them. For the defence of the
islands, the abandonment of the forts of Terrenate, Samboangan,
Calamianes, and Iligan was decreed. That of Terrenate could
not maintain itself, those of Calamianes and Iligan were useless ;
there was doubt about that of Samboangan, which kept in check
the Sulu and Mindanao men, and it was decided to leave in it
APPENDIX II. 3G1
a garrison of fifty men, and withdraw the rest and the artillery
to Manila. With so short a garrison it could not maintain
itself, and came to an end in 1662. A royal order of the queen
regent of December 30, 1666, was issued for the re-establishment
of the fort of Samboangan, and others in 1672 and 1712 ; never-
theless, it was not re-established till the year 1719, by order of
the Marshal Bustamante, governor of the Philippines. Between
1719 and 1734 the Spaniards sent seven expeditions against the
Mindanao men. In 1736 Fi'ay Joseph Torrubia wrote his Disser-
tation on the Pliilippines, with the object of urging the maintenance
of the fort of Samboangan, under the idea that that was the only
means of checking the incursions of the Mindanao men. Though
that garrison was maintained, and a stone fort erected, the most
important after that of Manila, and four other Spanish settle-
ments made in the island, one at Missamis in the bay of Panguil,
in the middle of the northern coast, the second at Dapitan on
the same coast, and the third at Caraga on the north-east coast,
the fourth PoUok, in the south, yet the incursions of the Mindanao
men into various islands of the Philippine group continued till
the year 1548, previous to winch year from 800 to 1,500 persons
are said to have been carried away annually. The real cause of
the cessation of these incursions was the increase of the number
of steam vessels. Mr. Rienzi, the author of three volumes of the
Univers Pittoresque on Oceania, gives a short account of the
PhilipjDines, written a Little before 1830: he states that the name
of Main-danao signifies peoples of the lake, and that the language
of Ma'indanao is allied to that of the Bisayas. The southern
part of the island is independent, and obeys a sultan, who holds
in his dependence the small group of the Mengui Islands,
situated between Ma'indanao and the Moluccas. The residence
of this prince is at Selangan on the Pelandgi : the population,
comprising the few inhabitants who still live in the ancient town
of Maindanao, situated on the other side of the Pelandgi, and
which is now almost entirely abandoned, may be as many as
10,000 or 12,000 souls. The whole population of Mindanao is
estimated at 800,000 by Mr. Rienzi, and at 300,000 by Mr.
Farren.
HISTORY OF SULU.
Siuce the period embraced in De Morga's account, the Spaniards
attempted the conquest of the Sulu isles in 1628, 1629, 1637,
362 APPENDIX II.
and 1731, and only succeeded in doing more or less damage: in
1746, according to Mr. Rienzi, they attacked the islands with
a fleet of thirty vessels and took the principal island of Holo,
which they abandoned later. Since then the patriotic Sulu men
have preserved their independence. They have been frequently
bombarded in more recent times : amongst other attacks made
upon them was one, in February of 1848, by Manila troops on
the island of Balanguingui ; its fort contained fourteen guns ;
more than eighty Malays were killed there ; in an interior fort
340 people, including women and children, were killed by the
Tagal troops, who lost only forty killed and one hundred wounded
in the attack.
In June of the same year a Dutch corvette and brig came
before Sulu and claimed two Malay captives, and on their not
being given up by the fourth day, they fired on the town for
some hours. The only result was five Sulu men killed and
twenty wounded, and the setting fire to the Chinese quarter and
to an Englishman's house.
In January 1851 an expedition left Manila consisting of a
30-gun ship, a 12-gun ship, three war-steamers, four companies
of infantry, and one hundred artillerymen : they went to Tonquil
Island, between Basilan and Sulu, and destroyed upwards of six
hundred houses, and killed forty-five of the inhabitants of the
island, from which some piratical vessels were reported to'have
sailed. The fleet then appeared before Sulu, where a few shots
were exchanged. In March of the same year another Spanish
expedition, with reinforcements, went against Sulu, and de-
stroyed the town and forts ; not many Sulu men were killed.
The population of Sulu is estimated at 100,000 souls and 20,000
fiffhtinsr men, a considerable increase since De Morga's time.
The account of a French attack on Basilan and the destruction
of a town, in revenge for an ofiicer having been killed in a dis-
pute by a Malay, is given by Dr. Yvan, in his book called De
France en Chine.
CAPTURE OF MANILA BY THE ENGLISH.
In 1762, an English expedition of seven ships of war and
10,300 men came to Manila and took it on the 6th October.
During the siege the Canon Anda collected 6,000 of the islanders
and nearly succeeded in raising the siege. General Draper
APPENDIX II. 363
demanded of the town a ransom of twenty million francs ; only
a quarter of this sum could be raised, with which the general
contented himself, and embarked part of his troops, leaving only
Sepoys behind him. The English, after establishing themselves
in the capital, proceeded to subjugate the provinces, and aided
by the Chinese, gained the battle of Boulacan. The Canon
Anda then raised all the provinces of Luzon, and the English
forces were hemmed in inside Manila, and on the point of being
reduced by famine, when an English frigate ariived with news
of the conclusion of peace. The Sepoys evacuated Manila, and
the Canon Anda and the Hispano-Tagal forces entered it March
31st, 1764. A little while after Canon Anda was named governor
of the Philippines in reward for his services. (From the JJnivers
Plttoresque.) According to the Annual Register of 1763 the
English force consisted of nine ships of war, two store-ships, and
2,300 men, including the 79th Regiment and a company of the
Royal Artillery. Spanish official documents state the number of
ships at thirteen.
CHINESE INSURRECTION IN MANILA. — GOVERNMENT OF THE CHINESE.
Of the insurrection of the Chinese in Manila, and of their
massaci-e, Mr. Rienzi says: "In 1603 they had begun to surround
with a stone wall the quainter of the town which they inhabited ;
the Spaniards, naturally suspicious, thought they saw a hostile
project in that measure. The Chinese poj)ulation consisted of
35,000 men ; 23,000 were massacred, and the rest of these un-
fortunates fled to their country. The celestial emperor had an
inquiry made into the cause of this massacre. The Spanish
historians pretend that the conduct of their government was
fully justified. The absence of documents prevents our deciding
upon that question. In the year 1639 the Chinese population
had again increased, and amounted to 40,000 individuals, the
most part engaged in agriculture : they again revolted, and their
number was reduced to 7,000." "In 1709 all the Chinese
were expelled from the Philippines. They were accused of
plotting and monopoly, and this accusation was probably well
founded, for these foreigners, restless and intriguing, have often
deserved the same reproach at Batavia, Kalemantan, and in
other places. Nevertheless, their conduct did not deserve ex-
termination. In spite of the edicts of expulsion, the ofFscouring
of the celestial empire continued to penetrate into Manila."
364 AITENDIX 11.
Mr. Riciizi saw some persons amongst the Sangleys who were
pointed out to him as descendants of the Christian Jajianese in
Manila.
The Spanish historians alluded to by Mr. Rienzi justify the
slaughter of the Chinese on the ground of the excesses com-
mitted by them, and the allegation that they had prepared
100,000 men in China to invade the Philippines.
The reader will have seen from the Chinese document given
by De Morga, and from the statements of De Morga, that it is
very improbable that the Chinese government had any design of
invading the Philippines, and the insurrection is to be attributed
to panic on the part of the Spaniards, which drove the Chinese
into insurrection : it also appears that the Celestial government
did not consider the massacre of the Chinese as justified, but that
it declined to act in behalf of men whom it considered as bad sub-
jects from their havitig deserted their country by permanently
settling in a foreign land, also because political and military consi-
derations obliged the Chinese government so to act. The position
of tbe Chinese in many European settlements is very much the
same at the present day as it was when described by De Morga.
But the duties of European governments towards these Chinese
guests are much increased by the obligations of reciprocity, since
those governments have broken dawn the barriers which secured
China from foreign troubles, and have exacted from its govern-
ment an unrestricted right of way through the empire for their
own subjects ; and in addition, that these, though frequently in
no ways more trustworthy than the Chinese emigrants, should
be exempted from Chinese jurisdiction and taxation.
In 1636 the Chinese in the Philippines had again increased,
for in that year they amounted to 25,000. They then inspired
no apprehension, from their pacific and spiritless disposition :
the governor had given during six months of the preceding year
nineteen thousand licenses to Chinese settlers, which had brought
in more than 170,000 dollars, and he expected to levy 200,000
dollars iu the year 1G36. The Chinese were then made to pay
nine dollars less one real, and those who lived out of the Parian,
or Chinese quarter, had to pay ten dolLirs and two reals.
In Manila the Chinese pay about four times as much tribute as
the Philippine islanders ; and a sum of 100,750 dollars raised on
patents of the Chinese traders appears in the last budget : in
APPENDIX II. 365
Australia the local governments have been suffered to put
exceptional imposts upon the Chinese who go to try their
fortune at the gold mines. i It is not easy to see what cause
of dislike the Chinese give, bej'ond that their greater industry
and sobriety allow them to compete successfully with all other
classes, and give rise to accusations of monopoly ; their separate
language also contributes to the ill-will with which they are
frequently looked upon. De Morga mentions how much their
absence was felt. Mr. J. Lannoy, formerly Belgian Consul at
Manila, in a work on the Philippines printed at Brussels in 1849,
recommends the Spanish government to encourage the Chinese
settlers. M. Mallat speaks of them now as indispensable to
i\Ianila, and says that numerous attempts have been made
to enlighten the Philippine government as to the danger
from the Chinese, and royal ordinances have been issued to keep
them in a very subordinate position, but they have been eluded
or neglected. M. Mallat also says that the Chinese are, at least
in appearance, the most pacific people, but he admits that they
have numerous enemies who consider them dangerous. Mr.
Consul Farren writes some years later, in November 1862 :
"A considerable number of Chinese are settled at Manila : a class
of them monopolise in fact, though without any legal prescrip-
tion, the retail business of foreign trade; by their industry, intel-
ligence, economy, and system, they have acqiiired the confidence
of tlie British merchants here, and have become (with a few
exceptions, in which the same qualities have enabled some
mestizos and natives to share that confidence) the almost exclu-
sive mediums of trade between the foreign importers and the
consumers of merchandise in general. The Chinese are scattered
through the provinces, and there sell in wholesale quantities to
the natives articles of foreign goods, and are the chief clayers of
sugar, and the shopkeepers and hucksters of every village. This
position of the Chinese is very enviously regarded by a number
of Spaniards at Manila and in the provinces, from trade jealousy,
and they have been striving, as opportunities offered, for many
years to induce the government to expel the Chinese from the
provinces, and it was taken into consideration to establish provin-
cial commercial agencies of Spaniards to supersede the Chinese."
' I have heard it said that these exceptional imposts have been re-
moved within the last six months.
36G APPllNDIX IT.
Mr. Farren mentions further pi^oofs of the ill-will existing
against the Chinese, and the vigilance and precautions of the
Spanish governor.
The Spanish authorities in Manila are too enlightened to give
way to this unjust jealousy of the Chinese, and they have since
an early date taken the best measui'es for preventing the Chinese
feeling themselves slighted and treated as aliens by the rest of the
community. They have, as has been mentioned by De Morga (p.
234), and as M. Mallat states, given the Chinese of Manila a
Goiernadorcillo, or little governor; he and his constables wear, as a
distinctive mark of their office, a European hat above their Chinese
skull-cap, and carry in their hand a cane with a cord to it; this cane
is a sign of command throughout the Philippines (ii, 137). He also
says that the natives of each paris"h each January, by means of their
twelve most ancient electors, elect in the town-hall, in the presence
of the alcalde, priest, notary and others, three candidates, whose
names are submitted to the governor, who chooses one as
gobernadorcillo. He usually takes the first name on the list
The Chinese of mixed race, wherever they are sufficiently numer-
ous, have the privilege of electing a gobernadorcillo ; he is, however,
inferior to a gobernadorcillo of the natives of the Philippines
These gobernadorcillos judge civil causes of two taels of gold (220
francs) ; they draw up criminal informations, and supervise the
gathering in of tributes and money belonging to the treasury
(i, 352-354).
I have been informed by various Spaniards who have served
in the Philippines, amongst others by an ex-governor, that this
system works well, and that there are but few appeals against the
decisions of the gobernadorcillos.
Some similar recognition of the interests of our Chinese s\ib-
jects in the Straits Settlements, by giving them headmen with
an official position, and consequently greater facilities for the
better making known their wants to government, and the con-
ferring upon them responsibility along with authority over their
fellow-countrymen, would do much to prevent the frequent re-
currence of faction fights, such as that which broke out last
summer among the Chinese at Penang.
ADMINISTR.\TION OF JUSTICE.
M. Mallat says: " Tlic weakest part of ihe administration of
APPENDIX II. 367
the Philippines is that of justice, which is owing to several
cliflTerent causes, which we will attempt to present, not without
feeling some fear that the confusion which reigns in this depart-
ment may introduce itself, in spite of us, into what we are going
to say " (i, 359). Part of this confusion lie attributes to the
ignorance of the gobernadorcillos and interpretei's of the Spanish
language, and to all causes being sent to Manila. M. Mallat,
however, describes the royal audiencia as : " that respectable,
great and noble institution, the only one of its kind in the Philip-
pines, and which forms a counterpoise to the vast powers of the
governor genei'al. The governor general is ex oficio president ;
he has under him a regent, five auditors or judges, and two
fiscals or solicitors general, one for civil, the other for criminal
causes" (i, p. 361.) Since M. Mallat wrote, one of the captain
generals of the Philippines thought it necessary to establish a
permanent court-martial for the repression of incendiaries : the
audiencia did its duty, for it is said to have protested against
this as illegal.
Mr. Rienzi insinuates vaguely a great deterioration in the ad-
ministration of justice, and though in general he sneers at the
monks, he says : " It must be owned, however, that these monks
often defend the Christians of this great archipelago with an in-
finitely laudable zeal and courage against the despotism and
cupidity of certain alcaldes."
To judge from Mr. Consul Farren's reports, extending over
a long period, there was not more to complain of latterly in the
administration of justice than in other places inhabited by various
races : the chief grounds of complaint would be legal delays, and
that imprisonment during the collection of evidence depended on
the discretion of the jndge whether he should take bail or not.
It was said in 1862 that the removal of this evil was contemplated
in a pending revision of the Spanish commercial code.
N^evertheless, no government shoTild remain satisfied, neither
can it feel security, if justice is not administered in its dependencies
by men of as much learning and integrity as those whose services
it can command at home.
By a royal deci-ee dated July 4, 1861, the powers of the
Audiencias in the Spanish colonies were limited to judicial
matters, nnd administrative councils were established for the
consideration of matters formerly submitted to the Audiencias.
368 APPENDIX II.
The council of the Philippines consists of three councillors. The
whole expense of the council for salaries of the councillors,
secretaries, etc., amounts for the current year, 1867-68, to
30,543 dollars. This innovation is the subject of regret, since
the class from which councillors are taken cannot offer men of
equal weight, experience of government, and respectability of
character as the judges and auditors who compose the Audiencia,
LINEAL DESCENDANT OF VINCENT YANEZ PINZON.
One of the auditors of the High Court of Manila was D. Ignacio
Pinzon, who died there in the beginning of September 1852.
He was a lineal descendant of the companion of Columbus. When
Mr. Washington Irving was preparing his history of Columbus
he visited the family of the deceased in search of information,
and it was, to a great degree, through his recommendation to the
government at Madrid, that the deceased was appointed a judge
at Manila.
THE FIRST GOVERNOR OF THE PHILIPPINES.
A portrait of Miguel Lopez de Legazpi exists in the house of
the municipality at Manila, and a copy was obtained in 1863 for
the government house of Tolosa, the capital of Guipuzcoa, his
native province (see frontispiece). Legazpi's house is still to be
seen at a few paces from the railroad station at Zumarraga : the
lower part is of solid masoniy, with two loopholes ; the upper
part is patched up with bricks. Legazpi died on the 20th of
August, 1572, not 1574, as stated by De Morga.
ATTEMPTED INSURRECTION OF PHILIPPINE SPANIARDS.
Besides the danger to the Spanish rule in the Philipjjines, that
would ensue from the falling off of the High Court of Justice,
Mr. Rienzi points out a danger from the Philippine- born Spa-
niards, or Spaniards of mixed race, whom he thinks likely to
follow the example of the colonists ; and in support of his opinion,
he states the following : " In 1823, a certain number of half-
breeds, assisted by some officers of the Manila garrison, and by
some Spanish merchants excited by the ideas which the Spanish
revolution, and that of the Spanish Amei'ican colonies, had given
rise to, resolved to declare the independence of the Philippines.
The insurrection broke out on the 2nd of June. The conspii"a-
APPENDIX II.
369
tors took possession of one of the city gates, from there they
marched to the city arsenal. The Captain General Martinez
shewed the greatest cowardice ; but, Lieutenant Colonel Santa
Romana conquered the insurgents, who were few in number.
The fidelity of the troops, and the capture of Novales and Ruiz,
the two insurgent chiefs, changed the parts. The conquerors of
the morning were the vanquished in the evening. They were
thrown into prison, and some sent to Spain, others to the convict
establishments in the PhiKppines. These degenerate men were
only guided by material interests, and ambitious of the places
occupied by Europeans, these men necessarily fa-iled. The holy
fire of liberty can only be maintained by pure hands, and not by
political mountebanks and by greedy men."
This accusation made by Mr. Rienzi against General Martinez
is not in any way justified, since, according to official statements,
that general, as soon as he heard of the outbreak, put himself
at the head of the artillery and the remnants of four battalions,
and routed the insurgents who had got possession of the palace
and town-hall; besides Colonel Santa Romana, the two Serjeants
Romero and Domingo greatly contributed to put down the move-
ment. General Martinez is also completely exonerated by the
statements of an eye-witness, M. Paul de la Gironiere, a French-
man, who at the time was surgeon of a revolted regiment, and
who acted with the artillery and the governor.
