Chapter IX: Part 9

As for their persons, those people are well built, have handsome features, and are light-complexioned. They are clad in a garment that falls to the ankles, which is made of striped cotton of various colors. When in mourning, they wear white; however, that mode of dress is not so general. Those called Pintados, and those of the island of Mindanao, wear short white, yellow, or red tunics, which hang to the knees, bound in by a girdle one vara wide and two and one-half brazas long; this is, as a general rule, white or red, and always falls to the knees. They wear neither stockings nor shoes; and instead of a hat they use a bit of cloth, which they wind twice or thrice around the head. Their whole adornment consists in having very rich and beautiful necklaces, earrings, and gold rings or bracelets. They wear those bracelets above the ankle; some wear these of ivory, and others of brass. They also have little round plates three fingers in diameter, which they pass through a hole that they make in the ear. In some of those islands, the men formerly marked all the body with figures, whence comes the Spanish name "Pintados" ["pictured," i.e., tattooed]. That operation was performed in the flower of their age, and at the period when they had most strength to suffer that torture. They had themselves adorned in that way after they had performed some illustrious deed. The masters of that art first trace on their bodies the design of the picture, which they next follow up with pricks from very sharp points, and throw on the blood which comes out a powder which never fades away. The whole of the body is not pricked at once, but bit by bit; and formerly, in order that one might have the right of making it for each part, it was necessary to perform an illustrious deed, and to show new prowess. Those pictures are pretty, and well proportioned to the portions of the body on which they are made; and, although they are of an ashen color, they are nevertheless agreeable to the sight. The children are not tattooed at all. The women do not bear the marks of that adornment except on one hand and on some part of the other. In regard to their teeth, they imitate the men in everything. They file them from their earliest childhood; some making them even in this way, others filing them into points, thus giving them the appearance of a saw. They cover the teeth with a black, glossy polish, or one that is flame-colored; and thus their teeth become black, or as red as vermilion. In the upper row, they make a little covering which they fill with gold, which shows off to advantage on the black or red background of that polish.

The women as well as the men are continually in the water, and they also swim like fish. They need no bridge to get over rivers. They bathe at all times of the day, as much for pleasure as for cleanliness. Women who have but recently given birth cannot be prevented from bathing, and bathe in the waters of the coldest springs. As soon as the child has issued from its mother's womb, it is placed in the water; and on taking it from the bath its head is rubbed with ajonjoli [i.e., sesame] oil mixed with civet. They do that also on other occasions, and to show politeness, especially the women and little boys. They bathe also during their sicknesses, and have for that purpose springs of hot water, especially at the shore of Laguna de Bay, which is in the island of Manila. [96]

There is no one language that is general for all the islands, but each district has a special one. True, they have some relation between one another, such as exists between the Lombard, Sicilian, and Tuscan. There are six dialects in the island of Manila, and two in the island of Oton; while there are some languages which are spoken in several islands. The most general are the Tagal and Bisayan. The latter is very rude, but the former is very polished, and most remarkable. Thus a religious, who was well versed in those islands, was in the habit of saying that the Tagal language had the advantages of the four chief languages of the world: that it was mysterious, like Hebrew; that it had the articles of the Greek, both for appellatives and for proper names; that it had elegance and abundance, like the Latin; and that it was not less suitable than the Italian for compliments and business. [97] They have only three vowels, but these serve as five. They have only a dozen consonants, which they express differently by placing a little dot above or below, as can be seen in the following figure.

Marginal note: "The consonants not marked with any point are
pronounced with 'a;' if they have a point above, they are
pronounced with 'e,' or 'i;' if the point is below, they
are pronounced with 'o' or 'u.'"

They have learned to write from us [98] by making their lines from left to right, instead of their former way of writing from top to bottom. Reeds or palm-leaves serve them as paper, and the point of an iron style is used instead of a pen. They use their writing only to letters from one to another, for they have no histories or books of any learning. Our religious have printed books in the languages of the islands, concerning the matters of our religion. In the Malucas, they have a very pretty method of writing to their friends. They collect flowers of various colors, and make a bouquet of them; and he who receives the bouquet understands, on beholding the varieties of flowers and their colors, as if they were so many different characters, the thoughts of his friend. They have not sufficient capacity to apply themselves to learning, and they content themselves with being good carpenters, and with working gold and iron well. They have been employed during these last few years in making silk and cotton stockings; in writing and reading our characters; in singing and dancing; and in playing the flute, the guitar, and the harp. The strings used for those last instruments are made from twisted silk, and produce as agreeable a sound as ours, although quite different in quality. They formerly had an instrument called cutiape, which some of them still use. It bears a close resemblance to a hurdy-gurdy, and has four copper cords. They play it so cleverly, that they make it express whatever they wish; and it is asserted as a truth that they speak, and tell one another whatever they wish, by means of that instrument, a special skill in those of that nation.

