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                  The Philippine Islands, 1493–1898

   Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and
   their peoples, their history and records of the catholic missions,
    as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the
   political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those
   islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the
                    close of the nineteenth century,

                 Volume XXXIV, 1519–1522; 1280–1605



 Edited and annotated by Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander Robertson
  with historical introduction and additional notes by Edward Gaylord
                                Bourne.


                      The Arthur H. Clark Company
                            Cleveland, Ohio
                                 MCMVI







CONTENTS OF VOLUME XXXIV


    Preface                                                           11

    Primo viaggio intorno al mondo (concluded). Antonio
    Pigafetta. Italian text with English translation. MS.
    ca. 1525, of events of 1519–1522                                  38

    Notes to Primo viaggio                                           153

    Description of the Philippines. Chao Ju-kua, a Chinese
    official and geographer, ca. 1280                                183

    Documents of 1565–1576

    Letter to Felipe II. Guido de Lavezaris; Cubu, May 30, 1565      195
    Letter to Felipe II. Andres de Mirandaola; Cubu, ——, 1565        200
    Letter to Felipe II. Guido de Lavezaris; Cubu, July 25, 1567     207
    Letter to Felipe II, from the royal officials. Guido de
    Lavezaris, and others; Cebu, July 26, 1567                       214
    Letter to the Marquis de Falces. Martin de Rada, O.S.A.;
    Cebu, July 8, 1569                                               223
    Letter to Felipe II. Diego de Herrera, O.S.A.; Panay,
    July 25, 1570                                                    229
    Royal communications to and concerning Legazpi. Felipe II;
    Madrid, August 6, 1569-August 29, 1570                           236
    Letter to the viceroy of Nueva España. Francisco de Ortega,
    O.S.A.; Manila, June 6, 1573                                     256
    Augustinian memoranda. [Unsigned and undated, but probably
    compiled jointly by the Augustinian missionaries, ca. 1573.]     273
    Letter to the viceroy of Nueva España, Martin Enriquez. Martin
    de Rada; Manila, June 30, 1574                                   286
    Letter to Felipe II, from the royal officials. Andres Cauchela
    and Salvador de Aldave; Manila, July 17, 1574                    295
    Encomiendas assigned by Legazpi. Hernando Riquel; Manila,
    June 2, 1576                                                     304

    Documents of 1580–1605

    Letter to the viceroy of Nueva España, Martin Enriquez. Miguel
    Loarca; Manila, June 15, 1580                                    313
    Letter to Gregory XIII. Pablo de Jesus, O.S.F.; Manila,
    14 Kalends of July, 1580                                         316
    Bishop Salazar’s Council regarding slaves. [Notarial document
    signed by Bishop Domingo de Salazar, O.P.]; Tondo,
    October 17, 1581                                                 325
    Erection of Manila cathedral. Bishop Domingo de Salazar, O.P.;
    Manila, December 21, 1581                                        332
    Letter to Felipe II. Antonio Sedeño, S.J.; Manila,
    June 17, 1583                                                    361
    Letter to Felipe II. Bishop Domingo de Salazar, O.P.; Manila,
    June 18, 1583                                                    368
    Relation of the Philipinas Islands. [Unsigned and undated;
    1586?]                                                           376
    Letter to Felipe II. Juan Bautista Roman; Manila, July 2, 1588   392
    Letter to Felipe II. Gomez Perez Dasmariñas; Manila,
    June 21, 1591                                                    403
    Royal decree regarding hospitals for natives. Felipe II;
    Madrid, January 17, 1593                                         412
    Augustinian affairs. Thomas Marquez, O.S.A., and the nuncio
    of Spain; 1599                                                   415
    Letter to Felipe III, from the ecclesiastical cabildo. Juan
    de Bivero and others; Manila, July 3, 1602                       428
    Letter to Felipe III. Bernardino Maldonado, Manila,
    June 21, 1605                                                    439

    Bibliographical Data                                             451







ILLUSTRATIONS


    Pigafetta’s Chart of the Moluccas                                 72
    Pigafetta’s Chart of the islands of Bachian, etc.                104
    Pigafetta’s Chart of the islands of Amboina, etc.                110
    Pigafetta’s Chart of the Banda Islands                           114
    Pigafetta’s Chart of the islands of Zolot, etc.                  118
    Pigafetta’s Charts of the island of Timor, and of the Laut
    Chidol or Great Sea                                              124
    Photographic facsimile of last page of Pigafetta’s relation
    showing signature; from the Pigafetta MS. in the Biblioteca
    Ambrosiana, Milan, Italy                                         146
    Map of eastern Asia and the eastern archipelago, showing the
    Moluccas; drawn by Diego Homem, ca. 1558 (on vellum);
    photographic facsimile of original manuscript map in the
    British Museum                                              150, 151
    “India tercera nova tabula”—map of the Eastern archipelago;
    from Mattiolo’s edition of Ptolemy’s Geographia (Venetia, M. D.
    LXVIII); from a copy of this work in possession of Frank A.
    Hutchins, Madison, Wisconsin                           facing p. 190
    Signature of Martin Ignacio de Loyola, author of the Itinerario
    in Mendoza’s Historia de ... China; from MS. in Archivo general
    de Indias, Sevilla                                     facing p. 384







PREFACE


In the present volume, Pigafetta’s narrative (begun in VOL. XXXIII)
is concluded; and a description of the islands written by a Chinese
geographer Chao Ju-kua, probably in the thirteenth century, and various
documents covering the years 1565–1605 are presented. Chao Ju-kua’s
description is especially interesting and valuable as it forms the
earliest authentic notice of the Philippines previous to their
discovery by Magalhães. The remaining documents treat of secular and
ecclesiastical affairs in the islands and cover a wide range of
interests. Various details of the first settlements at Cebú and
Manila, early explorations, and descriptions of the Philippines and
their peoples, supplement the information of previous volumes. The
royal intentions in regard to the discoveries of Legazpi and Legazpi
himself are set forth in a series of documents, and form an interesting
chapter from which one may construct the effect caused in Spain by the
New Orient opened for the fourth time to that country. The early
efforts of the first missionaries, the complications that arise almost
from the very start between them and the secular government, and the
internal trouble in the Augustinian Order, receive considerable
attention. Of especial interest is Bishop Salazar’s manifesto
creating and erecting the cathedral of Manila, in which, in addition to
other matters, he outlines the duties of the various officials. Early
government matters and problems that arise therein, among them the
tribute and commerce, in which one can see the intimate relations
between the religious and secular governments of Spain, are touched
upon. The documents for 1565–1605 show that the Philippines have had
ever since their first permanent settlement in Cebú, a precarious
existence, but that they have nevertheless advanced, although
totteringly, from a very simple state to the more complicated
conditions necessarily brought about by greater stability of
government. A synopsis of the documents in this volume follows.

Pigafetta relates that on November 13, a Portuguese named Pedro Affonso
de Lorosa, who had gone to Terrenate after the death of Serrão, comes
to the ships. From him they learn the efforts made by the Portuguese to
prevent their expedition, and various news of the region; and they ply
him so well that on departing he promises to return to the ships and go
to Spain with them. On November 16 and 17, the Moro king of Gilolo
visits the ship, and is delighted with the artillery and fighting
qualities of the ships and men, for he had been a great warrior in his
youth, and is feared throughout that region. On the eighteenth also,
Pigafetta goes ashore to see how the clove grows; and the result of his
visit is given in a tolerably correct description of the clove and
nutmeg trees. The women of that region, he says, are ugly, and the men
are jealous of them and fearful of the Europeans.

Meanwhile, the Ternatans bring daily boatloads of cloves and other
things to the boat, but only food is bought from them, as the clove
trade is kept for the king of Tidore. The latter returns to the islands
on November 24, with news that many cloves will soon be brought. On the
following day the first cloves are stowed in the hold amid the firing
of the artillery. The king, in accordance with the custom of that
district, invites the sailors to a banquet in honor of the first cloves
laden. But they, mindful of the fatal May-day banquet, suspect
treachery and make preparations for departure. The king, learning of
their intended departure, is beside himself and entreats them to stay
with him, or if they will go, to take back all their presents, as he
would otherwise be considered a traitor by all his neighbors. After his
entreaties have availed, it is learned that some chiefs had endeavored
in vain to turn the king against the Spaniards, in hopes of currying
favor with the Portuguese. On November 27 and 28, many cloves are
traded. The governor of the island of Machian comes to the ships on
November 29, but refuses to land, as his father and brother are living
in exile at Tidore (a curious evidence of Oriental government customs).
The king proves his friendliness once more by returning them some of
their presents, as their stock had given out, in order that they might
give them to the governor. Again on December 2, the king leaves his
island to hasten their departure, and on the fifth and sixth the last
trading is done, the men in their eagerness bartering articles of
clothing for cloves. Then after many visits from the kings and chiefs
of the various Moluccas and other islands; after Lorosa, the
Portuguese, has come aboard, notwithstanding the efforts of one of the
Ternatan princes to seize him; and after the witnessing of various
ceremonies between the kings of Batchian and Tidore: the new sails are
bent to the yards, and the ships prepare to depart. Leaving the king of
Tidore certain of the artillery and powder captured with the junks, and
their Bornean captives (having previously given him all their other
prisoners); and having made peace with various potentates of the region
roundabout: the “Victoria” lifts anchor and stands out to await the
“Trinidad.” The latter vessel, however, is unable to lift anchor,
and suddenly springs a leak. The “Victoria” puts back to port; the
“Trinidad” is lightened; but all endeavors to locate the leak are
unavailing. The king, solicitous lest his plans of future greatness go
astray, if the ships cannot return to Spain, is tireless in his
efforts, but his best divers are unable to accomplish anything. Finally
it is decided that the “Victoria” will take advantage of the winds
and return to Spain by way of the Cape of Good Hope, while the
“Trinidad,” after being overhauled will return by way of the
Isthmus of Panama. Having lightened the former vessel of sixty
quintales of cloves, as it is overladen, the ships separate,
forty-seven Europeans and thirteen natives sailing in the
“Victoria” and fifty-three men remaining with João Carvalho. Amid
tears from each side, the “Victoria” departs, and passing by the
island of Mare, where wood has been cut for them, soon stows the wood
aboard, and then takes its path among the numerous islands of the East
Indian archipelagoes. To Pigafetta, the world is indebted for the first
Malayan vocabulary, and for many descriptions of islands, peoples, and
products. Stopping occasionally at various islands, for fresh supplies
and wood, the “Victoria” picks its way toward the open Indian
Ocean, Pigafetta meanwhile plying the Malayan pilot with questions
regarding all the region, and learning much, partly true and partly
legendary, of various islands, China, Malacca, and the Indian coast.
Their longest stay is at Timur, where two men desert and which they
leave on Wednesday, February 11, 1522, passing to the south of Sumatra
for fear of the Portuguese. On the way to the cape, some, constrained
by hunger, wish to stop at the Portuguese settlement at Mozambique, but
the majority, loving honor more than life, decide that they must return
to Spain at all hazards. For nine weeks they are buffeted about the
cape, which is finally doubled in May, but only after the loss of a
mast. They sail for two months longer without fresh supplies, and
finally on Wednesday, July 9, reach Santiago, one of the Cape Verde
Islands. Sending a boat ashore, with a story invented to throw the
Portuguese off the scent, they are given two boatloads of rice for
their merchandise. They are surprised to find themselves out one day in
their reckoning, a fact that puzzles Pigafetta, until he finds out the
reason later, for he has been most sedulous in setting down the record
of each day. The boat with thirteen men returns once more, but the
secret leaks out in part, and the ship with only eighteen Europeans
(for twenty-one men, counting Europeans and Malays, have died since
leaving Timur, part of whom have been executed for their crimes),
hastily departs to avoid capture. On Saturday, September 6, the ship
enters San Lucar, with most of its crew sick, and on Monday, September
8, they are anchored once more at Seville. Next day, the men visit two
famous shrines in procession to give thanks for their return.
Pigafetta, still restless, goes to Valladolid, where he presents a book
to Cárlos I; to Portugal and France, where he tells his wonderful
experiences; and finally to Venice in Italy, where he proposes to pass
the remainder of his days.

Especially valuable to the student in Philippiniana is the short
description of the Philippines by Chao Ju-kua, who probably wrote in
the thirteenth century, more than a century before the first European
discovery. Chao Ju-kua’s information seems to have been obtained
personally from Chinese traders to the Philippines, and although very
imperfect and all too short, one can identify almost certainly the
islands of Luzón, Mindoro, Mindanao, Paragua, and the Visayas. The
people are slightly described; and various products of the islands are
given and trading methods described. The existence in the first-named
island of small statues of Buddha is interesting and probably points to
a long-continued intercourse between Chinese and Filipinos.

Guido de Lavezaris writes to Felipe II (May 30, 1565), referring
briefly to his participation in the Villalobos expedition, and his
subsequent journey to Spain to give information thereof; also his
participation in a Florida exploration expedition under Tristan de
Arellano. After aiding in the preparation of Legazpi’s fleet, he
sails with it as treasurer. He asks royal reward in behalf of his
services in introducing the ginger plant, which has thriven so
abundantly, into Nueva España; of which he has been cheated by
Francisco de Mendoca who had promised to negotiate it for him.
Legazpi’s expedition has reached the Philippines in sixty-four days,
and the Spaniards are now settled at Cebú, the best center of all that
region, first reaching that island April 27, 1565. Samples of gold,
wax, and cinnamon are sent to Spain; and supplies are urgently
requested for entrance must be effected by force of arms.

By the same vessel, Andrés de Mirandaola, the factor, writes to Felipe
II. The expedition reaches the Filipinas February 16, 1565. There is
much land thereabout included in the Spanish demarcation, but it may be
necessary to conquer it by force of arms in order to introduce the
Catholic religion, for the natives are a treacherous and warlike race.
The products yet ascertained are gold, wax, and cinnamon, and the trade
therein will increase if fostered by the Spaniards. Natives of the
Moluccas, in alliance with the Portuguese, have made a disastrous raid
in Bohol, where Legazpi remains for a few days, and have caused great
loss and consternation among the natives. Lavezaris and Mirandaola
explore a portion of Mindanao, where they ascertain the products and
trade relations, and make peace and trade relations with the chief of
Butuan; at which place they hear accounts of Borneo. The fleet goes to
Cebú, where they settle after a slight skirmish with the natives, with
whom after vexatious delays, peace and friendship are in a fair way to
be made. The Spaniards find there the Santo Niño and two culverins,
probably of the time of Magalhães. Cebú is densely populated with a
warlike and treacherous race. Urdaneta is returning in the ship which
is about to leave to find the return route, under command of Felipe de
Salcedo and Juan de Aguirre. Men and supplies are needed by the
colonists. Mirandaola asks royal confirmation of his office and an
increase in salary.

This is followed by a letter from Guido de Lavezaris (July 25, 1567),
in which reference is made to his letter of 1565 and his services. The
“San Geronimo” despatched from Nueva España in 1566, has arrived,
with news of the discovery of the return route, after a voyage flavored
with hardship and mutiny; Legazpi and the royal officials sending a
detailed relation. Mountains full of cinnamon have been found at Cauit
in Mindanao, but in order to be benefitted thereby, a settlement in
that region is necessary, and also as a menace to the Portuguese who
pass by there en route from Malacca to the Moluccas. Two Portuguese
ships anchor at Cebú July 10, 1567, with letters from Pereira, in
which the Spaniards are ordered to forsake their settlement and go to
India. Pereira has received orders to drive them from the land and is
even now on his way thither with nine ships and eight hundred soldiers.
The Portuguese together with the Ternatans have committed many
depredations among the Philippines. The natives of the rest of the
Moluccas are generally well disposed toward the Spanish; and the
Tidorans are compelled to pay an annual tribute to the Portuguese. The
Portuguese ships leave Cebú in thirteen days, but in that time,
Lavezaris has managed to borrow a map and navigation chart from them,
of which he copies the portion of the land in the Spanish demarcation.
This he encloses with his letter.

The following day, July 26, the royal officials write to the king,
giving somewhat more detailed information on some points than Lavezaris
has done. The Cebuans and other natives make peace with Legazpi after
the departure of the “San Pedro” in 1565, but they are a faithless
race, who easily abandon their homes on the show of force. Legazpi
wisely refrains from war with them, and consequently the colonists are
still alive. The cinnamon obtained in barter is about to be sent to
Nueva España. Mindanao, which has gold, has been taken possession of
for Spain. Cebú has been visited by Moros from Luzón and Mindoro, who
trade gold and rice for silver and pearls; and they report active trade
with the Chinese. A mutiny in Cebú, November 28, 1565, is quelled and
Legazpi mercifully pardons most of the offenders. The troubles and
mutinies of the “San Geronimo” are graphically related. Relations
with the Portuguese are discussed, in which it is seen that Legazpi
attempts to gain time. Goiti succeeds Mateo del Saz in the office of
master-of-camp because of the latter’s death. The royal officials ask
for an increase in salary, and state the need of men and supplies,
which are ill supplied from Nueva España. A beginning has been made in
the conversion; but for greater stability married colonists are needed.

Under date of July 8, 1569, Martin de Rada, O.S.A., writes to the
viceroy of Nueva España, the marquis of Falces, congratulating him on
his appointment. He gives various data in regard to the islands of
Luzón, Borneo, Panay, and Mindanao. The wealthy village of Manila is
only seventy leguas from Cebú. Gold is very abundant throughout the
islands and is possessed by all the natives, but they never mine more
than will suffice for their immediate wants. Merchants from Luzón,
Borneo, and Joló go through the islands constantly seeking gold and
slaves. The natives are arrogant and the rule is one of might, for they
have no real rulers. Soldiers are not needed to conquer the land; they
have done much damage, and the natives are afraid of them, so much so
that they abandon villages at their approach. The natives are mostly
heathens, although there are some Moros; and they could be easily
converted. Legazpi is to blame for his inaction. More harmony is
needed. Notwithstanding the abundance of supplies in the islands,
famine prevails. There are no boats with which to get out the valuable
and abundant timber. A settlement in the Philippines is necessary if
the Spanish king desires to conquer China. The religious have not yet
begun to baptize in earnest because they are uncertain whether the
colony is to be permanent.

Diego de Herrera, O.S.A., also writes (July 25, 1570) to Felipe II, in
somewhat the same vein, stating the need for governmental reform; for
men who understand warfare; and the bad treatment of natives by
Spaniards. He inveighs against the removal from Cebu, the strongest
site of the islands seen hitherto, to Panay, which is swampy and
unhealthful. He advises against the concession of the petition of the
Spaniards to allow them to plunder and enslave the Moros. The Moros of
Luzón are scarcely so more than in name and in abstinence from pork,
and are of very recent date. Those of Borneo are only slightly more
established and only live along the coast. Herrera petitions that
regular supplies be given the religious from Nueva España until the
Philippines furnish sufficient support. Although they have generally
refrained from baptism, because of their uncertainty as to the
permanence of their colony, they will, now that that uncertainty has
ceased, give themselves to the work.

This is followed by a series of documents bound together (1568–70)
consisting of royal communications to and concerning Legazpi. An
official letter bearing the king’s rubric (November 16, 1568) replies
to two letters of Legazpi written in 1567. He is ordered to continue
his policy in the islands. The matter of galleys will receive
consideration, as will the question of supplies, which will be sent
from Nueva España. He must attend carefully to the conversion of the
natives. Encomiendas may be assigned with certain reservations to the
crown. Moros may be enslaved if they try to preach Mahometanism. A
report on slavery among the Filipinos is to be sent to the royal
Council of the Indies. All the Portuguese among the colonists must be
sent to Spain as they are a menace to the new colony. By a document
dated August 6, 1569, Legazpi is granted the lieutenancy of a fort in
Cebú, and shall be received as such, and shall perform the duties
incumbent upon that office. On the fourteenth of the same month and
year, he is also granted by royal concession the title of governor of
the Ladrones. Legazpi is to take possession of the islands for Spain,
and he shall be received as governor and captain-general therein with
the ordinary powers, and perquisites, and a salary of two thousand
ducados. A document of the same date confers upon Legazpi the title of
adelantado of the Ladrones. Royal instructions of August 28, 1569,
consisting of twenty-two sections, outline the policy to be followed by
Legazpi in the Ladrones. These instructions cover such points as
colonization, treatment of the natives, fortification, religion and
conversion, civil government and public officers, industry, and trade.
The final document of the series concedes to Legazpi (August 29, 1570),
a grant of two thousand ducados.

The letter of Francisco de Ortega, O.S.A. (June 6, 1573), discusses
general conditions in the islands. Ortega narrates the death of Legazpi
on August 21, 1572, which is greatly deplored by all for his good
qualities and government. Juan de Salcedo has returned from
explorations in Luzon, during which he has circumnavigated the
island—the first to accomplish that feat. An expedition sent out by
Lavezaris fails to discover anything new, the soldiers only overrunning
the district formerly explored, where they commit many depredations on
the natives, many of whom are killed, while others flee before the
Spaniard. The present of gold sent to the king is wrung from the poor
natives and is only a trifle when compared to the vast expenses already
incurred in Legazpi’s expedition. The only just sources of profit
will be the cinnamon and the exploiting of the gold mines, and even
this will mean the destruction of the natives. The viceroy should not
trust only to what relation Juan Pacheco, who is going to Nueva
España, may give, for he is biassed in favor of the governor for
favors received. Authentic news and information may be had from Diego
de Herrera, who is going to Nueva España and Spain to report
concerning secular and ecclesiastical affairs. Ortega complains
bitterly of Lavezaris who is a man of bias and passion, and unfair to
the religious and the Indians and poor Spaniards. He should be retired
as he is over seventy years of age. He has done wrong in regranting
vacant encomiendas that had reverted to the crown, which is contrasted
strongly with Legazpi’s steadfast refusal to do so. The population of
the island has been greatly overestimated. If a new governor is not
appointed, an efficient visitor should at least be sent. Ortega lauds
Juan de Salcedo and Juan de Moron (the latter of whom has been sent
under unjust arrest to Nueva España) and asks rewards for them. He
bewails the fact that the Chinese exploration planned by Legazpi and so
desired by the religious has not been carried out mainly because of the
opposition of Lavezaris and his friend. He offers himself anew to
accompany the expedition if it is reorganized, and suggests the
exploration of the island of Cauchill, which belongs to China, and has
a rich export trade in pepper and Moluccan cloves.

At about the same time as the above letter, must have been written the
undated memoranda for Diego de Herrera who sails for Nueva España in
1573 to inform the king of various abuses, and to report on the
islands, and make various requests. The memoranda paint the condition
of the conquest in the darkest colors, dilating on the cruelty of the
Spaniards, which has caused the name of Spaniard to be hated by the
Filipino. Justice is almost an unknown quality, and sentences are
adjudged in favor of him who pays most. Retaliation for injuries
inflicted by the Filipinos is the order of the day, without any heed as
to whether the guilty person is punished or not. Many raids are made;
and the land is divided into encomiendas, although not yet pacified.
The encomenderos only bleed, but do not protect their natives. Slavery
is common among the natives and for various reasons, and the Spaniards
are quick to make use of the institution unjustly. Various requests,
some for reform, are to be made. Above all the wrong to the natives
should be corrected, and an investigation made regarding the slaves
held unjustly. Honest men should be sent to inspect conditions. Two
hospitals are needed, and religious are extremely necessary. Two
secular priests are requested to look after the Spaniards. If the
Chinese expedition is despatched, the Augustinians wish to be
preferred. Aid is needed for the support of the religious. If slavery
is allowed various measures are needed regulating it, and the final
word regarding slaves should be said by the religious. Natives should
not be taken on raids against their will. The chief products of the
islands are gold, pearls, spices, and drugs, and the nearby mainlands
are rich.

Under date of June 30, 1574, Martin de Rada, O.S.A., writes the viceroy
of Nueva España, discussing events and conditions among the Spaniards
and Filipinos. He also draws a dark picture of the rapacity of the
Spaniards, who molest the Filipinos by unjust raids and excessive
demands for tribute. An expedition made to the Bicol River and
Camarines by Salcedo and Chaves has met success only after considerable
opposition from the natives who are the bravest of Luzón, and who meet
heavy losses in consequence. Chaves is left in Ilocos with a small band
to effect a colony. Rada encloses a copy of his “Opinion” regarding
tributes. Notwithstanding contrary reports, the islands are but
slightly pacified; the natives are restless and piracy is frequent.
Unjust wars are waged upon the natives, notwithstanding that the
Spaniards attempt to shield themselves behind Urdaneta and Rada. The
entrance into Manila was a travesty on justice. The governor takes and
solicits bribes, and pays but little attention to the natives. Rada
retains those religious who wish to return to Nueva España because of
the general conditions. An epidemic of smallpox has spared “neither
childhood, youth, nor old age,” and many have died. The document
closes with a recital of the classes and causes of slavery among the
natives in which many characteristics of the Filipinos are mentioned.

In a letter to Felipe II from the royal officials (July 17, 1574), the
king is congratulated on the birth of a son, to whom a present is sent,
and also on the great battle of Lepanto won over the Turks by Don Juan
of Austria. Ilocos has been divided into encomiendas, while Camarines
has been explored and pacified and the land is to be assigned. An
attack from Borneo was expected in 1573, but late reports are to the
effect that that king desires friendship with the Spaniards. A chief of
Mindanao has also signified his desire for peace. There is a steady
trade with China, but the Chinese cargoes do not prove very valuable.
The king is asked to reorganize commercial communication with Spain and
allow private vessels. Cinnamon is abundant, although but little can be
shipped for lack of space. Dire need prevails throughout the islands,
which is not relieved by the royal officials of Mexico, as they claim
to be without royal commission for it. Legazpi had failed to show
certain royal decrees, and the king is asked to order the governor not
to meddle with the affairs of the royal officials. The trouble with the
Augustinians over the tribute is related from the standpoint of the
royal officials, the Augustinians going so far as to assert that the
king has no legal title in the islands. However, the tribute is being
collected on the lines laid out by Legazpi. The officials (Cauchela and
Aldave, for Mirandaola has been sent under arrest to Nueva España)
petition an increase of salary; and Aldave the confirmation of his
appointment as treasurer, given him because of Lavezaris’s
appointment to the governorship.

Hernando Riquel, governmental notary, gives (June 2, 1576) a list of
encomiendas assigned by Legazpi. These include the islands of Cebú,
Panay, Mindanao, Leyte, Luzón, Mindoro, Lubán, Elin, Imarás, Masbat,
Capul, Mazagua, Maripipi, Camiguinin, Tablas, Cubuyan, Bohol,
Bantayán, Marenduque, Donblón (Romblón), Bantón, and Negros. Many
of the names of the early conquistadors are given, and the document
possesses value as it denotes early attempts at estimation of
population, although those estimates are only vague and very
inadequate.

Loarca’s letter of June 15, 1580, complaining of the enmity of
Governor Sande, who hates him because he went on the Chinese expedition
by order of Lavezaris, while he (Sande) was inside the islands,
complains that false reports are sent regarding the conquests, and
hence there is a waste of money. He fears to be too specific in his
letter lest his letters go astray. He asks for aid, for he has received
no salary for some years, and has even spent his own money for public
purposes, and has become poor.

In the name of all his brethren, Pablo de Jesus, soon to be elected
custodian of the Franciscans in Manila, writes (June 18, 1580) to Pope
Gregory XIII a letter (partly doctrinal), giving account of the voyage
of the first Franciscan missionaries to the Philippines. On the journey
thither a short halt is made at one of the Ladrones, of whose
inhabitants the father gives a brief description. At Manila the
Augustinians, hitherto the sole religious order in the islands, give
them a hearty welcome, but report discouraging progress among the
aborigines. Undaunted however, the new missionaries set to work with a
will and soon obtain marked results. The evil influence of
Mahometanism, which has entered by way of Borneo has made itself felt
among some of the natives, but yet with a sufficient supply of
missionaries, the Filipinos, whose customs (social and religious) are
briefly described, would soon be converted to the faith. The first
Franciscan expedition to China, under the guidance of Pedro de Alfaro,
which left Manila, May 20, 1579, is also described, and the Chinese
characterized. Pablo de Jesus begs the pope to order the authorities in
Manila to cease offering obstructions to those religious who desire to
go to China to evangelize that great empire.

On October 17, 1581, a council of various religious assembled by Bishop
Salazar to discuss the question of the liberation of native slaves held
by Spaniards, which has been ordered by a royal decree decide: 1. That
an old decree of 1530 prohibits the Spaniards to enslave the natives of
the Indies; and that that decree was sufficient by itself to cause all
slaves to be freed. Consequently, the new decree must be obeyed. 2.
There is not any just reason for awaiting a new order because of
petition, for such petition is only a subterfuge to gain time and
postpone the liberation of the slaves. 3. The slaves must be freed
immediately, although they may be ordered to remain with their masters
for twenty or thirty days, in order to give the latter time to adapt
themselves to the sudden change.

Of distinct ecclesiastical as well as historical interest is Bishop
Salazar’s document of December 21, 1581, creating and establishing
the cathedral church of Manila. He provides for the appointment of the
various ecclesiastical offices, such as dean, archdeacon, chanter,
schoolmaster, treasurer, canons, prebendaries, racioneros,
half-racioneros, acolytes, chaplains, sacristan, organist, beadle,
econome, notary of the chapter, and the peculiar office of dog-catcher,
and outlines the duties of all and names the salary each is to receive.
Much of interest is said on the subject of tithes and revenues,
benefices, the various parish churches that exist or may be
established, and their priests, the failure of duty of any official,
chapter meetings (which must occur twice each week), church services,
etc. A question to assume vast proportions later, namely, the royal
patronage, presentation for benefices, and the episcopal jurisdiction
also receives mention. This document presents in germ the
ecclesiastical government of Manila.

Antonio Sedeño, S. J., one of the first of his order to come to the
Philippines (he having accompanied Bishop Salazar, in company with one
other priest—Alonso Sanchez—and two lay-brothers), writes to Felipe
II, June 17, 1583, requesting that the governor be appointed from a
resident of the islands, instead of sending a new man from Spain to
fill that post. Thereby will great occasion for graft be avoided, and
the royal expenses be greatly reduced, while the whole land will
benefit. He suggests the appointment of Juan Baptista Roman, the
factor, a prudent man, who has always opposed wrong. He also requests
permission to found a seminary in order that the Jesuits may remain in
the country and fulfil their obligations; and royal aid for such
foundation.

One day after the date of the above letter (June 18), the bishop
Domingo de Salazar writes to Felipe II, urging the establishment of a
Jesuit college by royal aid, because of the great advantage that will
ensue therefrom. He mentions in general the same reasons for such
establishment as are urged by Sedeño; and dwells upon the saving to
the royal treasury and the advantage to the land at large. He asks that
districts be divided justly among the religious and seculars, and that
the members of no order preempt a larger territory than they can attend
to. This has caused friction between himself and the religious, which
will be eliminated by a royal order to the above effect.

An anonymous relation translated from a printed pamphlet, which bears
neither place nor date, follows. Internal evidence shows it to have
been written by a religious—Augustinian, Franciscan, or Jesuit,
preferably the second—and before 1587 (the year of the arrival of the
Dominicans), notwithstanding that the British Museum copy (whence our
transcript was procured) queries the date 1595. This relation contains
many valuable observations on the islands, and their people, products,
and history. The greater part of it consists of a description of the
four provinces of Luzón, viz., that of the Tagalogs and Pampangos,
Ilocos, Cagayan, and Camarines. The author mentions the important fact
that the Tagálogs are mistakenly called Moros, but they are not and
have never been Moros. Continuing his relation, the religious describes
Borneo briefly and gives the salient points of Sande’s campaign
there. The Visayans and their islands are touched upon, some little
space being devoted to the first Spanish settlement at Cebú, whence
the Spaniards move to Panay after the negotiations with and assault by
the Portuguese under Pereira. More men and religious are needed to
develop the Philippines and to christianize them thoroughly.

The factor, Juan Baptista Roman, writes to Felipe II (July 2, 1588),
relating the chief events of Thomas Candish’s memorable expedition
through a portion of the Philippine archipelago. He complains bitterly
of the apathy of the governor in not pursuing the English pirate, who
is only 22 or 23 years old, and says that good time is wasted by
attempting to strengthen the city of Manila to the abandonment of all
idea of pursuit. He suggests means by which such expeditions may be
rendered impossible in the future. The usual cry of inefficient
administration and useless expense is made, as an offset to which Roman
proposes the encouragement of private shipping instead of the use of
the royal vessels therefor, by means of which the governor, who engages
in trade on his own account, becomes rich at the expense and loss of
the royal treasury. Finally, the stone fort being built at Manila is
useless as it is old style and incapable of defending the city.