Mr. Rienzi rather exaggerates the independent disposition of
the Philipinos and of the mestizos ; but some, who are best en-
titled to form an opinion, say that the Philippine government
ouo-ht to simplify education, and by stimulating the study of agri-
culture, botany, and chemistry, seek to provide the islands with
useful settlers rather than with lawyers in search of employment
and place-hunters; and that whilst care is taken not to affront or
humiliate the mestizos, the government should not allow the an-
cient privileges of the indigenous race to be diminished, nor
allowed to fall into desuetude. Much may be done to advance
ao-riculture by taking advantage of the vanity and rivalry of the
chiefs of barangays, by offering premiums, decorations, etc. ; in
this manner, when a sum of money was offered to those who
should plant a certain quantity of coffee plants, a great number
were planted, but as there was no supervision, or subsequent in-
ducement to take care of the plants, the plantations were neglected
B B
370 APPENDIX II.
and abandoned. There are still many barbarous tribes in Luzon
and in the other islands, and the civilising of these should be
attempted by the priests by slow degi^ees, rather than by mili-
tary expeditions which devastate the country, and often produce
little result besides that of exciting jealou.sy among those who
take part in them.
TOO FREQUENT CHANGES IN THE ADMINISTRATION.
Another defect in the administration, which has been com-
plained of, is the too frequent change of the officials, who have
not time to become acquainted with the country and its require-
ments, nor to study the means of satisfying them. That this
complaint is well founded is shewn by the fact, that from 1844
to 1865, there were nine captain generals, governors of the
Philippines, and two lieutenant or acting governors. The first
only, filled his post for five years.
SALARY OF THE GOVERNOR.
Mr. Rienzi states, that the salaiy of the governor of the
Philippines is 18,000 dollars (= about £4,000), of which 4,000
dollars are placed in the royal treasury, as a guarantee against
peculation. (In 1863 this salary was raised to about £8,000.)
He also says, that there is a regulation, that when a new governor
has arrived at Manila, his predecessor must remain there six
months longer as a private individual, to give an account if ne-
cessary, of certain acts of his administration, or to pay his debts.
This wise and prudent measure is too often eluded."
This regulation dates from the times written of by De Morga,
and does not appear ever to be attended to now.
POPULATION.
Mr. Rienzi (1830) estimates the superficies of all the Philippine
islands at 12,900 square leagues, and the total population at
4,500,000 souls, of these 2,530,000 Christians and Pagans are
under Spanish rule, and about two million inhabitants ai'e under in-
dependent Pagan chiefs, or the Mussulman princes of the isle of
Mindanao. He divides the population under Spanish rule thus :
Native Indians, - ... 2,397,330
Mestizos and Sangleys, - - - 118,030
Chinese, 8,640
White men of all sorts, - - - 6,000
2,530,000
APPENDIX II. 371
In 1851, Mr. Farren stated the whole population of the Spanish
possessions in the Philippines, at 3,800,000 souls, without reckon-
ing the unsubdued tribes ; the population of the town of Manila
he reckons at 200,000, and all the Europeans in the colony,
at 7,000.
REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE.
Mr. Bienzi before 1830, estimated the total revenue from all sorts
of imposts in the Philippines at a gross produce of 2,721,979 dols.
And the expenses to be deducted - - 807,700 „
Net produce, - - 1,904,279 „
In 1849, the net produce from three sources of revenue was
3,681,693 dollars, viz ;
Tobacco, 2,119 058 dols, after an expenditure ^of 1,796,167
Spirits, 426,586 ...-.'' 222,170
Tributes, 1,126,049
3,681,693
" During the three years, 1846-48, nearly a million of dollars
has been spent in Manila alone, on necessary but unproductive
works, such as embellishments of the governor's palace, sea em-
bankments, a new quay, fortifications, military hospital, officers'
barrackswithinand without the city, old debts or bills of the Madrid
government paid off in Manila, and 120,000 dollars for the pas-
sage of political ofienders.^ At the same time, the official salaries
of all the chief members of the government have been raised, a
new police has been formed, the excise and coast-guard organised,
and a considerable addition made of officers and non-commissioned
officers from Spain, and the salaries increased of the Alcaldes
or provincial magistrates, in lieu of commercial privileges.
In 1853 there was a surplus of 2,000,000 dollars owing to the
increased cultivation of tobacco, and a more rigid enforcement
of the capitation tax or tribute. This was after paying for an
effective military force of upwards of 8,000 men, an organised
police, and coast-guard, a flotilla of a steam frigate, three smaller
war steamers, a gun brig, fifteen armed cutters, and forty-three
1 It would be better for the Philippines if the Spanish government
could dispose of its offenders, political or others, elsewhere, in places
where they would not do so much harm by corrupting the inhabitants.
B B 2
372 APPENDIX TI.
gun-boats manned by 1,736 men, and a large naval staff, besides
the departments of ecclesiastical, civil, and judicial administra-
tion, and public works, and the consular establishments in Sin-
gapore and China ; at one time the expense of a Spanish legation
in China, amounting to about £5,000 a-year, was defrayed by the'
Manila treasury. In 1853, the Intendant General published
that the treasury would pay 110,000 dollars borrowed from public
bodies in Manila towards the building of three government
steamers, and 15,000 dollars borrowed for an expedition to Sulu.
In 1854, the captain governor called for a loan of 180,000 dollars
from the societies called Ohras Pias, for the purchase or construc-
tion of three mail steamers." (Extracts from Mr. Consxd barren's
dispatches.)
The foregoing description of the flourishing condition of the
Philippine colony and treasury is likely to be contradicted by
their condition during the last few years, notwithstanding that
in 1865, a new intendant of finance denied that the treasury was
in a state of distress. Here is a list of the calamities and losses
which fell upon the Philippines before and during the year 1865,
taken from official reports.
June 3rd, 1863. — An earthquake took place at 7.30 p.m. at
Manila. The cathedral, palace, churches, markets, and barracks,
public and private buildings of stone, were in a few seconds rent,
and injured or overthrown. The British consular office fell in, and
the books were buried under the ruins. The estimate of personal
injury is 400 lives lost, and 2,000 individuals wounded, eight
million dollars, or more than a million and a half sterling, lost.
On the 4th of July the loss was stated to be 289 people killed,
and it was supposed that there were more bodies under the ruins
of the cathedral. Manila was like a town bombarded : great loss
to government in public buildings.
March 1864. — Arrival of Spanish minister in China. Renewal
of this charge on Philippine treasury which had been discontinued
in 1849.
June 1864. — Mr. Consul Farren broke his leg, and about the
lOth July part of his house adjoining his bedroom fell in, in
consequence of the earthquake. He died on the 23rd of August
of acute dysentery and inflammation at Santa Ana in the
suburbs.^
' Uysontcry is llio cliief ilhiess to which foreiji^ncrs are subject in the
APPENDIX II. 37o
Mr. Vice-Consul Webb reports : —
November 1864. — Cholera has been in the Philippines for the
last twelve months ; it formerly only attacked natives, this time
it had attacked Europeans ; the Governor's wife died of it.
Chlorodyne had been found to be the most efficacious remedy.
The disease had been so severe as to cause much loss to Govern-
ment of the tributes from the numerous deaths.
February 1865. — A fire destroyed the village of Hermita
and the government bari'acks. Loss to Government of about
150,000 dollars ; private loss similar.
March 1865. — Fire in village of LaUo of Cagayan. Govern-
ment tobacco factory burnt with 38,000 quintals of tobacco, each
quintal equals 104 lbs., worth 21 dollars.
May 1865. — Fires on April 30th and May 2nd have devastated
the suburbs of Tondo, Sta. Cruz, and Quiapo. Forty lives lost,
and two million dollars.
July 4th, 1865. — Royal order from Madi'id prohibiting metal
roofs from fear of electricity and lightning.
July 29th, 1865. — Lightning fell on the magazine on the
point of Caiiacao, and blew up five tons of gunpowder.
September 27th, 1865. — A fearful typhoon passed over Manila ;
seventeen ships were driven ashore, trees torn up, and houses
injured. He forwards pi-inted meteorological observations by
the Jesuit fathers.
October 19th, 1865. — A fearful earthquake in the province of
Albay, where the volcano of Mayong is situated ; no lives lost,
but much property ; the sea invaded the towns of Tabaco and
Malinao. Slight shocks at Manila.^
I beg leave gratefully to acknowledge the courtesy of the
Colonial Office at Madrid, and the kind offices of Count Yista-
liermosa, the Spanish minister in London, to which I am in-
debted for a copy of the Budget of the PhiUppine Islands for the
current financial year, 1867-68. It is a very carefully prepared
document, and enters into the most minute details. I have added
Philippines, which otherwise are not unhealthy ; a voyage to China for
change of air is the most efficacious remedy.
- Some unreasonable complaints are freqiiently made at the numerous
fii-es in countries subject to earthquakes; if the houses are built of stone,
instead of with light and inflammable materials, the loss of life during
an earthquake is much greater.
374 APPENDIX II.
at the end of this appendix a table of expenditure and revenue as
it was in De Morga's time ; this table is very incomplete, as De
Morga has not given the figures of all the items of outlay which
he mentions. The modern budget of the Philippines is drawn
up in escudos of ten reals, or half a dollar, which unity is now
adopted in Spanish accounts for the sake of the decimal system.
In the table of the budget here given of the current year, I have
converted the escudos into dollars, as being more convenient for
comparison with the figures of De Morga, and those given by
Mr. Farren. I have also prepared from the budget a table of the
division of the Philippines into parishes, with the number of
tributes, representing heads of families, and the amount of sti-
pends paid to the parochial clergy.
TAXATION.
Reals in the Philippines are the old Spanish reals called reals
of silver, which are worth rather more than double the modern
reals of Spain called reales de vellon, twenty of which go to the
dollar, whilst eight of the old reals of silver, or Philippine reals,
make a dollar.
The tribute of the Indians was originally fixed at eight reals,
and in De Morga's time was increased to ten reals : that of the
mestizos or men of mixed parentage, was twenty reals, or two
dollars and a half, and that of the Chinese, six dollars. These
tributes appear to have been the same in 1736, when Fray Tor-
rubia wrote, but he mentions other imposts in kind. One of
these was, that the government levied measures of rice called
' caban,' for provisioning the troops, and which were named ' pur-
chased,' because it paid two reals each for them, though they were
worth four reals or more, and in the neighbourhood of Manila
never less than three : and the same with regard to wheat, though
with wheat the Indians did not lose much. Besides this, he says
the Indians cut wood for the ships, for monthly wages of sixteen
reals, which did not suffice for their tools, which they found them-
selves ; and they worked as soldiers, sailors, carpenters, &c., for
three, four, even five years, without pay, only in order to obtain an
employment in the Acapulco ship. In 1635, when the garrison of
Saniboangan was renewed, Padre Juan de Bueras, provincial of the
Jesuits, advised that the Indians of the province of Pintados,
who, from their neighbourhood to Mindanao, were most interested
APPENDIX II. 375
in its maintenance, should add half a ganta^ of rice to each tribute.
This advice was followed, with the augmentation of two gantas,
which make one of clean or sifted rice, and it was extended to all
the islands, which paid it at the time he wi'ote.
Fray Torrubia seems to have thought that the Indians were
overtaxed, and estimates the annual value of this contribution of
two gantas of rice, at two thousand five hundred dollars : he also
thought it a special hardship, that this tax should have been con-
tinued during fifty years, in which there was no garrison at Sam-
boangan, which was the motive for laying it on. He then pro-
poses a Monte de Piedad, or Obra Pia, for the purpose of re-
deeming this impost. This opinion of Fray Torrubia of the Indians
having been at one time overtaxed is confirmed by an archbishop
of Manila, who in 1662 reported on the wretched condition of
the natives on account of the numerous burdens imposed upon
them ; and remonstrances were made against the continuance of
the cutting timber and other tasks being imposed upon the
islanders without wages being paid them.
As I find no mention of this impost of rice in modern works, it
has probably been commuted, since M. Mallat says, that now one tri-
bute represents five persons, and it is now fourteen reals of silver,
(nine francs, twenty centimes} of which eleven reals are for the
government, and three for the church : he also says, that to the
ancient tribute of ten reals there had been added for the
Indians. Mestizos. Sangleys.
For the municipal chest 1 real 1 real 6 reals
For public worship. 3 reals 3 reals
Total of tribute . 1 dollar 6 reals 3 dollars 6 dollars 6 reals
The municipal chest (caja de comunidad) is for the payment
of schoolmasters, vaccination, defence of prisoners, and parish
affairs.
Mention has been made above, from Mr. Consul Fai-ren's re-
ports, of large sums recently borrowed or exacted by the captain
generals of the Philippines, from religious bodies, for purposes of
1 Ganta, from the Malay gantang, a measure of rice, salt, and other
dry goods, equal to a kulak, or the 800th part of a koyan, a measure
which varies : on the west coast of Sumatra it is 800 koulahs, at Palem-
bang a koyan is estimated at 48 piculs, or 6400 lbs. English ; so that
^ Malayan koulah or ganta is equal to 8 lbs. (Marsden's Diet.)
376 " APPENDIX II.
state, such as expeditions, building steamers, etc. Those levies
were not, however, of the nature of exactions, those chests having
been founded for similar purposes, as will be explained by the
following extract from Fray Torrubia's Dialogo Cortesano Fili-
pino.
" Tliilipino. — There is, in Manila, a monte deinedad, (establish-
ment for lending money) called the table of Mercy, of such
eminence, that the crown of Spain may boast of having its foun-
dations in those isles based upon such exalted charity. This was
founded in the year 1594, by the venerable Juan Fernandez de
Leon, in imitation of that which the lady Dona Leonor, wife of
Don Joan II., erected in Lisbon, in the year 1498. From the
year of its foundation until that of 1730, in which the ac-
counts were reckoned up, this house had portioned 23,300 orphan
girls, daughters of Spaniards ; it had expended in their main-
tenance, 508,916 dollars. It had supplied to our catholic monarch
in urgent cases, 409,018 dollars. It had expended for Divine
service 155,785 dollars; and it had given in alms 4,113,207
dollars.
Cortesano. — I am astonished at this expenditure, and it seems
to me that it will not have been surpassed by the Royal Mercy
of Lisbon.
PhiUpino. — This expenditure is positive, and derived from the
original books of that House. In the life of the venerable Fray
Siinon de Roxas, lib. viii, folio 418, it is related as unexampled
that the Mercy of Lisbon had given in alms in one year 30,000
ducats, the Manila House gives every year 71,824 dollars. See
if that does not surpass the other ? The most wonderful part of
it is that all this machinery was founded upon fourteen cargoes
and a few packages.
Cortesano. — And how did it increase so much ?
Philipino. — The increase of this House depends upon the risks
they run with the ships which trade with New Spain and with
India ; and in order that you may perceive it, I will give you an
example. Some one devotes a sum of three thousand dollars for
various pious objects (such as saying masses for souls, portioning
girls, entertainment of guests, &c.), and he places this sum in the
Monte de Pledad, which divides it into three parts of a thousand
dollars. One it gives at a venture for New Spain, receiving
upon it fifty per cent., and it gains five hundred dollars a year.
I
APPENDIX II. OV /
The other thousand dollars are given for Canton for a return of
twenty-five per cent., and they gain two hundred and fifty ; or
for India or the coast,, and they gain at thirty-five per cent,
three hundred and fifty. The remaining quantity, the other
thousand dollars remain as stock in the deposit of the House to
meet any loss, and if it is lent at low interest of five per cent., it
produces annually fifty dollars ; and thus you see how the three
thousand dollars in one year only produce eight hundred or nine
hundi'ed dollars. Of these four hundred are spent for pioas
purposes, and the five hundred are laid by with the principal of
the ventures, and as this goes on increasing, the gains augment
at the wonderful rate I told you of.
Cortesano. — I admire and wonder at the method which you
have explained to me.
PhiUplno. — Well, my friend, this is what is observed by the
regulations laid down by the foundation statutes, and the ordi-
nances of this Monte de Piedad, which bind the administrators
under mortal sin, by the oath which they take to observe them,
and which they fulfil without interesting themselves either
personally or by the interposition of any one else, in the emolu-
ments of these risks."
The societies of the Obras Pias probably do not make anything
like these profits at the present day, yet they may have plenty of
available funds, which the government has a claim upon in
emergencies, since these societies are more or less government
establishments under the direction of religious or clerical persons.
It is said that the administration of the Obras Pias is much in
need of reform.
The Monte de Piedad in Spain is a government pawnbroking
establishment conducted by civil employes, and lending money
at two and a half per cent. It is generally used by the popula-
tion, -n-ithout an}" disgrace attaching to it. There is no Monte
de Piedad in the Philippines, and its establishment is much
wanted for poorer persons : the Obras Pias assist a richer class,
and the government in undertakings such as banks and those
mentioned by Mr. Farren.
PEODCCE.
Since De Morga's time the Philippines l.ave been enriched by
378 APPENDIX II.
two new products, tobacco and hemp, and a third, sugar, has
been greatly developed.
TOBACCO.
Mr. Consul Farren wrote of this in December 1848: — "The
monopoly of tobacco is one of the principal sources of revenue to
the government of these possessions, amounting annually to
about £300,000, chiefly derived from its manufacture into cigars.
The plant is chiefly cultivated in the northern provinces of
Cagayan, and the provinces south of Manila. That of the north
has been entirely at the disposal of the government, and the
natives there are not permitted to cultivate rice, indigo, sugar,
nor any other general produce without permission ; the govern-
ment desiring to constrain their occupation to the culture of
tobacco for which that soil is peculiax'ly favourable. In the
southern provinces a difierent course is pursued ; there is no
restraint on cultivation there ; and though no leaf tobacco can
be sold for exportation from the Philippines without the consent
of the government, the purchase of it from the growers for the
purpose of export, or for sale to exporters was entirely free.
This right of purchase is now abolished by an order of the
Intendant General, that henceforth growers must sell to the
government alone. Regulations have been fixed for the classes
of tobacco, and a tarifl" of prices established which are a slight
advance on average valuations and not considered to be oppres-
sive. The design of the government has been to centre in itself
the whole of this branch of industry and revenue in these
possessions, and to acquire the profits hitherto gained by the
natives (chiefly mestizos), who purchased and resold the tobacco
from the growers.