Most of those islanders have only one wife, but it is not true that there are not some places in the country where they have several, especially in the island of Mindanao. It may be said that the husbands buy their wives there, since they generally make some present to their parents according to their rank: that of dato, for instance, which signifies "a man of rank;" of tinaua, which signifies "free;" or oripuen, which signifies "a slave." The women in the islands of the Pintados are called binocot, or "woman who is in the room;" for bocot signifies "a room," and the women go outside but rarely, and even are carried then on the shoulders of their slaves. I have seen one woman of Dapitan, a settlement of the island of Mindanao, so delicate and so fine, that she always had herself carried to church on the shoulders of her slaves whom she best liked. It is a mark of politeness among those women always to keep the right hand in front of the mouth when they talk to a man. [99]

Those people live in houses thatched with straw, with the leaves of trees, or with large reeds which, divided into two, serve them as a tiling. There is but little furniture to be seen in their houses. But rarely are chairs seen there, for they always sit on the ground, or on carpets made from reeds. They have neither beds nor mattresses, as their reed mats serve as both. They eat on the ground or on very small low tables, but the tables are used only among the chiefs. Banana leaves, which are one braza long and one-half braza wide, serve them as napkins. Their employment consists of agriculture, the very abundant fishing along their coasts and in their rivers, and hunting wild boars and deer with dog and spear--an employment to which their agility and their skill renders them very suitable. They also go to gather honey and wax in the mountains or in the trees, where nature has taught the bees to make both those substances.

The arms of some are spears, of others arrows; the campilan, which is a large cutlass; the kris, or poniard; the zompites or blow-guns, through which they blow little poisoned arrows; and bacacaies, or little reeds hardened by fire at the end. To defend their grain from animals and from men who could harm it, they scatter caltrops, which the old men call tribulos, [100] made so that one of the four points of which they are composed is always up, and those who pass there get caught without perceiving the traps. But now the Spaniards have taught them how to use firearms, and they get along very well--especially a nation called the Pampangos, many of whom are enrolled in the Spanish troops. These men serve with great fidelity, and well second the courage of which the Spaniards set them an example in their combats by sea and land.

They are very fertile, and I have seen but few married people without children. When these are born, they name them according to the incidents that happen at the time of their birth. One will be called Maglente, because of the thunder that sounded at the time of his birth; for lente signifies a clap of thunder. Another will be named Gubaton, because the foes appeared on the coast at that same time; for gubat signifies enemy. They esteem nobility; and I have known a woman called Vray--that is to say, "fine gold"--who had been given that name because of the nobility of her lineage. In some of the islands they were accustomed to put the head of a new-born child between two boards, and thus pressed it so that it would not be round, but long; and they also flattened the forehead, in their belief that it was a mark of beauty to have it thus. [101] At the birth of a child to one among them who is of the highest rank, they hold a festival of a week, during which very joyful songs are sung by the women.

They lose courage when they are sick. They do not use either bleeding or other remedies, except certain medicinal herbs, of which there is abundance in these islands. They use the cupping-glass; but it is not made of glass, for there is no glass in that country, but of small shells or the small horns of deer. They drink the liquor of cocoanuts after it has been kept some time in the evening damp; and that liquor is so healthful that their continual use of it keeps them from gravel, a disease of which the name is unknown among those peoples.

When anyone dies, the music of the mourning and lamentation begins immediately. Some weep because they are truly touched by their loss; others are hired by the day to weep. Women are usually chosen, as they are most apt for that music. They wash the body of the deceased to that sad cadence, and perfume it with storax, and other perfumes which are used among them. After bewailing the body for three days, they bury it. They do not place it in the earth, but in coffins of very hard and incorruptible wood, which they kept in their houses. The boards of the coffins are so well joined that the air cannot enter. They placed a piece of gold in the mouths of some, and adorned their coffins with precious gems. Moreover they were careful to carry all sorts of food to their grave, and to leave it there as if it were to be used by the deceased. Some they would not allow to go alone, and it was necessary to give them some male and female slaves to keep them company. They killed the latter after having given them a fine repast, so that they might go with the deceased. With one of their chiefs of the country they once encased a galley equipped with rowers, so that they could serve him in the other world. The most usual place of burial was the house of the deceased, in the lowest story, where they dug a hole to place the coffin. Sometimes the burial was in the open field; and in such case great fires were made below the house, and sentinels were posted there, for fear lest the deceased should come to take away those who were yet alive. The tears and lamentations were finished with the burial; but the feasts and orgies lasted a greater or less time, according to the station of the deceased. The Tagals wore black as a sign of mourning; the Bisayans wore white, and shaved the head and eyebrows. When a person of rank happened to die, silence was observed throughout the village, until that the interdict should have been removed--which lasted a greater or less time, according to the quality of the deceased. During that time not the least noise could be made. But the mourning of those who had been killed in war or by treachery lasted a longer time, and did not end until their children and relations had killed many others--not only those who were known as enemies, but even strangers or unknown men; for their fury having thus been assuaged, they thought that they could put an end to their mourning, and solemnize it by great festivities and prolonged feasting.

They are for the most part good sailors--I mean for the navigation among the islands; for, as they do not use the compass, they do not get along so well on the open sea. They use various kinds of craft, which are propelled by sail and oar. The largest craft of the second class are called caracoas. Although these are not very large, they do not hesitate to put one hundred Indians in them; for there are three banks of rowers on each side. They make use of those craft for trading among those islands; and they lade them with dried fish, wine, salt, wax, cotton, cocoanuts, and other like merchandise.