Gomez Perez Dasmariñas in a letter to either the viceroy of Nueva
España or some high official in Spain (June 21, 1591) devotes himself
almost entirely to military affairs. He has introduced system and
discipline where it was lacking before, and has built a barracks for
the soldiers. He complains greatly of the insubordination of the
soldiers there before his arrival and the bad example that they furnish
to the new soldiers. He has also constructed a stone wall about the
city, which gives an appearance of stability and renders the city
secure. He asks that he be allowed to reward the services of gentlemen
and soldiers who have accompanied him. The provinces of Zambales and
Cagayan, which were in revolt have been pacified, and Dasmariñas
suggests the advisability of a Spanish colony in the latter, on account
of its proximity to China, and its good harbor. He is having
considerable trouble with the bishop and friars who oppose him in
everything, and act as though they were the rulers of the country.

In 1599, a series of three documents concerning the procuratorship of
Tomás Marquez, of the Philippines, and the methods of the Spanish
provincials of the Augustinian Order, and addressed to the pope (then
Clement VIII), shows well the political means employed by the
Augustinians in Spain in their efforts to retain in their own hands the
balance of power as over against that of the Augustinians of the
Spanish provinces. The first is a short petition from the above father
praying that he be restored to his position as procurator-general of
the Philippines, of which he has been deprived by the Spanish
provincial, and that he be allowed to take to the islands those of his
order who desire to accompany him. The second paper has also the same
end as the first, but is more specific, as it gives more at length the
various methods employed by the Spanish provincials. Marquez prays that
the order in the Philippines be subject only to the general of the
whole order and not to the Spanish provincials, who claim jurisdiction
as vicars-general. The Spanish provincials endeavor to govern the order
in the Philippines and other provinces of the Indies, not for the good
of the whole order, but for their own interests, using therein methods
that are contrary to the constitution and laws of the order, and, in
addition, wrong morally. The offscourings of the Spanish convents are
sent to the islands instead of men fitted for the task, and those of
the latter class who desire are not permitted to go. The third document
is evidently the report of the nuncio, and gives the reasons why the
Augustinian provinces of the Indies are not subject to the provincials
of Spain, but only to the general of the whole order. The pretext upon
which the Spanish province urges leadership is the fact that the first
Augustinian establishment in the New World was under its auspices.
Since ordered to resign all rights to the office of vicar-general by
the general chapter of Rome 1592, the provincial has done so.

The king, by a royal decree of January 17, 1593, addressed to Bishop
Salazar, notifies him that the governor has been ordered to take
possession of the hospitals for the natives in Manila in accordance
with the king’s right as patron of the hospitals.

Ecclesiastical matters are discussed in a letter from the Manila
ecclesiastical cabildo to Felipe III (July 3, 1602). The royal
Audiencia is trying to force the ecclesiastical judge to make arrests
by its aid; but such a course would involve much time and expense to
the wretched Indian, whose case as now conducted by the ecclesiastical
judge is summarily completed, while recourse to the Audiencia would
bring into play all the slow legal machinery. Such ecclesiastical
arrests are only made in order to correct sin. Some of the religious
orders in Manila claim royal concession for universities and
appointments therein. Such a course would be unfair to the seculars,
for even now the religious have all the best things, and if they found
universities, the seculars will have nothing to which to aspire, while
the lure of an appointment to a professorship would cause them to take
heart and study hard, so that the cathedral would always have men of
learning. The Jesuits desire to use the money restored from the
tributes collected by the encomenderos, as a result of Salazar’s
contentions, for the founding of a hospital. Such use would divert it
from its true employment—the ransoming of Filipino captives and the
aiding of their hospitals, and therefore the cabildo petitions that the
request be not acceded to. The Jesuits are trying to obtain the
ecclesiastical jurisdiction of a town opposite Manila (which is now
administered by a secular cura) where they have some years before
bought an estate, and have been gradually acquiring all the land which
they have rented to the Chinese. In addition the Jesuits are also
attempting to obtain the spiritual administration of San Miguel, a
small village outside Manila, now administered by seculars. The cabildo
petitions that the curas now in charge of these two places be allowed
to retain them. The Augustinians have also been guilty of depriving the
seculars of their jurisdiction in Cavite and in the chapel of Nuestra
Señora de Guia. And so unbridled are they that they resist the visitor
sent out by their own order. The Franciscans, in spite of their
humility, have built a church at Dilao on their own authority. Thus the
royal patronage is transcended, and the governor has been cognizant
thereto, through his partiality to the orders. The cabildo asks that
the alms generally given to the religious be also granted to the
cathedral, for it is very poor. In the cathedral is a bench for the
wives of the auditors and another for the officials of the Holy
Office—both unusual in other cathedrals. The bench belonging to the
Holy Office has led to the excommunication of one of the canons of the
cathedral who moved it one day, through the passion engendered in the
commissary, a Dominican religious. The cabildo asks that both benches
be removed, and that justice be shown them, as they are unable to send
anyone to Spain to plead their case, as do the religious.

The condition of the redoubt or fort of Manila is discussed in a letter
to Felipe III by its castellan Bernardino Maldonado (June 21, 1605).
Many interesting deductions as to the social and economic conditions of
Manila can be made from this document. Like so many other documents,
this is one of complaint and shows the inefficiency of the government.
The fort is poorly garrisoned and almost neglected in spite of its
importance (as it is used as the arsenal) and the efforts of its
castellan. The garrison is only of fifty men (although Tello had
promised to increase it at the earnest solicitation of Maldonado) and
those are the offscourings of the camp. A lieutenant appointed has to
enter suit in order to receive his pay. The artillerymen should live in
the fort and should not be taken elsewhere, and should be experienced
men, and not those who receive appointments through favor. Tello has
used part of the artillery against Oliver van Noordt, and it was in
consequence lost, and now Acuña proposes to take a portion of the few
pieces left on his Maluco expedition. Maldonado’s efforts to prepare
for the feared Chinese insurrection of 1603 were not encouraging, and
he was quite unable to obtain food, and was even compelled to aid the
other soldiers with what little he did have. Since that insurrection,
the Chinese merchants have come to the city each year, and have been
housed partly in the city among the inhabitants, as their alcaicería
was burned, although the Parián is now rebuilt. Maldonado complains of
the companies formed from Filipinos in whom he sees grave danger. The
soldiers of the fort are ill paid, and inasmuch as they are permanently
in the fort and make no raids, as do the other soldiers, they suffer
considerably. Consequently, Maldonado asks that they be paid first, and
that their pay of six reals be raised. Arms are needed, especially
arquebuses and muskets. Finally Maldonado mentions his own services and
asks for various rewards for his faithfulness.


    The Editors

    January, 1906.







PRIMO VIAGGIO INTORNO AL MONDO

(concluded)

By Antonio Pigafetta. MS. composed ca. 1525, of events of 1519–1522


    Source: Our transcript is made from the original document which
    exists in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan, Italy.

    Translation: This is made by James Alexander Robertson.





[PRIMO VIAGGIO INTORNO AL MONDO]

(Continued from Vol. XXXIII, page 266.)


Sul tardi deL medeſimo giorno vene in vno prao pietro alfonſo
portugheſe et non eſſendo anchora deſmontato iL re lo mando a
chiamare et ridendo diſegli se lui ben era de tarennate ne diceſſe
la verita de tuto quello q̃ li domandaſſem    Coſtui dice Como Ja
ſedize anny ſtaua nela Jndia ma x in maluco et tante erano q̃ maluco
ſtaua deſcoperto ascoſamente et era vno anno mancho quindici giornj
che venne vna naue grande de malaca quiui et ſe partite caricata de
garofali ma ꝓ li mali tempi reſto in bandan alquanti meſi delaqalle
era capo triſtan de meneses portughese et Como lui li demando que noue
erano adeſſo in chriſtianitatte li diſſe como era partita vna
armata de cinque nauj de ſiuiglia ꝓ deſcoprire maluco in nome deL
re deſpagnia eſsendo capitano fernando de magallianes portugheſe et
como lo re de portugallo ꝓ diſpecto q̃ vno portugueſe lifoſſe
conta hauea mandatte alquante naue aL capo de bonna ſperanſa et altre
tante aL capo de ſancta maria doue ſtanno li Canibali ꝓ vietargli
lo paſſo et Como nõ lo trouo poy il re de portagalo haueua Jnteſo
Como lo dicto capitanio haueua paſſato ꝓ vno alto mare et andaua
amalucho Subito ſcriſſe aL ſuo capo magiore de la india chiamato
diego lopes de ſichera mãdaſſe ſey naue amaluco me ꝓ cauſa del
grã turco che veniua amalacha nõ le mande ꝓ che li fu forſa
mandare Contra lui ſexanta velle aL ſtreto deLa mehca nella tera de
Juda liqalli non trouorono alto ſolum alcãte gallere in ſeco nela
riua de qella forte et bella cita de adem leqalle tucte
bruſorono[_]dopo Queſto mandaua contro anuy amalucho vno grã galeõe
con due mani de bombarde ma ꝓ certi baſſi et corenti de hacqua che
ſonno circa malaca et venti Contrarj non puoto paſſare et torno in
drieto Lo capo de queſto galiõe era franco faria portugheſe et Como
erano poqi giornj q̃ vna Carauella cõ dui Jonci erano ſtati quiui
ꝓ Jntendere de nui li Junci andarono abachian ꝓ caricare garofali
cõ ſette portugheſi Queſti portugheſi ꝓ nõ hauer̃ reſpecto
ale donne deL re et de li ſuoi lo re li diſce piu volte nõ
faceſſero taL coſa ma loro nõ volendo reſtare furono amazati
Quando qelli de la Carauella intezero queſto ſubito tornorono a
malaca et laſciarono li Junci cõ catrocento bahar de garofali et
tanta mercantia ꝓ comperar̃ cento alti bahar et Como ogni anno molti
Junci veneno de malaca abandan ꝓ pigliare matia et noſce moſcade et
da bandan amalucho ꝓ garofali et como queſti populi vanno cõ
queſti ſui Junci da maluco a bandan in tre giornj et de bandan
amalaca in quĩdici et como lo re de portagalo Ja x anny godeua malucho
aſcoſamente acio lo re deſpagnia noL ſapeſſe    coſtui ſtete
cõ nuy alti inſino a tre hore de nocte et diſcene molte altre coſe
operaſſemo tanto q̃ coſtui ꝓmetendolj bõ ſoldo ne ꝓmiſſe de
venire cõ nuy in ſpagnia.

Vennere a Quindici de nouembre il re ne diſce como andaua abachian ꝓ
pigliar̃ de qelli garofali laſsati da li portugueſi    ne dimando
duy pñti ꝓ darli ali dui gubernatorj de mutir in nome deL re
deſpagnia et paſſando per mezo de le naui volſe vedere Como
tirauão li ſchiopeti li baleſtre et li verſi q̃ ſono magiori duno
arcubuſo    tiro lui tre volti de baleſtra ꝓ chi li piaceua piu q̃
li ſchiopeti    Sabato lo re moro de giailolo vene ale naui con molti
prao alqualle donaſcemo vno ſayo de domaſcho ꝟde dui bracia de
panne roſſo ſpechi forfice cortelli petini et dui bichery dorati
ne diſce poi q̃ eramo amici deL re de tadore eramo anchora ſoi ꝓ
che amaualo Como ꝓpio ſuo figliolo et ſe may alguno deli noſti
andaſſeno in ſua terra li farebe grandiſſimo honnore    Queſto re
emolto vechio et temuto ꝓ tutte queſte yſole ꝓ eſſere molto
potente et chia maſſe raia Jussu    Queſta yſola de Jayalolo e
tanto grando que tardano catro meſi a circundarla cõ vno prao.
Domenicha matina queſto medeſimo re venne ale naui et volſe vedere
in que modo combateuão et como ſcaricauamo le nr̃e bombarde dilque
piglio grandiſſimo piacer̃ et ſubito ſe parti   Coſtui Como ne fu
detto era ſtato nela ſua Jouenta grã Combatitor̃.

NeL medeſimo giorno anday in terra ꝓ vedere Como naſcheuano li
garofali    Lo arburo ſuo he alto et groſſo Como vno homo
altrauerſo et piu et meno    li ſui ramj ſpandeno alquante largo neL
mezo ma neL fine fanno in mo do de vna cima    la ſuo foglia e como
qella deL lauro    la ſcorſa e oliuaſta    ly garofoli veneno Jn
cima de li ramiti diece ho vinti inſiemi   Queſti arbory fanno
ſempre caſi piu duna banda q̃ de lalta Segondo li tempi Quando
naſcono li garofali ſonno bianqi maturj roſſi et ſecqi negri
ſe cogleno due volte alanno vna dela natiuita deL nr̃o redemptore
[Quando lanno e piu: crossed out in original MS.] lalta in qella de sto
Johã bapta ꝓ che in queſti dui tempi e piu temperato larie ma piu
in qella deL nr̃o redemptore Quando lanno e piu caldo et cõ mancho
piogie et coglienno trecento et quatrocento bahar    in ogni vna de
queſte yſolle naſcono ſolamẽte neli monti et ſe alguni de
queſti arborj ſonno piantati aL pianno apreſſo li monti nõ viueno
  la ſuo foglia la ſcorza et il legnio ꝟde et coſi forte como li
garofoli    ſe non ſi coglieno quãdo ſonno maturi diuentano grandi
et tanti duri q̃ non e bono alto de loro ſinon la ſua ſcorſa nõ
naſcono aL mondo alti garofali ſinon in cinque mõti de queſte
cinque yſolle ſe ne trouano ben alguni in giailolo et in vna yſola
picola fra tadore et mutir detta mare ma non ſonno buoni    Vede uamo
nuy caſi ogni giorno vna nebula diſcendere et circundare mo luno mo
lalto de queſti monti ꝓ ilque li garofoli diuentano ꝓfecti
Ciaſcuno de queſti populi anno de queſti arbori et ogni vno
cuſtodiſcono li ſui ma non li coltiuano    Jn queſta yſola ſe
trouano alguni arbori de noce moſcada   larbore e como le noſtre
noguere et con le medeſime foglie la noce quando ſe coglie he grande
como vno Codognio picolo cõ qeL pelo et deL medeſimo colore   la ſua
pima ſcorza et groſſa como la verde dele nr̃e noce    Soto de
q̃ſta he vna tella ſotille Soto laqalle ſta la matia roſſisimo
riuolta intorno la Scorſa della noce et de dento da queſta e La noce
moſcade    le caſe de queſti populi Sonno facte como le altre ma non
cuſſi alte da terra et ſonno circunda te de canne in modo de uno
ſieue    queſte femine ſonno bructe et vano nude Como le altre con
qelli panny de ſcorca de arbore   fanno queſti panni intaL modo
piglianno vno pezo de ſcorſa et lo laſcianno nelacqua fin que
diuenta molle et poy lo bateno cõ legni et lo fanno longo et Largo
Como voleno diuenta como vno vello de ſeda cruda cõ certi filecti de
dento q̃ pareſta teſuto    mangiano panne de legnio de arbore como
la palma facto in queſto modo    piglianno vno pezo de queſto legnio
mole et li Cauano fuora certi ſpini negri longui poi Lo peſtanno et
coſi fanno Lo panne luzano quaſi ſolo ꝓ portare in mare et lo chia
mano ſaghu    Queſti homini vano nudi Como li alti ma ſonno tãto
geloſi dele ſue moglie che nõ voleuano andaſſemo nuj in terra cõ
Le braguet diſcoperte ꝓ che diceuano le ſue donne penſare nuy
ſemp̃ eſſere in ordine.

Ogni giorno veniuão de tarenate molte barche caricate de garofali ma
ꝓ che aſpectauamo il re nõ contractauamo alto ſinon victuuaglia
Queli de tarenate ſe lementauano molte ꝓ che nõ voleuamo
Contractare cõ loro    Domenicha de nocte a vinticato de nouembr̃
venendo aL luni Lo re vene ſuonando con qelle ſue borchie et
paſſando ꝓ mezo li naui diſca ricaſſemo molte bombarde    ne
diſſe in fine aquato giornj venirianno molty garofali    luni lo re
ne mando ſetecento et noranta vno cathili de garofali ſenza leuar La
tara    la tara e pigliare le ſpeciarie ꝓ mancho de qeL que pezanno
ꝓ che ogni giorno ſe ſechano piu    ꝓ eſſere li pimy garofali
haueuamo meſſi neli nauj diſcaricaſſemo molte bombarde    Quiui
chiamano li garofali ghomode in ſaranghani doue pigliaſſemo li dui
piloti bonghalauan et in malaca chianche.

Marti a vintiſei de nouembr̃ il re ne diſce como non era coſtume de
alguno re de partirſi de ſua yſola ma lui ſe era partito ꝓ amore
deL re de caſtiglia et per che andaſſemo piu preſto in ſpagnia et
retornaſſemo cõ tante naui q̃ poteſſemo vendicare la morte de
ſua padre q̃ fo amazato in vna Jſola chiamata buru et poi botato neL
mare et diſſenne Como era vzãſa quando li pimi garofali eranno
poſti nele naui o vero neli Junci lo re fare vno conuito aqellj dele
naui et pregare Lo ſuo dio li conduceſſi ſalui neLo ſuo porto et
anche lo volia far ꝓ cagiõe deL re de bachian et vno ſuo fratello
che veniuano ꝓ vizitarne faceua netareli vie   alguni de nui
penſando qalque tradimẽto ꝓ che quiui doue pigliauamo lacha
foreno amazati da certi de queſti aſcoſi neli boſchi tre
portugheſi de franco ſeranno et ꝓ che vedeuamo queſti Jndi
ſuſurare con li noſti preſoni, diceſſemo contra alquanti
volentoroſi de queſto conuito nõ ſi douere andare in terra ꝓ
conuiti ricordandogli deqeL alto tanto infelice     faceſſemo tanto
ſe concluſe de mandare dire aL re veniſſe preſto ne le nauj ꝓ
che voleuamo ſi partire et conſegniarli li catro homini ꝓmiſſi
con altre mercantie Jl re ſubito venne et Jntrando nele naui
diſſe adalungunj ſui cõ tanta fidutia entraua in queſte como nele
ſue caze. Ne diſſe eſere grandamẽte ſpauentato ꝓ volerne
partire coſi preſto eſendo il termine de Carigare le naui trenta
giornj et non eſerſi partito ꝓ farne algun maL ma ꝓ fornire piu
preſto li naui de garofoli et como nõ ſi doueuamo par tire alora ꝓ
non eſſere anchora lo tempo de nauigare ꝓ queſte yſolle et ꝓ li
molti baſſi ſe trouano zirca bandan et ꝓ che facilmente
hauereſemo potuto incontrarſi in qalque naui de portugheſi et ſe
pur era la nr̃a opigniõe de partirſi  alhora pigliaſsemo tute le
nr̃e merchadantie ꝓ che tucti li re circunuicini direbenno iL re de
tadore hauer̃ receuuti tanty pñti da vno ſi grã re et lui nõ
hauerli dato coſa alguna et penſarebẽo nuy eſſerſi partitj
ſinon ꝓ paura de qalque inganno et ſempre chiama rebenno lui ꝓ
vno traditor̃    poi fece portare lo ſuo alchoranno et pima baſan
dolo et metendoſelo catro o cinque volte ſoura lo capo et dicendo fra
ſe certe parolle, Quando fanno cuſſi Chiamano Zambahean,  diſſe in
pñtia de tucti q̃ Juraua ꝓ ala et ꝓ lo alcoranno haueua in mano
ſemp̃ volere eſſere fidelle amicho aL re deſpagnia    diſſe tuto
queſto caſi piangendo    per le ſue bone parolle le ꝓmeteſſemo
de aſpectare anchora quindici giornj   Alhora li deſſemo la firma
deL re et la bandera realle niente di meno Jntendeſſemo poy ꝓ buona
via alguni principali de queſte yſole hauerli dicto ne doueſſe
amazare ꝓ che farebe grandiſſimo piacere ali portugueſi et como
loro ꝓ donnarianno aqelli de bachian et iL re hauerli riſpo ſto non
lo faria ꝓ coſa alguna cognioſſendo Lo re deſpagnia et hauẽdone
data la ſua pace.

Mercore a vinteſette de nouembr̃ dopo diſnare lo re fece fare vn
bando a tutj qelli haueuano garofali li poteſſeno portare nele nauj
 tuto queſto gior no et lalto contrataſſemo garofoli cõ grã furia
  venner ſul tardi vene lo gouuernator̃ de machian con molti prao
nõ volſe deſmontare in tera ꝓche ſtauão iui ſuo padre et vno
ſuo fratello banditi da machian JL giorno ſequente lo nr̃o re cõ lo
gouuernator̃ Suo nepote entraronno nele naui    nuy ꝓ nõ hauer̃
piu panno ne mando alore tre bracia deL ſuo et neL dete loqalle con
altre coſſe donnaſſemo aL gouuernator̃ partendoſi ſe diſcarico
molte bombarde    dapoy lo re ne mando ſey bracia de panno roſſo
acio lo donnaſemo aL gouuernator̃ ſubito Lo li preſentaſſemo ꝓ
ilque ne ringratio molto et diſſe ne mandarebe  aſsay garofoli
Queſto gouuernatore ſe chiama humar et era forſi vinticinque anny.

Domenica pimo de decembre Queſto gouuernator̃ Se parti ne fu deto iL
re de tadore hauergli dato panny de ſeta et algune de qelle borchie
acio Cuſtuy piu preſto li mandaſſe li garofoli    luni iL re ando
fuora de la yſola ꝓ garofoli    mercore matina ꝓ eſſere giorno
de Sta. barbara et ꝓ la venuta deL re ſe deſcarico tuta
lartigliaria    la nocte Lo re venne ne la riua et volſe vedere Como
tirauamo li rochetti et bombi de fuoco dilque lo re piglio grã piacere
   Joue et vennere ſe Compero molti garofoli cuſſi nella cita como
nelle naui    ꝓ catro bracia de frizetto ne danão vno bahar de
garofoli    ꝓ due Cadenelle de Latonne q̃ valeuão vno marcello ne
detero cento libre de garofoli in fine ꝓ nõ hauer piu merchadantie
ogni vno li daua qi le cape eqi li ſagli et qi le Camiſe cõ altre
veſtimentj ꝓ hauer̃ La ſua quintalada     Sabato tre figlioli diL
re de tarenate con tre ſue moglie figliole deL nr̃o re et pietro
alfonſo portugheſi venironno ale nauj donaſſemo ogni vno deli tre
fratelli vn bichier de vetro dorato ale tre donne forfice et altre
coſe    Quando ſe partironno forenno ſcaricate molte bombarde poy
mandaſſemo in tera a la figliola deL nr̃o re Ja moglie diL re de
tarennatte molte coſe perche nõ volſe vegnire cõ le alte a le nauj
  tutta Queſta gente cuſſi homini Comme donne vanno ſempre
deſcalſi.

Domenica a octo di decembre ꝓ eſſere giorno dela Conſeptiõe ſe
ſcarico molte bonbarde Rocheti et bombe di fuoco    luni ſul tardi lo
re venne ale naui cõ tre femine li portauão il betre    alti non pone
menare ſeco donne ſe nõ iL re    dopo venne lo re de Jaialolo et
volſe vedere nuy vnalta fiata cõbatere inſieme    dopo alquanti
giornj il nr̃o re ne diſſe lui aſſimigliare vna fanciulo che
lattaſſe et cognioceſſe la ſua dulce madre et qella parten doſi
lo laſſiare ſolo magiormente lui reſtare deſcoſolato ꝓ che gia
ne haueua Cognioſſuto et guſtato alchune coſe di ſpagnia et ꝓ
che doueuão tardare molto aL retornare Cariſſamamente ne prego li
laſciaſſemo ꝓ ſua defentiõe alquanti de li [ſui: crossed out in
original MS.] ꝟſi nr̃i et ne auiſo Quanto foſſemo partiti
nauigaſſemo ſe non de giorno ꝓ li molti baſſi sonno in queſte
yſolle    li reſpondeſſemo ſe voleuão andar in ſpagnia nera
forſa nauigar̃ de giorno et de nocte    alhora diſſe farebe ꝓ nui
ogni giorno oratiõe aL ſuo ydio açio ne conduceſſe a ſaluamẽto
 et diſſene Como deueua venire le re de bachian ꝓ maritare vno ſuo
fratello cõ vno dele ſue figliole ne prego voleſſemo far alchuna
feſta in ſegnio dallegreza ma nõ ſcaricaſſemo le bombarde
groſſe ꝓ che farebenno grã danno ale nauj ꝓ eſſere carigate in
queſti giorni venne pietro alfonſo portugueſe Con la ſua donna et
tute le altre ſue coſe aſtare ne le naui    deli a duy giornj venne
ale naui chechili de roix figliolo deL re de tarennate in vn prao ben
fornito et diſſe aL portugueſe decendeſſe vn poco aL ſuo prao
li riſpoſe nõ li voleua diſcendere ꝓ che veniua noſco in
ſpagnia    Alhora lui volſe intrare nele naui ma nuy nõ lo volſemo
laſciar Jntrar̃ Coſtui ꝓ eſſere grãde amicho deL capo de malaca
portugheſe era venuto ꝓ pigliarlo et grido molto aqelli ſtantiauão
apreſſo iL portugueſe ꝓ cio Lo haueuão Laſciato partire ſenſa
ſua liſentia.

Domenica a quindici de decembre ſul tardi iL re de bachian et iL ſuo
fratello veni rono in vno prao cõ tre many de vogatorj ꝓ ogni banda
eranno tucti cento et vinti con molte bandiere de piuma de papagalo
bianque Jalle et roſſe et con molti ſoni de qelle borquie ꝓ que
aqueſto ſonny li vogatori voganno atempo et cõ dui alti prao de
donzelle ꝓ pñtarle a la ſpoſa    Quando paſſarono apreſſo li
naui li ſalutaſſemo con bonbarde et loro ꝓ ſalutarne circundorono
ly naui et iL porto    Jl re noſto ꝓ eſſere coſtume nungune re de
deſcendere ne le terre de altrui venne ꝓ congratularſe ſecho.
Quando iL re de bachian lo viſte venire ſe leuo daL tapeto oue
ſedeua et poſeſſi de vna banda iL nr̃o re non volſe ſedere
ſoura lo tapeto ma da lalta parte et coſi niuno ſtaua ſopa Lo
tapeto    iL re de bachian dete aL nr̃o re cinquecento patolle ꝓ che
deſſe ſua figliola ꝓ moglie aL ſuo fratello    Queſte patolle
ſonno panny de oro et de ſeta facti nela chijna et molti preciati fra
coſtoro.    Quando vno de queſti more li alti ſoi ꝓ farli piu
honnore Se veſtonno de queſti panny   danno ꝓ vno de queſti tre
bahar de garofali et piu et meno ſecondo q̃ ſonno.

Luni iL nr̃e re mando vno conuito aL re de bachian ꝓ cinquanta donne
tucte veſtite de panny de ſeta dela cinta fina aL genochio. Andauano
a due a due cõ vno homo in mezo de loro ogniuna portaua vno piato
grande pienno de altri piatelli de diuerſe viuande    li homini
portauão ſolamẽte Lo vino in vazi grandi      dieze donne dele piu
vechie eranno le maçiere    andaro no in queſto modo fina aL prao et
apreſentarono ogni coſa aL re q̃ ſede ua ſoura lo tapeto ſoto vno
baldachino roſſo et giallo   tornando coſtoro indie tro pigliarono
alguni deli nr̃j et ſe loro volſero eſſere liberi li biſognio
darli qalche ſua coſeta   Dopo queſto il re nr̃o ne mando capre
cochi vino et altre coſe    hogi meteſſemo le velle noue ale naui
neleqalle era vna croce de sto Jacobo de galitia cõ litere q̃
diceuão Queſta he la figura de la nr̃a bonna ventura.

Marti donaſſemo al nr̃o re certi pezi de artigliaria Como archibuſi
q̃ haueuão pigliati in queſta india et alguni verſi deli nr̃j cõ
cato barilli de poluer̃ pigliaſſemo quiui octanta botte de hacqua
ꝓ ciaſcuna naue    gia cinque giorni lo re haueua mandato cento
homini afare legnia ꝓ noy ala yſola de mare ꝓ che conueniuamo
paſſare ꝓ iui   ogi lo re de bachian cõ molti alti deli ſuoi
dicendete in terra ꝓ fare pace cõ nui    dinanzi de luy an dauano
quato homini cõ ſtochi driti in mano    diſſe in pñtia deL nr̃o
re et de tucti li alti Como ſempre ſtarebe in ſeruitio deL re
deſpagnia et ſaluaria in ſuo nome li garofoli laſciati dali
porthugueſi finque veni ſe vnalta nr̃a armata et may li darebe a
loro ſenza lo nr̃o conſentimẽto    mando adonare aL re deſpagnia
vno ſchiauo duy bahar de garofoli gli ne mandaua x male naui ꝓ
eſſere tropo Cargate nõ li poterono portar̃ et dui vcceli morti
beliſſimi    Queſti vcceli ſonno groſſi Como tordi    anno Lo
capo picolo cõ Lo becquo longo    le ſue gambe ſonno longue vn palmo
et ſotilli Como vn Calamo    non anno ale ma in loco de qelle penne
longue de diuerſi colori como gr̃a penachi    la ſua coda he como
qella deL tordo tute le altre ſue penne eccepto le alle ſonno deL
colore de taneto et may nõ volano ſenon Quando he vento    Coſtoro
ne dicero queſti vcceli venire daL paradiſo tereſtre et le chiamano
bolon diuata çioe vceli de dio    ognj vno deli re de maluco
ſcriſſero aL re deſpagnia q̃ ſemꝓ volenão eſerly Suy veri
ſubditi   JL re de bachian era forſi de ſetanta anny et haueua
queſta vzanſa    Quando voleua andare a Combatere ho vero a fare
qalche alta coſa importante pima ſil faceua fare due ho tre volte da
vno ſuo ſeruitor̃ che nol teniua adalto efecto ſinon ꝓ queſte.

Vn giorno il nr̃o re mando a dire aqelli nr̃i q̃ ſtauão nela caſa
de la merchã tia non andaſſero de nocte fora de caſa ꝓ certi deli
ſui homini que ſe ongeno et vano de nocte et parenno ſiano ſenza
capo Quando vno de queſti truoua vna deli alti li toca la mano et li
la ongie vn pocho dento    ſubito colui ſe infirma et fra tre o quato
giornj more et quando queſti trouano tre o cato inſieme nõ li fanno
alto male ſinon q̃ linbalordiſ cono et che lui ne haueua facto
impicare molti    Quando queſti po puli fanno vna caſa de nuouo pima
li vadanno ad habitare dento li fanno fuoco intorno et molti conuiti
poy atachano alteto de la caſa vn poco dogni coſa Se troua nela
yſola acio nõ poſſino may manchare taL coſe ali habitanti    in
tucte queſte yſole ſe troua gin gero noy lo mangiauamo ꝟde como
panne    lo gingero non e arbore ma vna pianta picola che pulula fuora
de la terra certi coresini lon gui vn palmo como qelle deli canne et
cõ le medeſime foglie ma piu ſtrecte queſti coreſini nõ valeno
niente ma la ſua radice he iL gengero et non e cuſſi forte verde
como ſecho Queſti populi lo ſechano in calſina ꝓ che altramente
non durarebe.