" Thirty-seven thousand quintals or 1,H52 tons of leaf tobacco are
sent from hence annually to Spain, 45,000 quintals from Cuba,
and 60,000 from the United States ; making 6,352 tons valued
at £426,000, and producing a revenue of £1,350,300 for the
monopoly there. Unless the new measure be administered
liberally, and very judiciously, it may diminish in the southern
parts the produce of tobacco which hitherto has been facilitated
by the private advances made by traders to the cultivators ; on
the other hand the cultivators will receive better prices for their
])roduce. The result entirely depends on the administration.
\
APPENDIX II. 379
Should the supply not be diminished the foreign trade may
benefit, it is supposed, by purchasing from the government and
at auction, instead of having to buy from private speculators
who are under restrictions by government."
Two years before this, the export of tobacco to England from
Manila in less than a year, was reported at 1,456 tons, worth
79,000 dollars.
" The importance of this tobacco trade is so great that the
freights amounted to 150,000 dollars a year. The Intendant-
General was of opinion that a saving to the treasury of the
Philippines of 100,000 dollars a year might be effected by pur-
chasing or building ships and attaching them to the Royal Navy,
employing them as transports, and having on board of each an
officer of the civil service, to take charge of the government
cargo and of its accounts. The estimate of the Intendant may
perhaps not be exaggerated."
The royal decree dated May 6, 1867, sanctioning the budget of
the PhilijDpines for the year 1867-68, fixes the quantity of tobacco
to be sent in leaf to the Peninsula during that year at 135,000
quintals, and orders the payment in Manila of 101,250 dollars as
half the freight of it.
This proposal of using government transports instead of
freighting ships would be merely a return to the course de-
scribed by De Morga.
A model school or plantation for growing tobacco figures in
the budget at an annual cost of 600 dollars.
HEMP.
The quality of Manila hemp appears to be very good, and the
demand for it in England and the United States exceeds the
production. In 1854, the export of hemp to the United States
was the preponderating article of trade.
In 1854 it amounted to 228,516 piculs, or 14,282 tons.
„ 1855 „ „ 214,579 „
„ 1856 „ „ 312,453 „ 19,528 tons.
This hemp is not the plant so called in Europe, but is pro-
duced from a plant called abaca, a kind of plantain ; there are
more thaii seventeen plants in the Philippines, from which cords,
thread, and paper can be made.
380 APPENDIX II.
SUGAR.
The production and trade in sugar received a great impetus
from the change of law and sugar duties in England in 1844.
Mr. Farren wrote in 1845 that sugar was grown by very small
proprietors, and refined by the Chinese. The provinces of
Pampangos and Taal about Manila, and the isles of Sebu and
Panay were the chief sources of supply. " The Alcaldias repress
all competing influences on agricultural improvement, and a
peremptory order from Spain prohibiting the Alcaldes from,
engaging in local traffic is under consideration ; but unless
liberal salaries be assigned them, the order would pi-obably be
evaded, for their profits are now very large. The sugar of these
islands is cheaper than anywhere else in the East and has been
sent at times to Amoy ; the price has not advanced though
demand has increased."
However, the price of sugar had gone up in 1857 since a few
years from 4 and 5 dollars a picul to 12 ; oil from 3 dollars a picul
to 7; rice from 1| dollars the cavan^ to 4; and house rent had
increased 50 per cent.
The exports of sugar from Manila were in the years
Clayed Sugar. Unclayed.
1835 11,462 tons. 140 tons.
1840 10,254 „ 6,309 „
1844 15,450 „ 6,078 „
The quantity exported in 1844 was divided as follows : —
England and Colonies. Spain. America. France.
8,167 tons. 608 tons. 4,173 tons. 70 tons.
The exportation of sugar from Ilo-Ilo in the island of Panay sent
to England and Australia, at first through Manila, and after the
opening of that port in 1856, exported directly, increased
steadily. The quantities were —
In 1856 - - - - 850 tons.
„ 1857 ... - 1,800 „
„ 1858 .... 1,290 „
„ 1859 .... 5,427 „
„ 1860 .... 7,048 „
„ 1861 first six months - - 3,904 „
' In 1736, according to Torrubia, this measure of rice was worth half
a dollar, more or leso.
APPENDIX II. 381
TRADE.
In 1855 it was decided, that new ports should be opened in
the Philippines to foreign trade, and in July orders were given
for the establishment of custom-houses at Sual, a port of Panga-
sinan, Ylo Ylo in Panay, and Samboangan in Mindanao. British
vice-consuls were appointed at Sual and Ylo Tlo in 1856. In
1862 or 1863 the port of Sebu was opened. In 1841, according
to M. Mallat, the total value of the imports into the Philippines
was £643,720, and of the exports, £868,720. In 1864, according
to Mr. Farren, the imports amounted to 11,910,900 dollars, equal
at 4s. 6d. to £2,679,052 : and the exports amounted to 10,205,237|
dollars, or £2,296,178 8s. 9d.
AGRICULTURE AXD MANUFACTURES.
De Morga stated (p. 241) that the inhabitants of Manila had
forgotten the exercise of those arts with which they were acquainted
before the arrival of the Spaniards. This was probably owing to the
great quantity of goods imported by the Spaniards, and the same
unfortunate result has followed, in too many places, the inordinate
introduction of cheap and tasteless European goods, for the pro-
duction of which, millions are crowded together, to lead a dreary
life in close and unwholesome cities. The manufactures of the
Philippine islanders were not, however, entirely ruined through-
out the islands, as appears from the following pleasing description
written by Mr. Loney, the British vice-consul in Hilo-Hilo, in
April 1857.
" Considering that the Philippines are essentially an agricul-
tural, rather than a manufacturing region, the textile productions
of goods may be said to have reached a remarkable degree of
development. Nothing strikes the attention at the weekly fairsheld
at the different towns, more than the abundance of native-made
goods offered for sale, and the number of looms at work in most
of the towns and villages also affords matter for surprise. Almost
every family possesses one or two of these primitive-looking ma-
chines, with a simple apparatus formed of j)ieces of bamboo. In
the majority of the houses of the mestizoes, and the mere well-
to-do Bisayans, from six to a dozen looms are kept at work. I
have heard the total number in this province computed at 60,000,
and though these figures may rather over-represent the actual
382 APPENDIX II.
quantity, they cannot be much beyond it. All the weaving is
done by women, whose wages usually amount to from seventy-five
cents to one dollar fifty cents per month. In general — a practice
unfortunately too pi'evalent among the natives in every branch
of labour — these wages are received for many months in advance,
and the operatives frequently spend years — become, in fact, vir-
tually slaves for a long period — before paying ofi" an originally
trifling debt. There are other workwomen employed at intervals
to " set up " the patterns in the looms, who are able to earn from
one dollar to one and-a-half per day, in this manner."
Governments, such as those of the Philippines and of Bengal,
ought to exercise a strict supervision over this system of advances
to the labourer, beyond what he can pay off", on finishing the piece on
the loom, or gathering in his crops, and they would do well to
take into consideration the introduction on behalf either of the
Bisayan weavers, or of the Bengal indigo growers, or the labourers
of any other places similarly circumstanced, of a statute of limi-
tations, restricting the recovery of such advances within a period
of, say two years, and preventing the labourer from being involved
in a succession of advances, from which he can never extricate
himself; though, as appeared from the report of the indigo
commission, the natural difiiculty of the ryot in paying ofi" these
debts, was increased by the practices of some of the planters.
I believe that under the Dutch Govei'nment in Java such
advances have to be made under the supervision of a Govern-
ment officer, and entered into his books, so as to prevent abuses.
The power of purchasing crops by anticipation is one of great
profit to the speculator, and ought to repose on mutual confidence
and advantage, and not become a means of extortion and oppres-
sion, into which it is likely to be developed, especially where the
speculator and the labourer are not of the same nation and
language.
The following project of a regulation for the establishment of
magazines of grain in the chief towns of provinces was framed
and proposed with the object of providing for the necessities
of the Philippine Islanders, assisting them in periods of scarcity,
and supplying them with grain for their maintenance, and sums
of money for the cultivation of their land, and even for their un-
dertaking a trade, with the payment of a small interest for what
they receive ; and for the avoiding by tliis means the abuses
APPENDIX II. 383
caused by exorbitant usurers amongst the cultivators. This pro-
jected regulation was appoved of in the Philippines, but had not
been carried into effect. A similar one exists in Spain, where in
all considerable villages magazines named Posito are under the
charge of the municipal authorities, and lend corn at the rate of
a celemin (^ of a fanega) per fanega per annum. In Wallachia
and Moldavia there are village magazines of reserve against
scarcity. In ancient Hindu India each village had a similar re-
sei've magazine. This regulation deserves study for application
in India and other countries, especially since the calamities which
have befallen Orissa and Algeria.
Article I.
Grain shall be deposited in the granaries of the Town-hall or
convent, and where that is not possible, a magazine shall be built
for that purpose : this shall be constructed by the inhabitants,
the bringing the materials and labour of building being con-
sidered as personal service : it shall be closed with three keys,
which shall be held by the Alcalde, the parish priest, and the ad-
ministrator of rentas estancadas (excise), or else by the Gober-
nadorcillo.
Article II.
In the chief town of each province, the Alcalde, the adminis-
trator, and parish priest shall form a committee for the adminis-
tration of the magazine.
Article III.
A register shall be kept of all the opei'ations of the committee :
besides that, another which shall be signed by the Alcalde at the
beginning of each year, in which shall be written the obligations
and guarantees in favour of the magazine, and signed by the
borrower and guarantors, and if they do not know how to sign,
a witness shall sign with the clerk. The Alcalde, administi'ator,
and parish priest shall also sign.
Article IV.
The obligations {debts) entered in the book mentioned in the
preceding article shall have the legal bearing of escrituras garan-
tigias (bonds), according to the provisions of section 79 of the
Royal Instructions of May 31, 1753, and shall be payable with a
preference over other obligations.
Article V.
When the chief oflBcer of the province knows that the magazine
384 APPENDIX II.
should be opened to the public, either for the scarcity of grain,
or at the time of sowing, or any other circumstance, he shall
announce it by proclamation, so that the inhabitants who require
palay, rice, or maize may present themselves on the day or days
appointed, before the committee, to which they will apply. The
committee will then take information and will distribute to each
claimant the quantity which the borrower and his guarantors
can reasonably answer for, without other formalities than those
expressed in Article III.
Article VI.
The borrowers of grain shall restore to the magazine after the
following harvest the quantity which they received with an addi-
tional quantity of six per cent., without any delay being allowed ;
the alcalde, administrator, and parish priest are responsible for
this, and will have to make good whatever they cannot recover :
to avoid which they will take all necessary precautions before
making over grain. A register will be kept by the alcalde, in
which shall be written down all the grain that goes out of and
that comes into the magazine, and the operations of each day
will be entered and certified.
Article VII.
During the fifteen days preceding that on which the debts of
grain become due, the committee will draw up a list of the
debtors and their guarantors, and of the quantities which they
have to replace in the magazine, as appears from the register of
operations and loans, and the committee will publish the day on
which the debts become due, and will set up copies of the list of
debtors in the tribunals and other public places, and order the
replacement of the grain ; and make a note of it in the register of
obligations, which shall be equivalent to filing the debt in court
against the borrower.
Article VIII.
At the end of every year a duplicate report of all operations
shall be drawn up, of which one shall be sent to the Supreme
Government, the other remaining in the archives of the magazine.
Article IX.
Whenever the alcalde, administrator, or priest is removed from
his office, an examination and measuring of the grain shall take
place, in the presence of the committee, certified by the clerk
and witnesses, and the keys, books, papers, etc., belonging to the
APPENDIX II. boo
magazine shall be handed over with the inventory, which shall
remain in the archives under the charge of the alcalde, and a
copy shall be sent to the Supreme Government.
Article X.
The books and papers of the magazine shall be kept shut up
under three keys.
Article XI.
The committee shall name a keeper of the magazine and four
men, whose duty it will be to measure the grain which is dis-
tributed and received ; these men, whose services will be gra-
tuitous, shall, in consideration of them, be reserved from corvees
and personal service, and these services of the keeper of the
magazine shall be taken account of in all honorary matters in the
village, for wbich reason care shall be taken that these persons
shall be selected fi'om the first and most honourable of the village.
Article XII.
If any borrower should be unable for any circumstance to re-
place the kind of grain which he received, he shall be bound to
pay in currency at the price which the committee shall determine.
Article XIII.
To commence the establishment of the magazine, the com-
mittee shall meet and determine the quantity to be bought of
rice, palay, and maize, according to the quantity of each required
for the consumption of each province.
Article XIV.
The following measures shall be taken to provide funds for the
purchase of grain : —
1. Every alcalde on his appointment shall give a hundred dol-
lars to this fund.
2. The gobernadorcillos of villages exceeding six thousand
tributes, shall contribute twelve dollars on taking possession of
their post ; those of villages of between five and six thousand
tributes shall pay eleven dollars ; those of four to five thousand
tributes, ten dollars ; those of three to four thousand, eight dol-
lars ; those of two to three thousand, four dollars ; and those of
villages of less than a thousand tributes shall pay two dollars ;
the gobernadorcillos of villages of Tinguianes,^ in the provinces
where there are any, shall pay one dollar, however many tributes
they may contain.
' Unconverted Indians.
C G
386 APPENDIX II.
3. The sum paid by Indians on moving from one village to
settle in another, which usually disappears and remains in the
possession of the chief of the Barangay, shall also be applied to
this fund, for which purpose the alcaldes shall keep a register in
each village of those that leave it.
4. With respect to the Royal order authorising the Supreme
Grovernment to dispose of the surplus of the cajas de comunidad
(municipal chests), the fourth part of this shall be applied to the
magazine funds at the end of each year.
5. All vessels of a hundred tons and upwards going from one
province to another, shall contribute one dollar for each voyage.
6. The produce of fines imposed for breaches of the regulations
of the police and of public order, shall be applied to this fund.
7. Every chief of a Barangay, on receiving his title, shall be
invited to contribute voluntai-ily whatever he may choose for this
fund.
Article XV.
A register of all sums received for the magazine shall be kept
and signed by the members of the committee.
Article XVI.
Whenever there is a surplus of money in the magazine funds,
which has not been spent in purchasing grain, it may be lent at
interest of six per cent, with the securities which the committee
may think sufficient ; the committee being responsible for its re-
payment, should the borrowers not repay it at the end of the
period, which must never exceed a year.
Article XVII.
Since the establishment of the magazine has for object to pre-
vent the advances which are made by rich persons to the peasants
and producers of sugar and indigo, to their great prejudice, by
reason of the excessive interest which they exact from them, in-
humanely abusing the straits and need in which some peasants
are frequently situated ; all kinds of advances by private in-
dividuals to Indians are entirely prohibited ; because, besides the
injury done to them by the excessive usury, they are induced to
spend money which, in many cases, is not necessaiy to them, and
besides it appears to be unadvi sable to give money in advance for
rice, indigo, etc., four or five months before it is sown, without
knowing what may be the result of the harvest.
APPENDIX ir. 387
TROOPS.
M. Mallat vsrote, before 1846, of the military forces in the
Philippines : " The regiments are almost entirely composed of
Indians, and it is certain that now there are not a hundi'ed
Europeans amongst them. The remainder of a regiment of Asia
has been sent back, which was composed of one thousand men,
and had come from Spain to remain in Manila ; but the mis-
conduct of the soldiers made it apparent that it was better to do
without Europeans, who have almost always been the cause of
disorders, which would not have occurred but for them. A great
number of men of this regiment died at Manila from their
excesses. We cannot too often repeat it, so long as the Catholic
religion and its ministers shall preserve their influence over the
minds of the Indians, no troops will be required to restrain them.
The Philippines have been conquered, aggrandised, and pre-
served by them ; but will this happiness be their lot for long,
and is it not to be feared that the philosophers will preach in
this archipelago also, which now is so peaceful, and will persuade
its fortunate inhabitants to exchange their prejudices for a pre-
tended liberty, which would at once deprive them of their well-
being and tranquillity ?" — Mallat, ii, p. 3. This, however, is what
several Spaniards have lately been injudiciously attempting to do
in the Philippines.
About ten years ago five hundred Spanish artillery-men were
sent out. The Philipjiine army is raised bj conscription : it
amounts to nearly twelve thousand men, and consists of nine regi-
ments of infantry, foiu' squadrons of cavalry, 1,200 Philippine
artillery, 700 Philippine engineers, and the Peninsular artillery-
men. There is also the Resguardo, or force to prevent smuggling,
of 1,986 men, and a metropolitan police force of 160 men. Besides
these, the authorities can, and do, avail themselves of the military
service of the Igorrotes or Tg'olotes, uncivilised men, accustomed
to mountain warfare.
There are thirty thousand natives i-egistered as seamen in the
Philippines. There are some of these in each of the P. and 0.
steamers, as sail-makers and steersmen, who receive higher
wages than the other men on board those vessels.
I desii'e to take this opportunity of again thanking Lord
Stanley, the Secretary of State, for having kindly permitted me
to make the foregoing extracts from the consular despatches.
e c 2
APPENDIX III.
It ought to be unnecessary to add that I am alone responsible
for any conclusions or opinions expressed upon these extracts.
May I be allowed to conclude with a tribute to the memory of
Mr. Consul Farren, who seems to have done good service during
twenty years that he resided at Manila.
APPENDIX III.
The following account of recent discoveries of sunken rocks in
the neighbourhood of the Philippines, though they have been
reported to the Admiralty, and do not possess any general
interest, yet seem to deserve a place in the publications of the
Hakluyt Society.
A rock was discovered in the Sulu seas by the Spanish steamer
Mo,gaUanes, commander Don Miguel Lobo, on the 3rd July, 1849.
It was on a level with the surface of the water, and surrounded
by breakers on the Takiit Pabunuwan Bank, the least depth of
water on which, according to Horsburgh, is three fathoms, and
six according to Captain Dalrymple's chart. " It is a rock of an
elliptic figure, distant seventeen or eighteen miles from the south-
west part of Pilas ; is nearly on a level with the water, but it
showed a Httle above water at the time it was examined : sound-
ings nine to twelve fathoms all round it at a boat's length from
the breakers ; three or four fathoms further off no bottom with
twenty-five fathoms Bearings N.E. islet of Duo Bolod S. 65° E.