They are cowards naturally, and more apt to make an ambuscade than to face their enemies. Upon that is chiefly founded their submission to the Spaniards, for they do not serve them out of affection.

They readily received our religion. Their meager intelligence does not permit them to sound the depths of its mysteries. They also have little care in the fulfilment of their duties to the Christianity which they have adopted; and it is necessary to constrain them by fear of punishment, and to govern them like schoolchildren. Intoxication and usury are the two vices to which they are most addicted. The piety and care of our religious have not as yet been able to make them lose those habits altogether.

The climate of Manila and most of the other Filipinas Islands is very warm. The difference between the seasons is not perceived, for the heat is equally great all the year. The rains commence at the end of the month of May and last for three or four months without interruption; but beyond that time it rains but rarely. In the months of October, November, and December, the country is subject to hurricanes, which the natives of the country call vaguios. They are furious winds which make the entire round of the compass in twenty-four hours, commencing at the north. They break the palm-trees, uproot the largest trees, overthrow the houses, and sometimes carry persons into the air; and some have been seen which have hurled vessels a musket-shot inland.

At the extremity of the island of Manila, near the Embocadero, where the vessels en route from Nueva Espana enter, there is a volcano or mountain whence often issue flames, and always smoke. [102] In those islands there is neither grain, wine, nor olive-oil, nor one of the fruits which we have in Europa, except the oranges, of which I shall speak later. Rice grows there in great abundance, and serves instead of bread. They have two kinds of it. One kind is sown in places always under water, and the other on the mountains, where it is moistened only by the water from the sky. Their drink also is made from rice, by soaking it in water; or it is taken from palm-trees, or cocoanuts, or from another variety of small palm called nipa. They keep those liquors in large crocks, and draw from them only on holidays and days of rejoicing. Those liquors mount to the head and intoxicate, as much as does the wine of Europa.

The horses and cows in those islands have been carried thither from Mexico and China, for there were none there formerly. The flesh of swine is their most usual food, and there is a great abundance of it; it is very healthful and savory. There are also innumerable fowl, deer, wild boars, goats, and civet-cats; also plenty of beans, cotton, strawberries, and even cinnamon--which is found only in the island of Mindanao, and which does not begin to be as good as that of Ceilan. They have no silver mines in those islands, and the little silver seen there has been carried from Mexico, in return for the merchandise exported there annually. There are gold mines in the island of Manila, and on the river of Butuan in the island of Mindanao. There is truly not sufficient to satisfy the desires of the Spaniards; but the little that there is of it sufficed the Indians, who value it only for the little use that they make of it, since it does not enter at all into trade. There is a quantity of honey and wax in their mountains; and since the Spanish have lived there they have built many sugar mills; and sugar is so common there that one may buy twenty-five libras of sixteen onzas apiece for one teston. They have three varieties of fruit that are most common: bananas, santors, and birinbines. [103] There are fifteen or sixteen kinds of bananas, some of them are sweet, but that sweetness has an admixture of bitter in others. Some of them smell good, but all of those varieties are very agreeable to the taste. I know of no fruit in Europa to which to compare them, unless it be the musas which grow in Sicilia. The birinbines and santors are eaten preserved more often than in any other way, because of their tartness; when prepared in preserves, they taste like plums. If they are allowed to ripen on the tree, they smell like quinces, although they have no other resemblance to quinces at all. Those islands have many other trees which grow wild. Their mountains furnish them with roots, from which they draw their most usual nourishment; these are called pugaian and corot. [104] They have other roots which they cultivate, such as the apari, the ubi, the laquei, and others which they call camotes, which are the potatoes [105] of Espana. The Spaniards use the last named, as also do the Indians.

But the most useful tree of all is the palm--not that which bears the date, for they do not have that species, but those which bear cocoanuts, of the size of an orange. Those nuts are filled with a very sweet liquor, which is very good to drink. They make wine, vinegar, and honey of it; and when that fruit becomes dry as it ripens, that liquor changes into white meat harder than an almond. It is from that meat that oil is extracted and a milk resembling that extracted from almonds. The cocoanut has two coverings. The first, which is less hard, is used for tinder when dried; also for the rigging and smaller cordage of the ships, or as tow for calking them. The other covering is harder, and is used for drinking vessels, or as dishes in which to prepare their food. The palm-leaves are the tiles with which their houses are thatched. The trunks of the same trees are used to support the houses, and in making the pillars. They have one other tree which is no less useful to them, for it serves them as a perpetual spring, and furnishes water to an entire village--which, being located on a very high and dry site, has no other water than what they get from that tree by making incisions in its trunk, and in its largest branches; for a clear sweet water flows out of it. The trees of those islands are always green, and there are only two species that shed their leaves, one called batelan, [106] and the other dabdas.

The reeds [i.e., bamboos] of those islands have the following peculiarity, namely, that they are as much as three palmos in circumference and eight brazas in length. They are used as the materials out of which to build a whole house. The pillars, the lintels, the stairs, the floors, and the walls are made from them. They are used as rafters for the roof, and split into several parts, as tiles for covering the roof. They have no other saucepans in which to cook their food than those reeds, and no other wood to burn; for the trees serve them as material with which to build their little boats--or rather, rafts--with which they carry for traffic their rice, cocoanuts, and abaca, the hemp of that country.