Mercore matina ꝓ voler ſe partire de malucho iL re de tadore QueL de
Jaialolo qeL de bachian et vno figliolo deL re de tarennate tucti erão
venuti ꝓ aCompagniarne infino aliſola de mare    la naue victoria
fece vela et diſcoſtoſi alquanto aſpectando la naue trinitade ma
qella non potendo leuare lanchora ſubito fece hacqua neL fondo    a
lhora la victoria torno aL ſuo luocho et ſubito Cominciamo a
ſcaricare La trinitade ꝓ vedere ſe poteuamo remediarli    ſi
ſentiua venire dento lacqua Como ꝓ vn canone et non trouauamo doue
La entraua    tuto ogi et el di ſeguente non faceſſemo alto ſinon
dare aLa bomba ma niente li Jouauamo    JL nr̃e re Jntendendo queſto
ſubito venne nela naue et ſe afatigo ꝓ vedere doue veniua lacqua
mãdo ne lacqua cinque de li ſuoy ꝓ vedere ſe haueſſeno potuto
trouare la ſfiſſura    ſteteno piu de meza hora soto lacqua et may
la trouarono    vedendo iL re coſtoro non potere Jouare et ogni ora
creſcere piu la hacqua diſſe caſi piangendo mandarebe aL capo de la
yſola ꝓ tre homini ſtauão molto ſoto hacqua Vennere matina a bona
hora venne lo nr̃o re cõ li tre hominj et preſto mandoli ne lacqua
con li capilli ſparſi açio cõ qelli trouaſſero lo ſfiſſura
Coſtoro ſtetero vna bonna hora ſoto hacqua et may la trouarono    iL
re quando viſte nõ poterli trouare remedio diſſe piangendo q̃
andaremo in ſpaga daL mio s. et darli noua dime    li reſpondeſſemo
li andarebe la victoria ꝓ non perdere li leuanti liqalli Cominciauão
   a la alta fin ſe conciaſſe eſpetarebe li ponenti et poy andaria
aL darien che e neL alta parte deL mare nela tera de diucatan    iL re
ne diſſe haueua duzento vinticinque marangonj q̃ farebeno il tuto et
li noſti q̃ reſtauão yui li tenirebe como ſui figlioli et non se
afaticarebeno ſe non dui in Comandare ali marangonj como doueſcero
fare dice ua queſte parolle cõ tanta paſionne q̃ ne fece tucti
piangere    nuy de la naue victoria dubitando ſe apariſſe la naue
ꝓ eſſere tropo cari cata la ligeriſſemo de ſexanta quintali de
garofoli et queſti face ſemo portare nela caſa doue eranno li alti
alguni de la nr̃a naue volſero reſtare quiui ꝓ paura q̃ la naue
non poteſſe durare fin in ſpagnia ma molto piu ꝓ paura de morire
de fame.

Sabato a vinti vno de decembre giorno de S thomaſo il re nr̃o venne
ale naui et ne conſignio li dui piloti haueuamo pagati ꝓ che ne
Conduceſſero fora de qʒſte yſolle et diſſeno Como alhora era bõ
tempo da partirſe ma ꝓ lo ſcriuere de li nr̃j in ſpagnia nõ ſi
partiſſemo ſinon amezo di    Venuta lora le naui pigliarono
liſentia luna de lalta con ſcaricare le bombarde et pareua loro
lamentarſi ꝓ la ſua vltima partita li nr̃j ne aCompagniarono vn
pocho cõ loro batello et poi cõ molte lagrime et abraciamentj ſi
diſpartiſſemo lo gouuernator̃ deL re venne cõ nuy infino a La
yſola deL mare    non fuſſemo coſſi preſto Jonti com parſeno
quato prao caricati de legnia et in mancho duna hora caricaſſemo la
naue et ſubito pigliaſſemo la via deL garbin   Quiui reſto Johan
caruaio cõ cinquanta tre ꝓſonne deli nr̃j nuy eramo quaranta
ſette et tredicj Jndj    Queſta yſola de tadore tenne epiſchopo et
alhora ne era vno Que haueua quarante moglie et aſsaiſſimi figlioli.

Jn tucte queſte yſolle de malucho ſe trouano garofoli genegero Sagu
qeL ſue panne di legnio riſo capre oche galine cochi figui mandolle
piu groſſe de le nr̃e pomi granati dolci et garbi naranci limonj
batate mele de ape picolle Como formicque leqalli fanno la melle neli
arbori Canne dolci olio de cocho et de giongioli Meloni Cocomari zucque
vno fructo refreſcatiuo grande como le angurie deto comulicai et vno
alto fructo caſi Como lo perſicho deto guaue et altre coſe da
mangiare et ſeli trouano papagali de diuerſi ſorte ma fra le altre
alguni bianchi chiamati Cathara et alguni tucti roſſi decti nori et
vno de queſti roſſi vale vn bahar de garofoli et parlano piu
chiaramente que li altri    Sonno forſi cinquanta anny Que Queſti
mori habitano in malucho    pima li habitauano gentilli et non
apreciauano li garofali gli ne ſono anchora alguni ma habitano ne li
monti doue naſcono li garofoli.

La yſola de tadore ſta de latitudine al polo articho in vintiſete
menutj et de longitudine de la linea de la repartitiõe in cento et
ſeſanta vna grado et longi de la pima yſola de Larcipelago detta
zanial [i.e., Zamal] noue gradi et mezo aLa carta deL meſo Jorno et
tramõtana ꝟſo grego et garbin tarenate ſta de latitudine alartico
in dui terſi    Mutir ſta pontualmente ſocto La linea equinoctialle
Machian ſta aL polo antarticho in vn quarto et bachiã ancora lui aL
antarticho in vn grado    Tarenate tadore mutir et machiã ſonno quato
monti alti et pontini oue naſcono li garofoli    eſsendo in queſte
quato yſolle non ſe vede bachian ma lui emagiore de ciaſcuno de
queſte quato yſolle et il ſuo monte de li garofoli non e cuſſi
pontino como li altri ma piu grande.


   Vocabuli de queſti populi morj

   AL ſuo ydio                  alla.
   AL xp̃iano                    naceran
   AL turco                     rumno
   AL moro                      muſulman Jsilam
   AL gentille                  caphre.
   AL ſue meſchite              Miſchit
   Ali ſui preti                maulana catip mudin
   Ali hominj sapientj          horan pandita
   Ali homini ſui deuotj        Moſsai.
   A le ſue ceremonie           zambahehan de ala meſchit
   AL padre                     bapa
   Ala madre                    mama ambui
   Al figliolo                  anach.
   AL fratello                  ſaudala.
   AL fratello de queſto        capatin muiadi
   AL germano                   ſaudala ſopopu
   AL auo                       niny
   AL ſocero                    minthua
   AL genero                    mi nanthu
   AL homo                      horan
   A la femina                  poran poan
   A li capili                  lambut
   AL capo                      capala
   AL fronte                    dai
   AL ochio                     matta
   Ale ciglie                   quilai
   Ale palpebre                 Cenin
   AL nazo                      Jdon
   Ala boca                     mulut
   Ali labri                    bebere.
   Ali denti                    gigi
   Ale gengiue                  Jssi.
   ALa lingua                   lada.
   AL palato                    langhi.
   AL mento                     aghai.
   Ala barba                    Janghut.
   Ali moſtaqi                  miſsai
   Ala macella                  pipi.
   ALa orechie                  talingha.
   ALa golla                    laher.
   AL colo                      tun dun.
   Ale ſpale                    balachan.
   AL peto                      dada.
   AL core                      Atti.
   ALa mamela                   ſussu.
   AL ſtomacho                  parut.
   AL corpo                     Tun dunbutu.
   AL membro                    botto.
   A la natura dele donne       bucchij.
   AL vzare cõ loro             amput.
   Ale nalghe                   buri.
   Ale coſcie                   taha.
   Ala gamba                    mina.
   AL ſchinquo de la gamba      tula.
   Ala ſua polpa                tilor chaci.
   ALa cauechia deL pie         buculali.
   AL calcagnia                 tumi.
   AL piede                     batis.
   Ale ſolle deL piede          empachaqi.
   Ala ongia                    Cuchu.
   AL bracio                    Langhan.
   AL gomedo                    ſichu.
   ALa mano                     tanghan.
   AL dito groſſo de la mano    Jdun tanghan.
   AL ſecondo                   tungu
   AL terſo                     geri.
   AL carto                     mani
   AL Quinto                    Calinchin
   AL rizo                      bugax.
   AL cocho in malucho et in
        burne                   Biazzao
   in Lozon                     nior
   in Jaua magiore              CalambiL
   AL figuo                     pizan.
   Ale canne dolce              tubu.
   Ale batate                   gumbili
   Ale radice como raui         ꝟbi
   Ale ciachare                 mandicai Sicui
   AL melone                    antimon.
   Ale angurie                  labu.
   ALa vacqua                   Lambu
   AL porco                     babi
   AL bophalo                   Carban.
   Ala pecora                   birj
   ALa capra                    Cambin.
   AL gaLo                      ſambunghan.
   Ala galina                   aiambatina
   AL caponne                   gubili
   AL ouo                       talor.
   AL occato                    Jtich
   Al ocqua                     anſa.
   Al vccelo                    bolon.
   Al elephante                 gagia.
   AL caualo                    cuda.
   AL leonne                    huriman
   AL ceruo                     roza.
   AL canne                     Cuiu
   Alle hape                    haermadu.
   Al melle                     gulla.
   Ala cera                     lelin.
   Ala candela                  dian.
   AL ſuo ſtopino               Sumbudian
   AL fuoco                     appi
   AL fumo                      aſap.
   Ala cenere                   abu.
   AL cucinato                  azap.
   AL molto cucinato            Lambech.
   AL hacqua                    tubi.
   AL oro                       amax
   AL argento                   pirac
   ALa pietra precioſa          premata
   ALa perla                    mutiara.
   AL argento viuo              raza
   AL metalo                    tumbaga
   AL fero                      baci.
   AL piombo                    tima
   Ale ſue borchie              agun.
   Alo cenaprio                 galuga ſadalinghan
   AL argento                   ſoliman danas
   AL panno de ſeta             cain Sutra
   AL panno roſſo               cain mira
   AL panno negro               cain ytam.
   AL panno biancho             cain pute
   AL panno verde               cain igao
   AL panno giallo              cain cunin
   AL bonnet                    cophia.
   AL cortello                  pixao
   ALa forfice                  guntin.
   AL ſpequio                   chiela min
   AL petine                    ſiſsir
   AL criſtalino                manich.
   AL ſonaglio                  giringirin
   AL annello                   ſinsin.
   Ali garopholi                ghianche.
   ALa cannela                  caiumanis
   AL peuere                    lada
   AL peuere longo              Sabi.
   Ala noce moſcada             buapala gosoga
   AL filo de ramo              Canot
   AL piato                     pinghan.
   Ala pigniata                 prin
   Ala ſcutela                  manchu.
   AL piato de legnio           dulan
   ALa conqua                   Caiunpan.
   Ale ſue meſure               Socat
   Ala terra                    buchit
   Ala tera ferma               buchit tana
   Ala montagnia                gonun.
   ALa pietra                   batu.
   AL yſola                     polan
   A vn capo de tera            taniun buchit
   AL fiume                     ſonghai.
   Como ſe chiama queſto        apenamaito
   AL oleo de cocho             Mignach.
   AL oleo de giongioli         lana lingha
   AL ſale                      garan Sira.
   AL muſchio et al ſuo animale caſtori
   AL legnio q̃ mangiã li
        caſtori                 Comaru
   ALa ſanſuga                  linta
   AL gibeto                    Jabat
   AL gato q̃ fa lo gibeto       Mozan
   Al reobarbaro                Calama
   AL demonio                   Saytan.
   Al mondo                     bumi
   AL fromẽto                   gandun
   AL dormire                   tidor.
   Ale ſtore                    ticaL
   Al cuſſino                   bantaL
   AL dolore                    ſachet
   A la ſanitate                bay
   Alla ſedola                  cupia
   AL ſparauentolo              chipas
   A li ſui panni               chebun.
   Ale camiſe                   bain
   Ale ſue caſe                 pati alam.
   AL anno                      tanu.
   AL meſe                      bullan.
   AL di                        alli
   Ala nocte                    mallan.
   AL tarde                     malamarj
   AL mezo di                   tam hahari.
   Ala matina                   patan patan.
   AL ſolle                     mata hari
   Ala luna                     bulan.
   Ala meza luna                tanam patbulã
   Ale ſtelle                   bintan
   AL ciello                    Languin
   AL trono                     gunthur
   Al merchadante               Sandgar
   Ale citade                   naghiri
   AL caſtello                  cuta
   ALa casa                     rinna
   AL ſedere                    duodo
   ſedeti gentilhomo            duodo orancaia
   ſedeti homo da benne         duodo. horandai et anan
   Signor                       tuan
   AL puto                      Cana cana
   A vno ſuo alieuo             Laſcar.
   AL ſchiauo                   a lipin.
   AL Si                        ca.
   AL no                        tida.
   AL intendere                 thao.
   AL non intendere             tida taho.
   non megardare                tida liat
   guardame                     liat
   A eſſere vna medeſina coſa   casjcasi. siama siama.
   AL mazare                    mati
   AL mangiare                  macan.
   AL cuchiaro                  Sandoch
   Ala magalda                  SondaL
   grande                       bassaL
   Longo                        pangian
   picolo                       chechiL
   Corto                        pandach
   AL hauere                    Ada
   AL nõ hauere                 tida ha da
   Signior aſcolta              tuan diam
   doue viene il Jonco          dimana ajun
   ALa guquia da cuſire         Jalun.
   AL cuſire                    banan.
   AL filo da cuſire            pintaL banan
   Ala ſcufia deL capo          daſtar capala.
   AL re                        raia
   ALa reyna                    putli
   AL legnio                    caiu
   AL Stentar                   Caraiar.
   AL Solaſſare                 buandala.
   A la venna deL bracio
        doue se ſalaſſa         vrat paratanghan.
   AL ſangue que vien fora
        deL bracio              dara CarnaL
   AL ſangue buona              dara.
   Quando ſtratuitano diceno    ebarasai
   AL pece                      ycam.
   AL polpo                     Calabutan.
   ALa carne                    dagin
   AL corniolo                  Cepot
   poco                         ſerich.
   Meso                         Satanha SapanghaL
   AL fredo                     dinghin
   AL caldo                     panas
   Longi                        Jan.
   Ala verita                   benar.
   Ala bugia                    duſta
   AL robare                    manchiuri
   Ala rognia                   Codis
   piglia                       na
   Dame                         ambiL
   graſſo                       gannich.
   magro                        golos.
   AL capelo                    tundun capala.
   Quanti                       barapa.
   Vna fiata                    ſatu chali
   Vno bracio                   dapa
   AL parlare                   catha.
   A quiui                      Siui
   Ala                          Sana datan.
   Bõ Jorno                     ſalamalichum.
   AL riſpondere                alichum ſalam.
   Signori bon pro vi facia     Mali horancaia macan.
   gia ho mangiato              Suda macan
   homo leuati deli             pandan chita horan.
   AL diſdisidare               banunchan.
   Buona ſera                   Sabalchaer.
   AL riſponder                 chaer Sandat
   AL dare                      minta
   A dare ad alguno             bri pocoL.
   Ali cepi de fero             balanghu
   o Como puza                  bosso chini
   AL homo Jouene               horan muda.
   AL vechio                    tua
   AL ſcriuano                  xiritoles
   Ala Carta                    Cartas
   AL ſcriuere                  mangurat
   Ala penna                    Calam.
   AL inchioſto                 dauat
   AL calamaro                  padantan.
   Ala letera                   ſurat
   Non lo ho                    guala.
   Vien qi                      Camarj
   Che volettj                  Appa man.
   Che mandati                  appa ito
   AL porto de mare             Labuan.
   Ala galia                    gurap
   ALa naue                     CapaL
   ALa proa                     aſſon.
   ALa popa                     biritan
   AL nauigare                  belaiar.
   AL ſuo arbore                tian.
   ALantena                     laiar.
   Alle ſartie                  tamira
   ALa vella                    leier.
   Ala gabia                    ſinbulaia.
   Ala corda de lancora         danda
   ALa anchora                  San.
   AL batello                   ſanpan.
   AL remo                      daiun
   Ala bombarda                 badiL
   AL vento                     anghin
   AL mare                      laut
   huomo vienqi                 horan itu datan
   A li ſui pugniali            Calix golog.
   AL ſuo manicho               daga nan.
   ALa ſpada                    padan gole.
   Ala zorobotana               Sumpitan
   Ale ſue freze                damach
   A lerba venenata             ypu
   AL carchaſſo                 bolo.
   AL archo                     bolsor.
   A le ſue freze               anat paan.
   A li gati                    cochin puchia
   AL ſorge                     ticus
   AL legoro                    buaia
   Ali vermi que mangiano le
        naui                    Capan lotos
   AL hamo da peſcare           matacanir
   Ala ſua eſcha                Vnpan.
   ALa corda deL hamo           tunda
   AL lauare                    mandi
   Non hauer paura              Tangan tacut
   Straca                       lala.
   Vno baſo dolce               Sadap manis
   AL amicho                    ſandara
   AL nemicho                   Sanbat
   Certo he                     zonhu
   AL merchadantare             biniaga
   Non ho                       anis.
   A eſſere amicho              pugna.
   due coſe                     Malupho.
   Si                           oue.
   AL rufo                      zoroan pagnoro.
   Adarce piacere               Mamain
   A eſſere agrizato            Amala.
   AL mato                      gila.
   AL interprete.               giorobaza.
   Quanti lingagi Sai           barapa bahasa tan.
   Molti                        bagna
   AL parlare de malaca         chiaramalain
   doue ſta cului               dimana horan
   ALa bandiera                 tonghoL
   Adeſſo                       Sacaran
   da matina                    hezoch.
   lalto giorno                 luza
   hieri                        Calamarj
   AL martelo palmo             colbasi.
   AL chiodo                    pacu
   AL mortaro                   Lozon.
   AL pilone da piſtare         Atan.
   AL balare                    manarj
   AL pagare                    baiar.
   AL chiamare                  panghiL
   A noneſſere maritato         Vgan.
   Aeſſere maritato             ſuda babini
   Tuto vno                     Sannia
   ALa piogia                   Vgian.
   AL ebriaco                   Moboch.
   Ala pelle                    culit
   Ala biſſa                    Vllat
   AL Conbater                  guzar.
   Dolce                        Manis
   Amaro                        azon.
   Como ſtai                    Appa giadi
   Benne                        bay
   Malle                        ſachet
   Portame qello                biriacan.
   Queſto huomo he vn poltrone. giadi hiat horan itu.
   Baſta                        ſuda


   li Venti


               Ala tramõtana    Jraga.
               Al mezo di       Salatan.
               AL leuante       timor
               AL ponente       baratapat
               AL griego        Vtara.
               AL garbin        berdaia.
               AL maeſtrale     bardaut
               AL ſiroco        tunghara.


   Numero

        Vno                     ſatus
        dui                     dua
        tre                     tiga
        catro                   ampat
        cinque                  lima.
        Sey                     anam.
        Sette                   tugu.
        octo                    duolappan.
        Noue                    ſambilan
        diece                   Sapolo.
        Vinti                   duapolo.
        trenta                  tigapolo
        Quaranta                ampatpolo.
        Cinquanta               limapolo.
        ſexanta                 Anampolo.
        ſettanta                Tuguppolo.
        octanta                 dualapanpolo.
        Nouanta                 Sambilampolo.
        Cento                   Saratus.
        duzendo                 duaratus
        trecento                tigaratus
        Quatro cento            Anamparatus
        Cinque cento            Limaratus
        Sey cento               anambratus
        ſetecento               Tugurattus
        octocento               dualapanratus
        Nouecento               Sambilanratus
        Mille                   Salibu.
        due millia              dualibu
        tre millia              tigalibu
        Quatro mille            ampatlibu
        Cinque millia           limalibu
        Sey millia              Anamlibu
        Sette millia            tugulibu
        octo millia             dualapanlibu
        Noue millia             Sambilanlibu.
        diece millia            Salacza.
        Vinti millia            dualacza.
        trenta millia           Tigalacza.
        Quarãta millia          Ampatlacza
        Cinquãta millia         limalacza
        Sesanta millia          Anamlacza
        Settanta millia         tugulacza
        octanta millia          dualapanlacza
        Nouanta millia          Sambilanlacza
        Cento mille             Sacati.
        Ducento millia          duacati
        trecento millia         Tigacati
        Quatro cento millia     Ampatcati
        Cinque cento millia     limacati
        ſey cento millia        Anamcati
        Setecento millia        Tugucati
        Octo cento millia       dualapancati
        Nouecento millia        Sambilancati
        Diece fiate cento
            millia              Sainta.


Tucti li cento li mille li diece mille li cento mille et diece fiate
cento mille se congiungenno cõ il numero de Satus et dua et &c.

Andando aL nr̃o camino paſaſſemo fra queſte yſolle Caioan laigoma
Sico giogi Caphi in queſta yſola de caphi naſcono homini picoli Como
li nanj piaceuoli liqalli Sonno li pigmei et ſtanno ſubiecti
ꝓforſa aL nr̃o re de tadore Laboan toliman Titameti bachian Ja deto
Lalalata Tabobi Maga et batutiga paſſando fuora aL ponente de
batutiga Caminaſſemo fra ponente et garbin et diſcoperſemo eL mezo
giorno alquante yſolete ꝓ ilque li piloti de malucho ne dicero ſe
ariuaſſe ꝓ cio ne caciauamo fra molte yſolle et bassi ariuaſſemo
aL Siroco et deſcemo in vna yſolla q̃ ſta de latitudine aL polo
antartico in dui gradi et cinquãta cinque legue Longi de maluco et
chiamaſſe ſulach    li homini de queſta ſonno gentili et non hanno
re    mangião carne humana vano nadi coſi homini Como femine ma
ſolamẽte portano vn pezo de ſcorſa larga dui diti intorno la ſua
ꝟgonia    Molte yſolle ſonno ꝓ Quiui que mangiano carne humana
li nomy de algune ſonno queſti Silan noselao biga atulabaou leitimor
tene tun gondia pailarurun manadan et benaia    poi coſtegiaſemo due
yſole dete lamatola et tenetun    da ſulach circa x. legue a La
medeſima via trouaſſemo vna yſola aſſay grande nelaqalle ſe
troua riſo porci capre galine cochi canne dolci Sagu vno ſuo mangiare
de fighi elqalle chiamano Chanali Chiachare aqueſte chiamão nangha le
chiachare ſonno fructi Como le angurie de fora nodoſe de dentro año
certi fructi roſſi pocoli come armelini non hanno oſſo ma ꝓ qello
hanno vna medola como vn fazolo ma piu grande et al mangiar tenere Como
caſtagnie et vn fructo facto como la pignia de fuora Jallo et biancho
de dentro et al tagliare Como vn pero ma piu tenero et molto megliore
deto Connilicai    la gente de queſta yſola vanno nudi Como qelli de
ſolach ſonno gentili et non hanno re   Queſta yſola ſta de
latitudine al polo antartico in tre gradi et mezo et longi da malucho
Setantacinque [gradi: crossed out in original MS.] leghe et chiamaſſe
buru   la leuante de queſta yſola diece legue ne ſta vna grande q̃
confina cõ Jiaalolo laqalle he habitata de mori et da gentili li morj
ſtanno apreſſo iL mare et li gentili de dentro nella terra et
queſto mãgião carne humana naſce in queſta le coſe Ja dete et ſe
chiama ambon fra buru et ambon Se trouano tre yſole circondate da
baſſi chiamate Vu dia Cailaruri et benaia    circa de buru cato leghe
aL mezo di ſta vna yſola picola et chiamaſſe ambalao.

Longi da Queſta yſola de buru circa trentacinque leghe a la carta deL
mezo Jorno verſo garbin Se truoua bandan   bandan et dudici yſole in
ſey de queſte naſce la matia et noſce moſcada et li nomi loro
ſono queſti Zoroboa magiori de tucte le altre CheliceL Samiãapi
pulac pulurun et roſoghin    le altre ſey ſonno queſte Vnuueru
pulan baracõ lailaca manucan Man et meut    in queſte nõ li trouano
noſce moſcade se nõ Sagu rizo cochi figui et alti fructi et ſonno
vicine luna de lalta    Ly populi de queſto ſonno morj et non hanno
re    Bandan ſta de latitudine aL polo antarticho in Sei gradi et di
longitudine dela linea repartitionalle in cento et ſexantre gradi et
mezo et ꝓ eſſere vn pocho fuora deL nr̃o Camino nõ fuſſemo iui.

Partendone de quella yſola de baru a la carta deL garbin verſo
ponente circa otto gradi de longitudine ariuaſſemo a tre yſolle vna
apreſſo lalta dette zolot nocema mor et galiau et nauigando ꝓ mezo
di queſte ne aſſalto vna grã fortuna ꝓ ilque faceſſemo vno
pelegrino a la nr̃a donna de la guida et pigliando apopa lo temporale
deſſeme in vna yſola alta et inanci ajungeſſemo iui Se
afaticaſſemo molto ꝓ le refegue decendeuão de li ſui mõti et ꝓ
li grandi Corenti de hacqua    li homini de queſta yſola ſonno
ſaluatici et beſtialli    mã gianno carne humana et non hanno re
vanno nudi cõ qella ſcorſa como li alti ſenon Quando vanno a
Combatere portanno certi pezi de pelle de bu phalo dinanzi et de drieto
et neli fianchi adornati cõ corniolli et denti de porci et con code de
pelle caprine atacate denanzi et de drietto portano ly capili in alto
cõ certi petini de cana longui q̃ li paſſano da parte aparte et li
tieneno alti anno le ſue barbe riuolte in foglie et poſti in canuttj
de canna coſa ridicula aL vedere et ſonno li piu bruti ſianno in
queſta india    li ſui archi et le ſue freze Sonno de canna et anno
Certi ſachi facti de foglie de arbore ne liqalli portanno lo ſuo
mangiare et bere Le ſue femine    Quando ne viſtenno ne venirono in
contra cõ archi ma dandoli alguni ꝓ ſenti Subito diuentaſſemo
ſui amici    Qiui tardaſſemo quindici giornj per Conciare La naue ne
li Coſtadi    Jn queſta yſola ſe troua galine Capre cochi cera
ꝓ vna libra de fero vechio ne donorono quindici de cera et peuere
lõgo et rotondo    JL peuere longo he como qelle gatelle q̃ fanno li
nizolle quãdo he linuerno    il suo arbure e Como elera et atacaſſe
ali arbori Como quella ma le ſue foglie ſonno como qelle diL moraro
et lo chiamano luli   JL peuere rotondo naſce Como queſto ma in
ſpigue como lo fromẽtone della india et se deſgrana et lo chiamano
lada    in queſte parte ſonno piennj li campi de queſto peuere facti
in modo de pergoladi pigliaſſemo quiui vno homo açio ne cõduceſſe
ad alguna yſola haueſſe victuuaria    Queſta yſola ſta de
latitudine aL polo antarticho in octo gradi et mezo et cento et
sesantanoue et dui terzi de longitudine de la linea repartitionalle et
chiamaſſe malua.

Ne disse iL nr̃o piloto Vechio de maluco como apreſſo quiui era vna
yſola chiamata arucheto li homini et femine delaqalle non ſonno
magiorj dun cubito et anno le orecquie grande como loro      de vna
fanno lo ſuo lecto et de lalta ſe copreno vanno tosi et tuti nudi
corenno molto anno la voce ſotille habitano in caue ſoto terra et
mangiano peſce et vna coſa q̃ naſce fra larbore et la ſcorſa che
chiancha et rotonda como coriandoli de cõfeto deta ambulõ ma ꝓ li
grã corenti de hacqua et molti baſſi nõ li andaſemo.

Sabato a vinticinque de Jennaro m vcxxij Se partiſſemo de la yſola
de ma lua et la dominica a vinti ſey ariuaſſemo a vna grande yſola
longi de qella cinque legue fra mezo di et garbin      Jo ſolo andai
in terra a parlare aL magiore duna vila deta amaban açio ne deſſe
victuuaria  me riſpoſe ne darebe buphali porci et capre ma nõſi
poteſſemo aCordare per che voleua molte coſe ꝓ vno bufalo noi
auendone pocque et conſtrigẽdone la fama reteneſſemo ne la naue
vno principalle cõ vno ſuo figliolo de vnalta vila deta balibo et ꝓ
paura nõ lo amazaſſemo Subito ne dette ſei buphali cinque capre et
dui porci et ꝓ compire lo numero de diese porci et diece capre ne
dete vno bufalo perche cuſſi Laueuamo dato taglia  poi li
mandaſſemo in tera Contentiſſimi cõ tella panny Jndiani de ſeta
et de bombaſo accete cortelizi indiani forfice Spechi et cortelli qeL
Signiore a cui anday a parlare teniua ſolum femine    Lo ſeruiuano
tutte vano nude Como le altre et portano atacate ale orechie Schione
picole de horo cõ fiocqi de ſeta pendenti et ne li braci anno molte
maniglie de oro et de latonne fin aL cubito li homini vanno Como le
femine Se non anno atacate aL colo certe coſe de horo tonde Como vn
tagliere et petini de canna adornatj con schione de oro poſti neli
capili et algu ni de queſti portanno coli de zuche Seche poſti ne le
orechie ꝓ schione de oro.

Jn Queſta yſola ſe truoua lo ſandalo biancho et nõ altroue gengero
bufali por ci capre galine rizo fighi canne dolci naranci limonj cera
mandolle fa zoli et altre coſe et papagali de diuerſi colorj    de
lalta parte de liſola ſtano catro fratelli q̃ ſonno li re de
queſta yſola doue ſtauamo nuy erano ville et alguni principalle de
qelle. Ly nomi de li catro habitatiõe deli re ſonno queſti oibich
lichsana suai et Cabanaza oibich e la magiore.    Jn cabanaza ſi Como
ne fu deto ſe truoua aſay oro in vno monte et Comperano tute le Sue
coſe cõ pezetti de oro    tuto lo ſandalo et la cera q̃ contractano
queli de Jaua et di malaca Contractano da queſta banda    aqui trouamo
vno Jonco de lozon venuto ꝓ merchadantare Sandalo Queſti populi
ſonno gentilli et quando vanno a taglaire lo ſandalo Como loro ne
diſcero ſeli moſta lo de monio en varie forme et li dice ſe anno
biſognio de qalque coſa li la demãdino ꝓ Laqalle aparitione
ſtanno infermi alquanti giornj    lo ſandalo ſi taglia a vno certo
tempo de la luna ꝓ che altramente nõ ſarebe bonno    la mercã tia
q̃ vale Quiui ꝓ lo ſandalo e panno roſſo tella accete fero et
chiodi Queſta yſola he tuta habitata et molto longa da leuante a
ponente et poco larga de mezo di a la tramõtana    ſta de latitudine
aL polo antartico in dieci gra di et cento et Settanta catro gradi et
mezo de longitudine dala linea de la repartiõe et se chiama timor.
Jn tutte le yſolle hauemo trouate in queſto arcipelago regnia lo maL
de S. Jop et piu Quiui q̃ in alto luocho et Lo chiamano foi franchi
çioe maL portugheſe.

Longi vna giornata de qui tra iL ponente et iL maeſtrale ne fu deto
trouarſe vna Jſola in laqalle naſcie assai cannella et se chiama
Ende    eL ſuo populo he gentille et nõ hanno re et como ſonno a la
medeſma [Jſo: crossed out in original MS.] via molte yſolle vna
dietro a lalta in fina a Jaua magiore et aL capo de malaca li nomi de
leqalle ſonno queſti ende tana butun creuo chile bimacore aranaran
Mani Zumbaua lomboch chorum et Jaua ma giore    Queſti populi nõ la
chiamano Jaua ma Jaoa le magiorj ville ſono in Jaua    Sonno queſte
Magepaher iL ſuo re Quando viueua era magiore de tutte queſte yſolle
et chiamauaſſe Raia patiunus Sunda in queſta naſce molto peueri da
ha dama gaghi amada Minutarãghan Cipara Sidaiu tuban creſſi Cirubaia
et balli et como Jaua minore eſſere la yſola de Madura et ſtare
apreſſo Jaua magiore meza legha    Ancho ne diſſero Quando vno homo
de li principali de Jaua magiore more Se bruſa Lo ſuo corpo La ſua
moglie piu principalle adornaſſi cõ girlande de fiori et faſſi
portare de tre ho catro hominj ſoura vno ſcanno ꝓ tuta qella vila
et ridendo et confortando li ſui parenti que piangeno dice nõ
piangere ꝓ cio me vado queſta cera a Cennare coL mio caro marito et
dormire ſecho in queſta nocte poy et portata aL foco doue ſe bruſa
Lo ſuo marito et ley voltandoſi contra li ſui parẽti et
confortando li vnalta fiata Segetta neL fuocho oue ſe bruſa lo ſuo
marito et ſe queſto nõ faceſſe nõ ſaria tenuta donna da benne ne
vera moglie deL marito morto    et Como li Joueni de Jaua Quando ſono
Jnamo rati in qalque gentiL donna ſe ligano certi ſonagli cõ fillo
tra iL membro et la peleſſina et vanno ſoto le feneſtre de le ſue
Jnamorate et facendo moſtra de horinare et Squaſando Lo membro
ſonano cõ qelli ſonagli et fin tanto le ſue Jnamorate hodeno lo
ſono ſubito qelle veneno Ju et fanno ſuo volere Sempre cõ qelli
ſonagliti ꝓ che loro donne ſe piglianno grã ſpaſſa aſen tirſi
Sonare de dentro    Queſti ſonagli ſonno tucti Coperti et piu ſe
copreno piu ſonano    JL nr̃o piloto piu vechio ne diſſe Como in
vna yſola deta acoloro ſoto de Jaua magiore in Quella trouarſi
ſinon femine et quelle Jnpregniarſi de vento et poi Quando
parturiſcono ſiL parto et maſchio Lamazano ſe he femina lo aleuano
et ſe hominj vanno aqella ſua yſola loro amazarli purche
poſſianno.