S.W. islet of Duo Bolod S. 61° E., the island of Vitinan S. 15° E. ;
and the centre of the most northern part of Pilas Island JST. 38° E.
Rock in latitude 6° 17' north, and longitude, according to Capt.
Dalrymple's Chart, 127° 31' E. of Cadiz. It is situated three
miles from the N.E. part of the bank described by Horsburgh.
We steered from it S.W.jW. for about three miles, and found
ourselves in shallow water, and sounded successively 11, 7, 6, 5|
5, and 4 fathoms of water."
A coral rock was discovered on the 29th October, 1849, by
F. A. Hipps, master of the U.S. ship Columhia, in the China seas.
which appeared not to have nloi'e than six or eight feet of water.
It is in latitude 9° 36' 'N., and longitude E. of Greenwich
APPENDIX IV. 389
110° 30' 0", and 2° 29' E. of the Northern Natuna by the chrono-
meter : the rock is twenty feet long, and abont twelve feet wide,
December 1, 1849. The discovery is announced of a new
reef on passing Boutton, in latitude 5° 30' N., and longitude
129° 38' E. of Cadiz ; it runs from E. to W. ; it is visible towards
the west side, and accessible on the north side, with soundings
of 10 to 30 fathoms, which increase to 115 fathoms at the dis-
tance of a ship's length. Extracts from Consul Farren's Despatclies.
APPENDIX IV.
GAZETTE OR BROADSHEET, PRINTED AT SEVILLE IN GOTHIC LETTER,
BY ALONZO DE LA BARRERA, 1574.
\_First page, large type, Sicmmary.']
Very true and certain account of that which has newly been
known of the new Islands of the West, and of the discovery
which they mention of China, which was written by Hernando
Riquel, Secretary of the Government, of them (the islands) to a
friend of his in Mexico, which came in the ships which had put
into the port of Capulco, and of their great riches, and of the
trade and merchandise of China, and of the manner in which
they extract and work gold : and another relation of the news
which has arrived from Italy, and the fortification of Tunis, and
of the fleet of the Great Turk : and how the city of Geneva has
treated of returning to the obedience of the Holy Mother Church,
and finally the death of the most Christian King of France, and
of that which is going on in Paris and in Flanders. There is
also the epitaph which has been found here of the blessed King
Don Fernando, who conquered Seville, m.d. Ixxiiii.
\_Second page, smaller type.']
We reside in this isle of Lu9on, whither the camp of his
Majesty has passed, as it is the best of all these districts ; in it
there are many mines of gold in many parts, which have been
seen by Spaniards, and all say that the natives work it as they
work silver mines in New Spain. And the metal has a con-
tinuous vein like the silver ore. Trials have been made, and the
mineral presents itself so plentifully, that I do not write about it
390 APPENDIX IV.
lest tbey suspect me of exaggeration ; but it is suiEcient to say-
that I swear, as a Christian, that there is more gold in this island
alone than there is iron in Biscay. The Moors use this gold and
mix it with silver and copper so cunningly, that they might take
in the most dexterous and cunning artificers of Spain. In this
country there are tilled lands of the best that have been dis-
covered in any part of the Indies. I do not write particulars
about them, as those who go there will know all about it.
Since a year, that the camp is in this island of Luqon and city
of Manila, which is built in it on the river named Manila, there
came three ships fi^om China, which brought some goods thence,
as they are in the habit of doing as they come every year to these
islands to trade. When they came in sight of the port, they sent
from the sea to beg a safe-conduct from the Grovernor, which was
given them, and he ordered that they should be well ti'eated.
What they brought were trifles from China, though in small
quantity. Because the Moors chiefly use, and they bring for
them large jars, coarse earthenware, iron, and copper, this in
abundance ; and for the chiefs they bring some pieces of silk, and
fine porcelain, and this is not a great curiosity. They also
brought some fine earthenware, which they sold very well and all
the rest, because all we who are here have much money and are
short of things to sell to the Chinese. They were so allured by
this, that they promised to come again in seven or eight months,
and bring very precious goods in great quantity and abundance.
They brought samples of various articles which they have in their
country, in order to ascertain the prices at which they might sell
them ; such as quicksilver, gunpowder, pepper, and very fine
cinnamon, cloves, sugar, iron, coppei', tin, brass, silk in skeins,
silk stuff's, fresh flour, sweet oranges, rice, gold dust, wax like
that of Spain, and realgar, and many other things which other
nations do not use or bring.
They also brought images of crucifixes, and very curious chairs
in our fashion. The cause of this arrival, besides the usual one
which influences them, was, one of the Chinese who has been
amongst us for more than a year's time, and who, returning to
his country, gave information of this settlement, and that in it all
the things they possessed miglit be traded in. And with this
understanding, they made the voyage, and came with the before-
mentioned ships, in which they brought what has been said, and
APPENDIX IV. 391
other things, which it would be long to relate. We under-
stand that they will keep their word and return when they said,
and bring very choice things which will be much esteemed in
Spain.
To perpetuate these settlements, the Governor has distributed
a few villages of Indians in the district of this city of Manila, and
a settlement has been made of what each tributary has to give in
the year, which is a fringed cloth of four ells long and two wide ;
it is a fine stuiF which they use to clothe themselves, and a hen ;
this they can give without pain. At present matters are con-
ducted lightly with regard to them ; later, when they are able to
bear the yoke, they will give tribute of more importance.
These ships which at present go to the kingdom, left last year,
and as it was late, they met with contrary winds at sea, and they
were obliged to put into port ; and so this year they have sailed
in this month of July of seventy-three years. May God bring
them in safety. There were other little details out here of which
to advise you, but I leave them to other authors who are more
unoccupied. The most especial of the affairs of this country is
what I have related. At present there is satisfaction in it from
the much that its richness and trade promise. May all be so,
that his Majesty fulfil his holy desires, and that so the Lord may
be served. So far the account goes. What is written and known
from Mexico is, that the affairs there and all the province, through
the medium of what comes from China, were greatly increasing
and growing ; because, besides many people being encouraged to
go to those pai-ts, many companies are being formed for the trade
in merchandise. The Viceroy desired to send his Majesty a long
relation of what there is there, and of what he had heard of the
three ships which had arrived.
APPENDIX V.
[Note to page 126.]
Colonel Fernando de los Rios says that the demarcation be-
tween the crowns of Castile and Poi-tugal began at three hundred
and seventy leagues to the west of the Cape Verde islands.
392 APPENDIX V.
whereas the Bull of Pope Alexander VI of 1493 drew the line at
one hundred leagues (or 400 miles) to the west of the Cape Verde
islands. The reason of this discrepancy is that, D. Joan II of
Portugal had appealed against this bull, and had requested to
have the line drawn more to the west, so that it should not inter-
fere with the Portuguese settlements in Africa. The King of
Portugal had sent ships with geographers to visit all the coast of
Africa, if it were possible ; after this the King of Spain, desirous
of peace, came in to this arrangement, and instructions were
sent to the Portuguese and Spanish Ambassadors at Rome to
draw up a new agreement before the Pope, with the consent of
the King of Spain to the meridian of separation being placed
1,080 miles further west beyond the 400 miles at which it had
been drawn. This was confirmed in the town of Tordesillas, on
the 7th of June, 1494. The Spanish monarchs (says Gromara)
whilst thinking that they would lose countries by giving up the
1,080 miles, on the contrary gained the Moluccas and other rich
islands. But Osorius is of another oj)inion, for he states that the
mouth of the Indus is ninety degrees east of Lisbon and the
Moluccas forty-two degrees east of the Indus, which make one
hundred and thirty-two, and adding the thirty-six degrees west
of Lisbon to the meridian of demarcation, the whole distance
would be one hundred and sixty-eight degrees. After the return
of Juan Sebastian del Cano with Magellan's ship the Vidonj,
Charles V was going to send more ships to the Moluccas, but the
King of Portugal begged him first to ascertain to whom they be-
longed. After the interchange of some communications, they
agreed that the difference should be settled by the most eminent
geographers and experienced pilots. The delegates of the Em-
peror and of the King set out to Badajos and Elvas, towns close
to the frontiers of the two kingdoms, at the beginning of the year
1524. After losing much time in ceremony and discussion, where
the first interview should be held, and who should speak first,
they at last agreed to meet and salute one another at the stream
Caya, which separates the two kingdoms, half way between
Badajos and Elvas, and after that they were to meet one day at
Badajos and the other at Elvas. They passed many days
examining globes, charts, and reports by pilots, then they dis-
cussed the degrees of longitude of the first discoverers of the
Moluccas, and each side tried to make sfood his cause. Navarrete
APPENDIX V. 393
has printed several of the opinions given bj the Spanish pilots
and geographers, among them one of Hernan Colon. A letter
from a Portuguese agent in Spain to the King of Portugal (the
text of which is given at the end of this note) mentions sending
a book written by Christopher Columbus upon the demarcation
of the Castilian and Portuguese limits, which the Portuguese
agent obtained through the Condesa de Lemos. It appears to
have been favourable to the CastiKan claims, since the agent says
that the king should bid his cosmographers look at it, since theo-
logians likewise read the Koran.
The geographers were two months without deciding anything;
at last the Spanish delegates pronounced their sentence on the
banks of the Cay a in favour of their Emperor, which was not ap-
proved of by the Portuguese, and so they separated without coming
to an agreement. The historian who relates this (G-omara, folio 57,
translated by Simon Goulard, 1581) says, there then happened a
laughable case ; but which, nevertheless, is worth mentioning.
As the Portuguese delegates were coming to their usual meeting,
and passed by a river named Guadiana, a child who was taking
care of some linen which his mother had washed and hung out to
diy, asked them if they were the persons who were coming to
divide the world with the Emperor. When they had said that
they were ; the child turned round, lifted up his shirt, and said
aloud, draw your line through the middle of this. This trait of
ridicule at once spread abroad everywhere, and some laughed at
it, others considered that the child had been put up to it by some
one to laugh at the pomposity of the Portuguese geographers, or
rather at both the Portuguese and Spaniards together.
After the iU success of the geographers, negotiations continued
with respect to the possession of the Moluccas ; the archives at
Lisbon contain a great number of letters from the King of Por-
tugal to Antonio d'Azevedo de Coutinho, his ambassador in
Spain, upon this subject. At length the question was settled by
a treaty executed in Saragossa on the 22nd of April 1 529, and
ratified by the King of Portugal in Lisbon, June 20, 1530. By
this treaty Charles V pledged his rights, dominion, property, and
possession or quasi-possession, and all rights of navigation and
commerce in the Moluccas to Portugal for a sum of three hun-
dred and fifty thousand ducats or cruzados, to be worth in Cas-
tile 375 maravedis each. This treaty is preserved in the Torre
894 APPENDIX V.
do Tombo, Gav. 18, M. 8, No. 29, and it has been published with
part of the documents by IS'avarrete. The first instalment of
150,000 cruzados was paid in Lisbon to Lope Furtado, ambas-
sador of Charles V, by a royal order or alvara to Fernam de
Alvares, the treasurer, dated June 1, 1529. By this treaty a
line of demarcation was drawn by a semicircle from the N.E.
and a quarter E., at a distance of nineteen degrees from the
Moluccas, which corresponds with barely seventeen degrees dis-
tance at the equator : this line would pass over the islands of
Las Velas and Santo Thome.
In a letter to Azevedo Coutinho, dated Lisbon, January 13,
1529, D. Joam III says that he desires to prevent his subjects
and the Castilians meeting and quarrelling in those distant seas.
He objects to allowing of any exception for those who pass the
line in ignorance, since those who navigate in those parts must
have with them pilots and persons of much experience in navi-
gation, and it is not in reason that so wide a door should be left
open, as to say that any one passed the line in ignorance, and
with this excuse give rise to these scandals which it is the object
of this treaty to avoid.
This new demarcation would include the Philippines or part of
them within the Portuguese limits : accordingly we find that D.
Jorge de Castro, governor of Ternate and the Moluccas, pro-
tested under the treaty, on July 3rd, 1543, against Ruy Lopes de
Yilla Lobos, for having come with five ships and a galliot to
Mindanao and other Moluccas islands. This protest was served
upon Villa Lobos on the 9th of August, 1543. (See De Morga,
p. 14.)
The protest accuses Yilla Lobos of ravaging and burning
towns and capturing inhabitants within the limits of Portugal.
Villa Lobos replied when the protest was given him, that the
island of Antonia or Maludo, as the Portuguese named it (where
he then was), was within the Spanish limits, and that he was
sorry for any damage he had done, as such was not his intention,
but only to chastise some treacheries done to him by the natives
of these islands. He recognised that he was bound by the treaty
and by his instructions not to come within the Molucca limits,
and would not send ships there except with letters to the Portu-
guese governor, as is usual among the vassals of kings who are
brothers. He added that from the inconvenience of the island of
APPENDIX V. 395
Antonia he was getting his ships ready to seek another settlement
fui'ther off from Maluco, and he requested the Port aguese governor
to send his reply with the protest, whenever he sent the protest to
his sovereign.
D. Jorge de Castro replied on September 2, 1543, to Villa
Lobos with politeness, but requesting him to leave the island of
Mindanao, which he had confessed he had no right to enter, and
with further polite excuses he told him that he was entering by
cunning and stealth places in which he had no business, and he
rejected Villa Lobos' notion that the islands of Maluco meant
only the Clove Islands, which would be to suppose the treaty to
have been made with artifice. He also complained that Villa
Lobos was remaining in Mindanao, and that according to re-
port he had sent a ship to I^ew Spain to obtain succour and in-
structions, as if he intended to settle in the country ; and he
said that as Charles V had ceded the Moluccas to Portugal, he
had also ceded the entrances to them, as no one would give his
house and keep back its door. He complained that an island
called Cabedo, and also Maludo, where the Portuguese used to
find provisions, are now so ruined that there are only dead bodies
of the natives in them. He therefore, once, twice, and three
times, required Villa Lobos to withdraw from Mindanao ; and if,
on his return voyage, he required provisions or repairs or cables,
to address himself to him and he would assist him. If Villa
Lobos did not do as required, he was requested to send a reply,
authenticated by Caspar de Castilla, the chief clerk of the fleet,
for the security of the governor of Moluccas.
Villa Lobos replied that whatever he did or said did not
affect the rights of the King of Portugal, and that there was no
ground for serving* him with requisitions, that the islands of
Maluco were known by name, and it was known what a different
thing it was to trade with countries or to subject them, and that
if it were understood that all the countries where navigators
passed and bought provisions with their money belonged to the
sovereign of those navigators, all the world would already be-
long to one prince. As to the complaint of the governor of
Maluco that he would not let Antonio d' Almeida see his fleet,
there were things which he would not show even to his own
brother ; and as for the governor's insinuation that his polite re-
ply was cunning and empty compliment, in truth he was not
396 APPENDIX V.
accustomed to use compliments : and he begged of the governor,
as their sovereigns were brothers, not to give occasion for quar-
rels to arise between Castilians and Portuguese. Dated Island
of Antonia, September 12, 1543. This collection of documents
was drawn up by Graviel Rebello, judge for the deceased, and
signed bj others. February 7, 1544. (Torre de Tombo, Gav. 18,
Mago 8, 1^0. 31.)
There is no trace of any protest by the Portuguese against the
occupation of the Philippines by D. Miguel Lopez de Legazpi.
CARTA DE D. DUAETE DE ALMEIDA A EL RET.
(Torre do Tombo, Gav. 18, MaQo 8, No. 7.)
Senhor, — Porque nom sey se seraa dada a V.A. huma carta
mynha em que Ihe escrevya que me ficavao tresladando hum
livro do almyrante das Indias que fezera Dom Cristovao Colon seu
pay das demarcagoes dos mares e terras de V.A. cos de Castela, Iho
torno a escrever agora, e o livro ja o tenho mandado a V.A. e
ainda que aquylo nom seja verdade como me parece, todavia
devyao V.A. de mandar ver por cosmografos porque tambem os
Teologos vem o Alcorao. A condessa de Lemos mo mandou
treladar, e estemou que nom se entregasse ao Conselho das
Indyas, que o pidya muy apertadamente ao almirante que he seu
sobrinho, e muito seu amigo della ; e o livro vai concertado por
mym co propreo que fica em poder da Condesa pera se nom
poder fazer delle nada, senao o que for servygo de V.A. e mays
anda me sabendo por via do almirante em que asentarao aqueles
cosmografos que se aquy ajuntaarao sobre que V.A. me screveo
e quem tem este zelo e deseja tanto de o servir parece que Ihe
devera V.A. de fazer a merce que Ihe pedia, que assi me salve
Deos, que soo porquem ela he, sem estoutras circustancias, que
importao muyto Iha ouvera V.A. de fazer, e ela estaa muy des-
consolada por Iha V.A. negar e nao creo que por ysso deyxara
de o servyr Nosso Senhor : a vida de V.A. com muyta saiide, e
seu estado real guarde e prospere por muytos anos pera seu ser-
vy90.
De Valhadolid a vynte cynco de Noviembre [ ] ? Be3'jo as
Reales maos de V.A.
Dom Duarte de Almeida.
[Note to imrje 22.]
The Sultan of Egypt's embassy to Rome was addressed to
APPENDIX V. 397
Pope Alexander YI, according to De Barros and San Roman ;
Osorio states that it was received by Pope Julias.
\_Nofe to page i.]
Ko copy of De Morga exists either in the Escorial Library or
the Biblioteca I^acional of Madrid. There is one in the Library
of San Isidro, Madrid, and in the public library of Lisbon, and
Mr. Gayangos possesses a copy.
[Note to page 169.]