Those islands have a great abundance of various kinds of oranges, peculiar to those countries for their good taste. I have seen them so large that they were four palmos in circumference. Some were red as scarlet inside, and very sweet. There are some which contain another little orange in the place of the seeds; and these are called on that account "oranges which have children." [107]

I will place in the list of vegetables a sort of leaf which serves them for nourishment, or rather for refreshment. It is used very commonly among the Indians, both Christians and Mahometans, and even among the Spaniards. A mixture is made of it which is called mamuen, into which three things enter: one is this leaf, which is called buio, which is smooth, and resembles in color and size a large ivy leaf, but it is not so thick. It smells very good, and is aromatic. It is planted under some dry tree, on which it climbs. The other fruit that enters into that mixture is called bonga, and it is as large as an olive. Lastly, they mix in a small quantity of quicklime. A little cornucopia is made of the leaf, the bonga and lime are placed inside, and it is all chewed together. That mixture colors the saliva as red as blood, and the lips the most beautiful vermilion ever seen. It preserves the teeth, strengthens the stomach, and produces a very good breath. Eighty of those leaves can be bought at Manila for one real. Nevertheless, so great a quantity is consumed that it has been ascertained that it was sold in one year to the amount of ninety thousand reals, of seven and one-half sols apiece.

There are many snakes in those islands, which are very dangerous; some of them, when they have young, attack people. [108] The bite of those called omodro is very dangerous, and those who are bitten by it do not live one-half day. It is from that effect that it derives its name, for odro signifies one-half day. There is another very large snake called saua. I have killed one of that species which was two and one-half brazas long. The skin of another, which measured thirty-two [Spanish] feet in length, was brought to our residence at Manila. The sauas hang to the branches of trees along the roads, whence they dart down upon people, or deer, or on any other prey. They wind themselves three or four times around the body, and after having broken the creature's bones devour it. But God has provided a number of herbs in those islands which are used as antidotes to all kinds of poisons. Roots and herbs are found in the mountains, which are so many specific remedies against snake-bites; the chief ones are manongal, manambo, logab, boroctongon, maglingab, ordag, balucas, bonas, bahay, igluhat, dalogdogan, mantala.

There are also animals in those islands of which I ought to give a description. The civet-cat is found in the mountains. Its skin resembles that of a tiger, and it is no less savage than the tiger, although much smaller. It is captured and bound, and, after its civet is obtained, which is contained in a little pouch under its tail, it is set at liberty to be caught once more. The crocodiles, of which their rivers are full, are so huge that when their jaws are open, a man of the largest size could stand upright between the two jaws. The crocodile is quite covered with scales; has scarcely any tongue; and its teeth are set closely together, and are very sharp, and arranged in several rows. The teeth of the middle lower row fit into holes or breaks in the others which correspond to them in the upper jaw; and consequently, when it seizes its prey, there is no force that can make it let go. It lays a great number of eggs. In the water it is furious, and attacks boats. It is not so greatly feared when ashore--where it goes sometimes to seize some prey, or to sun itself.

The woman-fish [109] is so called because its face and breast are quite like those of women, whom it also resembles in its manner of copulation with the male. That fish is as large as a calf, and its flesh, of which I have eaten, tastes like beef. It is caught with lines as thick around as the finger, and when the line becomes fast within [its mouth] it is killed by javelin-thrusts. Its bones and teeth have great virtue against all sorts of dysentery, especially against bloody discharges. Some have tried to assert that those fish were the sirens of the sea, so celebrated among the poets; but they have nothing of the beauty of face and of the voice that is attributed to sirens.

I will end [this account], finally by a description of the tabon, an ashen-colored bird as large as a hen, which lays eggs three times as large as those of hens, but which lays them in a peculiar manner. It chooses desert islands and those full of sand, where it first makes a hole one or one and one-half brazas deep; and after having laid its eggs, it covers them over with sand. The chicks break the shell, and gradually turn up the sand that covers them with their feet. If any of those chicks is so unfortunate as to break the egg at the lower end, it does not succeed so well, and dies for lack of strength to overturn the sand. Sometimes one hundred and fifty of the eggs are found in the same hole. I have eaten those eggs often when I have had occasion to stop at those islands during my voyages.

There is cinnamon in the island of Mindanao; and pepper at Patani, and at Champan, a country lying on the mainland of China.

The political government of those islands is the same as that of other provinces subject to the crown of Castilla. The governor resides at Manila, and is president of the Audiencia; while, as captain-general, he has charge of all the posts of peace and war, as well as of the encomiendas of one or two thousand Indians [each], who pay their encomendero the tribute that the other Indians pay to the king. But the encomendero who has been appointed by the captain-general is obliged to get the confirmation of his grant from Madrid within three years.