Ancho ne diſcero de ſoto de Jaua magiore ꝟſo la tramõtana neL
golfo de la chijna Laqalle li anticqui chiamano ſigno magno trouarſi
vno arbore grandisso neLqalle habitano vcceli deti garuda tanto grandi
q̃ portano vn bufalo et vno elefante aL luoco doue he labore re
chiamato puza thaer et Lo arbore cam panganghi aL ſuo fructo bua
panganghi eLqalle he magiore q̃ vna anguria    li mori de burne
haueuamo ne li naui ne diſcero loro hauerne veduto ꝓ che lo ſuo re
haueua dui mandatigli daL regnio de ſiam    niun Jonco ne altra barcha
da tre ho catro legue ſe po aꝓximare aL luoco de larbore ꝓ li
grandi reuolutiõe de hacqua que ſonno circa queſto    La pima fiata
que ſi ſepe de queſto arbure fu vn Jonco ſpinto da ly vẽti ne la
riuo lutiõe iLqalle tuto ſe diſfece   tutti li homini ſe anegorono
ecceto vn puto picolo ilqalle eſſendo atacato ſoura vna tauola ꝓ
miraculo fo ſpinto apreſſo queſto arbore et mõtato ſoura lo
arbore nõ acorgendoſi ſe miſſe ſoto lala a vno de qelli vcceli
lo giorno ſeguento Lo vccelo andando in tera et hauendo pigliato vn
bufalo iL puto venne de ſoto a la hala aL meglio puoto    ꝓ cuſtui
ſe ſepe Queſto et alhora Cogniobero qeli populi vicini li fructi
trouauano ꝓ iL mare eſſere de queſto arbore.

JL capo de malacha ſta in vn grado et mezo aL antarticho    a loriente
de queſto capo a longo la coſta ſe trouão molte ville et cita de li
nomi de algune ſono aq̃ſti Cinghapola q̃ ſta neL capo pahan
Calantan patani bradlun benan lagon Che regigharan tumbõ prhan Cui
brabri bangha Jndia Queſta e la cita doue habita iL re de siam eLqalle
chiamaſſe Siri Zacabedera Jandibum Lanu et Langhon pifa Queſte
citade ſonno edificade como le nr̃e et ſubgecte aL re de ſiam
Jnqueſto regnio de ſiam ne le riue de li fiumi Si como ne fu deto
habitanno vcceli grandi liqalli no mangerianno de alguno animale morto
ſia portato iui ſe pima nõ vienne vno alto vccelo amangiarli iL core
et poi Loro Lo mangiano dopo ſiam ſe troua Camogia iL ſuo re e deto
Saret zacabedera chiempa eL ſuo re raia brahaun maitri inqueſto locho
naſce lo reubarbaro et ſe troua in queſto modo ſe acaodunano vinti
o vinti cinque hominj inſieme et vanno dentro ne li boſchi Quando he
venuta la nocte montano ſoura li arbori ſi ꝓ ſentire Lodore deL
reobarbaro como ancho ꝓ paura de leonnj elefanti et altre fere et
daqella parte doue he lo reubarbaro iL vento li porta lodore    poi
venuto lo giorno vanno in qella parte doue li he venuto iL vento et lo
cercanno fin tanto lo trouano Lo reubarbaro he vno arbure groſſo
putrefato et ſenon foſſe cuſſi putrefacto non darebe lo hodore iL
megliare de queſto arbore he la radice niente dimeno iL legnio he
reobarbaro iLqaL chiamano Calama    poi ſe truoua Cochi eL ſuo re e
detto raia Seribumni pala    dopo Queſto ſe troua la grã chijna iL
ſuo re he magiore de tuto eL mõdo et chiamaſſe Santhoa raia iLqalle
tenne ſetanta re de coro na ſoto de ſe alguni de liqalli anno dieci
et quindice re de ſoto ſe    eL ſuo porto he deto guantan fra le
altre aſayssime citade ne ha due principalle dette namchin et Comlaha
neliqalli ſta queſto re tienne catro ſui principali a preſſo Lo
ſuo palatio vno verſo iL ponente lalto aL leuante lalto amezo de et
lalto ala tramõtana ogni vno de queſti danno audientia Se nõ aqelli
che veneno de ſua parte    tucti li re et ſignori de la Jndia magiore
et ſuperiore hobediſcono aqueſto re et ꝓ ſegnialle q̃ ſianno
ſui veri vaſali ciaſcuna ha in mezo de la ſua piaza vno animale
ſcolpito in marmore piu galiardo que iL leonne et chiamaſſe chinga
 Queſto chinga e lo ſigilo deL dito re de chijna et tucti qelli q̃
vanno ala chijna Conuieneno hauere Queſto animale ſcolpito in cera in
vn dente de elephante ꝓ che altramente nõ potrianno intrare neL ſuo
porto    Quando alguno Signiore he in hobediente a queſto re lo fanno
ſcorticare et ſecanno la pelle aL ſolle con ſale et poy la empi
enno de paglia ho de alto et lo fanno ſtare cõ lo capo baſſo et cõ
le many Jonte ſoura lo capo in vno luocho eminente ne la piaza acio
Alhora ſi veda Cului far zonghu cioe riuerentia    Queſto re nõ ſi
laſcia vedere de algũo et Quando lui vole vedere li ſui Caualcha ꝓ
iL palatio vno pauone facto maeſtralmente coſa richiſſima
acompagniato de ſey donne de le ſue piu principalle veſtite Como lui
fin che entra in vn ſerpente deto nagha rico Quanto altra coſa ſi
poſſa vedere ilqalle e ſopa la corte magiore deL palatio   iL re et
le donne entranno dento açio lui nõ ſia cognioſſuto fra le donne
vede li ſui ꝓ vno vedro grando q̃ e neL pecto deL ſerpente lui et
le donne ſe ponno vedere ma nonſi puo diſcernere qaL he lore.
Cuſtui ſe marita ne le ſue ſorelle acio lo ſangue realle nõ ſia
miſſidiato cõ alti   Circha lo ſuo pa latio ſonno ſette cerche de
muri et fra ogni vna de queſte cerche ſtano diece millia homini q̃
fanno la gardia aL palatio fin q̃ ſona vna Cam pana poi vieneno diece
millia alti homini ꝓ ogni cercha et cuſi ſe mudanno ogni giorno et
ogni nocte ogni cercha de muro a vna porta ne la pima li ſta vno homo
cõ vno granfionne in mano deto ſatu horã con ſatu bagan nella
ſecondo vn canne detto ſatu hain nella terza vn homo cõ vna maza
ferata deto Satu horan cũ pocum becin nela carta vno homo cõ vno
archo in mano deto Satu horan con anat panan nella Quinta vn homo con
vna lancia deto Satu horan con tumach ne la ſexta vno leonne deto Satu
horiman nella ſeptima duy elefantj bianchi detti duo gagia pute    in
Queſto palatio li ſonno ſetanta noue ſalle doue ſtanno ſe non
donne q̃ ſerueno aL re et li ſonno ſempre torcie acceſe    Se
tarda vno Jorno aſercare queſto palatio    Jn cima de queſto li
ſonno catro ſalle doue vanno alguna volta li principali a parlare aL
re vna he hornata de metalo coſi de ſoto como de ſuura vna tuta de
argento vna tuta de noro et Lalta de perle et petre precioſe    Quando
li ſui vaſſali li portanno horo ho altre coſe p̃ci oſe ꝓ
tributo le butano ꝓ Queſte ſalle dicendo Queſto ſia a honnore et
gloria deL nr̃o Sant hoa raia    tute queſte coſe et molte altre de
queſto re ne diſſe vno moro et lui hauerle vedute    la gente de la
chijna e biancha e veſtita et mangiano ſoura taule como nuy et anno
croce ma non ſi ſa ꝓ che tengonno    Jn Queſta chijna naſce Lo
muſchio    iL ſuo animale e vno gato Como qello deL gibeto et non
mangia alto ſenon vn legnio dolce Sotile como li diti chiamato chamaru
   Quando voleno far lo muſchio atacano vno ſanſuga aL gato et li la
laſcianno atacata infin ſia ben pienna de ſangue    poi La ſtrucano
in vno piato et meteno iL ſangue aL ſolle per cato ho cinque giornj
poy lo bagniano cõ orina et il metenno altre tante fiate aL ſolle et
cuſſi diuenta muſchio ꝓfeto ogniuno que tienne de queſti animali
Conuien pagare vno tanto aL re    Quelli pezeti que parenno ſian grani
de muſchio ſonno de carne de capreto peſtatagli dento iL vero
muſchio et ſe non iL ſangue et ſe ben diuenta in pezetti Se diſfa
  aL muſchio et al gato chiamano caſtori et ala ſanſuga lintha
Seguendo poy la coſta de qʒſta chijna ſe trouano molti populi q̃
ſonno queſti li chienchij et ſtano in Jſole ne leqalli naſconno
perle et cannela Li Lechij en tera ferma ſopa lo porto de Queſti
trauerſa vna montagnia ꝓ laqaL ſe Conuien deſarburare tucti ly
Jonqui et naui voleno Jntrare neL porto Jl re Mom in terra firma
Queſto re ha vinti re ſoto diſe et e hobediente aL re de la chijna
la ſua cita he deta bara naci Quiui e iL grã catayo orientalle Han
yſola alta et frigida doue ſe truoua metalo argento perle et Seta iL
ſuo re chiamaſſe raia Zotru Mli Janla eL ſuo re e detto raia
chetisqnuga gnio lo ſuo re raia ſudacali tucti Queſti tre luogui
Sonno frigidi et in terra ferma Triaganba Trianga due yſolle nelle
Qualle vieneno perle metalo argento et ſeta il ſuo re raia Rrom
Baſſi baſſa terra ferma et poi Sumbdit pradit due yſole richiſime
de oro lihomini deleqalle portanno vna grã ſchiona de oro ne la gamba
Soura iL piede    Apreſſo Quiui ne la tera ferma in certi montagnie
ſtano popoli che amazano li ſui padri et madre Quando ſonno vechi
acio nõ ſe afati cano piu    tucti li populi de Queſti luogui ſonno
gentilli

Marti de nocte venendo aL mercore a vndici de febraro 1522 partendone
de La yſola de timor ſe in golfaſſemo neL mare grande nominato Laut
chidoL et pigliando lo nr̃o Camino tra ponente et garbin laſciaſemo
a La mano drieta a La tramõtana ꝓ pagura deL re de portoghala la
Jſola Zamatra antichamẽte chiamata Traprobana pegu bengala Vriza che
lui nelaqalle ſtanno li malabari Soto iL re de narſingha Calicut
ſoto Lo medeſimo re Canbaia nelaqalle ſonno li guzerati Cananor ghoa
Armus et tutta laltra coſta de la india magiore    in queſta india
magiore li ſonno ſey ſorte de homini Nairi panichali yranai
pangelini Macuai et poleai   Nairj ſonno li principali    panichali
ſonno li Citadini Queſte due ſorte de hoj̃ Conuerſano inſieme
Jranai Colgeno lo vino de la palma et fighi    pagelinj Sonno li
marinarj    Macuai ſonno li peſcatorj poleai ſeminano et colgeno lo
rizo    Queſti habitanno ſempre neli campi mai intrano in cita alguna
et quando ſe li da alguna coſa la ſe ponne in tera poy loro la
piglianno    coſtoro Quando vanno ꝓ le ſtrade cridano po po po
çioe gar date damj, acadete ſi como ne fu referito vno nair eſſere
tocho per diſgratia da vn polea ꝓ iLque iL nair ſubito ſe fece
amazare açio non rimaneſſe cõ qeL deſhonnore   Et ꝓ Caualcare lo
capo de bonna ſperãza andaſſemo fin a Quaranta dui gradi aL polo
antarticho ſteſſemo ſoura queſto Cauo noue ſetimane cõ le velle
amaynate ꝓ lo vento accidentale et maiſtralle ꝓ proa et cõ
fortuna grandiſsima iLqaL capo ſta de latitudine in trenquato gradi
et mezo et mille et ſey cento legue longi daL capo de malaca et e lo
magiore et piu pericoloſo capo ſia neL mondo   aL guni de li noſti a
malati et ſani voleuão andare a vno luoco de portu gheſi deto
Mozanbich ꝓ la naue q̃ faceua molta hacqua ꝓ lo fredo grande et
molto piu ꝓ nõ hauere alto da mangiare Se non rizo et hacqua ꝓ cio
la carne haueuamo hauuta ꝓ non hauere ſale ne era pu trefata Ma
alguni de li alti piu deſideroſi deL ſuo honnore q̃ de la ꝓpria
vita deliberorono viui o morti volere andare in ſpagnia    finalmente
cõ lo ajuto de dio a ſey de magio paſaſſemo Queſto capo apreſſo
lui cinque legue ſe non la ꝓximauamo tanto may Lo poteuão paſſare
poi nauigaſſemo aL mayſtrale dui meſi continui ſenza pigliare
refrigerio alcuno in queſto pocho tempo ne morſeno vinti vno homo
Quando li butauamo neL mare li xp̃iani andauão al fondo con lo volto
in ſuſo et li Jndij ſempre cõ lo volto in giu et ſe dio non ne
conduceua bon tempo tucti moriuão de fame    alfine conſtrecti de la
grande neceſitade andaſſemo a le yſole de capo verde    Mercore a
noue de Julio agiungeſſemo a vna de queſte deta sto. Jacobo et
ſubito madaſſemo lo batelo in tera ꝓ victuuaglia con queſta
Jnuẽtiõe de dire ali portugheſi como ne era rocto lo trinqueto Soto
la lignea equino tialle ben che foſſe ſoura lo capo bonna ſperanza
et Quando lo conciauão Lo nr̃e capo generalle cõ le altre due naui
eſerſi andata in ſpagnia con queſte bonne parolle et cõ le nr̃e
mercadantie haueſſemo dui batelli pi ennj de rizo Cometeſſemo a li
nr̃j deL batelo Quando andarono in tera domandaſſero que giorno era
ne diſcero como era a li portugheſi Joue    Se marauigliaſſemo
molto ꝓ che era mercore anuy et nõ ſapeuamo Como haueſſemo herato
ꝓ ogni Jorno yo ꝓ eſſere ſtato ſempre ſanno haueua ſcripto
ſenza niſſuna Jntermiſſione ma como da poy ne fu deto non era
erore ma iL viagio facto ſempre ꝓ occidente et ritornato a lo
iſteſſo luocho Como fa iL ſolle haueua portato qeL vantagio de hore
vinti catro como chiaro ſi vede eſſendo andato lo batello vnalta
volta in tera ꝓ rizo furonnore tenuti tredici homini cõ lo batello
ꝓ che vno de qelli como da poy ſapeſemo in ſpagnia dice ali
portugheſi Como lo nr̃o capo era morto et alti et que noi nõ andare
in ſpagnia dubitandone de eſſere ancho nuy preſi ꝓ certe
carauelle ſubito ſe partiſſemo. Sabato a ſey de ſeptembre 1522
Jntraſſemo nella baia de S. lucar ſe nõ diſdoto homini et la
mogior parte Jnfermy iL reſto de ſexanta q̃ partiſſemo da malucho
qi morſe de fame chi fugite nela yſola de timor et qi furenno amazati
ꝓ ſui delicti daL tempo q̃ ſe partiſſemo de queſta baya fin aL
giorno pñte haueuão facto catordicy mille et quatro cento et ſaxanta
leghe et piu Compiuto lo circulo deL mõdo deL leuante aL ponente. Luni
a octo de ſeptembre butaſſemo lanchora ap̃ſo Lo molo de ſeuiglia
et deſcaricaſſemo tuta lartigliaria   Marti nuj tucti in Camiſa et
diſcalci andaſſemo cõ vna torcia ꝓ vno in mano auiſitare iL
luoco de sa. maria de la victoria et qella de sta. maria de lantiqua.

Partendomi de ſeuiglia andai a vagliadolit oue apreſentai a la ſacra
mageſta de D. carlo non oro ne argento ma coſe da eſſere aſſay
apreciati da vn ſimiL Signiore fra le altre coſe li detti vno libro
ſcripto de mia mano de tucte le coſe paſſate de giorno in giorno
neL viagio noſto    me parti de li aL meglio puoti et andai in
portagalo et parlay aL re don Johanny de le coſe haueua vedute
paſſando ꝓ la ſpagnia veni in franſa et feci donno de algune
coſe de lalto emiſperio a la madre deL xp̃ianiſſimo re don
franciſco madama la regenta    poi me venni ne la Jtalia oue donnay
ꝓ ſempre me medeſimo et Queſte mie poche faticque a lo Jnclito et
Illuſtriſſimo Signor philipo de Villers lisleadam grã maeſto de
rhodi digniſſimo.


    JL Caualier

    anto pagaphetta







[FIRST VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD]

(Continued from Vol. XXXIII, page 267.)


In the afternoon of that same day, Pietro Alfonso, the Portuguese, came
in a prau. He had not disembarked before the king sent to summon him
and told him banteringly to answer us truly in whatever we should ask
him, even if he did come from Tarennate. He told us that he had been
sixteen years in India, but x in Maluco, for Maluco had been discovered
secretly for that time. [488] It was a year all but one fortnight,
since a large ship had arrived at that place from Malaca, and had left
laden with cloves, but had been obliged to remain in Bandan for some
months because of bad weather. Its captain was Tristan de Meneses,
[489] a Portuguese. When he asked the latter what was the news back in
Christendom, he was told that a fleet of five ships had left Siviglia
to discover Maluco in the name of the king of Spagnia under command of
Fernando de Magallianes, a Portuguese; that the king of Portugallo,
angered that a Portuguese should be opposed to him, had sent some ships
to the cape of Bonna Speransa [i.e., Good Hope], and a like number to
the cape of Sancta Maria, where the cannibals live, in order to prevent
their passage, but that he was not found. Then the king of Portagalo
had heard that the said captain had passed into another sea, and was on
his way to Malucho. He immediately wrote directing his chief captain of
India, one Diego Lopes de Sichera, [490] to send six ships to Maluco.
But the latter did not send them because the Grand Turk was coming to
Malacha, for he was obliged to send sixty sail to oppose him at the
strait of Mecha in the land of Juda. They found only a few galleys that
had been beached on the shore of the strong and beautiful city of Adem,
all of which they burned. [491] After that the chief captain sent a
large galleon with two tiers of guns to Malucho to oppose us, but it
was unable to proceed because of certain shoals and currents of water
near Malaca, and contrary winds. The captain of that galleon was
Francesco Faria, [492] a Portuguese. It was but a few days since a
caravel with two junks had been in that place to get news of us. The
junks went to Bachian for a cargo of cloves with seven Portuguese. As
those Portuguese did not respect the women of the king and of his
subjects, although the king told them often not to act so, and since
they refused to discontinue, they were put to death. When the men in
the caravel heard that, they immediately returned to Malaca abandoning
the junks with four hundred bahars of cloves, and sufficient
merchandise to purchase one hundred bahars more. Every year a number of
junks sail from Malaca to Bandan [493] for mace and nutmeg, and from
Bandan to Malucho for cloves. Those people sail in three days in those
junks of theirs from Maluco to Bandan, and in a fortnight from Bandan
to Malaca. The king of Portagalo had enjoyed Malucho already for x
years secretly, so that the king of Spagnia might not learn of it. That
Portuguese remained with us until three in the morning, and told us
many other things. We plied him so well, promising him good pay that he
promised to return to Spagnia with us.

On Friday, November fifteen, the king told us that he was going to
Bachian to get the cloves abandoned there by the Portuguese. He asked
us for two presents so that he might give them to the two governors of
Mutir in the name of the king of Spagnia. Passing in between the ships
he desired to see how we fired our musketry, crossbows, and the
culverins, which are larger than an arquebus. He shot three times with
a crossbow, for it pleased him more than the muskets. [494] On
Saturday, the Moro king of Giailolo came to the ships with a
considerable number of praus. To some of the men we gave some green
damask silk, two brazas of red cloth, mirrors, scissors, knives, combs,
and two gilt drinking cups. That king told us that since we were
friends of the king of Tadore, we were also his friends, for he loved
that king as one of his own sons; and whenever any of our men would go
to his land, he would show him the greatest honor. That king is very
aged and is feared among all those islands, for he is very powerful.
His name is Raia Jessu. That island of Jayalolo is so large that it
takes four months to circumnavigate it in a prau. On Sunday morning
that same king came to the ships and desired to see how we fought and
how we discharged our guns. He took the greatest pleasure in it. After
they had been discharged he immediately departed. He had been a great
fighter in his youth as we were told.

That same day, I went ashore to see how the clove grows. The clove tree
is tall and as thick as a man’s body or thereabout. Its branches
spread out somewhat widely in the middle, but at the top they have the
shape of a summit. Its leaves resemble those of the laurel, and the
bark is of a dark color. [495] The cloves grow at the end of the twigs,
ten or twenty in a cluster. Those trees have generally more cloves on
one side than on the other, according to the season. When the cloves
sprout they are white, when ripe, red, and when dried, black. They are
gathered twice per year, once at the nativity of our Savior, [when the
year is more: crossed out in original MS.] and the other at the
nativity of St. John the Baptist; for the climate is more moderate at
those two seasons, but more so at the time of the nativity of our
Savior. When the year is very hot and there is little rain, those
people gather three or four hundred bahars [of cloves] in each of those
islands. Those trees grow only in the mountains, and if any of them are
planted in the lowlands near the mountains, they do not live. The
leaves, the bark, and the green wood are as strong as the cloves. If
the latter are not gathered when they are ripe, they become large and
so hard that only their husk is good. No cloves are grown in the world
except in the five mountains of those five islands, except that some
are found in Giailolo and in a small island between Tadore and Mutir,
by name Mare, [496] but they are not good. Almost every day we saw a
mist descend and encircle now one and now another of those mountains,
on account of which those cloves become perfect. Each of those people
possesses clove trees, and each one watches over his own trees although
he does not cultivate them. Some nutmeg trees are found in that island.
The tree resembles our walnut tree, and has leaves like it. When the
nut is gathered it is as large as a small quince, with the same sort of
down, and it is of the same color. Its first rind is as thick as the
green rind of our walnut. Under that there is a thin layer, under which
is found the mace. The latter is a brilliant red and is wrapped about
the rind of the nut, and within that is the nutmeg. [497] The houses of
those people are built like those of the others, but are not raised so
high from the ground, and are surrounded with bamboos like a hedge. The
women there are ugly and go naked as do the others, [covered only] with
those cloths made from the bark of trees. Those cloths are made in the
following manner. They take a piece of bark and leave it in the water
until it becomes soft. Then they beat it with bits of wood and [thus]
make it as long and as wide as they wish. It becomes like a veil of raw
silk, and has certain threads within it, which appear as if woven.
[498] They eat wooden bread made from a tree resembling the palm, which
is made as follows. They take a piece of that soft wood from which they
take certain long black thorns. Then they pound [499] the wood, and so
make the bread. They use that bread, which they call saghu [i.e.,
sago], almost as their sole food at sea. The men there go naked as do
the others [of those regions], but they are so jealous of their wives
that they do not wish us to go ashore with our drawers exposed; [500]
for they assert that their women imagine that we are always in
readiness.

A number of boats came from Tarenate daily laden with cloves, but, as
we were awaiting the king, we did not barter for anything except food.
The men who came from Tarenate were very sorry because we refused to
trade with them. On Sunday night, November twenty-four, and toward
Monday, the king came with gongs a-playing, and passed between the
ships, [whereat] we discharged many pieces. He told us that cloves
would be brought in quantity within four days. Monday the king sent us
seven hundred and ninety-one [501] cathils of cloves, without reckoning
the tare. The tare is to take the spices for less than they weigh, for
they become dryer daily. As those were the first cloves which we had
laden in our ships, we fired many pieces. Cloves are called ghomode
there; in Saranghani where we captured the two pilots, bongalauan;
[502] and in Malaca, chianche.

On Tuesday, November twenty-six, the king told us that it was not the
custom of any king to leave his island, but that he had left [his] for
the love that he bore the king of Castiglia, and so that we might go to
Spagnia sooner and return with so many ships that we could avenge the
murder of his father who was killed in an island called Buru, [503] and
then thrown into the sea. He told us that it was the custom, when the
first cloves were laden in the ships or in the junks, for the king to
make a feast for the crews of the ships, and to pray [504] their God
that He would lead those ships safe to their port. He also wished to do
it because of the king of Bachian and one of his brothers who were
coming to visit him. He had the streets cleaned. Some of us imagining
that some treachery was afoot, because three Portuguese in the company
of Francesco Seranno had been killed in the place where we took in
water, by certain of those people who had hidden in the thickets, and
because we saw those Indians whispering with our prisoners, declared in
opposition to some who wished to go to the feast that we ought not go
ashore for feasts, for we remembered that other so unfortunate one. We
were so urgent that it was concluded to send a message to the king
asking him to come soon to the ships, for we were about to depart, and
would give him the four men whom we had promised him, besides some
other merchandise. The king came immediately and entered the ships. He
told some of his men that he entered them with as great assurance as
into his own houses. He told us that he was greatly astonished at our
intention of departing so soon, since the limit of time for lading the
ships was thirty days; and that he had not left the island to do us any
harm, but to supply the ships with cloves sooner. He said that we
should not depart then for that was not the season for sailing among
those islands, both because of the many shoals found about Bandan and
because we might easily meet some Portuguese ships [in those seas].
However, if it were our determination to depart then, we should take
all our merchandise, for all the kings roundabout would say that the
king of Tadore had received so many presents from so great a king, and
had given nothing in return; and that they would think that we had
departed only for fear of some treachery, and would always call him a
traitor. Then he had his koran [505] brought, and first kissing it and
placing it four or five times above his head, and saying certain words
to himself as he did so (which they call zambahean [506]), he declared
in the presence of all, that he swore by Allah and by the koran [507]
which he had in his hand, that he would always be a faithful friend to
the king of Spagnia. He spoke all those words nearly in tears. In
return for his good words, we promised to wait another fortnight.
Thereupon, we gave him the signature of the king and the royal banner.
None the less we heard afterward on good authority that some of the
chiefs of those islands [508] had proposed to him to kill us, saying it
would be doing the greatest kind of pleasure to the Portuguese, and
that the latter would forgive those of Bachian. [509] But the king had
replied that he would not do it under any consideration, since he had
recognized the king of Spagnia and had made peace with him.

After dinner on Wednesday, November twenty-seven, the king had an edict
proclaimed that all those who had cloves could bring them to the ships.
All that and the next day we bartered for cloves with might and main.
On Friday afternoon, the governor of Machian came with a considerable
number of praus. He refused to disembark, for his father and one of his
brothers who had been banished from Machian were living in Tadore. Next
day, our king and his nephew, the governor, entered the ships. As we
had no more cloth, the king sent to have three brazas of his brought
and gave it to us,510 and we gave it with other things to the governor.
At his departure we discharged many pieces. Afterward the king sent us
six brazas of red cloth, so that we might give it to the governor. We
immediately presented it to the latter, and he thanked us heartily for
it, telling us that he would send us a goodly quantity of cloves. That
governor’s name is Humar, and he was about twenty-five years old.

On Sunday, the first of December, that governor departed. We were told
that the king of Tadore had given him some silk cloth and some of those
gongs [511] so that he might send the cloves quicker. On Monday the
king went out of the island to get cloves. On Wednesday morning, as it
was the day of St. Barbara, [512] and because the king came, all the
artillery was discharged. At night the king came to the shore, and
asked to see how we fired our rockets and fire bombs, [513] at which he
was highly delighted. On Thursday and Friday we bought many cloves,
both in the city and in the ships. For four brazas of ribbon, they gave
us one bahar of cloves; for two brass chains, worth one marcello, [514]
they gave us one hundred libras of cloves. Finally, when we had no more
merchandise, one man gave his cloak, another his doublet, and another
his shirt, besides other articles of clothing, in order that they might
have their share in the cargo. On Saturday, three of the sons of the
king of Tarenate and their three wives, the daughters of our king, and
Pietro Alfonso, the Portuguese, came to the ships. We gave each of the
three brothers a gilt glass drinking-cup, [515] and scissors and other
things to the women. Many pieces were discharged at their departure.
Then we sent ashore many things to the daughter of our king, now the
wife of the king of Tarennatte, as she refused to come to the ships
with the others. All those people, both men and women, always go
barefoot.

On Sunday, December eight, as it was the day of the conception, we
fired many pieces, rockets, and fire bombs. [516] On Monday afternoon
the king came to the ships with three women, who carried his betel for
him. No one except the king can take women with him. Afterward the king
of Jailolo came and wished to see us fight together again. Several days
later our king told us that he was like a child at the breast who knew
his dear mother, who departing would leave him alone. Especially would
he be disconsolate, because now he had become acquainted with us, and
enjoyed some of the products of Spagnia. Inasmuch as our return would
be far in the future, he earnestly entreated us to leave him some of
[his: crossed out in original MS.] our culverins [517] for his defense.
He advised us to sail only by day when we left, because of the numerous
shoals amid those islands. We replied to him that if we wished to reach
Spagnia we would have to sail day and night. Thereupon, he told us that
he would pray daily to his God for us, asking Him to conduct us in
safety. He told us that the king of Bachian was about to come to marry
one of his brothers to one of his [the king of Tidore’s] daughters,
and asked us to invent some entertainment in token of joy; but that we
should not fire the large pieces, because they would do great damage to
the ships as they were laden. During that time, Pietro Alfonso, the
Portuguese, came with his wife and all his other possessions to remain
in the ships. Two days later, Chechili de Roix, son of the king of
Tarennate, came in a well-manned prau, and asked the Portuguese to go
down into it for a few moments. The Portuguese answered that he would
not go down, for he was going to Spagnia with us, whereupon the
king’s son tried to enter the ship, but we refused to allow him to
come aboard, as he was a close friend to the Portuguese captain of
Malaca, and had come to seize the Portuguese. He severely scolded those
who lived near the Portuguese because they had allowed the latter to go
without his permission.

On Sunday afternoon, December fifteen, the king of Bachian and his
brother came in a prau with three tiers of rowers at each side. In all
there were one hundred and twenty rowers, and they carried many banners
made of white, yellow, and red parrot feathers. There was much sounding
of those gongs, for the rowers kept time in their rowing to those
sounds. He brought two other praus filled with girls to present them to
his betrothed. When they passed near the ships, we saluted them by
firing pieces, and they in order to salute us went round the ships and
the port. Our king came to congratulate him as it is not the custom for
any king to disembark on the land of another king. When the king of
Bachian saw our king coming, he rose from the carpet on which he was
seated, and took his position at one side of it. Our king refused to
sit down upon the carpet, but on its other side, and so no one occupied
the carpet. The king of Bachian gave our king five hundred patols,
because the latter was giving his daughter to wife to the former’s
brother. The said patols are cloths of gold and silk manufactured in
Chiina, and are highly esteemed among them. Whenever one of those
people dies the other members of his family [518] clothe themselves in
those cloths in order to show him more honor. They give three bahars of
cloves for one of those robes or thereabouts, according to the [value
of the] robe.

On Monday our king sent a banquet to the king of Bachian by fifty women
all clad in silk garments from the waist to the knees. They went two by
two with a man between each couple. Each one bore a large tray filled
with other small dishes which contained various kinds of food. The men
carried nothing but the wine in large jars. Ten of the oldest women
acted as macebearers. [519] Thus did they go quite to the prau where
they presented everything to the king who was sitting upon the carpet
under a red and yellow canopy. As they were returning, those women
captured some of our men [520] and it was necessary to give them some
little trifle in order to regain their freedom. After that our king
sent us goats, cocoanuts, wine, and other things. That day we bent the
new sails in the ships. On them was a cross of St. James of Galitia,
[521] with an inscription which read: “This is the sign [figura] of
our good fortune.”