A copy of a letter in the Hydrographic Department, Madrid, to
the Conde de Monterrey, Viceroy of New Spain, 1600, compared
by NavaiTete, June 23, 1794, with the original in the Archives of
the Indies in Seville, gives a detailed relation of the naval action
with Oliver Van N^oort which agrees with De Morga's account,
and adds the following particulars : —
W hen. De Moi'ga's ship was getting very full of water, a Jesuit
named Padre Santiago, with a crucifix in his hand, called
out, " See now. Christian Spaniards, where is your courage ? see
that this is the cause of God : die then, die like good soldiers of
Jesus Chi-ist, and do not become food for fishes ; see that of two
evils which threaten us, the least is to enter the enemy's ship,
and if we lose one ship we gain another." At this exhortation
some sprung on board, others held back because of the fire on
board the enemy caused by some cartridges which they lighted
on purpose to frighten the Spaniards. When the ship was going
down, De Morga stripped off his clothes at the persuasion of a
servant of his named Joseph de Naveda, who gave him a mattrass
of . . . (blank in the original, probably straw of maize), and the
two stripped of their clothes threw themselves into the sea, as
did many others, but the lesser number reached land. Some
reached the enemy's ship seeking succour, where those heretics
received" them with spears and thrust at them with much cruelty.
Amongst them Captain Gomez de Molina received a lance
wound, and with it swam to shore, where he died on the beach
of loss of blood.
This letter says that Juan de Alcega took with the Dutch con-
sort nineteen men alive who surrendered, and that the Spaniard's
lost one man killed by a shot, named Juan Baptista de Mon-
dragon, nephew of the precentor of the cathedral of Manila ;
398 APPENDIX V.
another man, from the Canary Islands, was drowned leaping
from one ship to the other, and a few were wounded : they cap-
tured eight large cannon of cast iron and four small ones.
Juan de Alcega sent the prisoners alive to Manila and re-
ceived an order to follow the enemy, which he did, and on his
return " the governor ordered him to be arrested and afterwards
set at liberty : I do not know the justification that there was for
the one or for the other." [This shows that this letter was not
written by the governor nor by any high official.] " After that
the governor ordered, and with much justice, notwithstand-
ing the word which the Admiral Juan de Alcega had given them,
that the garrote should be given to all the prisoners. This was
done, and thirteen of them were executed, because the rest were
boys; and they are distributed among the monasteries; I do not
know with what object, for they are not very young. Twelve
died very good Catholics, and converted with many tears, so
much so that it obliged the monks to give them the most holy
sacrament of the Eucharist. The Brotherhood of Holy Mercy
buried them with much charity. The one that would not be
converted was the admiral, the most dogged and pertinacious
heretic that I ever saw in my life."
[Note to page 81.]
A law-suit is at present going on between the two towns of
Vergara and Beasain, in Guipuzcoa, each of which claims the
Japanese martyr Fray Martin de la Asceucion ; one town pleads
that his name was Aguirre, the other that it was Loynes. The
contemporary authority of De Morga, who has printed a letter
from this martyr, stating his name to have been Aguirre, ought
to be sufficient to establish that as having been his name. There
was, however, at that time in Japan another Martin de la Ascen-
cion; and a MS. book in the library at Evora, cxv, 2-2, by Padre
Alexander Valignano, Visitor of the Company of Jesus in Japan,
dated October 9, 1598, was written to refute the calumnies of
Fray Martin de la Ascencion against the company. It consists
of thirty-one chapters, and the last three are refutations of the
statements of Fray Geronymo de Jesus, who fills so large a space
in De Morga's history. This book states that Fray Martin
Loines de la Ascencion, a Basque by nation, had written trea-
tises against the Jesuits, and had directed a Portuguese friend
APPENDIX r. 399
of his, a secular priest, named Miguel e Roxo, to correct them.
This priest was much scandalised at the calumnies they con-
tained. The Visitor complains of Fray Martin for having been
so facile in believing and so hasty in speaking, for he had not
been more than five or six months in Japan, for he came in the
year 1596 from the Philippines, and he had not been in the
country more than three months -when he •wrote these treatises
since he began to write them in Nangasaki. The Visitor for-
bears to sjDeak of Loines as he desel'^^ed, because he had quitted
this Hfe fijor ser pasado de esta vidaj, a phrase which seems to
indicate a natural death, and not that by martyrdom. (I had
not time to read the whole book through, but in those parts
which treated of the martyi'dom the Visitor only names one of
the martyrs.)
In the twenty-sixth chapter the Visitor replies to the calum-
nies against the Jesuits of causing the loss of the galloon San
Felipe in Urando of the kingdom of Tosa, and says that what
happened was only in accordance with the law of Japan, and
other neighbouring kingdoms, that when a vessel is lost, it and
its goods belong to the lord of the country. He says that Taico-
sama sent Temonojo to take possession of the galloon, and that
the friars negotiated with him about it, without ever informing
the Jesuits of their business. He speaks of De Morga as a man
of much authority, and of a letter having come into his hands
which had been written by Fray Pedro e Bautista, to Fray Mar-
cello de Ribadeneira about the galloon. The Visitor also gives
the story of the imprudent speech of the Spanish pilot to Temo-
nojo, the confidante of Taicosama, and attributes the execution
of the friars to that cause alone ; for he says the Jesuit's house
was not closed, and they were not molested, though three Jesuits
were crucified by mistake, and a Christian, whom Padre Organ-
tino had sent after the friars to assist them on the road. Fur-
ther on he says that Taicosama was moved by the pilot's report
to kill the Manila friars ; and that " he was not fanatical, and
believed the feasts of the Bonzes to be lies, and that there is no
other life for men than the present one, and he does not abhor
our faith, but said he did not want it in Japan, as it seemed to
him to be an invention for the conquest of countries, and so he
wrote clearly to D. Francisco Tello." The Visitor gives Taico-
sama's reply of 1597 to D. Francisco Tello's letter, sent by D.
400 APPENDIX V.
Luis de Navarrete, rather more at length than it is given by De
Morga ; see p. 84.
The Visitor states that the friars complained of the company-
objecting under the Brief of Gregory XIII to their proceedings,
and that they attempted to override that Papal Brief by the
rights of the King of Castile under the general grant of the
islands and countries to be discovered in the Indies. The Com-
pany of Jesus seem to make out their case well, and the wisdom
of the Brief, and to have shewn themselves superior to the friars
through being solely devoted to the advancement of their reli-
gion, whilst the friars mixed up projects for the subjection of
those countries under the influence of national and so-called
patriotic feelings.
In the twenty-seventh chapter the Visitor says the friars re-
sorted to another plan to conceal the mischief they had done in
Japan, and to cast blame on the Company ; this was to make
great festivity and processions in honour of those friars who had
been slain, publishing that they were martyrs, and that the men
of the Company knew very well how to take care of their lives
and to run away from martyrdom.
In reply to this the Visitor observes that the three Jesuits
who had been crucified by mistake with the Manila friars had
died with as much constancy as the others ; one of them, named
Aligi Paulo, had been a Jesuit brother for more than twelve
years. The Jesuits were not jealous of the martyrs, but thought
that their canonisation was a right reserved to the Holy Father,
and that till then the friars should not have distributed their
relics. He also blames the martyrs for having made so large a
list of Japanese Christians and given it to Gibunoxo (Ximonojo),
the lieutenant of Taicosama, who from prudence did not shew it
to Taicosama, so as not to compromise so many important persons.
The Visitor then denies the miracles which the friars attri-
buted to the martyrs. 1. Though their bodies did not become
corrupt during the first few days on account of the cold, they
did so later, and were as unpleasant as any others. 2. It was
stated that the body of Fray Pedro Baptista shed blood many
days after his death : this was only the corrupted humours,
which, with the intestines, found an exit. 3. It was pretended
that a vial of their blood remained uncorrupted and liquid. The
truth was that Juan Baptista Bonacina, a Milanese, mopped up
APPENDIX V. 401
their blood witli a napkin, and carried it home, and squeezed it
out into a China porcelain bottle and stopped it up, and kept it
in a chest, with the intention (as he told me) of taking it back
with him to Italy for his own devotion, and to relate there what
he had seen with his own eyes. When he went to Macao, and I
arrived shortly after from India, he brought me the bottle with
joy to shew it me, as the blood still moved and was liquid, and
he thought it was miraculous, and the gi'eater part of the blood
was from Fray Aligi Paulo. The bishop D. Pedro Martins, who
had been expelled from Japan, and D. Luis, who was going
there as bishop, were both in Macao, and I took the Milanese
and the bottle to them, and they opened it and put a thin paper
in, but by the colour it could not have been known for blood,
but only from its very bad smell. After well considering the
matter all three of us, we stoppered the bottle with a cloth as it
was before, and gave it back to Juan Baptista, without saying
what we thought, so as not to disturb his devoutness, but after-
wards we were of opinion that there was nothing miraculous
about it : moreover, we thought that from the blood having been
collected with a cloth and squeezed out, it would naturally re-
main liquid, as the thicker parts would remain in the cloth. The
friars got hold of the bottle later, and made no mention of the
name of Aligi Paulo, and carried it ofiT to the Yicar of Macao, an
unlettered m.an : he, without communication with our fathers or
the bishops, was induced by the friars to make out a paper certi-
fying that the blood of the friars was liquid, and that it seemed
to be marvellous its being thus preserved ; all this without men-
tioning its bad colour and bad smell. The Bishop D. Pedro
heard of this, and sent for the Yicar and reprimanded him for
having done such a business in a concealed manner, whilst there
were two bishops there and so many fathers of the Company,
among whom were five or six who read or had I'ead theology."
There is also an original Portuguese document in the libraiy
of the Madrid Academy, which is a protocol of a conference
drawn up by Mattheus de Cours, ecclesiastical notary, dated
Nangasaqui, September 23, 1598, and signed by those who were
present at it, who were Dom Luis Cerqueira, Bishop of Japan,
the Visitor of the Company Alexandro Valignano, the Vice-
provincial Pero Gomez, the Superiors Francisco Pasio, Diego de
^lesquita, Melchior de Mora, Affonro do Lucena, Alonzo Gon-
D D
402 APPENDIX VI.
zalvez, and the Fathers Organtino Soldo, Francisco Calderon,
Gil da Mata, Celso Confalonero, Valentim Carvalho, and Ruy
Barreto. The protocol complains of the mischief done by Fray
Geronymo de Jesus and bis companion Fray Gomes de San
Luis, and other Manila friars who had come in opposition to the
Brief of Gregory XIII, and saying that their prelates had sent
them. The protocol states the opinion of the meeting tliat the
Bishop of Japan might, and ought, as soon as he could, take up
and re-embark, and send away all such fi-iars as came without
authority.
[Note to page 30.]
Padre Alonzo Sanchez was sent from Manila to Macao to take
the oath of allegiance from the Portuguese on the accession of
Philip II to the throne of Portugal. The library of the Academy
of History, Madrid, contains a Chinese copy of a chapa, by
which the mandarins of Canton allowed a Portuguese ship to
come and fetch Padre Alonzo Sanchez and the despatches from
Machan (Moluccas).
APPENDIX VI.
LETTER OF LUIS VAEZ DE TORRES TO HIS MAJESTY, RELATING HIS
VOYAGE THROUGH THE TORRES STRAITS, DATED MANILA,
JULY 12, 1607; RECEIVED JUNE 22, 1608.
f/2, Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid, apparentltj a copy of a document
mentioned by Navarrete as existing in Simancas.)
As I find myself in this city of Manila at the end of a year and
a half of navigation and discovery among the lands and seas of
the unknown southern parts ; and since until now they have not
been pleased in this Royal Audiencia of Manila to despatch me,
in order to finish the voyage as Your Majesty ordered ; and as I
was in the hope of being the first to give Your Majesty a relation
of what has been discovered, with the rest, and as I am detained
without knowing whether they will despatch me from this city
of Manila, I have chosen to send a person to give an account to
Your Majesty, who is Fray Juan de Merlo, of the order of St.
APPENDIX VI. 403
Francis, one of the three monks whom I bi'ought at my charge ;
which relation he will give to Yoar Majesty as a person who was
present at all ; which account, on my part, is the following :
We left the port of Callao, of the city of the Kings, of Peru, on
the 21st December, with two ships and a launch, in the year six
hundred and five:^ the chief of them was Captain Pero Fernandez
de Quiros, and I as his second in command. We steered, keep-
ing well in company, the S.W. by W. course, and we sailed on
this course for eight hundred leagues, and in the latitude of
twenty-six degrees. It seemed fit to our commander not to go
beyond this on account of certain shifts of the wind : and I gave
him my opinion, signed with my name, that it was not a very
prudent thing to go lower than that, until arriving at thirty
degrees and more, if the wind should leave us ; my opinion did
not prevail, because from the said twenty-six degrees we went
down soon after by the course N^.W. by W., and we went by
this course as far as twenty-four degrees and a half. In this
neighbourhood we found a flat islet, uninhabited, and about two
leagues long, without bottom for anchoring the ships. From
there we departed steering west and a quarter north-west as far
as twenty-four degrees : in this neighbourhood we found another
uninhabited island without anchorage ; it might have about ten
leagues circumference." We gave it the name of San Valeric.
Thence we departed steering for one day west and a quai'ter
north-west, and then to north-west by west until reaching twenty-
one degrees and a third. In this neighbourhood we found
another flat islet,-'^ without soundings, uninhabited, and divided
into portions : we went forward by the same course, and after
going twenty-five leagues, we found four triangular isles of five
or six leagues each, flat, uninhabited, and without soundings.*
' At tkree in the afternoon, says the pilot Gaspar Gonzales de Leza,
Quiros in the galloon S. Pedro y S. Pablo, and Torres in the S. Pedro;
the patache was named Tres Reyes, and was commanded by Pedro Bernal.
- The first island was reached on the 26th January, named Auegada
by De Leza, and said to be in 25°, and 1,000 leagues from Callao ; the
second island (Sin Puerto) was reached on the 29th January : it was in
24f °, and 1,075 leagues from Callao.
3 The 2nd February the ships parted company for some hours ; on the
3rd they saw an island in 21 i".
* Four islands reached on the 4th and 5th February in 20' and 21'^:
they were three or four leagues apart.
]) D 2
404 APPKNDix vr.
We gave tliem the name of the Virgins : here our needle varied
to the north-east.^ From hence we went out steering to the
north-north-west as far as nineteen degrees. In this neighbour-
hood we saw an islet on the east side about three leagues off
from us ; it was like those left behind : we gave it the name of
Santa Polonia.^ From hence, diminishing our latitude half a
degree, we saw a flat island with a point to the south-east full of
palm trees : it was in eighteen degrees and a half ;^ we came to
it, it had no anchorage, we saw people on the beach : the boats
went to shore, and when they got there they could not land on
account of the rocks and high sea. The Indians on shore called
out to them, and two Spaniards took to swimming,* and the
Indians received them very well, and throwing down their arms
on the ground embraced and kissed them on the cheeks. With
this friendliness there came one of their chiefs on board the flag-
ship to speak, with an old woman,^ and they clothed and treated
them, and set them on shore again at once, because they were
much frightened. In return for this benefit they sent a bunch
of hair and some poor feathers, and some carved shells of pearl
oysters. All these were their finery: they were very wild people,
dusky, and corpulent. The arms which they use are some very
long and thick lances. As we could not land nor find an anchor-
age, we went forward, steering to the west-north-west, and we
went by this course, sighting the land of this island, we could
not reach it after the first occasion, on account of the strong con-
trary Avind, with many showers. It was all very flat, and in
parts the water washed over it. From this neighbourhood, in
1 De Leza says — " On the 7tli Februai-y they set fire to the oven, and
water artifice, and began to produce it with much facility, and this day
they obtained three earthen jars full, and it was to make a trial of the
machine, which water was seen by all to be very clear, sweet, and good
to drink." I have been informed that a machine for condensing sea
water is mentioned as early as 1518 as used by one Domingo Rivera.
^ Sighted on February 9, in 19°.
^ This point was seen on the 10th February, in 18° 10'.
•• Francisco Ponse and Miguel Morera swam ashore : they were well
received, and two othei's swam ashore. Torquemada mentions these same
names.
^ On the 11th February, De Quiros sent a boat with ten men and the
ensign Pedro Lopez Gojo on shore ; they found an old woman damaged
in one eye and one arm ; they brought her on board and gave her
presents; she had witli her a small white dog like ours; where she was
APPENDIX VI. 405
sixteen degrees and a lialf,^ we Avent steering to the north-west
and a quarter north until reaching ten degrees and three-quarters ;
in this neighbourhood we saw an island which was understood
to be San Bernardo, as it was in pieces, but it was not, from
what was seen later. We found no anchorage in it, although the
boats went on shore to see if there was water, as we were short
of it, and they found none, but only some cocoa-nuts, and they
were small. Our commander, considering that we were short of
water, decided that we should go to the island of Santa Cruz,
where he had been with the Adelantado Alvaro de Mendana,
saying that there we should provide ourselves with wood and
water, and a decision would be taken as to what should be most
convenient for the service of Tour Majesty. At this time the
crew of the flag-ship were in a mutinous disposition, and enter-
found there were many graves ; in this island they found half of a pulley
of cedar, wrought on the coast of Nicaragua or Peru. They found no
water in the island, but got many cocoa-nuts. On taking back the old
woman, they found a chief and some canoes of fourteen or fifteen men
each : the chief's canoe had twenty-six men ; it was very well built, not
of one piece of wood, and as good as could have been made in CastUe.
They got the chief away with much trouble, and almost by force, leaving
seven Spaniards on shore; the chief would not come on board, so Quiros
went down to him in the boat, and pacified and soothed him, giving him
quince preserve and other things to eat, but he would not eat them and
put them by. Quiros then gave him a tafi'etan robe, and a hen which he
asked for, and sent him ashore, to the great joy of his people. The
islanders gave to the Serjeant Pedro Garcia a turban of feathers, which
seemed to be of Pangiles. On coming on board they found amongst the
feathers a quantity of woman's hair like a diadem: the general valued it
much ; the hair was very long and very yellow, like threads of gold. The
Indians also sent two large shells, in which a fowl could be served up ; and
then- knives are made of shells. They then left the island, and all night
the crews did not cease talking of what they had seen, and of the good
conduct of the islanders.