The governor establishes the corregidors and alcaldes-mayor, or governors of the provinces into which these islands are divided. He appoints the captains and the admirals of the fleets which sail to Acapulco and Terrenate annually. He takes cognizance of civil affairs, on which the royal Audiencia pronounces the decisions or decrees. That Audiencia is composed of a president (who is always the governor), four oidores or auditors, and one procurator-fiscal. There are four cities in the Filipinas--Manila, Zebu, [Nueva] Cacares, and Nueba Segovia; and one town, called Arevalo. There is a garrison at Manila and at Cabite, which is the port where the warships enter, six miles from Manila. There are also garrisons at Zebu, Otong, Carouga, Lanbuangang [sc. Zamboanga], Jolo, Nueva Segobia, the island of Hermosa, and the Malucas. All those ports are fortified, and have their redoubts mounted with artillery. Whatever is necessary for those garrisons is sent from Manila. It would be a very difficult task to mention the names of all the different peoples among the Indians, and in those islands, who are subject to the king of Espana. There are fully three hundred thousand families, who might count one million souls.

The archbishop of Manila has three suffragans, those of Zebu, [Nueva] Cacares, and Nueva Segovia. They have no other income than what the king gives them; that of the archbishop is three thousand ducados, while each of his suffragans receives one thousand five hundred. The city of Manila is small, but it is beautiful and well fortified. Its houses are all built of stone, and are spacious, and very airy. Its streets are long and straight, and one may walk in the shade all hours of the day. The churches are beautiful. There are five convents: that of the Augustinians (which is the oldest); that of the Franciscans, that of the Dominicans, [110] and that of the discalced Augustinians. There are two universities, one in charge of the fathers of St. Dominic, and the other in that of the Society. Those religious are also distributed among the islands, where they have charge of the instruction of the Indians. The city is enclosed by a fine wall and moat; and its redoubt and its ramparts are well garrisoned with artillery. At the foot of its wall flows a river, which is navigable; over this is a wooden bridge, with stone pillars. There are two thousand Spaniards in Manila (counting soldiers and inhabitants), and twice as many Indians. There are also twenty thousand Sangleys or Chinese, who practice all the arts needed in a community; and every year they pay nine escudos and six reals of tribute. Galleons much larger than those which sail the Mediterranean are built at Manila; for there is a great abundance of wood, pitch, and abaca--which resembles European hemp, and of which good rigging is made for the ships. The anchors are imported from Goa; and the iron for the nails comes from China in little bars, and is very serviceable.

The Spaniards of the Manilas trade throughout the islands of that archipelago, at Borney and Camboa, whence they carry wax, butter, camanguien or storax, ivory, and bezoar. They formerly traded in Japon, before the persecution of the Christians was begun. Thence were carried iron, flour, all sorts of fruit, and little boxes, and cabinets, varnished [i.e., lacquered] and very well made. Nangoza [sc. Nagasaki], which was the port where that trading took place--and for which it was very suitable, because it is not distant from Manila--is now closed to us; for the emperor of Japon believes that people are entering his country, under pretext of that trade, to preach the gospel, the thing that he fears most of all. We trade also with the Portuguese of Macao, who come to the Manilas every year with two or three ships, and bring here silks, musk, precious stones, and eagle and calambac wood--which is a sweet-scented wood that is very valuable. The inhabitants of the Manilas also go to Macao sometimes, to carry their merchandise there; but their chief trade is with the Chinese, who come annually, at the end of the month of December and the beginning of January, with twenty or thirty vessels, laden with products and valuable merchandise. They sail usually from Ocho and Chincheo, ports of Anay, a province of China which faces the Filipinas. They carry small oranges, nuts, chestnuts, plums, raisins, and chicuei--a fruit resembling an apple, very round, transparent, and, when it is ripe, having the color of yellow amber; its peel is very loose, and its flesh very sweet and very pleasant to the taste. [111] They also bring all sorts of cloth stuffs, and some of these are as fine as those which come from France and the Low Countries; and many black stuffs of which the Indians make their clothes. They bring silk, plain and twisted, of all colors; damasks, velvets, tabbies, and double taffetas; cloths of gold and silver, galoons, and laces; coverlets, and cushions; and porcelain--although not the finest variety, as the trade in that is prohibited. They bring pearls and gold; iron, in little bars; thread, musk, and fine parasols; paste gems, but very beautiful to look at; saltpetre, and flour; white and various-colored paper; and many little fancy articles, covered with varnish, and gold in relief, made in an inimitable manner. Among all the silk stuffs brought by the Chinese, none is more esteemed than the white--the snow is not whiter; and there is no silk stuff in Europa that can approach it.

The Chinese return in the month of March, and carry to China silver in return for their merchandise. They also take a wood called sibueno [112]--that is, brazil-wood, which is used in making their ink. Those Chinese merchants are so keen after gain that if one sort of merchandise has succeeded well one year, they take a great deal of it the following year. A Spaniard who had lost his nose through a certain illness, sent for a Chinese to make him one of wood, in order to hide the deformity. The workman made him so good a nose that the Spaniard, in great delight, paid him munificently, giving him twenty escudos. The Chinese, attracted by the ease with which he had made that gain, laded a fine boatload of wooden noses the following year, and returned to Manila. But he found himself very far from his hopes, and quite left out in the cold; [113] for in order to have a sale for that new merchandise, he found that he would have to cut off the noses of all the Spaniards in the country.