On Tuesday, we gave our king certain pieces of artillery resembling
arquebuses, which we had captured among those India [islands], and some
of our culverins, [522] together with four barrels of powder. We took
aboard at that place eighty butts of water in each ship. Five days
previously the king had sent one hundred men to cut wood for us at the
island of Mare, by which we were to pass. On that day the king of
Bachian and many of his men came ashore to make peace with us. Before
the king walked four men with drawn daggers in their hands. In the
presence of our king and of all the others he said that he would always
remain in the service of the king of Spagnia, and that he would save in
his name the cloves left by the Portuguese until the arrival of another
of our fleets, and he would never give them to the Portuguese without
our consent. He sent as a present to the king of Spagnia a slave, two
bahars of cloves (he sent x, but the ships could not carry them as they
were so heavily laden), and two extremely beautiful dead birds. Those
birds are as large as thrushes, and have a small head and a long beak.
Their legs are a palmo in length and as thin as a reed, [523] and they
have no wings, but in their stead long feathers of various colors, like
large plumes. Their tail resembles that of the thrush. All the rest of
the feathers except the wings are of a tawny color. They never fly
except when there is wind. The people told us that those birds came
from the terrestrial paradise, and they call them bolon diuata, [524]
that is to say, “birds of God.” On that day each one of the kings
of Maluco wrote to the king of Spagnia [to say] that they desired to be
always his true subjects. The king of Bachian was about seventy [525]
years old. He observed the following custom, namely, whenever he was
about to go to war or to undertake any other important thing, he first
had it done two or three times on one of his servants whom he kept for
no other purpose.

One day our king sent to tell our men who were living in the house with
the merchandise not to go out of the house by night, because of certain
of his men who anoint themselves [526] and roam abroad by night. They
appear to be headless, and when any of them meets any other man, he
touches the latter’s hand, and rubs a little of the ointment on him.
The man falls sick very soon, and dies within three or four days. When
such persons meet three or four together they do nothing else than
[527] to deprive them of their senses. [The king said] that he had had
many of them hanged. When those people build a new house, before they
go to dwell there they make a fire round about it and hold many feasts.
Then they fasten to the roof of the house a trifle of everything found
in the island so that such things may never be wanting to the
inhabitants. Ginger is found throughout those islands. We ate it green
like bread. Ginger is not a tree, but a small plant which puts forth
from the ground certain shoots a palmo in length, which resemble reeds,
and whose leaves resemble those of the reed, except that they are
narrower. [528] Those shoots are worthless, but the roots form the
ginger. It is not so strong green as dry. Those people dry it in lime,
[529] for otherwise it would not keep.

On Wednesday morning as we desired to depart from Malucho, the king of
Tadore, the king of Jaialolo, the king of Bachian, and a son of the
king of Tarennate, all came to accompany us to the island of Mare. The
ship “Victoria” set sail, and stood out a little awaiting the ship
“Trinitade.” But the latter not being able to weigh anchor,
suddenly began to leak in the bottom. [530] Thereupon, the
“Victoria” returned to its anchorage, and we immediately began to
lighten the “Trinitade” in order to see whether we could repair it.
We found that the water was rushing in as through a pipe, but we were
unable to find where it was coming in. All that and the next day we did
nothing but work the pump, [531] but we availed nothing. When our king
heard of it, he came immediately to the ships, and went to considerable
trouble in his endeavors to locate the leak. He sent five of his men
into the water to see whether they could discover the hole. They
remained more than one-half hour under water, but were quite unable to
find the leak. The king seeing that he could not help us and that the
water was increasing hourly, said almost in tears that he would send to
the head of the island for three men, who could remain under water a
long time. Our king came with the three men early on Friday morning. He
immediately sent them into the water with their hair hanging loose so
that they could locate the leak by that means. They stayed a full hour
under water but were quite unable to locate it. When the king saw that
he could be of no assistance, he asked us weeping who of us would go
“to Spagnia to my sovereign, and give him news of me.” [532] We
replied to him that the “Victoria” would go there in order not to
lose the east winds which were beginning to blow, while the other ship
until being refitted would await the west winds and would go then to
Darien which is located in the other part of the sea in the country of
Diucatan [i.e., Yucutan]. The king told us that he had two hundred and
twenty-five carpenters who would do all the work, and that he would
treat [533] all who remained here as his sons. They would not suffer
any fatigue beyond two of them [534] to boss the carpenters in their
work. He spoke those words so earnestly [535] that he made us all weep.
We of the ship “Victoria,” mistrusting that the ship might open, as
it was too heavily laden, lightened it of sixty quintals of cloves,
which we had carried into the house where the other cloves were. Some
of the men of our ship desired to remain there, as they feared that the
ship would not last out the voyage to Spagnia, but much more for fear
lest they perish of hunger.

On the day of St. Thomas, Saturday, December twenty-one, our king came
to the ships, and assigned us the two pilots whom we had paid to
conduct us out of those islands. They said that it was the proper time
to leave then, but as our men [who stayed behind] were writing to
Spagnia, we did not leave until noon. [536] When that hour came, the
ships bid one another farewell amid the discharge of the cannon, and it
seemed as though they were bewailing their last departure. Our men [who
were to remain] accompanied us in their boats a short distance, and
then with many tears and embraces we departed. The king’s governor
accompanied us as far as the island of Mare. We had no sooner arrived
at that island than we bought four praus laden with wood, and in less
than one hour we stowed it aboard the ship and then immediately laid
our course toward the southwest. Johan Carvaio stayed there with
fifty-three [537] of our men, while we comprised forty-seven men and
thirteen Indians. The said island of Tadore has a bishop, [538] and he
who then exercised that office [539] had forty wives and a multitude of
children.

Throughout those islands of Malucho are found cloves, ginger, sago
(which is their wood bread), rice, goats, geese, chickens, cocoanuts,
figs [i.e., bananas], almonds larger than ours, sweet and tasty
pomegranates, oranges, lemons, camotes [batate], honey produced by bees
as small as ants, which make their honey in the trees, sugarcane,
cocoanut oil, beneseed oil, watermelons, wild cucumbers, gourds, a
refreshing fruit as large as cucumbers [augurie] called comulicai,
another fruit, like the peach called guava, and other kinds of food.
[540] One also finds there parrots of various colors, and among the
other varieties, some white ones called cathara, and some entirely red
called nori. [541] One of those red ones is worth one bahar of cloves,
and that class speak with greater distinctness than the others. Those
Moros have lived in Malucho for about fifty years. Heathens lived there
before, but they did not care for the cloves. There are still some of
the latter, but they live in the mountains where the cloves grow.

The island of Tadore lies in a latitude of twenty-seven minutes toward
the Arctic Pole, and in a longitude of one hundred and sixty-one
degrees from the line of demarcation. It is nine and one-half degrees
south of the first island of the archipelago called Zamal, and extends
north by east and south by west. Tarenate lies in a latitude of
two-thirds of a degree toward the Arctic Pole. Mutir lies exactly under
the equinoctial line. Machian lies in one-quarter degree toward the
Antarctic Pole, and Bachian also toward the Antarctic Pole in one
degree. Tarenate, Tadore, Mutir, and Machian are four lofty and peaked
mountains where the cloves grow. When one is in those four islands, he
cannot see Bachian, but it is larger than any of those four islands.
[542] Its clove mountain is not so sharp as the others, but it is
larger. [543]


Words of those Moro people [544]


For their God                       Alla
for Christian                       naceran [545]
for Turk                            rumno
for Moro                            musulman; isilam
for Heathen                         caphre
for their Mosque                    mischit
for their Priests                   maulana catip mudin
for their Wise Men                  horan pandita
for their Devout Men                mossai
for their Ceremonies                zambahehan de ala meschit
for Father                          bapa
for Mother                          mama ambui
for Son                             anach
for Brother                         saudala
for the Brother of so and so        capatin muiadi
for Cousin                          saudala sopopu
for Grandfather                     niny
for Father-in-law                   minthua
for Son-in-law                      mi nanthu
for Man                             horan
for Woman                           poran poan
for Hair                            lambut
for Head                            capala
for Forehead                        dai
for Eye                             matta
for Eyebrows                        quilai
for Eyelids                         cenin
for Nose                            idon
for Mouth                           mulut
for Lips                            bebere
for Teeth                           gigi
for Cheeks                          issi
for Tongue                          lada
for Palate                          langhi
for Chin                            aghai
for Beard                           janghut
for Mustaches                       missai
for Jaw                             pipi
for Ear                             talingha
for Throat                          laher
for Neck                            tun dun
for Shoulders                       balachan
for Breast                          dada
for Heart                           atti
for Teat                            sussu
for Stomach                         parut
for Body                            tun dunbutu
for Penis                           botto
for Vagina [546]                    bucchii
for to have communication with
    women                           amput
for Buttocks                        buri
for Thighs                          taha
for Leg                             mina
for the Shinbone of the leg         tula
for its Calf                        tilor chaci
for Ankle                           buculati
for Heel                            tumi
for Foot                            batis
for the Sole of the Foot            empachaqui
for Fingernail                      cuchu
for Arm                             langhan
for Elbow                           sichu
for Hand                            tanghan
for the large Finger of the hand
[i.e., the Thumb]                   idun tanghan
for the Second Finger               tungu
for the Third                       geri
for the Fourth                      mani
for the Fifth                       calinchin
for Rice                            bugax
for Cocoanut in Malucho and Burne   biazzao
[for Cocoanut] in Lozon             nior
[for Cocoanut] in Java Major        calambil
for Fig [i.e., banana]              pizan
for Sugarcane                       tubu
for Camotes [batate]                gumbili
for the Roots like turnips          ubi
for Nangca                          mandicai sicui
for Melon                           antimon
for Cucumbers                       labu
for Cow                             lambu
for Hog                             babi
for Buffalo                         carban
for Sheep                           biri
for She-goat                        cambin
for Cock                            sambunghan
for Hen                             aiambatina
for Capon                           gubili
for Egg                             talor
for Gander                          itich
for Goose                           ansa
for Bird                            bolon
for Elephant                        gagia
for Horse                           cuda
for Lion                            huriman
for Deer                            roza
for Reeds                           cuiu
for Bees                            haermadu
for Honey                           gulla
for Wax                             lelin
for Candle                          dian
for its Wick                        sumbudian
for Fire                            appi
for Smoke                           asap
for Cinders                         abu
for Cooked                          azap
for well cooked                     lambech
for Water                           tubi
for Gold                            amax
for Silver                          pirac
for the Precious Gem                premata
for Pearl                           mutiara
for Quicksilver                     raza
for Copper [metalo]                 tumbaga
for Iron                            baci
for Lead                            tima
for their Gongs                     agun
for Cinnabar                        galuga sadalinghan
for Silver [color or cloth?]        soliman danas
for Silk Cloth                      cain sutra
for red Cloth                       cain mira
for Black Cloth                     cain ytam
for White Cloth                     cain pute
for Green Cloth                     cain igao
for Yellow Cloth                    cain cunin
for Cap                             cophia
for Knife                           pixao
for Scissors                        guntin
for Mirror                          chiela min
for Comb                            sissir
for Glass Bead                      manich
for Bell                            giringirin
for Ring                            sinsin
for Cloves                          ghianche
for Cinnamon                        caiumanis
for Pepper                          lada
for Long Pepper                     sabi
for Nutmeg                          buapala gosoga
for Copper wire                     canot
for Dish                            pinghan
for Earthen pot                     prin
for Porringer                       manchu
for Wooden Dish                     dulan
for Shell                           calunpan
for their Measures                  socat
for Land [terra]                    buchit
for Mainland                        buchit tana
for Mountain                        gonun
for Rock                            batu
for Island                          polan
for a Point of Land [i.e., a Cape]  taniun buchit
for River                           songhai
What is so-and-so’s name?           apenamaito?
for Cocoanut oil                    mignach
for Beneseed oil                    lana lingha
for Salt                            garan sira
for Musk and its Animal             castori
for the wood eaten by the castors   comaru
for Leech                           linta
for Civet                           jabat
for the Cat which makes the Civet   mozan
for Rhubarb                         calama
for Demon                           saytan
for World                           bumi
for Wheat                           gandun
for to Sleep                        tidor
for Mats                            tical
for Cushion                         bantal
for Pain                            sachet
for Health                          bay
for Brush                           cupia
for Fan                             chipas
for their Cloths                    chebun
for Shirts                          bain
for their Houses                    pati alam
for Year                            tanu
for Month                           bullan
for Day                             alli
for Night                           mallan
for Afternoon                       malamari
for Noon                            tam hahari
for Morning                         patan patan
for Sun                             mata hari
for Moon                            bulan
for Half moon                       tanam patbulan
for Stars                           bintan
for Sky                             languin
for Thunder                         gunthur
for Merchant                        sandgar
for City                            naghiri
for Castle                          cuta
for House                           rinna
for to Sit                          duodo
Sit down, sir                       duodo orancaia
Sit down, honest fellow             duodo horandai et anan
Lord                                tuan
for Boy                             cana cana
for one of their Foster-children    lascar
for Slave                           alipin
for Yes                             ca
for No                              tida
for to Understand                   thao
for not to Understand               tida taho
Do not look at me                   tida liat
Look at me                          liat
To be one and the same thing        casi casi; siama siama
for to Kill                         mati
for to Eat                          macan
for Spoon                           sandoch
for Harlot                          sondal
Large                               bassal
Long                                pangian
Small                               chechil
Short                               pandach
for to Have                         ada
for not to Have                     tida hada
Listen, sir                         tuan diam
Where is the junk going?            dimana ajun?
for Sewing-needle                   jalun
for to Sew                          banan
for Sewing-thread                   pintal banan
for Woman’s headdress               dastar capala
for King                            raia
for Queen                           putli
for Wood                            caiu
for to Work                         caraiar
for to take recreation              buandala
for Vein of the arm where
    one bleeds himself              urat paratanghan
for the Blood that comes
    from the arm                    dara carnal
for good blood                      dara
When they sneeze, they say          ebarasai
for Fish                            ycam
for Polypus                         calabutan
for Meat                            dagin
for Sea-snail                       cepot
Little                              serich
Half                                satanha sapanghal
for Cold                            dinghin
for Hot                             panas
For                                 jan
for Truth                           benar
for Lie                             dusta
for to Steal                        manchiuri
for Scab                            codis
Take                                na
Give me                             ambil
Fat                                 gannich
Thin                                golos
for Hair                            tundun capala
How many?                           barapa?
Once                                satu chali
One braza                           dapa
for to Speak                        catha
for Here                            siui
for There                           sana datan
Good day                            salamalichum
for the Answer [to good day]        alichum salam
Sir, may good fortune attend you    mali horancaia mancan
I have eaten already                suda macan
Fellow, betake yourself off         pandan chita horan
for to Desire                       banunchan
Good evening                        sabalchaer
for the Answer [to good evening]    vchaer sandat
for To give                         minta
To give to some one                 bri pocol
for Iron fetters                    balanghu
O what a smell!                     bosso chini
for Young man                       horan muda
for Old man                         tua
for Scribe                          xiritoles
for Writing-paper                   cartas
for to Write                        mangurat
for Pen                             calam
for Ink                             dauat
for Writing-desk                    padantan
for Letter                          surat
I do not have it                    guala
Come here                           camari
What do you want?                   appa man?
Who sent you?                       appa ito?
for Seaport                         labuan
for Galley                          gurap
for Ship                            capal
for Bow [of a boat]                 asson
for Stern [of a boat]               biritan
for To sail                         belaiar
for the Ship’s mast                 tian
for Yard [of a ship]                laiar
for the Rigging                     tamira
for Sail                            leier
for Maintop                         sinbulaia
for the Anchor rope                 danda
for Anchor                          san
for Boat                            sanpan
for Oar                             daiun
for Mortar [i.e., cannon]           badil
for Wind                            anghin
for Sea                             laut
Fellow, come here                   horan itu datan
for their Daggers                   calix golog
for their Dagger hilt               daga nan
for Sword                           padan gole
for Blowpipe                        sumpitan
for their Arrows                    damach
for the poisonous Herb              ypu
for Quiver                          bolo
for Bow [i.e., a weapon]            bolsor
for its Arrows                      anat paan
for Cats                            cochin puchia
for Rat                             ticus
for Lizard                          buaia
for Shipworms                       capan lotos
for Fishhook                        matacanir
for Fishbait                        unpan
for Fishline                        tunda
for to Wash                         mandi
Not to be afraid                    tangan tacut
Fatigue                             lala
A pleasant cup                      sadap manis
for Friend                          sandara
for Enemy                           sanbat
I am certain                        zonhu
for to Barter                       biniaga
I have not                          anis
To be a friend                      pugna
Two things                          malupho
If                                  oue
for Crowd (?)                       zoroan pagnoro
To give pleasure to one             mamain
To be stiff with cold               amala
for Madman                          gila
for Interpreter                     giorobaza
How many languages do you know?     barapa bahasa tan?
Many                                bagna
for to speak of Malaca              chiaramalain
Where is so-and-so?                 dimana horan?
for Flag                            tonghol
Now                                 sacaran
Tomorrow                            hezoch
The next day                        luza
Yesterday                           calamari
for Palm-mallet                     colbasi
for Nail                            pacu
for Mortar                          lozon [547]
for Rammer for crushing [rice?]     atan
for to Dance                        manari
for to Pay                          baiar
for to Call                         panghil
Unmarried                           ugan
Married                             suda babini
All one                             sannia
for Rain                            ugian
for Drunken                         moboch
for Skin                            culit
for Anger                           ullat
for to Fight                        guzar
Sweet                               manis
Bitter                              azon
How are you?                        appa giadi?
Well                                bay
Poorly                              sachet
Bring me that                       biriacan
This man is a coward                giadi hiat horan itu
Enough                              suda


The winds

             for the North          iraga
             for the South          salatan
             for the East           timor
             for the West           baratapat
             for the Northeast      utara
             for the Southwest      berdaia
             for the Northwest      bardaut
             for the Southeast      tunghara



Numbers


     One                            satus
     Two                            dua
     Three                          tiga
     Four                           ampat
     Five                           lima
     Six                            anam
     Seven                          tugu
     Eight                          duolappan
     Nine                           sambilan
     Ten                            sapolo
     Twenty                         duapolo
     Thirty                         tigapolo
     Forty                          ampatpolo
     Fifty                          limapolo
     Sixty                          anampolo
     Seventy                        tuguppolo
     Eighty                         dualapanpolo
     Ninety                         sambilampolo
     One hundred                    saratus
     Two hundred                    duaratus
     Three hundred                  tigaratus
     Four hundred                   anamparatus
     Five hundred                   limaratus
     Six hundred                    anambratus
     Seven hundred                  tugurattus
     Eight hundred                  dualapanratus
     Nine hundred                   sambilanratus
     One thousand                   salibu
     Two thousand                   dualibu
     Three thousand                 tigalibu
     Four thousand                  ampatlibu
     Five thousand                  limalibu
     Six thousand                   anamlibu
     Seven thousand                 tugulibu
     Eight thousand                 dualapanlibu
     Nine thousand                  sambilanlibu
     Ten thousand                   salacza
     Twenty thousand                dualacza
     Thirty thousand                tigalacza
     Forty thousand                 ampatlacza
     Fifty thousand                 limalacza
     Sixty thousand                 anamlacza
     Seventy thousand               tugulacza
     Eighty thousand                dualapanlacza
     Ninety thousand                sambilanlacza
     One hundred thousand           sacati
     Two hundred thousand           duacati
     Three hundred thousand         tigacati
     Four hundred thousand          ampatcati
     Five hundred thousand          limacati
     Six hundred thousand           anamcati
     Seven hundred thousand         tugacati
     Eight hundred thousand         dualapancati
     Nine hundred thousand          sambilancati
     One million [literally: ten
     times one hundred
     thousand]                      sainta


All the hundreds, the thousands, the tens of thousands, the hundreds of
thousands, and the millions are joined with the numbers, satus, dua,
etc. [548]

Proceeding on our way we passed amid those islands [those of] Caioan,
Laigoma, Sico, Giogi, and Caphi. [549] In the said island of Caphi is
found a race as small as dwarfs, who are amusing people, and are
pigmies. [550] They have been subjected by force to our king of Tadore.
[We also passed the islands of] Laboan, Toliman, Titameti, Bachian, of
which we have already spoken, Lalalata, Tabobi, Maga, and Batutiga.
[551] Passing outside the latter on its western side, we laid our
course west southwest, and discovered some islets toward the south. And
inasmuch as the Malucho pilots told us to go thither, for we were
pursuing our course among many islands and shoals, we turned toward the
southeast, and encountered an island which lies in a latitude of two
degrees toward the Antarctic Pole, and fifty-five leguas from Maluco.
It is called Sulach, [552] and its inhabitants are heathens. They have
no king, and eat human flesh. They go naked, both men and women, only
wearing a bit of bark two fingers wide before their privies. There are
many islands thereabout where the inhabitants eat human flesh. The
names of some of them are as follows: Silan, Noselao, Biga, Atulabaou,
Leitimor, Tenetun, Gondia, Pailarurun, Manadan, and Benaia. [553] Then
we coasted along two islands called Lamatola [554] and Tenetun, lying
about x leguas from Sulach. In that same course we encountered a very
large island where one finds rice, swine, goats, fowls, cocoanuts,
sugarcane, sago, a food made from one of their varieties of figs [i.e.,
bananas] called chanali,554 and chiacare, which are called nangha.
Nangcas are a fruit resembling the cucumber [augurie]. They are knotty
on the outside, and inside they have a certain small red fruit like the
apricot. It contains no stone, but has instead a marrowy substance
resembling a bean but larger. That marrowy substance has a delicate
taste like chestnuts. [There is] a fruit like the pineapple. It is
yellow outside, and white inside, and when cut it is like a pear, but
more tender and much better. Its name is connilicai. The inhabitants of
that island go naked as do those of Solach. They are heathens and have
no king. That island lies in a latitude of three and one-half degrees
toward the Antarctic Pole, and is seventy-five [555] [degrees: crossed
out in original MS.] leguas from Malucho. Its name is Buru. Ten leguas
east of the above island is a large island which is bounded by
Jiaalolo. It is inhabited by Moros and heathens. The Moros live near
the sea, and the heathens in the interior. The latter eat human flesh.
The products mentioned above are produced in that island. It is called
Ambon. [556] Between Buru and Ambon are found three islands surrounded
by reefs, called Vudia, [557] Cailaruri, and Benaia; and near Buru, and
about four leguas to the south, is a small island, called Ambalao.
[558]

About thirty-five leguas to the south by west of the above island of
Buru, are found Bandan. Bandan consists of twelve islands. Mace and
nutmeg grow in six of them. Their names are as follows: Zoroboa, the
largest of them all, and the others, Chelicel, Samianapi, Pulac,
Pulurun, and Rosoghin. The other six are as follows: Unuueru,
Pulanbaracon, Lailaca, Manucan, Man, and Meut. [559] Nutmeg is not
found in them, but only sago, rice, cocoanuts, figs [i.e., bananas],
and other fruits. Those islands are located near together, and their
inhabitants are Moros, who have no king. Bandan lies in a latitude of
six degrees toward the Antarctic Pole, and in a longitude of one
hundred and sixty-three and one-half degrees from the line of
demarcation. As it was a trifle outside of our course we did not go
there. [560]

Leaving the above mentioned island of Baru, and taking the course
toward the southwest by west, we reached, [after sailing through] about
eight degrees of longitude, three islands, quite near together, called
Zolot, Nocemamor, and Galiau. [561] While sailing amid them, we were
struck by a fierce storm, which caused us to make a pilgrimage to our
Lady of Guidance. Running before the storm we landed at a lofty island,
but before reaching it we were greatly worn out by the violent gusts of
wind that came from the mountains of that island, and the great
currents of water. The inhabitants of that island are savage and
bestial, and eat human flesh. They have no king, and go naked, wearing
only that bark as do the others, except that when they go to fight they
wear certain pieces of buffalo hide before, behind, and at the sides,
which are ornamented with small shells, [562] boars’ tusks, and tails
of goat skins fastened before and behind. They wear their hair done up
high and held by certain long reed pins which they pass from one side
to the other, which keep the hair high. They wear their beards wrapped
in leaves and thrust into small bamboo tubes—a ridiculous sight. They
are the ugliest people who live in those Indias. Their bows and arrows
are of bamboo. They have a kind of a sack made from the leaves of a
tree in which their women carry their food and drink. When those people
caught sight of us, they came to meet us with bows, but after we had
given them some presents, we immediately became their friends. [563] We
remained there a fortnight in order to calk the sides [564] of the
ship. In that island are found fowls, goats, cocoanuts, wax (of which
they gave us fifteen libras for one libra of old iron), and pepper,
both long and round. [565] The long pepper resembles the first blossoms
of the hazelnut in winter. [566] Its plant resembles ivy, and it clings
to trees as does that plant; but its leaves resemble those of the
mulberry. It is called luli. [567] The round pepper grows like the
former, but in ears like Indian corn, and is shelled off; and it is
called lada. The fields in those regions are full of this [last variety
of] pepper, planted to resemble arbors. [568] We captured a man in that
place so that he might take us to some island where we could lay in
provisions. That island lies in a latitude of eight and one-half
degrees toward the Antarctic Pole, and a longitude of one hundred and
sixty-nine and two-thirds degrees from the line of demarcation; and is
called Malua. [569]

Our old pilot from Maluco told us that there was an island nearby
called Arucheto, [570] the men and women of which are not taller than
one cubit, but who have ears as long as themselves. With one of them
they make their bed and with the other they cover themselves. They go
shaven close and quite naked, run swiftly, and have shrill voices. They
live in caves underground, and subsist on fish and a substance which
grows between the wood and the bark [of a tree], which is white and
round like preserved coriander, which is called ambulon. However, we
did not go there because of the strong currents in the water, and the
numerous shoals.

On Saturday, January 25, MCCCCCXXII, [571] we left the island of Malua.
On Sunday, the twenty-sixth, [572] we reached a large island which lies
five leguas to the south southwest of Malua. I went ashore alone to
speak to the chief of a city called Amaban to ask him to furnish us
with food. He told me that he would give me buffaloes, [573] swine, and
goats, but we could not come to terms because he asked many things for
one buffalo. Inasmuch as we had but few things, and hunger was
constraining us, we retained in the ship a chief and his son from
another village called Balibo. [574] He for fear lest we kill him,
immediately gave us six buffaloes, five goats, and two swine; and to
complete the number of ten swine and ten goats [which we had demanded]
they gave us one [additional] buffalo. For thus had we placed the
condition [of their ransom]. Then we sent them ashore very well pleased
with linen, Indian cloth of silk and cotton, hatchets, Indian knives,
scissors, mirrors, and knives. [575] That chief to whom I went to talk
had only women to serve him. All the women go naked as do the other
women [of the other islands]. In their ears they wear small earrings of
gold, with silk tassels pendant from them. On their arms they wear many
gold and brass armlets as far as the elbow. The men go as the women,
except that they fasten certain gold articles, round like a trencher,
about their necks, and wear bamboo combs adorned with gold rings [576]
in their hair. Some of them wear the necks of dried gourds in their
ears in place of gold rings.

White sandal wood is found in that island and nowhere else. [577]
[There is also] ginger, buffaloes, swine, goats, fowls, rice, figs
[i.e., bananas], sugarcane, oranges, lemons, wax, almonds,
kidney-beans, [578] and other things, as well as parrots of various
colors. On the other side of the island are four brothers, who are the
kings of that island. Where we were, there were cities and some of
their chiefs. The names of the four settlements of the kings are as
follows: Oibich, Lichsana, Suai, and Cabanaza. Oibich is the largest.
There is a quantity of gold found in a mountain in Cabanaza, according
to the report given us, and its inhabitants make all their purchases
with little bits of gold. All the sandal wood and wax that is traded by
the inhabitants of Java and Malaca is traded for in that region. We
found a junk from Lozon there, which had come thither to trade in
sandal wood. Those people are heathens. When they go to cut the sandal
wood, the devil (according to what we were told), appears to them in
various forms, and tells them that if they need anything they should
ask him for it. They become ill for some days as a result of that
apparition. The sandal wood is cut at a certain time of the moon, for
otherwise it would not be good. The merchandise valued in exchange for
sandal wood there is red cloth, linen, hatchets, [579] iron, and nails.
That island is inhabited in all parts, and extends for a long distance
east and west, but is not very broad north and south. It lies in a
latitude of ten degrees toward the Antarctic Pole, and in a longitude
of one hundred and seventy-four and one-half [580] degrees from the
line of demarcation, and is called Timor. [581] The disease of St. Jop
was to be found in all of the islands which we encountered in that
archipelago, but more in that place than in others. It is called foi
franchi [582] that is to say “Portuguese disease.” [583]

A day’s journey thence toward the west northwest, we were told that
we would find an island where quantities of cinnamon grow, by name
Ende. [584] Its inhabitants are heathens, and have no king. [We were
told] also that there are many islands in the same [isl: crossed out in
original MS.] course, one following the other, as far as Java Major,
and the cape of Malaca. The names of those islands are as follows:
Ende, Tanabutun, Creuo, Chile, Bimacore, Aranaran, Mani, Zumbaua,
Lomboch, Chorum, [585] and Java Major. [586] Those inhabitants do not
call it Java but Jaoa. The largest cities are located in Java, and are
as follows: Magepaher (when its king was alive, he was the most
powerful in all those islands, and his name was Raia Patiunus); Sunda,
where considerable, pepper grows; Daha; Dama; Gagiamada; Minutaranghan;
Cipara; Sidaiu; Tuban; Cressi; Cirubaia; [587] and Balli. [588] [We
were told] also that Java Minor is the island of Madura, and is located
near to Java Major, [being only] one-half legua away. [589] We were
told also that when one of the chief men of Java Major dies, his body
is burned. His principal wife adorns herself with garlands of flowers
and has herself carried on a chair through the entire village by three
or four men. Smiling and consoling her relatives who are weeping, she
says: “Do not weep, for I am going to sup with my dear husband this
evening, [590] and to sleep with him this night.” Then she is carried
to the fire, where her husband is being burned. Turning toward her
relatives, and again consoling them, she throws herself into the fire,
where her husband is being burned. Did she not do that, she would not
be considered an honorable woman or a true wife to her dead husband.
[591] When the young men of Java are in love with any gentlewoman, they
fasten certain little bells between their penis and the foreskin. They
take a position under their sweetheart’s window, and making a
pretense of urinating, and shaking their penis, they make the little
bells ring, and continue to ring them until their sweetheart hears the
sound. The sweetheart descends immediately, and they take their
pleasure; always with those little bells, for their women take great
pleasure in hearing those bells ring from the inside. [592] Those bells
are all covered, and the more they are covered the louder [593] they
sound. Our oldest pilot told us that in an island called Acoloro, [594]
which lies below Java Major, there are found no persons but women, and
that they become pregnant from the wind. When they bring forth, if the
offspring is a male, they kill it, but if it is a female they rear it.
If men go to that island of theirs, they kill them if they are able to
do so.

They also told us that a very huge tree is found below Java Major
toward the north, in the gulf of Chiina (which the ancients call Signo
Magno), in which live birds called garuda. Those birds are so large
that they carry a buffalo or an elephant to the place (called
Puzathaer), of that tree, which is called cam panganghi, and its fruit
bua panganghi. [595] The latter is larger than a cucumber. The Moros of
Burne whom we had in our ship told us that they had seen them, for
their king had had two of them sent to him from the kingdom of Siam. No
junk or other boat can approach to within three or four leguas of the
place of the tree, because of the great whirlpools in the water round
about it. The first time that anything was learned of that tree was
[from] a junk which was driven by the winds into the whirlpool. The
junk having been beaten to pieces, all the crew were drowned except a
little boy, who, having been tied to a plank, was miraculously driven
near that tree. He climbed up into the tree without being discovered,
where he hid under the wing of one of those birds. Next day the bird
having gone ashore and having seized a buffalo, the boy came out from
under the wing as best he could. The story was learned from him, and
then the people nearby knew that the fruit which they found in the sea
came from that tree.