' 12th February. They ran along the island, which was twenty -five
leagues long and ten broad : all the middle is sunk, as though one said
a piece of the sea surrounded by land. They saw a small island five
leagues to the north of this, which they did not visit. 13th February, in
161°, saw another island.
On the 1 3th February Quiros placed an order on the mainmast that
no one should swear by the name of God in vain under pain of a fine of
a patacon for the depai-ted souls : that no one should meddle with the
affairs of others and put his hand to the knife, and if he did, he should
be fined thirty patacones.
406 APPENDIX VI.
tained the design of going straight to Manila. For this cause he
sent me the chief pilot under arrest to my ship, without com-
mencing legal proceedings against him or against others.^ He
was importuned by me to punish them or allow me to punish
them, for they had the name of traitors, and he did not choose
to do so ; for which reason there happened to him that which
Your Majesty will already have known, for they made him turn
out of his course, as will be mentioned further on, and he will
have related it in the royal court of Tour Majesty. We went
away from this above-mentioned island to the west and a quarter
north-west. Here we found that in this meridian the needle
varied to the north-east by about a quarter. We sailed by this
course as much as fully ten degrees : in this neighbourhood we
found a low island of five or six leagues,^ flat and without sound-
ings ; it was inhabited, and the people and arms were of the
fashion of those we had left behind ; but different boats came
near to the ships to speak to us, and taking what we gave them,
and asking for more, and stealing whatever was hanging to the
ships,^ and thrusting at vis with lances, as it seemed to them that
we could not do them any harm : since there was no anchorage,
from the want of water that was felt, our commander sent me
ashore with the two boats and fifty men ; when I reached land
they resisted my entrance, without ever consenting to peace, by
which they obliged me to»>skirmish with them : after some harm
The 14th February they saw another island in 15°, and De Leza found
they had gone 1,475 miles from Callao, and in a straight line 1,398
leagues; in all this time they had received only a quartillo of water, and
provisions had been short too, and the heat had been very great : the
general endured the same privations.
The 19th, in 10f*-\ making for Santa Cruz Island; 21st, lOa^", saw an
island; on the 22nd found a bay in its west side, but no anchorage, lOi'^;
some said it was San Bernardo, others the Solitaria, and it was never
settled which it was : the general, seeing the little advantage that it
was, made for Santa Cruz.
' A summary of Quiros' voyage, by the accountant Juan de Iturbe,
Mexico, 25 March, 1607 (J 2), says that on the 22nd March Quiros called
a councU, and afterwards the chief pilot Juan Ochoa de Bilboa went
over to Torres' ship, being disgusted with the captain Quiros. Leza does
not mention this.
2 Sighted an island with many cocoa-nut trees on the 2nd of March, of
three or four leagues.
3 Leza says they carried away our hawsers (orinques) to shore, upon
which they fired upon them and wounded them.
APPENDIX vr. 407
had been done them, three of them came forth to offer me peace,
singing with branches in their hands, and one with a hghted
match, upon his knees. I received them well, and embraced
them, and then clothed them, as they were chiefs, and on asking
them for water, they would not show it me, pretending that they
did not understand ; and keeping the three chiefs with me, I sent
the seijeant with twelve men to seek for water, and when they
fell in with it, the Indians sallied out again and attacked them,
and wounded a Spaniard. Seeing their treachery 1 attacked and
routed them without other injury, the country remaining in my
possession, I ran all over the village without finding more than
only dry oysters and some fish, and plenty of cocoa-nuts, with
which the country was well provided : I did not find birds or
animals, except only some little dogs. I found many covered
boats, with which they are used to sail to other islands with
lateen sails, very cleverly made of straw, and the women are
clothed with shirts and petticoats of the same stufi", and the men
with not more than their waists and middles covered. We went
out from here with the boats laden with water : from the much
sea they were swamped, with much risk to our lives ; and so we
had to continue our voyage "without taking water from this
island, to which we gave the name of La Matanza. We went
out, steering by this parallel for thii-ty-two days : in all this course
we found that there were very great currents and many drifts of
Avood and snakes, and much litter.^ All these were signs which
showed that there was land on either side : we did not venture
to seek for it nor to leave the altitude^ of the island of Santa
Cruz ; for it seemed to us to be always near, and that was reason,
if it was in the place where they had marked it the first time
that it was discovered ; but it was much further on, as will be
seen by the narrative. So before reaching it about sixty leagues,
and 1,940 leagues from the city of Lima, we found an islet of
about six leagues, very high, and with a good bottom all round
it, and other islets near it f under shelter of which the ships re-
mained at anchor. I went out with the two boats and fifty men
to reconnoitre the inhabitants, and I found a village at the dis-
1 Pagereria. Gaspax Gonzales de Leza says they saw many sea snakes
on the 18th March.
2 From the 5th March till 9th April Leza always gives 10° or 10° 30'.
* Leza names this island and islets Nuestra Seuora de Loreto, in
IC^' 1(1';
408 APPENDIX VI.
tance of a gunshot from the island, surrounded by a wall with
only one entrance, and without a gate ; while I was near it with
the two boats with the intention of attacking it, because they
would not give signs of peace, at last there came out a chief with
water hung at his neck and a staff in his hand, and without fear
he came straight to the boats. I received him very well, and by
signs, with which we understood each other very well, he told
me that his people were much afraid of the arquebuses, and so
he begged me not to land, as they would bring me water and
wood on supplying them with vessels. I said to him that it was
absolutely necessary to remain five days on shore to rest. See-
ing that he could do no more, he quieted his people, who were
much disturbed, and things turned out in such manner that no
missiles were discharged either from his side nor from ours. I
landed in the fort in perfect safety, and calling on them to halt,
made them give up their arms ; and I bade them take their
chattels out of their houses, all which were not worth much, and
go with them to the island to other villages which were thei'e.
They thanked me much : the chief remained all the time with
me. Then they named the country. All came to make peace
with me, and all the chiefs came to assist me, making their
people bring us wood and water and take it aboard of the ships.
We employed six days in this. The people of this island were
of very good conversation ; we understood each other very well,
and they were desirous of learning our language and of teaching
us theirs. They were great seafarers, all well furnished with
beards, great archers and throwers of javelins, and very venture-
some : their boats, which are very large, could go a great dis-
tance : they gave us information of more than forty islands, large
and small, and all inhabited, naming them by their names, and
telling us that they fought with several of them. They also gave
us information of the isle of Santa Cruz, and of that which
happened there to the Adelantado Alvaro de Mendana ;i the
people of this island are of ordinary sized bodies ; there were
amongst them white people and others red, other native Indians
of the colour of those of the Indies, and others black, swarthy,
and dusky. They practise slavery.^ Their victuals are some
' Leza says they sent a canoe to Santa Cruz to give information of
Qniros' arrival.
2 Leza says the people of this island fought with other islands, and
used the captives as slave.s for their tillage.
APPENDIX VI. 409
yams and fish ; they have plenty of cocoa-nuts ; they possess
pigs and fowls. This island was called Taomaco, and the name
of the chief of it was called Tomay. 1 took leave of them, having
caught foul' Indians, at which they were not much pleased, and
as we got water and wood here, we were not obliged to go to
the island of Santa Cruz, which as I say was sixty leagues
further on in this parallel. So we left this place, steering to the
south-west as far as twelve degrees and a half, where we found
an island of the size of that of Taomacoy, with the same sort of
people ; it was called Chucnpia. There was only one small
anchorage in the whole of it, and going along it I reached the
shore in a little boat with only two men. They came out to
offer me peace, and at the same time they presented the husk of
a tree, which looked like a very fine cloth, of four ells in length
and three spans in width, with which they clothe themselves;
with this I took leave of them. From hence we departed, steer-
ing to the south ; a very strong wind from the north fell upon us,
which obliged us to beat against it^ for two days. At the
end of that time there were opinions that as it was winter we
should not go beyond fourteen degrees latitude in w^hich we then
found ourselves, although my opinion was always very much to
the contrary. It was decided that we should seek the islands
named by the Indians of Taomaco ; so we left this neighbourhood,
steering to the west, and after a day's sail we discovered a
volcano, very high and thick, more than three leagues in circum-
ference, very thickly wooded, and with black inhabitants with
thick beards. To the west, and in sight of this volcano, at the
distance of eight leagues there was an island, not very high, and
very pleasant to look at. It had few places of anchorage, and
they were very close to the land. It was well peopled with black
inhabitants. Here two were caught in some boats, and they
M^ere clothed and fed, and the next day put on shore. In return
for this they wounded a Spaniard with an arrow, though it is true
that it was not in the same port, but a gunshot further on ; they
are people who on seeing their opportunity do not let it pass. In
sight of this island and all round it there were many very high
and large islands, and we went to the south side as it was so
large, and where they wounded one of our men, we named it
Santa Maria. Leaving this, and going southwards towards this
' A echar de mar entraves.
410 APPENDIX VI.
large island which we saw, we discovered in it a very large bay,i
well inhabited and very fertile, with yams and many fruits, pigs,
and fowls. All these people are black and naked ; they fight with
arrows, javelins, and large clubs. They never would be friends
with us, although we spoke together many times, and I treated
them ; I never set foot on shore with their good will, as they
always wished to oppose it, and we always fought with little risk.
This bay is very fresh, and has many and large rivers ; it is in
fifteen degrees and two-thirds latitude, and will have twenty-five
leagues circumfei-ence.^ We gave it the name of the Bay of St.
Philip and St. James, and the land that of Espiritu Santo.^
Here we remained fifty days. We took possession in the name
of your Majesty of the interior of this bay, and from the most
sheltered part of it there went forth the flagship at one o'clock
after midnight without telling us or making signals for us to
know of it.* This happened on the 11th of June, and although
' Iturbe and Leza say tliey anchored in this bay on the 3rd May, but
they reached it on the 1st.
" Iturbe says fifteen or sixteen leagues in circumference.
3 This is the largest island of those now called the New Hebrides.
■• Juan de Iturbe de Quiros' accountant, who is by no means favour-
able to Quiros, thus relates this parting company of the ships : —
" On Thursday, 8th June, the ships went out of the bay (as they had
done the week before, the crews being rather sick from eating fish), and
on coasting to the eastward there came a storm from the south-east
which obliged them to put into the bay. Sunday the 11th day of St.
Barnabas, as the Almiranta and Fragata were going in front, they
anchored early, and the flag-ship, as a better shijD and going better on a
bowline as they were then going, arrived at nine at night near the
anchorage, when a sudden squall feU upon her, and as her sails were set
she heeled over, but righted on striking them, and again went out of the
bay, which being of clean bottom and wide, they might have remained
in it that night going on one and other tack, or have anchored where
they thought fit, but they only chose to return to the danger from which
they had fled, leaving their companions at anchor. They were two days
oif the entrance, tacking about without being able to fetch it, and on the
third day, seeing that they had fallen oif, although they might have
sheltered themselves under the land and waited till the wind fell, and
rejoined the Almiranta and Zabra, the captain only chose to take the
course for New Spain, setting the ship's head north-east, and on Thurs-
day, the 15th June, we discovered a large and a small island : these had
been already seen Irom the island of the Virgin Mary to the north-east
of it.
Gaspar do Loza says, " We sailed on the morning of the 8th with the
APPENDIX VI. 411
I went out at one next morning to look for it, making all due
diligence, it was impossible to find them, since they did not
people now well, for which we thanked God, for the dogs, cats, and pigs
which had eaten the entrails of the fish had died. On the 9th there came
a gale at thi-ee in the afternoon from the S.E. and S.E.E. ; we had to
sail under courses only to wait for the Almiranta: when it came up to us,
they said where were we going, and that this weather caused the ships
to open, and that it was necessary to take care of them. Our general
then ordered to put back into the bay, and we were all Saturday and
Sunday beating to windward with the wind S.E. and S. till sunset. The
11th our patache reached the port at evensong (after sunset), and we did
not see nor know whether it anchored or not, for we were a league and a
half or more from the poi't, the flag-ship, and Almiranta, though at this
time the Almiranta went more to windward than we did half a league.
On that tack the two ships made for the anchorage, and when we wei'e
near and were going to take in the mainsail, we heard the people of the
Almiranta, who seemed to be taking in their sails and anchoring, and
this would be at nine o'clock at night; and we had left behind us lights,
and were in doubt whether they belonged to fishermen or to the patache.
We went on sounding to see if we could find anchorage, as it was dark,
and we never could find any, because in all this bay, as has been said before,
there is none except in that corner. Diu-ing this there came so violent
a wind from the land, that without fail, if we had not furled oui* mainsail,
we should have passed an ill time of it. When we saw that we could not
find anchorage, and that we saw more fires on the beach separate from
one another which could not be our vessels, since if they were our vessels
they must have been close together, for the anchorage so required it, and
seeing ourselves with little sail and the wind increasing in violence, and
we could now only carry the foresail, it was agreed by the officers and
the general that we should put about and take the middle of the bay, for
we were near the rock, and until striking on it, no bottom was found, as
we had learned ; and aU these ships of Peru are bad for handling with
little sail, and so we might strike before the ship went round. We put about,
and a man aloft said he had seen the Almiranta at anchor to windward
of us, which we never were able to reach, because each time we put
about we fell off very much, as the wind was so violent, for which reason
it was determined by the same persons to wear the ship and run with
only a bowsprit squai'e-sail (sevadera), striking the topmasts, and put
oui'selves under shelter of the point to windward, and this was done.
" The 12th, at dawn, we were about four leagues from the land out to
sea outside of the bay ; we carried our lantern lit aU the night before
for the ships to follow us, which they did not do. We tacked about
in the mouth of this bay in sight of the port, with the weather always
the same, without their coming outside. With this weather and our
topmasts always struck we went on for three days, until, at the end of
them, we found oiu^selves some nine leagues to leeward.
" The 13th our general saw, and the other officers agreed with him, that
4.12- APPENDIX VI.
go by a straight road or with right intention, so I had to return
to the bay to see if perchance they would return there, all which
the ship laboured greatly, and as the lives of all depended on its preser-
vation and the giving information to His Majesty— so he decided on re-
turning to land to see if the weather improved, and to return to the
same bay to seek our Almiranta. In this manner we went on, from the
13th to the 19th, attempting to re-enter, but we never could do so. On
the 19th they were in 12°. The 20th, as the wind did not go down, our
general, to encourage the people, agreed that if the weather did not per-
mit, on reaching 10s° he would go to Santa Cruz, where we should wait
for our companions and take in what we wanted, since this was the
order they had received, that whoever arrived there first should wait
three months, and if the other did not arrive should follow out the rest
of the order. On the 21st they found themselves in 10" 30', and not
knowing whether they were east or west of Santa Cruz, and fearing to
get embayed on the coast of New Guinea, they decided on steering
north for the island of Guan and the Philijjpines. On the 23rd July they
found themselves in the latitude of Guan, 13^^ ; and on the 24th Quiros
ordered the pilots to make the course for Acapulco. They reached the
port of Navidad in New Spain on the 20th October, 1606, and on the 15th
November they went out, making for Acapulco, which they reached on
the 23rd."
The following account of the manner in which Quiros and Torres
parted company differs from the three given above, whilst it exculpates
Quiros from having abandoned Torres, and explains why Quii'os did not
persevere in pursuing his voyage of discovery.
Letter of D. Diego de Prado, dated Goa, 2-i December, 1613.
{Madrid Library, MS8. J 2 copy).
I send to His Majesty, by means of the Viceroy of the Indies, the map
of the discovery which was eflFected by Luis Vaez de Torres, captain of
the Almiranta of Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, who followed the instruc-
tions given by the Conde de Monterrey, which discovery was the island
called by us La Magna Margarita, which has 680 leagues of coast, as
your worship will see by the said map. That which was discovered by
Pedro Fernandes de Quiros, the liar, were those rocks and small islands,
because his crew mutinied at the bay of the island Espiritu Santo. I
came as captain of the flag-ship,* and had knowledge of what was being
arranged in the ship : I informed him of it, and as it was a most difficult
and delicate matter to tell him of, and of what was best for His Majesty's
service, he could not stand me. So I disembarked in Trumaco, and went
on board the Almiranta, at which there was great joy in the flag-ship, as
they could better carry out their design. On the 11th of June of 1606,
1 Gaspar Gonzales de Leza gives the name of D. Diego de Padro y
Tobar, who was appointed Depositario General when Quiros appointed
officials in the bay of St. Philip and St. James for the new colony.
APPKNDIX VI. 413
I did for greater good faitli in this bay, and I waited for them
fifteen days. At the end of this time I took out your Majesty's
orders, and calling to a council the officers of the patache also, it
was agreed that we should follow those orders, though it was
against the will of many, I might say of the greater numbei', but
my temper was difierent from that of Captain Pero Fernandez de
Quiros. Finally I came out of this bay in obedience to the order.
I intended to double the island, but the weather did not permit
of it on account of the great currents, though I ran along a large
part of it, in which I saw very high mountain ranges. It has
many ports, though some of them are small ; throughout there is
much water and rivers full of water. At this time I had only
bread and water, and it was in the gi^eatest rigour of winter, the
sea and wind being contrary, and the dispositions of the men
evil. All this was not sufficient to stop or hinder me from
reaching the altitude, which I passed by a degree, and it would
have been more if the weather had allowed me, for the ship was
good, and it was just and right to act in this manner, since these
being in the bay, as we were coming from an island which was near,
there came a rather fresh wind from the south at eight in the evening,
upon which the mutineers carried out their evil design ; and as it was
night and far from us, they put the ship about, and the prattler did not
see it, as he was in his cabin in the stern, and in the morning the
country from which they had come out did not appear : he did not ven-
ture to speak; on the contrary, he was told to get into his cabin and
hold his tongue, on which account they spared his life and landed him
at Acapulco. His own companions told the Marquis of Montesclaros
who he was, and how they might as well tie him up as mad, and he
treated him as such a man as he was. 1 do not know what respect the
Spaniards of Piru were to have for a man who yesterday was a clerk of
a merchant ship, and a Portuguese: if they knew him as Captain Alonso
Corzo knows him, those gentlemen of the state would end by knowing
that they ought not to take account of such low and lying men. I shall
leave for Ormuz on the 8th of February of next year, if it please God, to
go by land to the port of Leppe (Aleppo), and thence to Venice, and I
shall not stop till I reach the court to kiss the hands of his Majesty; and,
your worship, I send an Indian of the country which was discovered as
a witness to certify it, who is taken at the charge of Seiior Euy Lorenzo
de Tavora, the ex-viceroy of India, with directions not to give him up
to any one unless by order of your worship or mine. The death of the
Secretary Andres de Prada has given me much sorrow, but as it is the
journey we all have to take, I recommend him to God. May He give to
your worship tlie health which your servant desires for you. From Goa,
:J4th December, 1613. Don Dikgo de Prado.