Besides the Chinese merchandise that is brought into the islands, there is wax, cinnamon, civet, and a sort of very strong cotton cloth which is called campotes [misprint for lampotes]. All those goods are exported to Mexico, where they are sold at great profit, and on the spot. I do not believe there is a richer traffic in the world than that. The duties that the king gets out of it are large, and, with what he gets from the islands, amount to fully five hundred thousand escudos. But he spends eight hundred thousand in the maintenance of his governor, the counselors, the archbishop, the bishops, the canons, those who possess the prebends, and the other ecclesiastics. The greater part of that sum is employed in the equipment of the galleons that are sent to Mexico and to the Malucas, and of those which are kept in those seas to resist the Dutch. A considerable sum is spent on the maintenance of alliance with the kings of those districts--especially with the king of one of the Malucas, called Tidore. Consequently, the king of Espana rather holds those islands for the conservation there of the faith, as was stated by Felipe the Second in a certain council-meeting, than for the profit that is derived from them to this hour. The Dutch have been unable to get a footing on those islands, although they have attacked them many times. They have a considerable city [i.e., Batavia] on the island of Java Major, whence they send what their garrisons at the island of Hermosa, Amboina, and Terrenate need. They have made an alliance with the inhabitants of that island, and they secure the greater part of the cloves of the Malucas. They trade in Japon, in a port called Firando. The Chinese have refused to have trade with them, because of a tradition current in China, that blue-eyed men will some day conquer them.

The voyage from Manila to Mexico lasts four, five, six, or seven months. Manila, which lies in thirteen and one-half degrees, is left in the month of July, during the vendavals. The course is taken to the north, until the ship reaches thirty-eight or forty degrees. The pilots take that course because they are more certain of finding winds; for otherwise they would run the risk of encountering calms, which are more to be dreaded in long voyages than are the most furious gales. From the time that the Filipinas are left until almost the coast of Nueva Espana is reached, no land is seen, except a chain of islands called the Ladrones, or La Sapana, [114] which lie three hundred leguas from the Embocadero of the Filipinas. The people who inhabit those islands are barbarians, who go quite naked. When our vessels pass there, those people carry to them fish, rice, and fresh water, which they exchange for neither gold nor silver, but only for iron, which they value much more, because of the use to which they put it in the manufacture of their tools, and for the building of their little boats. The first land sighted after that is the island of Cedros, quite near the Mexican coast. The open expanse between that island and those of the Ladrones is subject to great storms, which are to be feared especially near the Japanese Islands--which are passed, however, without being sighted. During the whole course of so long a voyage, scarcely a day passes without seeing a bird. There are usually some birds that live in the sea, and many large whales and porpoises are seen.

As the [American] coast is neared, at a distance of sixty, eighty, or one hundred leguas signs are to be seen in the sea by which it is recognized that the ship is within that distance. Those signs consist of long reeds, brought down by the rivers of Nueva Espana, which being massed together resemble a kind of raft; and on those reeds are to be seen monkeys--another sign that they are approaching the coast. When the pilot discovers those signs, he immediately changes his course, and instead of continuing east he puts the nose of the ship south, in order to avoid getting caught in the land, or in some gulf whence he would have a hard time to get out; but, when he has sighted the coast of Nueva Espana, he follows it to the port of Acapulco, which lies in eighteen degrees.

Acapulco is a fine port, well sheltered from all the winds, and defended by a celebrated redoubt. There the passengers and goods are disembarked, and are afterward carried by mules to the City of Mexico, which is eighty leguas distant thence. The way is desert and bestrewn with mountains; and the pest of mosquitoes is suffered, as well as the extreme heat. In order to go to Espana from Mexico one goes to the port of Vera Cruz, a journey of eighty-five leguas; en route is passed the city of Los Angeles, which has about six thousand inhabitants, and whose bishop gets a salary of sixty thousand escudos. The reefs and rocks at the mouth of the port of Vera Cruz defend the entrance better than the fortress that commands it, although that fort is an excellent one. At that port anchor the trading fleets that come from Espana, laden with wine, olive-oil, cloths, wax, cinnamon, paper, and other European merchandise. Those trading fleets formerly passed the winter there, as they arrived [formerly] in the month of June, and remained there until the same month of the following year. Now they reach that port in the month of May, and leave about the month of August. They take as a rule three months to go to Espana. For my part, I took one hundred days in making that voyage. The port of Havana in Cuba, which is the best port of the Western Indias--and which is very safe, and defended by three redoubts--is touched at. There the two trading fleets--that of Mexico and that of Tierrafirme--are united with the galleons. Thence, after having coasted along the shores of Florida, and of Nueva Francia, they make the cape of Fineterre [Finisterre] or San Vincent, in order to lay their course toward Cadiz, which is the end of their voyage. That will also be the end of this relation, which I have written in order to be obedient to a person to whom I earnestly desire that it may prove agreeable.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DATA

The following documents are obtained from MSS. in the Academia Real de la Historia, Madrid--in the collection "Papeles de los Jesuitas:"

1. Events in Filipinas, 1637-38.--In tomo 84, no. 35.

2. Fortunate successes, 1636-37.--In tomo 32, no. 17.

3. Events in Filipinas, 1638-39.--In tomo 4, no. 34, fol. 268.

The following documents are obtained from the Archivo general de Indias, Sevilla:

4. Letter from Corcuera.--"Simancas--Secular; Audiencia de Filipinas; cartas y espedientes del gobernador de Filipinas vistos en el Consejo; anos 1629 a 1640; est. 67, caj. 6, leg. 8."