The cape of Malacha [596] lies in one and one-half degrees toward the
Antarctic Pole. Along the coast east of that cape are many villages and
cities. The names of some of them are as follows: Cinghapola, which is
located on the cape; Pahan; Calantan; Patani; Bradlun; Benan; Lagon;
Cheregigharan; Tumbon; Phran; Cui; Brabri; Bangha; India, which is the
city where the king of Siam, by name Siri Zacabedera, lives; Jandibum;
Lanu; and Longhonpifa. [597] Those cities are built like ours, and are
subject to the king of Siam. On the shores of the rivers of that
kingdom of Siam, live, as we are told, large birds which will not eat
of any dead animal that may have been carried there, unless another
bird comes first to eat its heart, after which they eat it. [598] Next
to Siam is found Camogia, [599] whose king is called Saret Zacabedera;
then Chiempa, whose king is Raia Brahaun Maitri. [600] Rhubarb which is
found in the following manner grows there. Twenty or twenty-five men
assemble and go together into the jungles. Upon the approach of night,
they climb trees, both to see whether they can catch the scent of the
rhubarb, and also for fear of the lions, elephants, and other wild
beasts. The wind bears to them the odor of the rhubarb from the
direction in which it is to be found. When morning dawns they go in
that direction whence the wind has come, and seek the rhubarb until
they find it. The rhubarb is a large rotten tree; and unless it has
become rotten, it gives off no odor. The best part of that tree is the
root, although the wood is also rhubarb which is called calama. [601]
Next is found Cochi, [602] whose king is called Raia Seribumni Pala.
After that country is found Great Chiina, whose king is the greatest in
all the world, and is called Santhoa Raia. [603] He has seventy crowned
kings subject to himself, and some of the latter have ten or fifteen
kings subject to them. His port is called Guantan [i.e., Canton]. Among
the multitude of other cities, there are two principal ones called
Nanchin [i.e., Nanking] and Comlaha [604] where the above king lives.
He keeps his four principal men near his palace—one toward the west,
one toward the east, one toward the south, and one toward the north.
Each one of those four men gives audience only to those who come from
his own quarter. All the kings and seigniors of greater and upper [605]
India obey that king; and in token that they are his true vassals, each
one has an animal which is stronger than the lion, and called chinga,
[606] carved in marble in the middle of his square. That chinga is the
seal of the said king of Chiina, and all those who go to Chiina must
have that animal carved in wax [or] on an elephant’s tooth, for
otherwise they would not be allowed to enter his harbor. When any
seignior is disobedient to that king, he is ordered to be flayed, and
his skin dried in the sun and salted. Then the skin is stuffed with
straw or other substance, and placed head downward in a prominent place
in the square, with the hands clasped above the head, [607] so that he
may be seen then to be performing zonghu, that is, obeisance. That king
never allows himself to be seen by anyone. When he wishes to see his
people, he rides about the palace on a skilfully made peacock, a most
elegant contrivance, accompanied by six of his most principal women
clad like himself; after which he enters a serpent called nagha, [608]
which is as rich a thing as can be seen, and which is kept in the
greatest court of the palace. The king and the women enter it so that
he may not be recognized among his women. He looks at his people
through a large glass which is in the breast of the serpent. He and the
women can be seen, but one cannot tell which is the king. The latter is
married to his sisters, so that the blood royal may not be mixed with
others. Near his palace are seven encircling walls, and in each of
those circular places are stationed ten thousand men for the guard of
the palace [who remain there] until a bell rings, when ten thousand
other men come for each circular space. They are changed in this manner
each day and each night. Each circle of the wall has a gate. At the
first stands a man with a large hook in his hand, called satu horan
with satu bagan; in the second, a dog, called satu hain; in the third,
a man with an iron mace, called satu horan with pocum becin; in the
fourth, a man with a bow in his hand called satu horan with anat panan;
in the fifth, a man with a spear, called satu horan with tumach; in the
sixth, a lion, called satu horiman; in the seventh, two white
elephants, called two gagia pute. [609] That palace has seventy-nine
halls which contain only women who serve the king. Torches are always
kept lighted in the palace, [610] and it takes a day to go through it.
In the upper part of it are four halls, where the principal men go
sometimes to speak to the king. One is ornamented with copper [metalo],
both below and above; one all with silver; one all with gold; and the
fourth with pearls and precious gems. When the king’s vassals take
him gold or any other precious things as tribute, they are placed in
those halls, and they say: “Let this be for the honor and glory of
our Santhoa Raia. [611] All the above and many other things were told
us by a Moro who had seen them. The inhabitants of Chiina are light
complexioned and wear clothes. They eat at tables as we do, and have
the cross, but it is not known for what purpose. [612] Musk is produced
in that country of Chiina. Its animal is a cat [613] like the civet
cat. It eats nothing except a sweet wood as thick as the finger, called
chamaru. [614] When the Chinese wish to make the musk, they attach a
leech to the cat, which they leave fastened there, until it is well
distended with blood. Then they squeeze the leech out into a dish and
put the blood in the sun for four or five days. After that they
sprinkle it with urine, [615] and as often as they do that they place
it in the sun. Thus it becomes perfect musk. Whoever owns one of those
animals has to pay a certain sum to the king. Those grains which seem
to be grains of musk are of kid’s flesh crushed in the real musk and
not the blood. [616] Although the blood can be made into grains, it
evaporates. The musk and the cat are called castor and the leech
lintha. [617] Many peoples are to be found as one follows the coast of
that country of Chiina, who are as follows. The Chienchii [618] inhabit
islands where pearls and cinnamon grow. The Lechii live on the
mainland; above their port stretches a mountain, so that all the junks
and ships which desire to enter that port must unstep their masts. The
king on the mainland [is called] Mom. [619] He has twenty kings under
him and is subordinate to the king of Chiina. His city is called
Baranaci. The great Oriental catayo [620] is located there. Han [621]
[is] a cold, lofty island where copper [metalo], silver, pearls, and
silk are produced, whose king is called Raia Zotru; Mli Ianla, whose
king is called Raia Chetisqnuga; [622] Gnio, and its king, Raia
Sudacali. All three of the above places are cold and are located on the
mainland. Triaganba [623] and Trianga [are] two islands where pearls,
copper [metalo], silver, and silk are produced, and whose king is Raia
Rrom. Bassi Bassa [is] on the mainland; and then [follow] two islands,
Sumbdit and Pradit, [624] which are exceedingly rich in gold, whose
inhabitants wear a large gold ring around the legs at the ankle. On the
mainland near that point live a race in some mountains who kill their
fathers and mothers as age comes on, so that they may have no further
trouble. All the peoples of those districts are heathens.

On Tuesday night as it drew near Wednesday, February eleven, 1522, we
left the island of Timor and took to the great open sea called Laut
Chidol. [625] Laying our course toward the west southwest, we left the
island of Zamatra, formerly called Traprobana, [626] to the north on
our right hand, for fear of the king of Portoghala; [627] [as well as]
Pegu, Bengala, Uriza, Chelin where the Malabars live, who are subject
to the king of Narsingha, Calicut, subject to the same king, Cambaia,
where the Guzerati live, Cananor, Ghoa, Armus, and all the rest of the
coast of India Major. [628] Six different classes of people inhabit
India Major: Nairi, Panichali, Yranai, Pangelini, Macuai, and Poleai.
[629] The Nairi are the chiefs; and the Panichali are the townspeople:
those two classes of men have converse together. The Iranai gather the
palm wine and figs. The Pangelini are the sailors. The Macuai are the
fishermen. The Poleai are the farmers and harvest the rice. These last
always live in the country, although they enter the city at times.
[630] When anything is given them it is laid on the ground, and then
they take it. When they go through the streets they call out Po! po!
po! that is “Beware of me!” [631] It happened, as we were told,
that a Nair once had the misfortune to be touched by a Polea, for which
the Nair immediately had the latter killed so that he might erase that
disgrace. In order that we might double the cape of Bonna Speranza
[i.e., “Good Hope”], we descended to forty-two degrees on the side
of the Antarctic Pole. We were nine weeks [632] near that cape with our
sails hauled down because we had the west and northwest winds on our
bow quarter and because of a most furious storm. [633] That cape lies
in a latitude of thirty-four and one-half degrees, and is one thousand
six hundred leguas [634] from the cape of Malaca. It is the largest and
most dangerous cape in the world. Some of our men, both sick and well,
wished to go to a Portuguese settlement called Mozanbich, [635] because
the ship was leaking badly, because of the severe cold, and especially
because we had no other food than rice and water; for as we had no
salt, our provisions of meat had putrefied. [636] Some of the others
however, more desirous of their honor than of their own life,
determined to go to Spagnia living or dead. Finally by God’s help, we
doubled that cape on May six at a distance of five leguas. Had we not
approached so closely, we could never have doubled it. [637] Then we
sailed northwest for two months continually without taking on any fresh
food or water [refrigerio]. Twenty-one men died during that short time.
When we cast them into the sea, the Christians went to the bottom face
upward, while the Indians always went down face downward. [638] Had not
God given us good weather we would all have perished of hunger.
Finally, constrained by our great extremity, we went to the islands of
Capo Verde. Wednesday, July nine, we reached one of those islands
called Sancto Jacobo, [639] and immediately sent the boat ashore for
food, with the story for the Portuguese that we had lost our foremast
under the equinoctial line (although we had lost it upon the cape of
Bonna Speranza), and when we were restepping it, [640] our
captain-general had gone to Spagnia with the other two ships. With
those good words [641] and with our merchandise, we got two boatloads
of rice. We charged our men when they went ashore in the boat to ask
what day it was, and they told us that it was Thursday with the
Portuguese. We were greatly surprised for it was Wednesday with us, and
we could not see how we had made a mistake; for as I had always kept
well, I had set down every day without any interruption. However, as
was told us later, it was no error, but as the voyage had been made
continually toward the west and we had returned to the same place as
does the sun, we had made that gain of twenty-four hours, as is clearly
seen. The boat having returned to the shore again for rice, thirteen
men and the boat were detained, because one of them, as we learned
afterward in Spagnia, told the Portuguese that our captain was dead, as
well as others, and that we were not going to Spagnia. [642] Fearing
lest we also be taken prisoners by certain caravels, we hastily
departed. [643] On Saturday, September six, [644] 1522, we entered the
bay of San Lucar with only eighteen men and the majority of them sick,
all that were left of the sixty men who left Malucho. Some died of
hunger; some deserted at the island of Timor; and some were put to
death for crimes. [645] From the time we left that bay [of San Lucar]
until the present day [of our return], we had sailed fourteen thousand
four hundred and sixty leguas, and furthermore had completed the
circumnavigation of the world from east to west. [646] On Monday,
September eight, we cast anchor near the quay of Seviglia, and
discharged all our artillery. Tuesday, we all went in shirts and
barefoot, each holding a candle, to visit the shrine of Santa Maria de
la Victoria [i.e., “St. Mary of Victory”], and that of Santa Maria
de l’Antiqua [i.e., “St. Mary of Antiquity”]. [647]

Leaving Seviglia, I went to Vagliadolit [i.e., Valladolid], where I
presented to his sacred Majesty, Don Carlo, neither gold nor silver,
but things very highly esteemed by such a sovereign. Among other things
I gave him a book, written by my hand, concerning all the matters that
had occurred from day to day during our voyage. [648] I left there as
best I could and went to Portagalo where I spoke with King Johanni of
what I had seen. Passing through Spagnia, I went to Fransa where I made
a gift of certain things from the other hemisphere to the mother of the
most Christian king, Don Francisco, Madame the regent. [649] Then I
came to Italia, where I established my permanent abode, and devoted my
poor labors to the famous and most illustrious lord, Philipo de Villers
Lisleadam, the most worthy grand master of Rhodi.


    The Cavalier

    Antonio Pagaphetta [650]







NOTES


[488] This passage of Pigafetta, had the Portuguese been aware of it,
would have effectually answered the Spaniards in their assertions of
priority of discovery in the Moluccas, in the celebrated Junta of
Badajoz (see VOL. I, pp. 165–221).

[489] Tristão de Meneses was sent by Aleixo de Menezes to Malacca, and
while on his way thither sailed among the islands of Java, Banda, and
the Moluccas. He is mentioned by Brito (Navarrete, iv, p. 306) as being
at Ternate.

[490] Diogo Lopes de Siqueira, a Portuguese naval officer, and
captain-general and governor of India (1518–22), was despatched from
Lisbon, April 5, 1508, with four ships on an expedition for the
discovery and exploration of Malacca. On his arrival at India he was
offered the position of chief-captain of India but declined. In
December, 1509, he left for Malacca, where his carelessness and sense
of security almost lost him his life because of Malay treachery. See
Birch’s Alboquerque, Guillemard’s Magellan, and Mosto, p. 96, note
1.

[491] Juda is the town of Jidda or Djeddah, the port of Mecca. The feud
between the Turks and Arabs and the Portuguese was of some years’
standing, for with the advent of the latter into the eastern world, the
former had suffered greatly in their commerce, which had been
extensive. Alboquerque fought against them at Aden (for descriptions
and history of which, see Varthema’s Travels, Hakluyt Society
edition, pp. 59–64; Birch’s Alboquerque, iv, pp. 10–14; and
Lucas’s Hist. geog. Brit. Col., i. pp. 53–62), and at Goa. Many men
were sent (1515) from Egypt to aid the Arabs at Aden, and the
Portuguese were in constant fear of attack.

[492] MS. 5,650 reads: “Francisque Sarie.” This is probably Pero de
Faria who was given command of a ship at Malacca by Alboquerque
(Birch’s Alboquerque, iii, p. 166), and who was sent by the governor
(Diogo Lopes de Siqueira) to build a fort at Maluco (Mosto, p. 96, note
4).

[493] The Banda, or Nutmeg Islands, which belong to the Dutch, are
small and ten in number, some of which are uninhabited. Banda (properly
Bândan) means in Javanese “the thing or things tied or united,” or
with the word “Pulo,” “united islands.” The group lies between
south latitudes 3° 50′ and 4° 40′. Sontar or the Great Banda is
the largest island, but the principal settlement is on Nera. They are
volcanic in origin and frequent eruptions and earthquakes have
occurred. The population is scant, and the raising of nutmegs
constitutes almost the entire source of revenue. Abreu was the first
Portuguese to visit them (in 1511, at the order of Alboquerque), but
Varthema (Travels, Hakluyt Society edition, pp. 243, 244) seems to have
visited them before that time. The Portuguese held the islands
peacefully until 1609, when the Dutch attempted to settle, but were
resisted by the natives, and many of the Dutch massacred, from which
followed a war of extermination until 1627. Most of the natives fled,
so that it became necessary for the Dutch to introduce slave labor for
the cultivation of the nutmegs. At the Dutch conquest the nutmeg
plantations were given to the persons taking part in it, and are still
held by their heirs, under the name of Parkeniers, on condition of
delivering the whole product to the government at a fixed and low rate.
See Crawfurd’s Dictionary, pp. 33–36.

[494] MS. 5,650 reads: “than the other weapons [bastons].”

[495] MS. 5,650 reads: “of the color of the fruit.” Cf.
Pigafetta’s description of the clove tree with those of Varthema
(Travels, Hakluyt Society edition, p. 246) and Linschoten’s Voyage
(Hakluyt Society edition), ii, pp. 81–84. See also Crawfurd’s
Dictionary, pp. 101–105, and VOL. XIV, p. 58, note 5. Crawfurd
remarks that Pigafetta’s account is even yet a good popular one.

[496] Probably Pottebackers Island to the south of Tidore.

[497] Cf. Pigafetta’s description of the nutmeg with those of
Varthema (Travels, Hakluyt Society edition), p. 245, and Linschoten’s
Voyage (Hakluyt Society edition), ii, pp. 84–86. See also
Crawfurd’s Dictionary, pp. 304–306, and VOL. XX, p. 258, note 48.

[498] This method of making cloth from tree-bark is also mentioned by
Combés (Historia, Madrid, 1667).

[499] MS. 5,650 adds: “and bruise.” There are supposed to be five
palms that produce the product called sago, which is probably the word
for the meal, as each of the palms has its own specific name. The most
frequently cultivated are the râmbiya, Sagus Konigii or Metroxylon
sago, and the bamban or Sagus lævis. The shell of each species is very
thin, and the yield of sago very abundant, as it comprises all the pith
of the tree. Sago trees grow throughout the Malayan archipelago and
Philippines as far as Mindanao. They require a boggy ground and
propagate by lateral shoots, as well as by seeds, so that a sago
plantation is perpetual. Three trees will yield more nutritive matter
than an acre of wheat, and six trees more than an acre of potatoes.
Sago is the sole bread of the Moluccas and New Guinea and its
neighboring islands, but of no other part of the Archipelago. In the
Malay countries it is only the food of the wild tribes, and is hardly
used by the Malays themselves. Only the poorer classes in Mindanao use
it, while in other islands, such as Java, where rice is abundant, it is
not used at all. It is the lowest kind of farinaceous food. The pearl
sago of commerce was introduced by the Chinese. The method of
preparation is essentially that described by Pigafetta. See
Crawfurd’s Dictionary, pp. 371, 372; and Official Handbook of
Philippines (Manila, 1903), pp. 115, 116.

[500] MS. 5,650 omits the remainder of this sentence. Stanley (p. 135,
note) says that the dress of the soldiers of Pigafetta’s time was
indecent.

[501] MS. 5,650 reads: “seven hundred and ninety.”

[502] These native names for cloves are “ghomodo” and
“Bongalauant” in MS. 5,650. The principal names current for the
clove in the eastern archipelago are foreign rather than native. In the
Moluccas they are called gaumedi, which is a Sanskrit word meaning
“cow’s marrow.” The most frequent name is cângkek which is said
to be a corruption of the Chinese name theng-hia, meaning
“odoriferous nails.” Another name is lawan to which the Malays
prefix the words “flower” or “fruit” (as Pigafetta’s
bongalauan), and is the name of the Telingas of India, who have always
conducted the largest trade between India and the Malayan countries.
Sec Crawfurd’s Dictionary, pp. 101, 102.

[503] Still so called and located to the south.

[504] MS. 5,650 adds: “Ala.”

[505] MS. 5,650 reads: “crown.”

[506] Spelled zzambachean in MS. 5,650. This is the word subhan,
“giving praise” (Stanley, p. 138).

[507] MS. 5,650 reads: “by Ala his god, and by his crown.”

[508] MS. 5,650 reads: “of that island.”

[509] MS. 5,650 reads: “the king of Bacchian.” These counselors
were those well affected to the Portuguese who hoped by such an act to
ward off Portuguese vengeance for the murder of the Portuguese at
Bachian because of their licentiousness (see p. 41).

[510] MS. 5,650 reads: “As we had no more cloth, we sent to ask the
king for three brasses of his cloth, which he gave to us.”

[511] MS. 5,650 reads: “some silk and other presents.”

[512] St. Barbara, the patroness of powder magazines, was a virgin who
was martyred at Heliopolis, December 4, 306.

[513] MS. 5,650 reads: “our fireports, fire-bombs, and rockets.”

[514] MS. 5,650 reads: “three sous.” The marcello was a silver
Venetian coin weighing sixty-three grams. Two marcelli equaled one
Venetian lira which was worth one and one quarter Italian lire. It was
later also the name given to a silver coin of Francesco III, duke of
Mantua, 1540–50. See Mosto, p. 98, note 7; and Hazlitt’s Coinage of
European Continent.

[515] MS. 5,650 says that a couple of drinking-cups were given to each
of the brothers.

[516] MS. 5,650 reads: “many pieces of artillery.”

[517] MS. 5,650 reads: “hagbuts and culverins.”

[518] MS. 5,650 reads: “relatives and friends.”

[519] MS. 5,650 reads: “as mistresses of the function, and arranged
everything.”

[520] MS. 5,650 adds: “for a jest;” but omits the remainder of the
sentence.

[521] St. James of Compostella, located in the Spanish province of
Galicia. Alboquerque, the great Portuguese viceroy of India, bequeathed
a large silver lampstand to St. James of Galicia, and a hundred
thousand reis (about £20 16s 8d), in cash for oil at his death. The
Portuguese convent of Palmela, located in Palmela, and under the charge
of the Augustinians was the head-quarters of Santiago or St. James in
Portugal. See Birch’s Alboquerque, iii, pp. 18, 19.

[522] MS. 5,650 reads: “hagbuts.”

[523] MS. 5,650 reads: “quill.”

[524] In Eden (p. 259) manuccodiata; and in Transylvanus, Mamuco Diata
(VOL. I, pp. 331, 332). This mention by the latter is perhaps the first
mention in European literature of the bird of paradise, the skins of
which seem to have been a regular article of commerce. These skins were
supposed to render the wearer safe and invincible in battle.
(Guillemard’s Magellan, pp. 285, 286). The method of hunting, as
described by Wallace (Malay Archipelago, New York, 1869) is by bow and
arrow, the latter with “a conical wooden cap fitted to the end as
large as a teacup, so as to kill the bird by the violence of the blow
without making any wound or shedding any blood.”

[525] MS. 5,650 reads: “sixty.”

[526] In place of the remainder of this sentence MS. 5,650 reads:
“and cast spells.”

[527] MS. 5,650 reads here in addition to what follows: “bewitch
and.”

[528] MS. 5,650 adds: “and shorter.”

[529] MS. 5,650 reads: “in lime and in large jars.” Cf. with
Pigafetta’s description of the ginger plant and root, that of
Varthema (Travels, Hakluyt Society edition, p. 58). See also the prices
quoted by Barbosa (East African and Malabar Coasts, Hakluyt Society
edition, pp. 220, 221), and Crawfurd’s Dictionary, p. 143.

[530] In Eden (p. 260) the “Trinidad” springs its leak in the
island of Mare, after stowing provisions and fuel for the return trip.

[531] Bomba: a Spanish word.

[532] MS. 5,650 reads: “‘Who will go,’” etc.

[533] MS. 5,650 adds: “and regard.”

[534] MS. 5,650 does not specify any number, but makes it general of
all who remained.

[535] MS. 5,650 adds: “and sadly.”

[536] MS. 5,650 reads: “afternoon.”

[537] MS. 5,650 reads: “fifty.” Juan Carvalho was later superseded
by Gonzalo Gomez de Espinosa the alguacil who had rendered so signal
service to Magalhães at the time of the mutiny at Port St. Julian.

Brito (Navarrete, iv, pp. 305, 306, 311) gives his connection with the
men of the “Trinidad” as follows:

“I have already written from Banda the news which I found there
regarding the Castilians, and sent the letters of one Pedro de Lorossa
who went with them. I left Banda May 2, 522, to ascertain whether I
could seize the ship which left last, as the other one had already left
about three months before. I reached Tidore May 13, 522, where the
Castilians had been, and where they laded two of the five ships that
sailed from Castilla. I learned that the first one had gone four months
before and the other one a month and a half. The second had not left
with the first because of a leak which had opened when they were on the
point of departing. [Accordingly] it was lightened of its cargo and
after it had been repaired it left. I found five Castilians, one a
factor, with merchandise, and another who was a gunner. I sent the
factor Rui Gaguo with a message to the king [of Tidore] demanding the
surrender of the Castilians, artillery, and property to me, and to ask
him why he had admitted Castilians since that region had been
discovered so long before by the Portuguese. He answered that he had
admitted them as merchants, and for fear rather than willingly. Next
day he sent me three Castilians and a small amount of their goods. I
had already taken another with me when I left Banda, whither he had
gone to get information of the country and of trade. The fifth
Castilian was absent in the island of Moro, 60 leguas from Maluco. The
following day the king came to see me. He announced himself as a good
vassal of your Highness, and had excuses for everything, all of which
was proved by the Castilians themselves. I had him give his testimony
in writing, in order to have a check on him at all times, for I assure
you that those Castilians had surrendered to his power as if they were
Christians and his natives. I found the whole country full of tin
crosses ([although] some were of silver), with a crucifix on one side
and our Lady on the other. They were selling bombards, muskets,
crossbows, swords, darts, and powder. I brought all those crosses above
mentioned to your Highness, which those people were selling with full
knowledge of what they were.

“After I had been there two days a bastard son of the king of Ternate
came to take me to his island. That man is the one who is governing in
the name of the heir, a child of eight or nine, whose father died seven
or eight months before my arrival. This island [of Ternate] is the
largest and chiefest of Maluco, and is the one where Francisco Serrano
always lived, as well as Don Tristan when he came here. Then the mother
of the king, who has more authority, came, and they proclaimed
themselves as your Highness’s vassals. I said nothing of a fortress
as I wished first to see all the islands. After I had seen them, I
thought it best to build the fort here as it is the largest and there
is no port in Tidor.

“While I was ashore my men fell sick, and within two months, I only
had 50 well men out of the 200 I had brought with me. About 50 of them
died, and with so few men the fortress was started.

“On October 22, I received news that a ship was off the back of these
islands. I thought it must be the Castilians, since they took that
course. I sent three ships with orders to bring it in, and they did so,
and with it 24 Castilians. They said that not caring to return by the
way they had come as it was so long a voyage, they had resolved to sail
to Darien. They found but light winds, for they could not take the
monsoon, and [accordingly] went to 40 degrees north. According to their
account they had made 900 leguas when they put back. When they left
they had 54 men, 30 of whom died at 40 degrees. The goods of the king
of Castilla were set down in writing, and the maps and astrolabes were
seized. The ship, which was old and leaking badly, was begun to be
lightened. In a week it opened and 40 bahars of cloves were lost. The
wood was used for the fortress and the equipment for the other ships
there....

“I sent seventeen Castilians with Don Garcia so that they might pay
what they owe to Jorge de Alburquerque, so that he might send them
thence to the chief captain of India according to the instructions
given me in your Highness’s orders. Those men are Gonzalo Gomez de
Espinosa, captain; Juan de Campos, factor, who remained with the goods
in Tidore; Alfonso de Costa, who was going to examine the trade in
Banda; Luis del Molino; Diego Diaz; Diego Martin; Leon Pancaldo, pilot
of the ship; Juan Roiz; Ginés de Mafra; Juan Novoro; San Remo; Amalo;
Francisco de Ayamonte; Luis de Veas; Segredo; Master Otans [the German
gunner, Hans Vargue]; and Anton Moreno.

“I left four here: 1st, the master of the ship, named Juan Bautista,
who is the most skilful of them all, and has sailed in ships belonging
to your Highness, and who is the one who took command, and who after
the death of Magallanes must have taken his fleet to Maluco; 2nd, the
clerk, who is a good sailor and pilot; 3d, the boatswain; and 4th, a
carpenter who is needed to repair this ship by which I am now sending
by way of Burneo....

“In regard to the master, clerk, and pilot, I am writing to the chief
captain that it will be more to the service of your Highness to order
them beheaded than to send them there. I detained them in Maluco
because it is an unhealthy country, with the intention of having them
die there, as I did not dare order them beheaded for I was ignorant
whether such action would meet your Highness’s approval. I am writing
to Jorge de Alburquerque to detain them in Malaca, which is also a
country that is very unhealthy.”

Navarrete describes the adventures of the “Trinidad” and the fate
of her crew in his Col. de viages, iv, pp. 98–107; for a translation
of which see Stanley’s First Voyage, pp. 237–241. Cf. also the
account in Guillemard’s Magellan, pp. 298–307, where many details
not in Navarrete are to be found. The mortality of the crew of the
“Trinidad” was terrible, and of the 53 men left with Juan Carvalho
at Tidore, only the following returned to Spain, and that only after a
number of years: Gonzalo Gomez de Espinosa, alguazil; Ginés de Mafra,
sailor; Leon Pancado [mentioned above by Brito], sailor; and Juan
Rodriguez of Seville, sailor. The German gunner, Hans Vargue, also
reached Lisbon with Espinosa and Ginés de Mafra, but died almost
immediately upon his arrival there, in prison. See Guillemard, ut
supra, pp. 338, 339.

The goods left and accumulated in Tidore by the Spaniards is thus given
by Brito (Navarrete, iv, p. 310): “The goods which remained in Tidor
belonging to the Castilians amounted to 1,125 quintals 32 libras of
copper, 2,000 libras of quicksilver, two quintals of iron, three
bombards with iron blocks (one is a pasamuro and two are roqueiras), 14
iron culverins without any chamber, three iron anchors (consisting of a
fugareo, one large one, and one broken one), 9 crossbows, 12 muskets,
32 breast-plates, 12 serveilheras, 3 helmets, 4 anchors, 53 iron bars,
6 iron culverins, 2 iron falconets, 2 large iron bombards with four
chambers, and 1,275 quintals of cloves.”

[538] So Pigafetta calls the minister in charge of the religious
matters of Tidore, which had embraced the Mahometan worship.

[539] MS. 5,650 adds: “was forty-five years old.”

[540] MS. 5,650 omits mention of the camotes. The comulicai becomes
comulicar in MS. 5,650. Eden reads: “and a marueilous coulde frute
which they name Camulicai.” The comulicai is perhaps a species of
Anona. The fruit like the peach called guava is evidently the mango or
manga (Mangifera Indica). See Crawfurd’s Dictionary, p. 263 (who
fails to note that Pigafetta mentions this fruit as existing in the
Moluccas). It is mentioned by the Italian traveler Varthema (Travels,
Hakluyt Society edition, pp. 159, 160).

[541] The generic name for “parrot” is loony. Its correct Malay
form is noyras (Crawfurd, Dictionary, p. 221, nuri and Javanese nori).
The corruption nori began to be common in the seventeenth century. (See
Linschoten’s Voyage, Hakluyt Society edition, i, p. 307). Nicolò
de’Conti says that there are three species of parrots in Banda. The
first two species are both known by the name of nori, “bright,” and
are about the size of doves, one species having red feathers and a
saffron-colored beak and the other being of various colors. The third
species are white and as large as the common domestic fowl, and are
called cachi, “better.” They imitate human speech better than the
others. Bellemo says that the lori [i.e., nori] are parrots with red
feathers, giachi those which speak more easily, while the white ones
cockatoos which do not speak (Mosto, p. 100, note 3).

[542] The modern names of the Moluccas are Ternate, Tidor, Mortier,
Makian, and Batjian; or in a more correct orthography, Târnati,
Tidori, Mortir, Makiyan, and Bachian (see Crawfurd’s Dictionary, p.
283). Albo (Navarrete, iv, p. 225) includes Gilolo among the Moluccas.

[543] In describing the five Moluccas Islands, Eden (p. 260) says that
Tidore lies in 171 degrees of longitude. “Terenate, is vnder the
Equinoctial line foure minutes vnder the pole Antartike.... Theſe
Ilandes are lyke foure ſharpe mountaynes, except Macchian which is not
ſharpe. The byggeſt of all theſe, is Bacchian.”

Main events while at the Moluccas, are related substantially the same
by the “Roteiro” (Stanley, pp. 23–25) as by Pigafetta, although
much shorter. The “Roteiro” says however that the king of Tidore
sent twenty-five divers to locate the leak of the “Trinidad.” The
anonymous Portuguese (Stanley, pp. 31, 32) names the five Moluccas and
mentions the island of Banda. See A. Bastian’s Indonesian oder die
Inseln des Malayischen Archipel, which contains sections entitled: Die
Mölukken (Berlin, 1884); Timor and umliegende Inseln (Berlin, 1885):
and Borneo und Celebes (Berlin, 1889).

[544] MS. 5,650 omits this vocabulary; as does Stanley. Mosto has
mistranscribed a few of the Malay words. This vocabulary is the most
ancient specimen of Malay extant, for in that language there exist
neither old inscriptions nor old manuscripts; and it is wonderfully
accurate. See Crawfurd’s Dictionary, p. 352; also R. N. Cust’s
Modern Languages of the East Indies (London, 1878); and Wallace’s
East India Archipelago, pp. 608–625.

[545] Naceran is evidently a corruption of an Arabian word meaning
“Nazarene;” in some of the following words used to denote worship,
one may see traces also of words brought in with the conquering
religion of Mahomet.

[546] See VOL. XXXIII, p. 315, note 160.

[547] See VOL. XXXIII, p. 349, note 391.

[548] At this point in the original Italian MS. are shown two charts:
1. On folio 68b, the islands of Laigoma, Caioian, Giogi, Sico, Labuac,
Caphi (with the inscription “The Pigmies live in this island”),
Tolyman, Tabobi, Bachiam, Latalata, Batutiga, Maga, and a number of
unnamed islands (q.v., p. 104); shown on folio 84a of MS. 5,650,
preceded by the words: “Chart of the islands of Bacchian, Toliman,
Sico, Caioan, Laigoma, Gioggi, Caphi, Labuan, etc.”   2. On folio
69a, the islands of Sulach, Lumatola, Tenetum, Buru, Ambalao, Ambon,
and a number of unnamed islands (q.v., p. 110); in MS. 5,650 shown on
folio 84b, preceded by the words “Below is shown the chart of the
islands of Ambalao, Ambon, Buru, and others.”