414 APPENDIX VI.
are not voyages which can be made every day, nor would your
Majesty be convinced, be it understood, by following this course
in this latitude.^ By the south-west course I did not find any
signs of land, thence I turned to the north-north-west as far as
eleven degrees and a half. Here I fell in with the beginning of
New Guinea,^ the coast of which trends from east to west, a
quarter north-west and south-east. I could not go up it by the
east side, so I went coasting to the west, and on the south side it
is all the land of New Guinea. It is peopled by Indians who are
not very white, and naked, though their middles are well covered
with the bark of trees, after the manner of cloth, much coloured
and painted ; they fight with javelins and bucklers, and some
stone clubs, with many gaudy feathers about them. There are
along the coast other inhabited islands. Along the whole coast
there are many large ports, with very large rivers, and many
plains. Outside of these islands there extends a reef and shoals,
and between them and the mainland are the islands ; within there
is a channel. We took possession in these ports in the name of
your Majesty, with whose decision this remains. Having run
three hundred leagues of coast, as has been said, and decreased
our latitude by two degrees and a half, so that we remained in
nine degrees, at this point there begins a bank of from three
fathoms to nine, which stretches along the coast until seven de-
grees and a half, and the extremity of it is five [degrees ?] We
could not go forward on account of the numerous shoals and
strong currents which there are throughout, so we had to go out
by the south-west course by the said deep channel until eleven
degrees, and the shoal is lower there. There were some very
large islands, and more were seen towards the south. They were
inhabited by black people, naked, and very corpulent. They have
for weapons some thick and long lances, many arrows, very un-
couth stone clubs. We could not send any of their weapons. I
caught in all this country twenty persons of different nations, in
order, by means of them, to give your Majesty a. better account ;
they give much information of other peoples, although, up to this
time, they do not make themselves well understood. We went
along this shoal for two months. At the end of that time we
' Ni podia Vuestra Magestad ser desengaiiado, entiendese, ir hacienda
e.iia derrota al altura.
• The aonthern point of Lonisiada.
APPENDIX VI. 415
found ourselves in twenty-five fathoms water and in five degrees
latitude, and ten leagues from the coast, and we had gone four
hundred and eighty leagues. Here the coast trends to the north-
east. I did not reach it, because the bank is very shoal, so I
went on running to the north in twenty-five fathoms water as far
as four degrees, when we fell in with a coast which also stretched
from east to west. We did not follow it to the end on the east
side, but we understood that it joined on with the coast we had
left behind, as the shoal reached to it, and on account of the great
calmness of the sea. This country is inhabited by black people,
different from all the rest. These people are more gaudily
adorned ; they also use arrows and javelins, and very large
shields, and some blow-pipes of cane full of lime which they
discharge, so that in fighting they cat down their opponents.
Lastly, we ran along to the west north-west beside the coast,
always finding these people, though we landed in several places.
I here also took possession in the name of your Majesty. Here
it was in this country where I found the first iron and bells of
China, and other things from there, by which we understood more
certainly that we were near the Moluccas, and so we went follow-
ing this coast, a distance of a hundred and thirty leagues, so that
the extremity would remain at fifty leagues distance. Before
reaching the Moluccas there are a quantity of islands towards the
south, and very large, and for the want of provisions I did not
touch at them, for I doubt that in ten years one could see the
coast of all the islands which we saw. Observations of the needle
were made throughout all this country of New Guinea until the
Moluccas; throughout the needle is fixed, and this country falls
in the meridian of the Ladrone Islands and the Philippine
Islands. At the extremity of this country we found some clothed
Moors, with artillery for service, such as falconnets and swivel
guns, arquebuses, and white weapons. They go conquering these
people who are named Papuas, and preach to them the sect of
Mahomed. These Moors traded with us, selling us fowls, and
goats, and frait, and some pepper and biscuit, which they call
Sagu, which lasts more than twenty years, although there was
Httle of all, because they wanted stufis and we had not got them,
for all the goods for barter which had been given us were carried
away with the flagship, and even the tools, and medicines, and
other things, which I do not mention, as there was no remedy
416 APPENDIX VI.
for it ; but the Lord favoured us without them. These Moors
gave us news of the events in the Moluccas, and of Dutch ships,
though they had not reached here, although they say that there
is much gold throughout all this country, and other good things
of spices, such as pepper and nutmeg. From here to the Moluccas
there is nothing but islands, and in the southern direction there
are also many which meet with those of Bandayan bueno, where
the Dutch have trade. I arrived in these parts at the islands of
Bachan, which are the first of the Moluccas, where I found a
Theatine monk with a matter of a hundred Christians in the
country of a friendly Moorish king, who asked me to reduce for
him one of the Isles of Ternate, which was in the hands of some
rebellious Moors, which D. Pedro de Acuiia had bestowed upon
him to hold it in the name of your Majesty. When I had sent
advices from here to the Master of the Camp, Juan de Esquivel,
who governed the Isles of Ternate, of my arrival, and to ask
whether it was suitable to give this succour to the King of
Bachan, he answered me that it would be doing a great service
to your Majesty if I had with me sufficient forces for it. Upon
this I determined to do it with forty Spaniards and four hundred
Moors of the King of Bachan. With these I made war upon
tbem. In four hours only I routed them and took the fort, and
put the King of Bachan in possession of it in the name of your
Majesty, to whom I administered the customary oaths, making
an agreement with him that he should never fight against Chris-
tians, and that he should always be a faithful vassal of your Ma-
jesty. I did not find these people so valiant and courageous as
those I had left behind. It must have been caused by the power-
ful hand which in so many labours and victories as I have en-
countered, always made things easy for me, and that my only
loss in all my wanderings was one single Spaniard. I do not re-
late them to your Majesty because I hope to give it much at
length. Having put the king in possession, I left Terrenate,
which was twelve leagues from this island where Juan de Esquivel
was, by whom I was very well received, for he was very short of
men, and the people of Terrenate wei-e in revolt, and they were
much amazed at seeing succour brought in so circuitous a manner.
He had arrived since a few days from Manila, which was veiy
desirable, as he had lost half the men whom Don Pedro de Acuna
liad left there, and he was short of provisions, because, as I have
APPENDIX VI. 417
said, the islanders were in revolt : but with the prudence of the
master of the camp, Juan de Esquivel, the affairs of these islands
are being set to rights, although a succour of money is wanted.
Here I left the patache and a matter of twenty men, as that
would be altogether fitting for the service of your Majesty. I
then left for the city of Manila, where they despatch my affairs
so ill, as I have said, nor up to this time, which is a space of two
months, have they given provisions to the crew ; and so I do not
know when I shall be able to go from this place to render an
account to your Majesty, whom may the Lord preserve in pro-
sperity as lord of the world. Dated in Manila, the twelfth of
July of 1607.
The Servant of your Majesty — Louis Baez de Torres.
Quiros, on his return from this voyage, tried to induce the
Spanish Government to send him to the Austral Islands to
colonise and settle them : at the end of one of his letters to
the king, he says of the Austral regions, " Parece que guardo
Dios para la postre las mejores y mas ricas tierras, y un hombre
de tan buena voluntad." " It seems that God has reserved till the
last the best and most fruitful lands, and a man of such good
will and enterprise. Despatch, Sire, despatch then the business
in accordance with the greatness and necessity of this cause,
since it must be done at once." A minute of a consulta of the
council of state, dated Madrid, July 1609, upon the discoveries
of Quiros and the letters of Iturbe, his accountant, shows that
Quiros' proposals were not accepted for various reasons ; the first
of these, and the one that was given to Qviiros for not at once
employing him as he requested, was the difficulty of finding
money for the enterprise. Besides these reasons, there was a
certain jealousy of Quiros on the part of his subordinates, on the
ground of his being a Portuguese, and they accused him of re-
fusing to take counsel and of being very vain. Quiros, in the
various documents relating to him, is described as the discoverer
of the Austral mainland, but he does not appear ever to have seen
anything else than islands in these voyages of his which
have been recorded. In one of his letters to the king, dated
Mexico, March 25, 1607, Juan de Iturbe, the accountant, accuses
Quiros of having neglected the opportunities he had, and of
E E
418 APPENDIX VI.
having discovered nothing more than islands which were known
before, and of having disobeyed his instructions, which were
to go as far as 40° S. latitude. He also says that Quiros,
on being refused some requests by the Viceroy of Peru, used im-
proper language in public, to the effect that the Conde de Mon-
terey was sent by the Council of the Indies, but that he was
sent by the Council of State and by the Pope, and it would be
seen who had most influence. Iturbe also throws some ridicule
upon Quiros for having established an order of the Espiritu Santo,
with habits of blue taSetan, and for having on that day given
their liberty to two Negro cooks who were not his, and who re-
mained in the same slavery. The pilot, Gaspar Gonzalez de Leza,
gives an account of the speech which Quiros made on the 14th of
May, 1606, on taking possession of the port of St. Philip and St.
James and of the Austral regions to the pole, in virtue of the
permission of Pope Clement YIII and the orders of Philip III,
and of the government officers whom Quiros named out of his
crews for the city of New Jerusalem, which was to be founded in
15° 20' in the Bay of St. Philip and St. James. In the minute,
the Conde de Lemos' opinion is given as contrary to the preten-
sions of Quiros, as his enterprise was neither just nor possible,
and he thought that Quiros had got into his head that he was to
be another Columbus, which was his weakness. Fray Luis
Aliaga, the king's confessor, is also quoted : he was of opinion
that Quiros, with whom he had conversed, was a good Christian
and a well-intentioned man, and his principal object was the con-
version of souls, and reduction of those people to obedience to
his Majesty ; nevertheless, he did not hold the conquest to be
lawful, nor the repartition of Indians, which the said captain
proposes to make ; but that conversion should rather be attempted
by means of the ministers of the gospel, and that the Indians
should be induced to submit voluntarily to his Majesty. The
minute then states that a former council, in September 25 of 1608,
recommended that Quiros should not be employed in ihis enter-
prise, but that to prevent his offering his services to any other
state, he should be employed in Spain as cosmographer. The
Cardinal of Toledo was of opinion that no resources existed for
the proposed enterprise, and that to avoid indisposing Quiros, he
should be told so, and some favour granted him to prove that it
is necessity and not disfavour that prevents the undertaking his
APPENDIX VI. 419
enterprise. The Cardinal added his fears that, from the little
secrecy kept in business, Quii-os would hear of the counter- de-
spatch to the Viceroy of Peru, and in his indignation would be-
take himself to other princes.
P.S. — A translation of the above letter of Torres by Dal-
rymple has been printed in the appendix to vol. ii of Capt. James
Burney's Voyages in the South Sea, London, 1806 ; and the
reader is referred to Mr. Major's remarks upon this voyage of
Torres, and the character of Quiros, in his introduction to Early
Voyages to Terra Australis, Hakluyt Society, 1859.
London, June 2, 1868. H. S.
E E
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INDEX AND GLOSSARY.
Abaca, Tagal hemp of plantain,
379
Aconsi, Siamese official, 45
Acuna, D. Pedro, appointed gover-
nor, 199 ; his death, 259 (June 24,
1606, official despatch)
D. Tomas. 229, 236, 238
Advances to cultivators and work-
men, necessity of government su-
pervision. Appendix, 382
Aetas, barbarous tribe in the in-
terior of the Philippines, 267
Affairs of Cambodia, 43-53, 62, 87,
91, 93-113, 131-137, 221-223
China, 119-129, 216-220,
244-247
Cochin China, 52, 62
Japan, 33, 42, 76-86, 142-
149, 200-210, 248, 398-402
Mindanao, 53, 54, 57-62,
87, 137-142, 190, 211, 260, 292,
Appendix
Moluccas, 28, 196, 214-216,
225-229, 249-258, 392-396, 416
Siam, 43, 44, 133, 194
Salu, 23, 88, 192, 211, 362
Aguirre, Juan Tello y, 133, 158, 165,
205
Fray Martin, 80, 81, 398-
402
Agurto Pedro, 55, 89
Alarcon, Pascual de, 252, 257
Alcega, Juan second in command
with de Morga, 158; his miscon-
duct, 167, 170, 173; his death,
235-237; 397
Aliaga, Fi-ay Luis, his opinion
against forcible conversion of In-
dians, 418
Almanack of Manila, its rectifica-
tion, 18
Almeida, Duarte, letter to King of
Portugal, 393, 396
Alphabet, Tagal, 294
Ambergris, 286
Anacaparam, 47, 49, 101
Anda, Sr., 363
Anito, Tagal, Malay, an idol, a spuit,
305
Arellano, D. Alonzo, 16, 17
Arevalo, foundation of, 24 ; defence
of, 141 ; description of, 317
Arias, Sr., prize essay, is
Arigue, Tagal, a pile, 54, 295
Arms of the Philippines, 309
Aii'ieta, Domingo de, 168
Arrows, use of, 268
Asana, Tagal, kind of wood, 275
Ascencion, Fray Martin de la, dis-
pute as to his identity, 398; sec
Martin Aguirre.
Audiencia, first establishment, 28;
removal, 31, 33; second establish-
ment, 56, 89 ; its powers, xvii, 91,
344, 345, 113; its buildings, 311;
its merits, viii, 367 ; government
can-ied on by it, 258-261
Australia, prognostication of by
Quiros, 417
Azambuja, Diego de, 25
Azebo, Gaspar, government secre-
tary, 157, 158, 161
Babuytanes Islands, 287
Bacoco, sea-bream,
Bagontao, Tagal, a bachelor, 303
Bahandin, a house, 295
Bahaqiie, Tagal, a waist cloth, 268
Balarao, Bisaya, a dagger, 272
Barangay or balangay, Tagal, a boat,
272; also a quarter, district, sept,
297, 322
Barreto, Doha Ysabel, 64-74
Barrier reef of New Guinea described
by Torres, Appendix, 414
Basilan Island,
Batala, Tagal, a deity, 305
Batalan, Tagal, a corz'idor, 295
Bay, lagoon of, 279
Beatrix, Dona, 74
Belloso, Diego, his adventures, 44,
93; his death, 136; author's opi-
nion of him, 221
426
INDEX AND GLOSSARY.
Belver, D. Luis, 168
Benavides, Fray Miguel, 55 ; Arch
bishop of Manila, 220, 231, 243
Bernard, St., Island, 69
Betel chewing, 280-282
Biesman, Lambert, lieutenant of
Van Noort, 150, 168, 176 ; his exe-
cution, 169, Appendix, 398
Bilango, Tagal, a constable, 329
Bisayas Islands, 19, 266, 291, 292
language, 293
Bishops, 332
Boats of the Philippines, 272, 274
Bonga, Tagal, areca nut, 280
Bonote, Tagal, tow, oakum, 275
Boyle, Mr., book on Dayaks, vii,
268, 272, 281, 285, 305
Bronce de cuchara, gans loaded with
a ladle, 150, 152
Brosses, President de, iii, 64, 74
Buhahayen town, 53, 58
Buhayan, Tagal, a crocodile, 278, 306
Buiz, Tagal, tribute,
BuUs, Papal, xxi, 225, 321, 327, 328,
400, 402
Burial, 307
Buyo, Tagal, betel leaf, 280
Buzeyes, paddles, 213, 273
Cachil, Malay, a chief, 50, 59
Cagayan, province, 25, 268
Calanta, Tagal, a cedar tree, 275
Caldera, fort, 61, 138, 141, 360, Ap-
pendix
Calleway, John, 150, 180
Calombiga, a bracelet, 269
Camarines, 267, 316
Cambodia, see Affairs of.
river, its rapids, 108
Campilan, Malay, a sword,
Candish, Thomas, his voyage, 29,
175, 261, 304
Cano, Sebastian del, see Elcano.
Canton, aversion to foreigners, 127;
cold, 128
Carahau, Malay, a buffalo, 276, 285
Caracoa, a canoe, 273
Caraza, a large shield, 272
Castro, Fernando de, 42, 65, 75, 187
Catalona, Tagal, a witch, 306
Catan, Japanese, a sword,
Catenduanes Islands, 287
Cattle, 275, 276
Cavan or gaban, Tagal measure of
rice, etc., 372, 380
Cavite, port of Manila, 288
Cazeres, city, 316
Cea, Duke of, dedication to, 5, 359
Cervantes, Juan, 253
Champan, kingdom of, 113
Change of residence of islanders, 327
Changes, too frequent in the ad-
ministration, 370
Chaves, D. Pedro, 22, 64
D. Juan, Appendix
Chiefs of the islanders, 296, 297, 302,
322
Chincheo, 242, 245
Chinese, domination in the Philip-
pines, 19
mission to Manila in search
of Eldorado, 217-220
insurrection in Philippines,
xii, 231-240 ; massacre and letter
thereupon from Chinese authori-
ties, 244-247, 363-364
gobernadorcillos, 351, Ap-
pendix, 366
government of in Straits
settlements. Appendix, 366
aversion to them in Philip-
pines, 125, 349, Appendix, 365
condition of in Philippines,
348-351, 365; in Australia, 365
trade, 337-340
Chininas, Tagal, dress of Luzon, 268
Chiquiro, Japanese official, 148, 200,
205
Chofa, Siamese and Cambodian title,
93
Cholera, Appendix, 378
Chordemuco, 43, 223
Chupinanu, Chupinanon, and Chu-
pinaqueo, 51, 100-108
Circumnavigation of the globe by
Magellan, 1519, 13, 14
Drake, 1577, 29
Van Noort, 1598, 174-187
Civet cats, 286
Clemente, Fray Juan, founds hos-
pital for natives of Manila, 313,
314
Columbus, his book about demarca-
tion between Castilian and Por-
tuguese possessions, 393,396; sum
assigned to him and his heirs
still paid. Table of Eevenue of
1867, 424
Combaco, sovereign of Japan, 80
Concejeles, pressed men, 335
Condensation of sea-water, 404
Constantin, author of French col-
lection of Dutch voyages, 174
Conversion of Philippines, 318
Coral islands, 405, Note 1
Coshenga, Chinese corsair, 360
Coutinho, Azevedode, 393, 394
Crocodiles, 278, 306
Cueva, Fernando, letter to his bro-
INDEX AND GLOSSAET.