5. Letter from treasurer.--The same as No. 4.

6. The university of Santo Tomas.--"Audiencia de Filipinas; registro de oficio; reales ordenes dirigidas a las autoridades y particulares del distrito de la Audiencia; anos 1605 a 1645; est. 105, caj. 2, leg. 12." (In this same legajo may be found two of the decrees of 1638, those of November 8 and December 8; and that of October 3, 1639, has the same pressmark, save "leg. 2, lib. 4.")

The following documents are obtained from the "Cedulario Indico," in the Archivo Historico Nacional, Madrid:

7. Decrees, 1638.--The first four, in "tomo 39, fol. 235b, 225b, 262, and 267," respectively; (the fifth and sixth, see No. 6, ante;) the seventh, in "tomo xxxi, fol. 144b;" the eighth, in "tomo 7, fol. 352b."

8. Decrees, 1639.--In the same order as printed, these are found as follows: In "tomo 39, fol. 276b; tomo xviii, fol. 55; tomo 39, fol. 281; tomo 31, fol. 142b; tomo 39, fol. 285b and 285; tomo 2, fol. 315b;" (for October 3, see No. 6, ante;) "tomo 39, fol. 290b and 290."

The following documents are obtained from the Ventura del Arco MSS. (Ayer library), vol. ii:

9. Events in the Filipinas, 1639-40.--Pp. 167-184.

10. Relation of the Chinese insurrection.--Pp. 185-250.

The following document is obtained from a rare printed pamphlet in the Museo-Biblioteca de Ultramar, Madrid:

11. Glorious victories against Moros.--Part of this is synopsized in translation. The pamphlet is designated in the Museo-Biblioteca by the number "111, 21-2a."

The following document is obtained from a MS. volume in the possession of Edward E. Ayer, Chicago; the volume is undated, but is supposed to be written in 1835, and is entitled, Demostracion historica de cuantas depredaciones llevan cometidas las Moros, etc.:

12. Letters to Misericordia.--In fol. 6b, 7, and 8.

The following documents are taken from printed works:

13. Relation by Banuelos y Carrillo.--From Thevenot's Relations de divers voyages curieux (Paris, M.DC.XCVI), tomo i, part ii; from a copy belonging to the Prescott Collection in the library of Harvard University. (The original printed pamphlet by Banuelos y Carrillo is supposed to be no longer extant.)

14. Value of Corcuera's seizures.--From Pastells' edition of Colin's Labor evangelica, iii, pp. 528-533.

15. Ecclesiastical and Augustinian affairs.--From Casimiro Diaz's Conquistas, pp. 267-444.

16. Relation of the Filipinas Islands, by a religious.--The same as No. 13.

NOTES

[1] Spanish, buenas collas de bendabales. In August the prevailing winds at Manila are from the southwest, the vendavals. It often happens that in the months of June and July there develop in northern Luzon centers of minimum pressure so slowly that they appear to remain stationary for many days, followed, as is natural, by continuous currents and showers of rain from the third quadrant, known by the native-born residents as "collas" (Report of U. S. Philippine Commission, 1900, iv, pp. 229, 236; this chapter is furnished by the Jesuit fathers in charge of the Manila Observatory).

[2] Juan Zubelzu, a native of Biscay, and a novice in the Dominican convent at Mexico, came to the Philippine Islands in the mission of 1615. After his ordination, he ministered to the Indians in Bataan, and in Cavite and Manila--where he died, December 14, 1657. He built a stone church in Samal, for which, it is remarked, he did not harass the Indians, although they were few in number. (Resena biografica, i, p. 350.)

[3] "Son of the devil, scourge of God, and other similar things."

[4] Spanish, padres barbados; also known as Barbones, from their practice of wearing long beards; they came in 1635, with Corcuera, headed by Collado, and formed the congregation of San Pablo (for mission work only), by "warrants fraudulently obtained." A royal decree of February 21, 1637, commanded the Dominican provincial at Manila to suppress the Barbones; it is the execution of this decree which is described in our text. See Resena biografica, i. pp. 338, 391, 420.

[5] This statement about the Sangleys is printed by Barrantes as a postscript to Lopez's letter of July 23, 1637 (q.v., VOL. XXVII). Internal evidence indicates Juan Lopez as the author of the present document, and that it was written at Cavite, where Lopez was in charge of the Jesuit house.

[6] Melchor de Vera was born in Madrid about 1585, and entered the Jesuit order at the age of nineteen. Two years later, he departed for the Philippine mission, and after his ordination labored in the missions of Visayas and Mindanao. He was for a time minister of Manila college, and afterward rector of Carigara, and superior at Dapitan and Zamboanga. He was well versed in architecture and military defense, and several forts were built (especially that at Zamboanga) under his direction. He died at Cebu, April 13, 1646. See Murillo Velarde's Hist. Philipinas, fol. 153 verso; and Combes's Hist. Mindanao.

[7] Fernando de Estrada, a native of Ecija, Spain, was a missionary among the Bisayans and Tagals, and at Ternate. He died at Manila in 1646, at the age of forty-five. See Murillo Velarde's Hist. Philipinas, fol. 193 verso.

[8] Charles I sought at various times to play Spain against France, but his Spanish policy was, on the whole, a failure.