[549] A number of these and succeeding islands are spelled slightly
differently in Eden (p. 260). Mosto (p. 104, note 1) conjectures that
Caioan is the Cayoan of Albo (Navarrete, iv, p. 224), which he seeks to
identify with the island of Kayoa or Kiou; Laigoma is Laigama, one of
the islands among the Molucca group; Sico is Siku; Giogi is perhaps
Gumorgi; and Caphi is Gafi. See Mosto, p. 104, notes 1–5.

[550] Throughout the remainder of his narrative, it is seen that
Pigafetta has often lent a credulous ear to the Malayan pilots of the
ships and to current report. Marco Polo (book iii, xiii), explodes the
belief in pigmies, which he declares to have been cleverly made for
trade purposes. Pigafetta’s account may possibly refer to an
aboriginal people, although more probably it is a reference to the
orang-outang.

[551] MS. 5,650 spells some of these islands differently (Labuan,
Toliman, and several others), but in general the changes in spelling
are very slight, consisting in a change of vowel or a doubling of a
consonant. Labuan corresponds to Laboeha, the southern part of the
island of Batchian; Toliman is Twali Bezar; Titameti is perhaps Tawalie
Ketijl; Latalata is Latta-latta; Tabobi is perhaps Tappi; Maga is
perhaps Loemang; Batutiga is perhaps Oby Major, a headland of which is
called Aijer Batoe Geggok. See Mosto, p. 104, notes 6–12.

[552] Called “Sulan” by Albo (Navarrete, iv, p. 225). It is one of
the Xulla Islands (see Guillemard’s Magellan, p. 289, and Mosto, p.
104, note 13).

[553] It is impossible to identify these names with complete assurance.
The first four probably correspond to the group of islands near
Amboina, which contains those of Honimoa, Moelana, Oma, and Noesfa
Laut; Leitimor (Ley-timur) is a peninsula of Amboina; Tenetun (called
“Tenado” by Albo-Navarrete, iv. p. 225) is perhaps one of the Xulla
islands; the last four correspond perhaps to the group east of Ceram
known as Bonoa, Babi, Kelang, Manipa, Toeban, and Smangi. Benaia is
again named lower down, and two other islands in its group. See Mosto,
pp. 104, 105, notes.

[554] Albo (Navarrete, iv, p. 225) calls it Lumutola. It is perhaps the
island of Lisamatula. See Mosto, p. 105, note 2.

554* MS. 5,650 reads: “a food made of figs [i.e., bananas], almonds,
and honey, wrapped in leaves and smoke dried, which is cut into rather
long pieces and called canali.” That MS. omits the remainder of this,
and the following six sentences.

[555] MS. 5,650 reads: “sixty-five.” On modern maps this name is
given as Boeroe. It is called Buró by Albo (Navarrete, iv, p. 225),
and he says that it was “necessary to coast along its eastern
side.” This was on December 27.

[556] The native name of Amboina is Ambun, which is said to be derived
from its chief town, the island itself being called by its inhabitants
Hitoe or Hitu. The inhabitants have been converted to Christianity and
belong to the Dutch Lutheran church. They attend public schools and are
taught to read and write the Malay language in Roman characters.
Crawfurd’s Dictionary, p. 11.

[557] MS. 5,650 gives this name as “Undia.” It is probably the
Bidia of Albo (Navarrete, iv, p. 225).

[558] Now Amblau. It has an area of about seventy square geographical
miles, and a small population. It lies in latitude 3° 15´ south, and
longitude 125° 15´ east.

Following this paragraph in the original Italian MS. (folio 72a) is
shown the chart of the islands of Bandam, namely, Lailaca, Pulurun,
Manuca, Baracha, Unuvero, Palach, Saniananpi, Chelicel, Man, Meut,
Rossoghin, and Zoroboa (q.v., p. 114). This chart is shown on folio 85b
of MS. 5,650, preceded by the words, “Chart of the islands of Bandan,
Rossonghin, Man, Zzorobua, and others.”

[559] The names of the ten islands comprising the Banda group are Banda
(“United”), Pulo Nera (“the island of Palm Wine”), Lontar
(“Palm”), Pulo Ai (properly Pulo Wai; “Water Island”), Pulo
Pisang (“Banana Island”), Pulo Run (Rung; “Chamber Island”),
Pulo Suwanggi (“Sorcery Island”), Gunung-api (“Fire Mountain”
or “Volcano”), Pulo Kapal (“Ship Island” or “Horse
Island”), and Rosingen (the Rosoghin of Pigafetta, and the
Rosolangium of Barros, which Crawfurd conjectures to be derived from
the Malay words roso, “strength” and langgâng, “firm,”
“assured”). See Crawfurd’s Dictionary, p. 33; and ante, note 493.

[560] At this point (folio 73a) of the original Italian MS. follows the
chart of the islands, of Mallua, Batuombor, Galiau, Zolot, and
Nocemamor (q.v., p. 118). This chart is shown on folio 87a of MS.
5,650, preceded by the words: “Chart of the islands of Zzolot,
Galliau, Nocemamor, Batuanbor, and Mallua.”

[561] These are the islands of Solor, Nobokamor Rusa, and Lomblen
(Mosto, p. 105, notes 6–8). Guillemard (Magellan, p. 289, note) says
that the passage taken by the “Victoria” was either Flores or
Boleng Strait.

[562] MS. 5,050 reads: “little horns.” The Italian is corniolli.

[563] MS. 5,650 reads: “They have a kind of sack made from the leaves
of trees, in which they carry their food and drink. When their women
saw us they came to meet us with bows,” etc. Stanley following
Amoretti says the same. The Italian MS. will allow this translation,
although the most natural translation both in the structure and the
sense is the one of our text. This might be recorded as another piece
of carelessness on the part of the adapter of the Italian to the
French.

[564] MS. 5,650 reads: “in order to inspect and overhaul.”

[565] MS. 5,650 mentions only the long pepper here, though the round
variety is also described as in the Italian MS.

[566] MS. 5,650 omits this sentence, and in the succeeding sentence,
compares the leaves of the pepper plant to those of the mulberry.
Gatelle (Gattelli), the diminutive of Gatto “cat,” is the vulgar
name for amento, the botanical name for the first flowers of the
walnut-tree, hazelnut-tree, and other trees.

[567] MS. 5,650 reads: “lubi.” Crawfurd (Dictionary, p. 335) says
that the long pepper (Piper longum) is called chave by the Javanese and
lada panjang of the Malays. It is probably a native of Java, although
grown in other parts of the archipelago. It is not named by Barbosa.
Linschoten (Voyage, Hakluyt Society edition, p. 73) says that the long
pepper is grown only in Bengala and Java, and calls it Pepelini (from
the Sanskrit pippali).

[568] The black pepper (Piper nigrum), called lada in Malayan, lada in
the Philippines, and maricha (pure Sanskrit) in Javanese, was probably
introduced into the archipelago from Malabar. It is not found wild in
any of the Malayan islands, but abundantly so in the mountains and
valleys of most of the countries of the western side of India. It is
produced in some parts of the Philippines, but little is exported, as
sufficient attention has not been paid to it to enable the Philippine
product to compete with that raised in other parts of the East Indies.
See Crawfurd’s Dictionary, pp. 333–335; and Official Handbook of
Philippines, p. 114. See also Yule’s Jordanus (Hakluyt Society
edition), p. 27 (who confuses the long with the black pepper);
Varthema’s Travels (Hakluyt Society edition), pp. 156, 157;
Barbosa’s East African and Malabar Coasts (Hakluyt Society edition),
p. 219; Linschoten’s Voyage (Hakluyt Society edition), ii, pp.
72–75; and VOL. III, p. 77.

[569] They reached this island on January 8, 1522, the day of the
storm. See Albo’s log (Navarrete, iv, p. 226).

At this point in the original Italian MS. (folio 74a) is the chart of
the islands of Botolo, Chendam, Nossocamba, Samaute, and Timor (q.v.,
p. 124). This chart appears on folio 89a of MS. 5,650, preceded by the
words: “Chart of the island of Timor and of its four settlements, and
four other islands.”

[570] Mosto (p. 106, note 4) conjectures that Arucheto is one of the
Aru Islands or the island of Haruku, east of Amboina. Eden (p. 260)
says of the island of Arucheto (Arucetto): “But owr men wolde not
ſayle thyther, bothe bycauſe the wynde and courſe of the ſea was
ageynſte theym, and alſo for that they gaue no credite to his
reporte.” This last reason may have been obtained from Maximilianus
Transylvanus.

[571] Amoretti reads erroneously: “Saturday, January 25, at 22
o’clock;” and Stanley (p. 151), reproducing his error, explains
this as the Italian method of reckoning time.

[572] MS. 5,650 omits the date.

[573] MS. 5,650 reads: “beef,” here and throughout this paragraph,
and elsewhere.

[574] The large island was Timur, and Amaban and Balibo were villages
located on its coast. Albo (Navarrete, iv, p. 226) says that they
coasted along Timor “to the village of Manvay, first arriving at the
village of Queru.”

[575] MS. 5,650 reads: “linen, silk and cotton cloth, knives,
scissors, mirrors, and other things.”

[576] MS. 5,650 reads: “adorned with gold,” and the last sentence
of the paragraph reads: “Some of them wear other gold ornaments in
their ears.” Guillemard conjectures from Pigafetta’s description
that these people were of Papuan origin (Magellan, p. 290). His
translation of this passage is not exact.

[577] The white sandal wood (Santalum album) is a low tree resembling a
large myrtle, although belonging to another family. It is a native of
several islands in the Malay Archipelago, but more especially of Timur
and Sumba (Sandal Wood Island). It is also found in the South Sea
islands and in Malabar. The Malays and Javanese call it “chandana”
(a Sanskrit word, written “sandana” by the Filipinos, but used
there for another tree), and it was probably first made known to the
natives of the archipelago by the Hindu traders. Both Varthema and
Barbosa mention it as an article of commerce, and the latter gives
prices. The greatest users of sandal-wood as a perfume, incense, or
fancy wood are the Hindus and Chinese, especially the latter.
Crawfurd’s Dictionary, p. 375.

[578] MS. 5,650 omits mention of beans.

[579] MS. 5,650 reads “steel” instead of “hatchets.”

[580] MS. 5,650 reads: “one hundred and sixty-four and one-half.”

[581] Timur is wrongly classed with the chain of islands called the
Sunda, being different in location, structure, fauna, and botany. It is
mountainous and rather desolate. Its inhabitants are Malayans and
Negritos, and two languages are spoken there—Timourese in the west,
and Teto or Manatoto in the east. The religion is a sort of demonology.
An annual sacrifice of a virgin to the sharks and alligators was made
until recent times, when the practice was abolished by the Dutch. It is
about 370 miles long by 50 broad in its widest part and contains about
9,808 square geographical miles. The island belongs to the Dutch and
Portuguese. See Crawfurd’s Dictionary, pp. 432–435, and Cust’s
Modern Languages of the East Indies (London, 1878), p. 143.

[582] MS. 5,650 reads: “St. Job,” and “for franchi.” Eden (p.
260) says of this disease: “In al the Ilandes of this Archipelagus,
rayneth the diſeaſe of ſaynt Iob (whiche wee caule the frenche poxe)
more then in any other place in the worlde.” Evidently this passage
of Pigafetta is a reference to the disease of syphilis. This disease
was not first introduced in the Orient by the Portuguese as Crawfurd
claims, nor first discovered in America, for Varthema found it in
Calicut in 1505, and it was observed in China long before it was
noticed in Europe. Littré discovered a mention of it in a work of the
thirteenth century, and it is mentioned in Sanskrit medical books prior
to 1500 under the name of upadamça. It is doubtless an old disease.
Stanley (p. 153) following Amoretti, wrongly believes the leprosy to be
meant by this passage. From the fact that the Filipinos had a name for
the disease (see vol. i, p. 189), it is conjectured that its existence
was well known. See Linschoten’s Voyage (Hakluyt Society edition), i,
p. 239.

The following information is received from Walter G. Stern, M. D., of
Cleveland, Ohio, regarding this disease: “The maladie de Job is
considered by many authors to be syphilis (lues venerea). At least all
of the symptoms complained of by Job can be readily explained upon the
theory that Job was afflicted with this disease. That syphilis is as
old as mankind, there can be no doubt, although for centuries popular
belief and tradition claimed that it was introduced by Columbus who
brought it from the West Indies. The coincidence of the terrible
epidemic of malignant syphilis with the discovery of the New World, the
ignorance of the medical profession of those times, and the silence of
the popular medical writers of former ages as to the previous existence
of such a complex contagion as syphilis strengthened this belief into
an axiom. The finding of undoubted syphilitic bone lesions in skeletons
of the most remote historic periods is undisputed evidence of the
antiquity of syphilis. The sexual excesses of the ancients, the Baal
and Astarte worship of the Assyrians, the Venus, Bacchus, and Priapus
cult of the Romans, were at least most favorable means of spreading
venereal diseases. Not taking into account references in Roman and
Grecian mythology, the old Syrian cuneiform epic Izdebar and the
“papyrus Ebers,” we find the first reference to syphilitic disease
in Indian literature of the Brahman period (800 B. C.). There is also a
reference in the Chinese work of Musi-King, which very possibly dates
from 2637 B. C.; also one in a Japanese MS. Daido-rui-shim-ho of about
810 B. C. Hippocrates, Celsus, and Pliny also mention a disease with
the characteristics of syphilis, while the Roman satirists describe
venereal afflictions identical to it. It is specifically mentioned by
the medical writers of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, when it
was of a very mild type—endemic, as seen at the present day in Bosnia
and Turkey. Its place of origin is unknown. It probably came from
India, where it has been endemic at least from 800 B. C., and brought
by the Assyrians, Phœnicians, and Carthaginians to Greece and Rome and
the rest of Europe. (See Neuman’s Syphilis, Wien, 1899).” Dr.
Alexander F. Chamberlain, in “The American Antiquarian and Oriental
Journal” for January and February, 1905, has the following note:
“American origin of syphilis. In his ‘Das erst Auftreten der
Syphilis (Lustseuche) in der europäischen Kulturwelt’ (Jena, 1903,
p. 35) Iwan Bloch sustains the thesis of its pre-Columbian existence in
America and transference to Europe in the wake of the discovery of the
new world. Bloch had previously published another work on syphilis
‘Der Ursprung der Syphilis’ (1901), in which he set forth similar
views. The new work contains data concerning the first appearance of
this terrible malady in Europe, and of a like sexual disease among the
American Indians.”

[583] In the original Italian MS. at this point (folio 76a) follows the
chart of Laut Chidol, that is, Great Sea (q.v., p. 124). This chart is
given on folio 89b of MS. 5,650, without other inscription than that of
the chart itself, which is the same as the above.

[584] Endé, also called Floris and Mangarai, lies between latitudes
7° and 9° south, and longitudes 120° and 123° east. It is two
hundred miles long and its breadth ranges from forty-two to fifty
miles. It is volcanic in origin. It is said to possess six distinct
languages, and the natives are intermediate between Malayan and Papuan.
See Crawfurd’s Dictionary, p. 138, and Cust, ut supra, p. 143.

[585] Tanabutun—Mani (in MS. 5,650, “Moiu,” and in Mosto
“Main”) inclusive, probably refer to the islands between Endé or
Floris and Sumbawa. Zumbaua is Sumbawa, which is so called from its
principal people. It is the fifth island of the Sunda chain from the
westward. Its length is 140 miles, greatest breadth, 50, and its area
about 278 square geographical leagues. The island belongs to the Dutch,
but the more civilized people are Mahometans, while some of the
mountaineers are still pagans. Three languages or dialects are found
there. Lomboch or Lomboc is the second island due east of Java. The
name is taken from the Javanese word for capsicum. By the natives
Lomboc is now called Sasak (in Malay and Javanese, “a raft” or
“temporary bridge”), and sometimes Selaparang. It is volcanic and
mountainous, contains numerous small and unnavigable rivers, and a
number of mountain lakes. The vegetation resembles that of Java, but
its fauna is considerably different. The inhabitants call themselves
Sasak, who are Mahometans and subject (along the seacoast) to the
Balinese who profess Hinduism (a unique example of a nation professing
Mahometanism being held in permanent subjection by another professing
Hinduism). The language of the Sasaks is similar to that of the western
end of Sumbawa. Chorum is perhaps Bali, the island just east of Java.
See Mosto, p. 107, notes 6–9; Crawfurd’s Dictionary, and Cust’s
Modern Languages of East Indies.

[586] Java (a Dutch dependency), the most important island of the East
Indies, is correctly called Jawa, a name derived from its principal
people. It was first named among Europeans by Marco Polo. Varthema’s
account of the island is almost worthless, but Barbosa, who never
visited it, describes it accurately, while Pigafetta’s account is
still more accurate. The botany of Java is rich and diversified, and
the island is extremely fertile. The fauna is proportionally as varied
as the botany. The people whether Javanese or Sundanese are Malayan.
The Javanese are industrious and honest, and are only semi-Mahometan.
The Sundanese who inhabit the mountainous districts of the western part
are Mahometans. The language of the former is the chief language of the
island, and is one of the most copious languages in the world. The
Javanese are the most civilized of all Malayan peoples and could boast
of civilization before the advent of Europeans in the Orient. They have
cultivated certain of the arts and have many industries. They have a
literature that is sufficiently abundant in both the ancient and modern
languages. See Crawfurd’s Dictionary, pp. 165–192; Cust’s Modern
Languages of the East Indies, pp. 137, 138; and Lucas’s Historical
Geography of British Colonies (Oxford, 1888), i, p. 99.

[587] The name of the king of Megepaher seems to be given as
“Patiunus Sunda” in MS. 5,650. That manuscript continues:
“Considerable pepper grows there. The other cities are.” Magepaher
is the ancient capital Majapait; Sunda is probably the western district
of Java, occupied by the Sundanese (it must be remembered that
Pigafetta’s information is derived orally from the Malay pilots);
Daha is the ancient Javanese kingdom of Däa; Cipara is Japara; Sidaiu
is Sidayu; Tuban is the same; Chessi is Gressik or Gârsik (the first
place in Java visited by the Portuguese d’Abreu); and Cirubaia is
Surabaya. See Crawfurd’s Dictionary, p. 166.

[588] Balli is not properly a city of Java, but the island of Bali,
located about 1–1/2 miles east of Java. The name in Javanese and
Malay signifies “to return.” Its area is about 1685 square
geographical miles, and it is lofty and mountainous. Its numerous
rivers are navigable for native vessels only, and as far as the reach
of the tide; and its mountain lakes ensure a constant water supply. The
people live in villages of from five hundred to three thousand
inhabitants, surrounded by walls built of clay, without stone or brick.
They are said to be more skilful agriculturists than the Javanese. The
religion is Brahmanical and Buddhist, although blended with Pagan forms
and beliefs. The caste idea prevails among them. Their dialect is
called Balinese, and although rude and simple is above those of the
Sundanese and Madurese. Writing is on the palm-leaf only. See
Crawfurd’s Dictionary, pp. 28–31; and Cust’s Modern Languages,
pp. 138, 139.

[589] Eden reads (p. 260): “Giaua the leſſe, is as bygge as the
Ilande of Madera, and is but half a leaque diſtante from Giaua
maior;” thus confusing the island of Madura with the Portuguese
island of Madeira. Madura has the same formation, vegetation, and
manners and character of its inhabitants, as Java. The name is derived
from the Hindu legend, which represents it as the kingdom of the hero
and demi-god Baladewa, and is a corruption of the Sanskrit Mathura. The
greatest length of the island is about ninety miles. The language
although poorer and ruder than the Javanese, resembles the latter. It
has one dialect, termed Sumanap. Many of its inhabitants have emigrated
to Java. See Crawfurd’s Dictionary, pp. 233, 234; and Cust’s Modern
Languages, p. 138.

[590] MS. 5,650 omits the remainder of this sentence.

[591] This ceremony, as it was practiced in the island of Bali (the
only one of the East Indies to preserve the custom) is described by
Crawfurd (Dictionary, pp. 30, 140–142). “The ordinary funeral rites
of the Balinese much resemble those of the Buddhists of Siam and Ava,
and the concremation is a modification of the Hindu Suttee, and the
bloody ceremony of krising, a barbarism peculiar to the people of Bali
themselves.” In that island, unless the dead man were of great
wealth, the woman sacrificing herself was stabbed to death with a kris,
instead of being burned with her husband’s corpse, as the expense
accompanying the burning was so great. Barbosa (East African and
Malabar Coasts, Hakluyt Society edition, p. 93) mentions this custom of
one of the countries of India. See also Linschoten (Voyage, Hakluyt
Society edition, pp. 249, 250, and note).

[592] MS. 5,650 adds: “of their vagina.”

[593] MS. 5,650 adds: “and more pleasantly.” This custom is also
mentioned by Barbosa (ut supra, p. 184) in connection with the people
of Pegu. His account, which is left untranslated by Stanley, is as
follows:

“They are very voluptuous, and have certain round hawk’s-bells sewn
and fastened in the head of their penis between the flesh and the skin
in order to make them larger. Some have three, some five, and others
seven. Some are made of gold and silver, and others of brass, and they
tinkle as the men walk. The custom is considered as quite the proper
thing. The women delight greatly in the bells, and do not like men who
go without them. The most honored men are those who have the most and
largest ones. I will say nothing more of this custom, for it is a
shameful one.” Stanley says that this custom is also mentioned by
Nicolo Conti in the fifteenth century.

[594] In MS. 5,650 and in Mosto: “Ocoloro.” Yule (Book of Ser Marco
Polo, ii, p. 395) conjectures that this is the modern island of Engano.

[595] In MS. 5,650 “caiu paugganghi,” and “bua paugganghi.”
Stanley (p. 155, note 2) says that garuda is Sanskrit and Malay for
“griffin,” and (note 1) that campong anghin means “the place of
wind.” Yule (Cathay, Hakluyt Society edition, ii, p. 511, note) says:
“Garuda is a term from the Hindu mythology for the great bird that
carries Vishnu; its use among the Malays is a relic of their ancient
religion.... To an island of the Indian Sea also Kazwini attributes a
bird of such enormous size, that, if dead, the half of its beak would
serve for a ship.” De Gubernatis (Memorie intorno ai viaggiatori
italiani nelle Indie orientali, Firenze, 1867) says that the tree of
the text is perhaps the mythical tree, whose fruit gives felicity in
the Hindu paradise; and the bird is the one with the golden feathers,
into which Vishnu or the sun is transformed in the Hindu mythology.
Mosto, p. 108, note 5.

[596] Probably Point Romania, at the southeastern extremity of the
peninsula of Malacca.

[597] Cinghapola is Singapore or Singapura, so called from the Sanskrit
singa, “lion,” and pura, “city.” It is an island and town
located at the extremity of the Malacca Peninsula, and is a busy mart
of trade. Pahan is Pahang (called Pam by the Portuguese, and properly
spelt Päang), which is a city and district or province of the eastern
part of the Malacca Peninsula. Calantan (Kalantan) and Patani are
districts of the eastern part of the peninsula of Malacca whose chief
towns have the same names. Both states were from early times tributary
to Siam. Lagon is the Siamese province of Ligor (called Lâkon by the
Siamese). Phran is perhaps the same name as seen today in the Pran
River. Cui figures on the maps of Ortelius and Mercatorius; and
Valentyn gives an island “Couir.” Brabri is perhaps Bangri, and
Bangha, Bang-kok. India (error of ancient amanuensis for Iudia) is
Yuthia, which became the Siamese capital in 1350. Mosto believes that
Jandibum, Sanu, and Langhonpifa are also the names of Siamese kings,
but they are probably the names of cities. MS. 5,650 makes Zacabedera
the name of a city, but it appears later as part of a sovereign’s
name. Stanley (following Amoretti, who mistranscribed) has Bradlini,
Trombon, Joran (for Phran), Laun (in MS. 5,650 “Lauu”), and
Langonpifa. See Crawfurd’s Dictionary, and Mosto (p. 109, notes
1–8).

[598] MS. 5,650 reads: “the rest.”

[599] MS. 5,650 reads: “Cameggia.” This is the country of Cambodia
or Camboja (Kamboja), called also Champa by the Malays. See
Crawfurd’s Dictionary, pp. 80, 81.

[600] Champa, the name of an ancient Malay settlement on the eastern
side of the gulf of Siam, in the country of Cambodia. Stanley makes the
name of its king “Brahami Martu.” Mosto (p. 109, note 10) makes
Chiempa, Binh-Thuan in Anam. See preceding note; and Crawfurd’s
Dictionary, p. 93.

[601] Stanley (p. 156, note) says: “Pigafetta has confounded rhubarb
with the decayed wood of a tree found in Siam, which, when burnt, gives
a very sweet perfume, and which sells at a high price.”

[602] MS. 5,650 confuses this country with the cocoanut, and translates
accordingly: “Cocoanuts are found there.” It is, of course, the
country of Cochin. MS. 5,650 also makes the Seribumni (Scribumni, in
Mosto) Pala (Seribumnipala, in MS. 5,650) the ruler of Champa, although
a ruler has already been named for that country.

[603] This king is known in Chinese history as Chitsong, of the Ming
dynasty, who succeeded to Woutsong in 1519 and reigned for forty-five
years. See Boulger’s Short History of China (London, 1900, pp.
94–96).

[604] In Eden (p. 260) the names of these Chinese cities are
“Canthan, Nauchin, and Connulaha.” The last is the city of Peking
which was called Khan-palik (the city of the Khan) by the Mongols, a
form which was changed into Cambalu in the accounts of those times. See
Williams, Middle Kingdom, i, p. 55.

[605] MS. 5,650 reads: “great and little.” See VOL. XXXIII, p. 331,
note 273.

[606] Eden (p. 261) calls the Chinese emblem a “linx;” an allusion
doubtless to the Chinese emblem, the dragon, called lung. See Williams,
Middle Kingdom, ii, p. 267.

[607] MS. 5,650 continues from this point: “so that he may furnish an
example.” See Williams, Middle Kingdom, i, pp. 408–420, for modes
of Chinese punishments (the obeisance made by criminals being mentioned
on p. 315). The zonghu of the text is perhaps the simplest ceremonial
form called kung shau, which consists in joining the hands and raising
them before the breast (ii, p. 68).

[608] MS. 5,650 adds: “also artificially made.” Naga in Sanskrit is
the name of a fabulous snake or dragon, and is found in all the
cultivated languages throughout the Indian Archipelago. See
Crawfurd’s Dictionary, p. 290.

[609] This passage reads as follows in MS. 5,650: “Each circle or
enclosure of the wall has a gate. At the first is a porter who holds in
his hand a large stout iron club called satu horan. In the second is a
dog called satu hain; in the third a man with an iron mace called satu
horan with pocun bessin; in the fourth a man with a bow in his hand
called satu horan with anach panan; in the fifth a man with a lance
called satu horan with satu tumach; in the sixth a lion called satu
hurimau; and in the seventh, two white elephants called two gaggia
pute.” Mosto has houman for the horiman of our text and the hurimau
of MS. 5,650; while Stanley has hurimau. Mosto also prints the word con
meaning “with,” as a part of the various Malayan words. The meaning
of these words as given by Stanley and corroborated by Mosto are as
follows: satu orang, “one man;” anjing, a “dog;” pokoh bisi,
“club of iron;” panah, a “bow;” tombak, a “lance;” horiman,
a “tiger.”

[610] MS. 5,650 omits the remainder of this sentence; and continuing
reads: “If one stops to examine the palace thoroughly, he finds four
halls, where the principal men go at times to visit and converse with
the king.” Eden (p. 261) says: “In this pallaice are lxxix. haules,
in the which is an infinite number of women that ſerue the kynge
hauynge euer lyght torches in theyr handes for the greater
magnifycence.”

[611] See description of Peking with map showing the palace in
Williams, Middle Kingdom, i, pp. 55–66.

[612] Eden (p. 261) reads: “They haue the croſſe in ſum
eſtimation, but knowe not the cauſe whye.”

[613] The remainder of this sentence is omitted in MS. 5,650.

[614] “Commaru” in MS. 5,650.

[615] MS. 5,650 reads: “Then it is steeped in the urine of the said
cat.”

[616] MS. 5,650 adds instead of the following sentence: “But the real
musk comes from the blood abovesaid, and if that be made into little
round pellets, it evaporates.”

[617] Mosto (p. 110, note 5) thinks it more probable that this passage
refers to the animal Moschus moschiferus, or the musk deer, which is
found in the high Himalayas, Tibet, and Eastern Siberia, rather than to
the civet cat, which Pigafetta names. Castor is derived from the
Sanskrit kasturi, which is used by the Malays and Javanese for the
perfume of the civet cat (although they also use native and Arabic
names). It is very probable that Pigafetta has confused musk and civet.
However, Cosmas says also that the Kasturi produces the musk (see
Yule’s Cathay, Hakluyt Society edition, i, p. clxxiv). Friar Jordanus
gives a very superficial account of the musk deer and the preparation
of musk (Wonders of the East, pp. 47, 48). Early descriptions of
preparing musk and prices are given by Varthema (Travels, Hakluyt
Society edition, p. 102), Barbosa (East African and Malabar Coasts,
Hakluyt Society edition, pp. 186, 187, 222), who mentions the leeches,
and Linschoten (Voyage, Hakluyt Society edition, i, p. 149, ii, pp. 94,
95), who also describes civet (ii, pp. 95, 96). Wallace (Malay
Archipelago, p. 41) notes that leeches are very abundant and annoying
on the peninsula of Malacca.

[618] Chienchii are probably the people of Chincheo (Chinchew; the
modern Chwan-Chow-Foo), a name formerly often applied to a province of
China. See VOL. III, p. 41, note 6.

[619] Bellemo, basing his assertion on the fact that the Peguans proper
are called Mon, says (Mosto, p. 110, note 6) that Burmah is here
referred to. It would seem rather to be one of the northern districts
of China, possibly about the Yellow River, and Lechii may refer to the
city of Linching. Mosto and Amoretti transcribe Moni, and MS. 5,650,
Mon.

[620] Cathay, at first restricted to the northern part of the country
now called China, became later (in the Middle Ages) the name for the
entire country. See Yule’s Cathay, i, preliminary essay.

[621] MS. 5,650 reads: “Hau.” Han was a small Chinese state which
gave name to the first national Chinese dynasty, and it may be the Han
referred to by Pigafetta. See Boulger’s Short History of China, p.
10.

[622] “Chetissirimiga” in MS. 5,650.

[623] “Triagomba” in MS. 5,650.

[624] These names appear before (see VOL. XXXIII, p. 321, note 177)
where they are given as the name of one island.

[625] Javanese for “South Sea.”

[626] Sumatra, a name probably of Sanskrit origin, is first mentioned
with that spelling by Varthema, but it had been visited previously by
Marco Polo (who calls it Java the less); and probably by Nicolò de
Conti, who calls it Sciumathera, and before him by the Arabian traveler
Ibn Batûta (ca., 1330), who calls its capital Shumatrah or Sumatrah.
Taprobane was the ancient name of Ceylon, not Sumatra. It is the most
western of all the East India Archipelago, and next to Borneo and New
Guinea the largest island proper, being about 1,000 miles long and
having an area of about 128,560 square miles. The ancestral home of the
Malay race was in the interior of Sumatra, in the region of Menangkaba,
whence they colonized the coasts of Sumatra and spread to outlying
islands. A number of tongues akin to the Malay and many dialects are
spoken in the island. Neither the English nor the Dutch obtained any
real foothold in the island until after 1816, since when the latter
have entered upon a system of conquest. See Crawfurd’s Dictionary,
Varthema’s Travels (Hakluyt Society edition); Cust’s Modern
Languages; and Lucas’s Historical Geography British Colonies, i, pp.
98, 99, 101.

[627] Eden (p. 261) reads: “Fearyng leaſt if they ſhuld ſayle
toward the firm land, they myght bee ſeene of the portugales who are
of great power in Malaccha.”

[628] Pegu (with a capital of the same name) formerly wielded great
influence in the East, but was eclipsed by the kingdoms surrounding it.
Together with Bengal or Bengala and Orissa (Uriza), it forms a portion
of British India. Bengal was incorporated with the Ghôrî or Patan
empire of Hindustân toward the end of the twelfth century, and was
formed into a separate province under the second emperor. It became an
independent kingdom at least by 1340, continuing as an independent
state until conquered by Akbar in 1573. Chelin is probably Coulam or
Quilon in Malabar, once an important center of trade, but an
insignificant place by the middle of the seventeenth century. Narsinga
or Bijayanagar, now a ruined city, was formerly the capital of the
ancient Brahminical kingdom of the Carnatic, which before the conquests
of the Mahometans extended over the greater part of the peninsula
between the Malabar and Coromandel coasts. Calicut, Cambay, Cananore,
Goa, and Ormus (Armus) were all important centers of trade before and
during Portuguese occupation in the East. MS. 5,650 reads: “Gon”
and “Armux.” See Varthema’s Travels (Hakluyt Society edition),
and Mosto (p. 111, notes 3–11).