427
ther Marcos about Van Noort,
262-264
Cueva, Marcos, 120, 262
Cuevas, Captain Juan, 252, 253
Customs, 270, 304
Daifusania, 200, 247; letter to gover-
nor of Manila, 248
Dalaga, Tagal, a maiden, 303
Dasmarinas, Gomez Perez, governor,
32-41
Luis, governor, 38-87,
113-119, 129; his death, 234-237
Dato, Malay, a chief, 297
Demarcation of Pope Alexander VI,
xxi, xxii, 11-13, 121, 126, Appendix,
391-396
Dongon libor, 60
Dias, Marcos de Febra, 197, 198
Dilao, village, 238
Disputes between Spaniards and
Portuguese, 121, 1 26, 130, Appendix
Dominicans, 318, 319; they urge the
expedition to Cambodia, 46, 52,
87, 196
Drake, Sir Francis, his voyage
through the Straits of Magellan,
29; his piety, 30
Dysentery, 89, 143, Appendix, 372
Earthquakes, Appendix, 372, 373
Elcano, Sebastian de, 14
Encomiendas, 323, 345
Enslavement of Philippine islanders,
298-300; prohibited, 329
Esquivel, Juan de, 249, 257, 260,
Appendix, 416, 417
Essex, Earl of, takes Cadiz, 150, 264
Expenditure, see Kevenue.
Eyre, Governor, xi, xvi, xviii, 304,
'306, 307
Faranda quiemon, Japanese, 33, 85,
143
Farren. J. W. P., British Consul at
Manila, vi, xx, 314, 338, 365, 371,
372, 378, 379, 380, 381, 388
Figueroa, Esteban Eodriguez de,
23, 37; expedition to Mindanao,
53 (in April 1596, with 06 vessels,
212 Spaniards, and 1,500 Indians;
despatch of D. Francisco Tello);
his death, 54; his widow, 56, 57
• Melchior de, 168
Cristoval Suarez, iv
Fimbaros, Japanese, larks, 277
Fish, 279
Foreign jurisdiction, xi-xvi
Fortifications, 28, 32, 252, 310
Fragment of Mendana's voyage to
Santa Cruz Islands in the British
Museum, iv, v, 73
Froude, Mr. A., his defence of Drake,
30
Fruit, 275
Gallinato, Juan Xuarez, 94; expe-
dition to Cambodia, 46; abandons
the expedition, 50; blamed by the
adventurers, 62 ; expedition to
Sulu, 210; expedition to Ternate
and praise of Portuguese general,
227, 228; expedition against Min-
danao men. Appendix, 360
Gandullo, Fray Luis, 241
Garcia, Juan, de Sierra, gallant de-
fence of Arevalo and death, 141,
142
Gauna, Martin Lopez, 2
Gayan, mats or screens, 273
Gayangos, D. Pascual, commission
to examine colonial archives, vi
Gayong, Tagal, an oar, 273
Gazette or broadsheet of 1574, with
a letter from a Philippine colonist.
Appendix, 389
Geronvmo, Fray, 145-149, 200-204,
231,^398, 402
Goiti, Martin, 18, 21
Gold, vii, 283, 284
Gomez, Alonso, pilot, 161, 168
Gomez de, Molina, 397
Gonzalez, Gaspar, de Leza, pilot of
Quiros in 1605; Appendix vi
Govea, Japanese adventurer, 134
Governoi-s of the Philippines —
Miguel Lopez de Legazpi 1564-72
Guido de Labazarris 1572-75
Dr. Francisco de Sande 1575-80
Gonzalo Eonquillo 1580-83
Diego RonquiUo 1583-84
Dr. Santiago de Vera 1584-90
Gomez Perez Dasmarinas 1590-93
Luis Dasmarinas 1593-96
Francisco Tello 1596-1602
Pedro de Acuna 1602-1606
Juan de Silva 1608-17
Alonzo Faxardo de Tenza 1618-24
Geronymo de Silva 1624-28
Juan Niiio de Favora 1628-33
Juan Cerezo Salamanca 1633-35
Sebastian Hurtado de Cor-
cuera 1635-44
Diego Faxardo 1644-62
Sabiniano Manrique de
Lara 1662-
(The dates of the Governors subse-
quent to D. Pedio de Acuna are
approximatively correct, and are
428
INDEX AND GLOSSARY.
taken from despatches written by
themj
Guevara, Fray Diego, 203, 207, 241
Gutierrez, Fray Juan, 161
Harbours, 288, 289
Hara-Kiri, Japanese, belly -slice, 210
Hemp, Appendix, 379
Heredia, l5. Cristoval de, 168
Hilo Hilo, see Ho Ho.
Horses, 276, 277
Hospitals, 313
Houses, 295
Ibarra, Francisco, 177
Ichthyology, 278-280
Ho Ho, 338, 381
Inquisition, did not meddle with
Philippine islanders, 322
Insurrection of Chinese, see Chinese.
Philipinos, Appendix, 368
Iturbe, Juan de, accountant in
Qnii'os' voyage, 1605, Appendix, vi
Japan, see Affairs of Japan.
Japanese, condition of in Manila,
352
martyrs, 79-82, 84, 398, 402
request assistance in ship-
building, 147, 201
trade in Manila, 341
wooden anchor given to
Van Noort, 184, 263
Jesuits, opposition to Manila friars,
77, 399-402
Juan, friar, devotes himself to stay
with shipwrecked Si^aniards in
the Ladrones, 189; he and the
others are recovered, 206
Justice, administration of. Appendix,
367
Labazarris, Guido, governor, 21
Lacsamana, Ocuiia, 51, 136, 221, 222
Landa, Francisco de, pilot, his im-
prudent speech to confidante of
Taicosama, 78, 79, 87, 399
Landecha, Mathia, 75, 82
Langara, Phi-a-uncar, King of Cam-
bodia, 43, 51; his letter to De
Morga, 92
Language of Luzon, 294; of Bisayas,
293
Lanchan, town of Cambodia, 50,
198
La-pis, a Philippine boat, 53, 273
Lau-lau, a small fish, 280
Laws of Philippine islanders —
Adoption, 301 ; adultery, 301 , 303 ;
divorce, 301 ; illegitimate children.
302 ; inheritance, 301 , 302 ; loans,
302; marriage, 271, 300; service to
their chiefs, 297 ; slavery, 298-
300 ; maintenance of part of these
laws by Spaniards, xvii, 300, 323
LegazjDi, Miguel Lopez, governor,
15-20, 309, 324; his portrait and
house, 368
Lima, Pablo de, 255, 256
Li-ma-hong, Chinese corsair, 21
Lozano, Alonso, 168
Luzon, Id., 266
Mabolo, fruit, 275
Magalat, Phihppine chief, 63, 64
Magellan, 13, 14, 16
Malaver, D. Antonio, 134, 193
Maldonado, Gabriel, 168
Fray Juan, 133, 137,
195 ; letter to his order dissuading
them from expeditions such as
that to Cambodia, 196
Mallat, work on Philippines, v, xxi,
288, 365, 366, 367, 387
Manila, settlement of, 19; bay of,
288; description of, 3(19-15; cap-
ture of by English, Appendix, 362
Manufactures, 287, 338, 381
Martinez, Juan de Chave, pilot,
133, 195
General Juan Antonio,
Appendix, 369
Mathia, General, see Landecho.
Mendaha, Alvaro de, discovery of
Santa Cruz islands, 64-74, 408
Mendia, Captain Martin, 211
Mendoza, Andrea de, Portuguese
general, 213, 224-229
Francisco, 168
Juan, 132, 137, 193-195
Eodrigo, 252, 259
Meriuaque, Tagal, stuff made of
plantain fibre, and in Spanish, a
crinoline, 287
Monasteries, 312, 333
Monks, xix, xx, 318-320, 333
Monte de Piedad, Appendix, 377
Montesclaros, Marquis of, 242, 413
Morales, Fray Francisco de, 203
Pedro Coleto de, 193
Morga, Dr. Antonio de, appointed
auditor in Manila, 41 ; in Mexico,
229 ; President of the Audiencia,
in Quito, ii ; he opposes the Cam-
bodian expedition, 46, 92 ; his
preparations against Van Noort,
152-155 ; his sea-fight with Van
Noort, 166-169; certificate of the
Governor, 170 ; further details
about the action taken from ar-
INDEX AXD GLOSSARY.
429
chives of the Hydrographic De-
partment, Madrid, Appendix, v;
leaves Manila, July 10th, 1603,
229; his book very rare, i. Appen-
dix, V ; his wife Dona Juana, 82,
128; contemporary testimony in
his favour, 399
Municipal Authorities, 323, 328, 331
Naguatato, Japanese, interpreters,
218
Namamahay, Tagal, serfs, 298
Nambajy, Japanese, Christians, 77
Navarrete, D. Luis Fajardo, mission
to Japan, 83, 400
Navigation, 290, 353-358
Navy, 335, Appendix, 387
New Jerusalem, city projected by
Quiros, 412, 418
Noort, Oliver Van, 149, 261; his
own account of his voyage and
inhumanity, 174-187; Dutch edi-
tions of his voyage, 186, 188;
German edition, 262 ; French
editions, 1 74, 188 ; English ab-
ridgements, 174
Obras, Pias, 313, Appendix, 372,376
Ocunade Chao, 51, 100-106
Lacsamana, see Lacsamana.
Odia, 44, 193
(Ecumenical Council, xxiv
Organtino, Padre, 399, 402
Ornithology, 277
Ortiz, Luis, 63, 116, 131, 135
Osseguera, D. Pedro de, 88
Oton Island, 24, 139, 292, 317
Palay, Tagal, rice in the husk,
Pampanga province, 288
Panay, 291
Pao, Tagal, fruit for pickles, 280
Parian, Tagal, market, bazaar.
Parishes, Appendix, table, 420
Pearls, 285
Piles, Tagal, pine-nuts, 275
Piiia, Cambric, 338
Pingre, astronomer, iii-v, 74
Pintados province and islands, see
Bisayas.
Pinzon, descendant of Yanez Pin-
zon, Aijpendix, 368
Pogo, Tagal, a quail, 277
Poisons, 282, 283
Polo, Tagal, personal service, 329
Population of Philippines, 370
of Sulu, 88
Potong, Tagal, wrap for the head,
269
Prado, Diego, letter about Quiros
and Torres, Appendix, 412
Prauncar, King of Cambodia, 51,
92 ; his death, 137
Protection of Philippine islanders
by Spanish authorities, vii, x, 181
Quanto, Japanese province, 144, 147,
203
QitAmon, Japanese, a garment, 352
Quiros, Pedro Fernandez, iii-v ; his
narrative of Mendana's voyage,
65-74 ; his voyage in 1605 ; Ap-
pendix vi ; insubordination of his
crew, 405, 412; consultation of
Council of State respecting him,
417, 419
Eajamora, chief of Manila, 18, 19
Regulations of government, xvii,
xviii,. 330
others suggested. Ap-
pendix, 366, 369, 377, 382, 386
Religious belief of the Philippine
islanders, of the Dayaks, of the
Australians, 305-308
Revenue and Expenditure, 346, 347,
Appendix, 371, tables, 422-424
Rica de oro, and Rica de plata, 356
Ricci, Matthew, the Jesuit, 127
Rienzi, Mr., his statements, 361,
363, 364, 367, 368, 370, 371 ; con-
tradiction of one of them, 369
Rios, Fernando de los, 39; letter
on China, 119-129, 284, 391 ; lived
thirty years in the PhUii^pines, 39
Gaspar de los, 168
Rivera, Antonio, de Maldonado,
new auditor in Manila, 1601, 27;
refuses to wait in fair weather to
pick up shipwrecked Spaniards at
the Ladrones, he is wrecked off
the Philippines, 188, 189, 211;
his death, 259
Gabriel, 25, 27 (He served
the King in Flanders and St.
Quentin, and came to the Philip-
pines with Legazpi)
Rodriguez, Augustin, 202, 203
Francisco, 168
Rojas, Pedro de, 27, 33, 38, 41
Ronquillo, Diego, governor, 27
Gonzalo, governor, 23-26
Juan, 57
Ruy Faleiro, cosmographer, 13
Ruys, Bias, letter to De Morga, 93-
112; author's opinion of him, 221
Saguiguilir, Tagal, household slave,
298
Sago, 415
430
INDEX AND GLOSSARY.
Salary of the governor, 344, Appen-
dix, 370
Salazar, Fray Domingo, first bishop
of the Philippines, 2G, 40, 41, 55
Samar Island or Camar, 266, 291, 319
Sanchez, Padre klonso, 26, 30, 31,
321, 402
Sande, Dr. Francisco, governor, 22
Sangajy, Malay, a chief, 256
Sangley, Chinaman of Philippines,
120, 125
Santa Cruz Islands, 70-72
communication of islan-
ders with island of Taumaco, Ap-
pendix, 408
Santiago, Fray Diego, 161, 168
Sebu Island, 14, 16, 266, 292
Segovia, town, 25, 316
Serpana, or Carpana, or Seypan Id.,
73, 354
Serpents, 278
Serrano, Francisco, 12
Juan, 12, 14
Siguey, white snails, 285
Silonga, Mindanao chief, 139, 141
Silva, Niifio da, his account of
Drake's voyage, 29
Sistor, town of Cambodia, 48
Slavery, see Laws and Enslavement.
Solitary Id., 69
Sugar, Appendix, 380
Sulu Islands, first dealings with,
23 ; subsequent attacks on them,
190-193 ; subsequent history, 361
Sunken rocks, 388
Tagal language, 293 ; alphabet, 294;
dictionary, 295, 305
Taico-sama, his letter to governor
of Manila, 33; martyrdom of
friars, 80, 81 ; reply to Navarrete's
embassy, 84, 399; his death, 79,
142
Taomaco Id., 409
Tapaque, a boat, 273, 287
Taxation, 324-326, 346, Appendix,374
Tea, 286
Tello, D. Francisco, governor, 55, 75
D. Pedro, 158, 168
Ternate, Island, expedition to it,
249 ; its conquest, 254, Appendix,
416
Tibor, Chinese jars, 205, 285
Tides, ebb and flow of, 293
Tidore Island, king's letter to Dr.
Morga, 198
Timava, Tagal, plebeians, 297
Timber, 274
Tingues or Tinguianes, uncivilised
tribe, 240, 385
Tobacco, Appendix, 378, 379
Torres, D. Luis Vaez de, his voyage
through Torres Straits, Appendix
vi
Torrubia, Fray, book on the Phi-
lippines, i. Appendix, 375, 376, 361
Toxicology, 282, 283
Trade, 123, 336-343, Appendix, 381
Tribute, 324, 326, 329, Appendix, 375
Troops, 334, Appendix, 387
Tuba, Tagal, liquor, juice, 271
Ulloa, Lope de, driven into Japan
by a storm, fights his way out of
port, 206-209, 229
Alonzo, 209
Urdaneta, Fray Andres, a Biscayan,
15
Urdiales, Augustih de, 158, 168
Usury, 300, 302, Appendix, 382-386
Valdes, Fray Francisco, 161
Valignano, Padre, Visitor of the
Jesuits, his book in the Evora
library, statements about Japan-
ese martyrs, 398-402
Vargas, Gregorio, 50; his death, 168
Vegetables, 271, 275
Velasco, D. Luis, governor of Peru,
V, 1, 151
D. Luis, 238, 239
Vera, D. Francisco Gonzales de,
archivist at Aleala de Henares, vi
Dr. Santiago, governor, 28-3 1
Juan Bautista, 233
Vergara, Captain, 252, 253
Victoria, Magellan's ship, 14
Viesman, see Biesman.
Vigadicaya, Tagal, a husband, 301
Villafane, Luys, 135, 193
Villagra, Captain, 137-252
Villalobos, Euy Lopez de, 14, 394
Weapons, 272, 291
Wreck of Sant Antonio, 243
San Felipe, 75, 76, 142, 399
San Geronymo, 188
Jesus Maria, 250
Santa Margarita, 188
Santo Tomas, 190
San Juanillo, 23
D. Luys Dasmarinas' flag-
ship, and Almiranta, 1 1 7
Xara, Juan de la, 53, 57
Xicoraju, Japanese oflScial, 143
Ximenes, Fray Alonso, 53, 87, 95,
105, 115, 130
Ximonojo, Japanese official, 78, 79,
143
INDEX AND GLOSSARY.
431
Yemondone, or Yemonojo, Japanese
official, 79, 399, see Ximonojo.
Yeyasudono, Japanese regent, see
Daifusama, 143-149
Ygolotes, uncivilised tribe in inte-
rior of Luzon, 284, 387
Ylocos, province, 20, 284
Ylo-ylo, see Ilo Ilo.
Tnasaba, a wife, 300; Ina, Tagal, a
mother
Zacate, long grass, reeds, and zaca-
tal, a thicket, place where zacate
grows, 53, 220
Zambales, province, 33, 269, 294
Zamudio, D. Juan, 84, 114, 128,
168
Juan, notary, ii
Zoology, 277
ERRATA.
Page 2, 1. 15, for ganna read gauna.
„ 35, 1. 14, for 1563, read 1593.
„ 113, 1. 11, for nighboiu-ing read neighbouring.
„ 261, note, for Candlish read Candish
„ 266, 1. 1, for Ylabao read Ybabao.
„ 269, 1. 32, for peeple read people.
CORRIGENDA
Page 415, 1. 14, /or cut down, read blind.
„ 416, 1. 7, for Bandayan bueno read Banda and Amboyna.
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