[9] Morabites: the name of a Mahometan sect, founded by the son-in-law of Mahomet. The name was also used among Mahometans to indicate a wise man or a mystic.

[10] Antonio Francisco Cardim was born at Viana, Portugal, in 1596, and entered the Jesuit order in February, 1611. Seven years later he went to India, and labored in Japan, China, and other countries until his death--which occurred at Macao, April 30, 1659. Sommervogel describes several missionary reports and other writings by Cardim.

[11] That is, the small amount of their returns from Mexico prevented the Manila merchants from making their usual large purchases from the Chinese traders, and it was feared that the latter would not think it worth while to bring their goods to Manila.

[12] This was Tsongching (VOL. XXII, p. 197, and note 44), the last emperor of the Ming dynasty; he was favorable to the Jesuits, but can hardly be called a convert to the Christian faith. By "Father Pablo" is probably meant Paul Siu (or Sin, according to Cretineau-Joly), a Chinese official of high standing, who was converted by Father Ricci, and served as an evangelist among his people, besides aiding the missionaries with gifts and his influence at court, and revising their writings in Chinese. See Cretineau-Joly's Hist. Comp. de Jesus, iii, p. 172; and Williams's Middle Kingdom, ii, pp. 302, 304.

[13] A marginal note reads: "Translated from the Spanish relation printed at Mexico in the year 1638; dedicated to Don Garcia de Haro y Abellaneda, count of Castilla, president of the royal Council of the Indias."

[14] Marginal note: "The rules of this traffic, which will be found at the end of the relations of the Filipinas, elucidate this point." This evidently refers to the Spanish originals.

The "list of relations and voyages" at the beginning of Thevenot's work contains this title: "Three relations of the Philippine Islands, with a large map of China," etc. To correspond with this, the text contains: the "Relation" of Banuelos y Carrillo; the "Relation and memorial" by Hernando de los Rios Coronel; and a "Memorial in behalf of the commerce of the Philipine Islands," by Juan Grau y Monfalcon--all with consecutive pagination; and apparently abridged or paraphrased to suit the editor. These are followed by (Bobadilla's) "Relation of the Philipine Islands," and an "Account of the great island of Mindanao" (which contains a letter by Mastrilli)--also with their own and consecutive pagination; these, however, are not mentioned in the list above referred to. We translate from Thevenot the documents by Banuelos and Bobadilla; but for the others we have recourse to the Spanish originals.

[15] Lope Diaz de Armendariz, marquis of Cadereita, the sixteenth viceroy of Mexico, was appointed (1635) to succeed the marquis of Cerralvo (who was removed at his own request, because of poor health). His term of office was quiet, and only marked especially by his quarrel with the archbishop, with whom the royal Audiencia seem to have sided. He was removed in 1640, his successor being Diego Lopez Pacheco Cabrera y Bobadilla, duke of Escalona and marquis de Villena. See Bancroft's Hist. Mexico, iii, pp. 93-98.

[16] Marginal note: "Bartolome Tenorione."

[17] The following letter from the Sevilla archives ("Cartas y espedientes del gobernador de Filipinas vistos en el Consejo; anos 1629 a [1640]; est. 67, caj. 6, leg. 8"), contains an interesting reference to Banuelos's relation, and also suggests the well-known deficiencies in Thevenot's "translations." It is to be feared that he has omitted much valuable matter from Banuelos's account; but no other source is available:

"I return the paper which your Lordship sent me, concerning the military exploit in Mindanao, which was written and sent, as appears, by Father Marcelo Mastrili. Although its contents must be true, and it is well written, yet as your Lordship knows, the Council thought it advisable not to have it printed until they could compare it with the letters that the governor had written about the same exploit, and with others written by various persons, which make it out to have been of little value and importance. They even attempt to say that we have lost rather than gained in that campaign--particularly in a discourse or treatise printed in Mexico by Don Geronimo de Banuelos y Carrillo, and addressed to your Lordship. In it he declares that those who were conquered were not Moros, but certain poor Indians; I do not know whether [he says this] from zeal for the truth, or because he has little affection for the governor. He wounds him quite to the quick in this and in other things. I was making an abstract of them in order to report to the Council, as I was ordered; but today, on going out, Don Juan Grao Monfalcon told me that he is at present printing another report, to oppose that of Banuelos. I do not know who has given permission for it, nor that, in the care of the relation of Father Mastrili, there is anything that is not well understood. What the Council discussed was (as I have said), only whether it is exact and faithful to what happened; and of this I have not yet been able to form a sufficient judgment or idea. I am getting new documents hourly from the secretary's office, and I shall detain them until the one that I am now enclosing is returned, if convenient. May God preserve your Lordship, as we your servants desire. Today, Tuesday, February eight, one thousand six hundred and thirty-nine.

Don Juan de Solorzano Pereira"

"The count, my master, has ordered me to send again to your Lordship the enclosed relation of his success from the governor of Filipinas, in order that there may be progress in the deliberations of the Council on this question. May God preserve your Lordship, as I desire. Buen Retiro, February 16, 639.

Antonio Carnero"

"I return these papers to your Grace, so that you may continue what you were doing. May God preserve your Grace. My house, February 16, 1639."