[629] In MS. 5,650 “Irauai,” “Poleni,” and “Poleai.”
Stanley gives the first as “Franas.” The names of the castes as
given by Varthema (Travels, pp. 141, 142) are as follows: “Brahmins
(or priestly class), Naeri (or military class), Tiva (or artisans),
Mechua (or fishermen), Poliar (who collect pepper, wine, and nuts), and
Hirava (who sow and reap rice). There are only four main castes, viz.:
the Brahman or Sacerdotal, which sprang from the mouth of Brahma; the
warrior, styled Kshatriya, Ksettri, or Chuttree, and formerly the
Rajputs, who sprang from the arms of Brahma; Vaisya or husbandmen
class, who form the industrial class, and who sprang from the belly and
thighs of Brahma; and the Sudra or servile class, who sprang from the
feet of Brahma, and have no part in the sacred law. Each caste is
further subdivided within its own ranks, and specific laws govern each
branch. Under British rule and the influence of western civilization
the rigidity of caste is gradually being relaxed. Pigafetta does not
mention the priestly caste and confuses the various other divisions.
For early descriptions of caste, see Barbosa’s East African and
Malabar Coasts (Hakluyt Society edition), pp. 121–144; Linschoten’s
Voyage (Hakluyt Society edition), i, pp. 278–284 (very defective and
inadequate); Gray and Bell’s Voyage of François Pyrard de Laval
(Hakluyt Society edition), ii, pp. 114, 115, 371–420; and Ball’s
Travels in India by Jean Baptiste Tavernier (London and New York), ii,
pp. 181–189.

[630] MS. 5,650 reads: “and never enter any city.”

[631] Malayâlam for “go.” Linschoten (i, p. 281), and Pyrard de
Laval (i, pp. 383, 384), make the Nairs give this warning cry instead
of the lowest caste, in order that the latter may keep out of their
path. Varthema and Barbosa agree with Pigafetta. The Brahmans also call
out for the same reason (Linschoten, i, p. 281, note 1).

[632] Eden says (p. 261): “ſeuen weekes.”

[633] Albo (Navarrete, iv) says under date of February 13, 1522, that
the course was laid west southwest toward the Cape of Good Hope.

[634] MS. 5,650 reads: “one thousand and sixty.”

[635] The Portuguese occupation of Mozambique dates from 1498, when
Vasco da Gama landed at the mouth of the Zambesi. A number of
settlements were founded there in the first decade of the sixteenth
century. Its present boundaries were fixed by agreement with Great
Britain in 1891 and with Germany in 1886 and 1890. It has an area of
310,000 square miles, and has great vegetable and mineral wealth.
Slavery was abolished in the colony in 1878. It is governed by a
governor-general sent out by Portugal. John Pory in his preliminary
translations prefixed to his translation of the history of the
converted Moor Leo Africanus (Hakluyt Society edition, London, 1896)
says (i, p. 58) that the kingdom of Mozambique was “so called of
three small islets, situate in the mouth of the river Meghincate in
fowerteene and a halfe or fifteene degrees of southerly latitude, which
kingdome in ancient time by Ptolemy was called Promontorium Prassum.”
Continuing he says that notwithstanding its unhealthful site, the chief
of the three islands, where there was a secure port and where the
Portuguese built a strong fort, became the most frequented Portuguese
station on the way to the East Indies, and ships often wintered there.
This must have been the settlement mentioned by Pigafetta. See also
Three Voyages of Vasco da Gama (Hakluyt Society reprint, London, 1879),
pp. 80–97.

[636] MS. 5,650 adds: “and stank.”

[637] On March 14, the crew of the “Victoria” worked at repairs on
the ship until noon, and then set sail again. On the eighteenth they
saw a lofty island (Amsterdam Island), which they tried in vain to
make, and were compelled to lie to for further repairs. April 16, the
course was altered to the north. Land was sighted on May 8, and on the
following day they anchored on the rough coast. On the sixteenth the
ship was further disabled by the loss of a mast. After many struggles
they were finally clear of the cape on May 22, and directed their
general course northward. See Albo’s log (Navarrete, iv), and
Guillemard’s Magellan. Considering Albo’s date as correct,
Pigafetta is in error by almost half a month in his date for the
doubling of the cape.

[638] Herrera takes pains to mention this phenomenon (Mosto, p. 111,
note 15). The official list shows a record of fifteen deaths of
Europeans on the high sea and the desertion of two others. The ship
left Tidore with forty-seven Europeans and arrived at the Cape Verde
Islands with thirty-one, a number that tallies if Pigafetta does not
include himself in the forty-seven who left Tidore. Consequently six of
the natives taken had died during the voyage. (Guillemard’s Magellan,
p. 291, note).

[639] Eden adds: (p. 261): “that is, ſaynte Iames Ilande, parteyning
to the kyng of Portugale.” This is the island of Santiago, the
largest and most southernmost of the Cape Verde Islands. Albo says
(Navarrete, iv, p. 241): “On the ninth of the said month [i.e.,
July], I did not take the sun. We anchored in the port of Grande River,
where we were given a hospitable reception, and as many provisions as
we wished. That day was Wednesday, but they [i.e., the Portuguese]
maintained that it was Thursday. Consequently, I believe that we were
mistaken by one day. We stayed there until Sunday night, and then set
sail for fear of the bad weather and the crossing of the port. In the
morning we sent the ship’s boat ashore for more rice, of which we had
need, while we sailed about on various tacks until its return.”

[640] This clause is lacking in MS. 5,650.

[641] These four words are omitted in MS. 5,650.

[642] MS. 5,650 reads: “and that we did not dare to go to Spain.”

[643] Albo (Navarrete, iv, p. 241) further recounts events at the
island of Santiago as follows: “On Monday, the fourteenth, we sent
the ship’s boat ashore for more rice. It returned next day, and went
back for another load. We waited until night, but it did not return.
Then we waited until next day, but it never returned. Then we went
nearer the port to discover the reason of the delay, whereupon a vessel
came out and demanded our surrender, saying that they would send us
with the ship that was coming from the Indias, and that they would
place their men in our ship, for thus had their officials ordered. We
requested them to send us our men and ship’s boat. They replied that
they would bear our request to their officials. We answered that we
would take another tack and wait. Accordingly we tacked about and set
all our sails full, and left with twenty-two men, both sick and well.
That happened on Tuesday, the fifteenth of the month of July.” See
also Transylvanus’s account, VOL. I, pp. 336, 337. The names of the
men detained at this island are given as follows by Navarrete (Col. de
viages, iv, p. 94):


        Martin Mendez          ship’s accountant
        Pedro Tolosa           steward
        Ricarte de Normandia   carpenter
        Raldan de Argote       gunner
        Master Pedro
        Juan Martin            sobresaliente
        Simon de Burgos        sobresaliente
        Felipe de Rodas        sailor
        Gomez Hernandez        sailor
        Socacio Alonso         sailor
        Pedro Chindurza        common seaman
        Vasquito Gallego       boy


Cf. the corrected list given by Guillemard (Magellan, p. 338, and note
5) who mentions thirteen men (the number given by Pigafetta). These men
were shortly released and sent to Seville (Guillemard, ut supra, p.
337).

[644] Eden says (p. 262) that it was the seventh. Albo (Navarrete, iv,
pp. 246, 247), says that Cape St. Vincent was sighted on September 4,
1522.

[645] The official death list records two desertions, which must have
been the ones mentioned by Pigafetta. Gomara mentions a mutiny at
Timur: “There was a mutiny and conflict, in which a considerable
number of the crew were killed.” Oviedo says also: “Some were
beheaded in the island of Timor for their crimes.” Guillemard
conjectures that both accounts are borrowed from this passage in
Pigafetta (Guillemard, p. 291, note). The survivors of the
“Victoria” who reached Spain, as given by Navarrete (Col. de
viages, iv, p. 96) from a document conserved at Archivo general de
Indias, were as follows:


           Juan Sebastian de Elcano     captain
           Francisco Albo               pilot
           Miguel Rodas                 master
           Juan de Acurio               boatswain
           Martin de Yudicibus          merino
           Hernando de Bustamente       barber
           Aires                        gunner
           Diego Gallego                sailor
           Nicolao de Nápoles              sailor
           Miguel Sanchez de Rodas      sailor
           Francisco Rodriguez          sailor
           Juan Rodriguez de Huelva     sailor
           Anton Hernandez Colmenero    sailor
           Juan de Arratia              common seaman
           Juan de Santander            common seaman
           Vasco Gomez Gallego          common seaman
           Juan de Zubileta             boy
           Antonio Lombardo             sobresaliente


Cf. the list as given by Guillemard (Magellan, pp. 337, 338), who
attempts to correct the various lists, and which shows several
differences from Navarrete’s list. Navarrete (ut supra, iv, pp. 96,
97) basing his assertion on Herrera, says: “Among the Indians who
reached land safely and desired to see the emperor and these kingdoms,
was one so sharp that his first action was to ask how many reals made
one ducado, how many maravedis one real, and how much pepper was given
for one maravedi, informing himself from shop to shop of the value of
spices. That furnished a reason for his not returning to his country,
although the others did.” See also Guillemard’s Magellan, p. 296.

[646] The value of the spices brought to Spain by the “Victoria”
exceeded the cost of the other four vessels and their entire equipment
by about £200. The cargo consisted of cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace,
and sandalwood. The “Victoria” afterward made one voyage safely to
Cuba, but was lost on a second. See Guillemard’s Magellan, pp. 297,
310.

[647] Eden (p. 262) says that on disembarking they went to give thanks
“to almyghtie god who had brought them ſafe to theyr owne countrey,
and reſtored them to theyr wyues and chyldren.”

[648] The account of the voyage given by Pigafetta to the emperor was
probably only his brief records as set down from day to day, and not in
any sense the relation as here published. The relation is known to have
been compiled after Pigafetta’s return to Italy. Stanley (p. xiv,
appendix) gives the original petition made by Pigafetta to the doge and
council of Venice, asking permission to print his relation. Its
translation is as follows:


    “M.D. xxiv. of the month of August.

    “Most Serene Prince, and your Excellencies:


“Petition of me, Antonio Pigafetta, Venetian knight of Jerusalem, who
desiring to see the world, have sailed, in past years, with the
caravels of his Cesaræan Majesty, which went to discover the islands
in the new Indies where the spices grow. On that voyage I
circumnavigated the whole world, and since it is a feat which no man
had [before] accomplished, I have composed a short narration of all the
said voyage, which I desire to have printed. For that purpose, I
petition, that no one may print it for xx years, except myself, under
penalty to him who should print it, or who should bring it here if
printed elsewhere, of a fine of three lire per copy besides the loss of
the books. [I petition] also that the execution [of the penalty] may be
imposed by any magistrate of this city who shall be informed of it; and
that the fine be divided as follows: one-third to the arsenal of your
Highness, one-third to the accuser, and one-third to those who shall
impose it. I humbly commend myself to your kindness. August v.” The
docket follows.

[649] Ramusio says that Pigafetta presented one of his books to the
regent Louise, and that she had it translated into French by Jacques
Fabre (see volume on Bibliography, at end of this series). Stanley is
wrong in his conjecture that MS. 22,224 of the Bibliothéque Nationale
is the copy above mentioned, as it is in fact even later than MS.
5,650.

[650] The signature in MS. 5,650 is “Anthoyne Pigaphete.”







DESCRIPTION OF THE PHILIPPINES


By Chao Ju-kua, a Chinese official and geographer, ca. 1280.


    Source: This document is obtained from the Filipino paper
    Periódico Hebdomadario Escolar, issue of November 9, 1901.

    Translation: This is by James Alexander Robertson.



CHAO JU-KUA’S DESCRIPTION OF THE PHILIPPINES


[The following description is translated from a copy of the Periódico
Hebdomadario Escolar (i.e., “Students’ Weekly Paper”) for
November 9, 1901, being no. 6 in order of issue of that paper. It was
there published by Clemente J. Zulueta (now deceased), then professor
of history, and later engaged in archival researches in Spain for the
Philippine branch of the United States government, who was a man of
real ability. He himself communicated the existence of this publication
to us; the copy of the paper, which is rare, was lent us by James A.
LeRoy. An editorial note at the beginning of the chapter reads as
follows: “As we consider it of some importance to the historical, or
rather pre-historical, cartography of Filipinas, we transcribe the
following lines, which are a Spanish translation of chapter xl of the
geography of the Chinese writer Chao Ju-kua. [1] Professor Blumentritt
translated it from the English, and Dr. Hirth translated directly into
English the MS. of Chao Ju-kua [ca., 1891] who according to
Blumentritt, flourished in the thirteenth century—that is, three
centuries before Magallanes’s expedition.” Our search for the
translation by Dr. Hirth has been unavailing, and we are therefore
compelled to retranslate Blumentritt’s translation. Concerning this
translation we are furnished the following information in a letter from
James A. LeRoy, dated January 27, 1904: “Zulueta owns the original
letter and the translation of this chapter as written out by Ferdinand
Blumentritt and sent to Rizal while the latter was in exile in 1894.
Blumentritt made the annotations to the chapter, as is proved by his
letter. In his letter to Rizal enclosing the translation of the
chapter, Blumentritt tells Rizal that the previous year (1893) a friend
of his in Madrid had published (how or where is not told) his
hastily-made version of this chapter, with hasty notes, which he had
sent this friend for his own use in a study of the prehistoric
Philippines, but had no idea that it would be used independently.” A
Spanish version with parallel English translation appeared in Revista
historica de Filipinas (i.e., “Filipino Historical Review”) for
June, 1905 (vol. 1, no. 2), which is signed by P. L. Stangl. His
version differs from that of Blumentritt given by Zulueta, being
divided into two chapters—xl, called “Ma-yi,” and xli, called
“San-Hsii.” We have, however, preferred to use Zulueta’s version,
as we do not know whence Stangl’s version has proceeded. We subjoin
Blumentritt’s notes accompanying Zulueta’s version, signing such
notes “B.”]




CHAPTER XL

Ma-yi

The country Ma-yi [2] is located north of Poni. [3] About one thousand
families inhabit the shores of a river which has many windings. [4] The
natives dress in linen, wearing clothes that look like sheets; or they
cover their bodies with sarongs. [5] In the thick woods are scattered
copper statues of Buddha, but no one can tell the origin of those
statues. [6] Pirates seldom visit those districts. When [Chinese]
merchantmen arrive at that port they cast anchor at a place [called]
the place of Mandarins. That place serves them as a market, or site
where the products of their countries are exchanged. When a vessel has
entered into the port, (its captain) offers presents consisting of
white parasols and umbrellas which serve them for daily use. The
traders are obliged to observe these civilities in order to be able to
count on the favor of those gentlemen.

In order to trade, the savage traders are assembled, [7] and have the
goods carried in baskets, and although the bearers are often unknown,
none of the goods are ever lost or stolen. The savage traders transport
these goods to other islands, and thus eight or nine months pass until
they have obtained other goods of value equivalent to those that have
been received [from the Chinese]. This forces the traders of the vessel
to delay their departure, and hence it happens that the vessels that
maintain trade with Ma-yi are the ones that take the longest to return
to their country.

The most noteworthy places of this country are: San-hsii; Pai-pu-yen;
Pu-li-lu, which is located near San-hsii; Li-yin-tung; Lin-hsin; and
Li-han. [8] The products of that country are yellow wax, [9] cotton,
pearls, shells, [10] betel nuts, and jute [yu-ta] textiles. [11]
Foreign traders import porcelain, commercial gold, [12] iron vases for
perfumes, leaden objects, glass, pearls of all colors, [13] and iron
needles. [14]

San-hsii, or the “Three Islands,” belong to Ma-yi. Their names are
Ka-may-en, Pa-lao-yu, and Pa-chi-neng. [15] Each of these islands is
inhabited by its own races, who are scattered throughout them. But upon
the arrival of the vessels, the natives assemble in order to trade.
Their general name is San-hsii. Their customs are about the same as
those observed in Ma-yi. Each tribe [16] consists of about one thousand
families. The country has many lofty hills and rugged rocks which rise
up like gigantic walls. The houses of the inhabitants are built of
bamboo. The high region of the country has few springs, but the women
go to the banks of the rivulets and creeks and thence back to the
mountain bearing on their heads two or three jars filled with water, a
load that does not bother them. They ascend the mountain with the same
ease as if they were on the level. The interior of the valleys is
inhabited by a race called Hay-tan. They are of short stature, have
round yellow eyes, curly hair, and their teeth can be plainly seen
[showing] from between their lips. [17] They build their nests in the
forking of the branches of trees, and a family, usually consisting of
from three to five individuals, lives in each nest. [18] They wander
through the fastnesses of the thickets and invisible to the sight,
shoot their arrows at the passers-by. On this account they are greatly
feared. When the trader takes them a porcelain jar, they bow and take
it, and then uttering cries of joy, run away with it.

When foreign traders come to one of their villages, [19] they must not
touch the ground, but must remain aboard their vessel, which is
anchored in the middle of the current [20] and announce their presence
by beat of drum. Thereupon the savage traders approach in their light
craft, in which they carry cotton, [21] yellow wax, strange cloth, [22]
cocoanuts, onions, [23] and fine mats, and all those things they offer
for sale in exchange [for the articles of the Chinese]. In case of
misunderstanding in the price of the goods, it is necessary to summon
the chief of the traders of that place, so that he may present himself
in person, and arrange the tariff to the satisfaction of all. The
imported objects are silk umbrellas, porcelain, and a kind of basket
woven from rattan. Foreign traders receive twice or thrice the value of
the goods sold aboard, in order to serve them as a bond of security.
Afterward the foreign traders disembark and perform their contracts
there, and then return to their vessel. The goods pledged by the
natives remain only three or four days aboard the vessel, and then
after the expiration of that term they are restored [to shore]. Then
the vessel visits another village of the savages, for the coast
villages of the Three Islands do not have one common jurisdiction. [24]
The hills keep the winds from the vessels during the continuance of the
northeast monsoon. But when the southwest monsoon begins, the dashing
of the waves against the coast is so violent that great currents are
formed that do not allow the vessels to remain at anchor. This is the
reason why those who maintain trade with the Three Islands delay their
return for four or five months. Porcelain, black damask, and other silk
fabrics, pearls of various colors, lead, fishnets, and tin are
imported. Pu-li-lu is near Three Islands. Its villages are very densely
populated, [25] but its inhabitants are very cruel and inclined to
piracy. The sea is full of reefs and shoals, and the beach has rocks
which are indented like dry wood, and their points are very sharp like
those of swords and spears. [26] In order that the vessels may reach
that country, they take a long and circuitous route, in order to avoid
those shoals. [27] There are corals there, but it is very difficult to
get them. The popular and trading customs are the same as those which
exist at Three Islands.







DOCUMENTS OF 1565–1576


    Letter to Felipe II. Guido de Lavezaris; May 30, 1565.
    Letter to Felipe II. Andres de Mirandaola; 1565.
    Letter to Felipe II. Guido de Lavezaris; July 25, 1567.
    Letter to Felipe II from the royal officials. Guido de Lavezaris,
    and others; July 26, 1567.
    Letter to the Marquis de Falces. Martin de Rada, O.S.A.;
    July 8, 1569.
    Letter to Felipe II. Diego de Herrera, O.S.A.; July 25, 1570.
    Royal communications to and concerning Legazpi. Felipe II;
    August 6, 1569-August 29, 1570.
    Letter to the viceroy of Nueva España. Francisco de Ortega,
    O.S.A.; June 6, 1573.
    Augustinian memoranda. [Unsigned and undated, but probably compiled
    by the Augustinian missionaries, ca. 1573.]
    Letter to the viceroy of Nueva España, Martin Enriquez. Martin de
    Rada; June 30, 1574.
    Letter to Felipe II, from the royal officials. Andres Cauchela and
    Salvador de Aldave; July 17, 1574.
    Encomiendas assigned by Legazpi. Hernando Riquel; June 2, 1576.



    Sources: These documents are all obtained from MSS. in the
    Archivo general de Indias, Sevilla, except the last which is
    translated from Pastells’s edition of Colin’s Labor evangélica,
    i, pp. 157, 158.

    Translations: These are all by James Alexander Robertson except
    the eighth, which is by Henry B. Lathrop.







LETTER FROM GUIDO DE LABEZARIS TO FELIPE II


Sacred royal Catholic Majesty:

Inasmuch as when Don Antonio de Mendoça, your viceroy of Nueva
España, went to Piru, he ordered me to go to those kingdoms of
España, in order to inform your Majesty of affairs touching this
western region, I being one who understood them and had had experience
in them, and had come to these districts as your accountant in the
fleet under command of Rruy Lopez de Vyllalobos: I went to those
kingdoms in order to kiss your Majesty’s feet, and gave the most
detailed relation and information possible concerning the islands and
provinces of these districts, the character and number of the people,
their trade, means of gain, and mode [of life]. Your Majesty ordered
that the fleet for the expedition be equipped immediately; that ships
be built and the necessary things prepared for it in the sea west of
Nueva España. I busied myself in that work and despatch from the time
of my return; also as soon as I returned to Nueva España, I went, by
order of your viceroy of that country, Don Luis de Velasco, to explore
the coast and ports of Florida where I had to go afterward when the
fleet sailed of which Don Tristan de Arellano was commander. [28] After
my return from that expedition, I continued in the despatch and
equipment of this fleet, in which I occupied myself most sedulously.
When it was quite ready for the sea, I embarked in it as your
treasurer. When I was in España, your Majesty assigned me four hundred
pesos de minas payable in acquittances in Nueva España. But they have
been poorly collected, and there are none from which I can be paid. I
humbly beseech your Majesty to have me paid from the royal treasury for
the support of my wife and family whom I left in Mexico. Besides this,
as is well known to your Majesty, when I left Yndia, I brought pepper
and carried away ginger from Yndia at a very great risk, because of the
ordinances and penalties passed and imposed by the most serene king of
Portugal, which are executed without remission upon transgressors. The
pepper was lost, but there is a great quantity of the ginger in your
Nueva España today, all of which has come from the roots which I took
there with the purpose and design that your kingdoms might enjoy so
many profits and a common usufruct. I communicated in regard to it with
Don Francisco de Mendoça, asking him to treat with, your Majesty, so
that some favor might be shown me from the profits that would result
from the ginger. Don Francisco negotiated it for himself and not for me
as he had agreed. Consequently, he obtained the reward for my services
without having performed any work or labor on his own part, while order
was given to give me three hundred pesos de minas of acquittances with
the injunction that they be conferred. I wrote your Majesty in regard
to the matter, and although I intended to go to ask for justice from
your Majesty, as from a most just prince, after the despatch of the
fleet, in whose preparation I had been occupied, I did not go, because
I thought that if I failed to sail in the fleet, I would not be
performing my duty to your royal service; and that since I was one who
knew the land and the season in which to return for the discovery of
the return passage, and that success might be had now in that in which
so many fleets have not been able to succeed, it was important for me
to come. Therefore on account of coming (as I did), I did not go to
España, being confident in the liberality and grandeur of your
Majesty, and that if I petitioned you from here, you should show me
justice and thorough favor. Also [I did this] because it is well for me
to end my life in your Majesty’s service, since most of my life has
been spent in serving you. With that motive, I embarked, and we set
sail at Puerto de la Navidad. After a sixty-four days’ voyage we made
the Filipinas. While some masts were being prepared in the island of
Bohol for the fleet, your general sent me to the province back of the
island to attend to other things. There I traded for the samples of
gold, wax, and cinnamon which are being sent to your Majesty, with the
greatest care possible. I returned to Bohol, where the fleet was
stationed, and where, at the last resolution taken, it was determined
that the fleet should come to this island of Cubu, because of the
information that we heard of it, and for other reasons. We arrived here
on the twenty-seventh of April of this year sixty-four (or rather
sixty-five). We are located in the best center of the country although
there is no other advantage in this island than that it is well
settled, and consequently we can maintain ourselves until your Majesty
have us informed of what is best for your royal service and that we
should support ourselves. We are stationed here at the gateway of great
kingdoms and Maluco is very near, where our holy faith will be exalted
and your royal patrimony increased, for there is a natural fitness for
it. I am busying myself and shall continue to busy myself in your royal
service, and there will be no lack of service. Will your Majesty aid us
with the wherewithal, so that trade may be maintained and introduced
among many of these nations. It is a fact that entrance must be made in
your royal name, and by force of arms. We are not well equipped, and
consequently, it is necessary that the aid that we are now sending to
ask from Nueva España be sent with promptness. In the matter of the
ginger it is already clear to your Majesty, that I brought it and that
Don Francisco did not treat in my favor as he ought to have done, and
that I was notably injured in this, and that the three hundred pesos de
minas in acquittances have not been collected because of the difficulty
in doing so. I beg your Majesty that I be given warrants on the
treasury reserving the right of the rest that makes for my justice in
this matter, until it is pleaded in my name and until amends may be
made to me; since before nor since no one else has done such a service
in which there is an annual sum of more than fifty thousand ducados
involved (or rather more than one hundred and fifty thousand). In that
I will receive grace and justice. May our Lord happily prosper your
sacred royal Catholic Majesty with the increase of life and greater
kingdoms that is desired by your servants. Cubu, May 30, 1565. Your
royal Catholic Majesty’s faithful servant, who humbly kisses your
royal feet and hands.


    Guido de Lavezaris







LETTER FROM ANDRES DE MIRANDAOLA TO FELIPE II


Sacred Catholic Majesty:

Miguel Lopez de Legaspi came as general of the fleet which came to
these islands of the West at your Majesty’s orders. Don Luis de
Velasco, the viceroy of Nueva España (may he rest in peace) appointed
me to the office of factor and overseer of your Majesty’s royal
estate in your Majesty’s name, in consideration of my constant
obligation to serve your Majesty, whose sacred royal Catholic person I
beseech our Lord to ever increase with great kingdoms and seigniories.

This fleet reached these Filipinas Islands February xvi, 1565, and I
shall [here] relate what has been seen in them thus far, with that
fidelity, faithfulness, and willingness which is always to be found in
me, with all possible diligence.

As your Majesty will see by the relations of the pilots who came in the
fleet, in the navigation that has been made, it has been seen by the
needle that there is considerable land of that discovered and of that
still to be discovered in these regions, that lies in your Majesty’s
demarcation, which, if it be the will of God our Lord, will be found. I
believe that it will all be very useful and profitable, and that the
Christian religion—your Majesty’s purpose—can really be
introduced into this land.

In regard to what we have as yet noticed among the natives of these
islands, there is gold, cinnamon, and wax, and they trade in those
products. We consider it as certain that this trade will amount to a
great sum if your Majesty’s vassals the Spaniards cultivate the land;
for the said natives, as they have shown and as we have noticed in
them, are a race who all live without any respect. For the persons who
were assigned as rulers were not feared or respected, a thing which has
been heard from persons who have been in these districts before. On
that account it will be necessary for your Majesty to order that the
land be conquered; for beyond doubt one cannot believe that it will be
possible to work or cultivate the Christian religion in any other way,
as this is a very vicious and treacherous race, who are full of evil
manners. Accordingly, it will be necessary for your Majesty to order
that the entire land be subdued, and that can be done (our Lord
helping) without much trouble, if your Majesty will provide the men,
arms, and ammunition of which we are at present very needy.

While in one of the said Filipinas Islands, it was reported that the
natives of the Malucos had come under the orders of the Portuguese who
are settled in the said Maluco for the king of Portugal, to an island
called Bool, where they had remained for thirty-six days. They gave out
that they came for the purpose of trading with the natives, and having
secured from them a day, they caused a general market to be held, where
they killed five hundred men, and seized over six hundred, as your
Majesty will see by the investigation made by the general in regard to
the matter. [29] All the natives of this archipelago are complaining
and very restless, for the Moluccans have raided all the other islands,
doing all the damage possible. The island of Maçagua, whose people
always were found to be very willing to serve your Majesty, was found
deserted, the occasion therefor being the said Moluccans who went
thither and did all the damage possible with fire, and killed what
people they could; and [they did the same] afterward in all the other
parts where they went that we have yet seen. Will your Majesty provide
in this what may be advisable.

The general, remaining in the said island of Bool, ordered the
treasurer, Guido de Labazaris, and myself to go to explore an island
called Beguindanao, its coast and products, and to seek a port called
Butuan. [30] Thither we went in order to perform what was commanded us
in your Majesty’s name. We found that the said port had the
settlement and trade of which we had heard; for two Moro junks were
trading there which were said to be from Luçon, near to a large island
called Borney. That island of Borney is rich according to reports we
have had of it. It is a land which contains a large population and many
forts, where, as we have heard, there is a quantity of artillery. The
people are warlike and there is considerable trade throughout the
island. We made friendship with the chief of that said port of Butuan,
as was commanded us by the order and instruction of the general in your
Majesty’s name. We informed them that we were going by your
Majesty’s order to trade with them and to reside in their land if
they were willing; and if any necessity arose to protect and favor them
in your Majesty’s name. The reply given us by the chief was that he
was willing to have us go there. Our communication was given him by
means of the Moros who were trading there as we had no interpreter in
the fleet who could understand the natives—for which reason we suffer
great hardship. The Moros explained that they would be damaged if we
traded with the natives. After we had accomplished what had been
ordered us by the general in your Majesty’s name, we returned to the
place where the fleet was stationed, namely, in the said island of
Bool.

From that island we set sail in order to go to an island called Cubu,
which is the place where the men of Magallanes were killed. We found
the natives somewhat restive, although they gave evidence of a desire
for our friendship. That condition lasted until the next day, during
which they did not perform for us any of the things which were asked of
them. As soon as that was understood, they were summoned sundry times
to give us in return for our money some of the food that they
possessed. We could not get anything from them until they showed that
they wished to fight with us and that they would not give us anything.
As soon as we sallied out to fight them, and as soon as the artillery
was discharged from the ships, the men both on land and sea retreated,
and not a single one awaited us; nor could we even see them. They had
deserted their houses in which we found nothing except a child Jesus
and one iron culverin and another of bronze, all of which are believed
to be of the time of Magallanes. As yet we have not been able to get
anything that those people possess. [31]

After having abandoned the land and after having retreated, a Moro who
had married among them, came with an interpreter, with the story that
he was coming in behalf of a brother of the ruler of that settlement,
and saying that they wished peace and to have our friendship. The
general replied that notwithstanding that they had refused peace and
had shown that their intention had been evil, still they could come
with safety, until he informed them of the conditions to be made with
them. Thereupon the Moro took his departure with a peace banner given
him by the general. Immediately the said brother of the ruler whose
name is Tupas came.

The general declared that he desired peace and friendship, but he
mentioned to him [i.e., Tupas’s brother] the evil design and the
ingratitude that they had employed against him in your Majesty’s
name. After that the general told him that his brother should come, as
well as all the chief men, in order to make peace and ask the
conditions that they had to observe and perform in your Majesty’s
service. Thereupon lie [i.e., Tupas’s brother] went back after asking
an interval of three days in order to bring his brother and the other
people.

This entire island is densely populated and settled, and all the people
are very warlike and vicious. Consequently, I think that it will be
necessary, if they do not receive the true knowledge of the holy
Catholic faith, for them to be conquered and brought under your
Majesty’s yoke.

When the said time limit of three days had expired, the above mentioned
brother of Tupas came accompanied by another chief. They said that his
brother [i.e., Tupas] was indisposed, and that he [i.e., Tupas’s
brother] and some other chiefs who were coming with him would make
peace in Tupas’s name. But the general announced that he would not
make peace unless his brother came; that he [i.e., Tupas’s brother]
should not treat deceitfully with him as that would cause him much
trouble; that he should return for his brother, and come in safety; and
that he [i.e., Legazpi] and his men would await him in all faith.
Thereupon, he departed and the said Tupas carne and made friendship.
[The latter stated] when he would bring his people and that he would
serve your Majesty with them, and that he would not oppose any thing
that was ordered them. We believe that these things come from the hand
of our Lord. May He direct us in His service and protect us in that of
your Majesty.

Inasmuch as the ship which is being despatched for the discovery of the
return passage, is about ready to sail, I cannot inform your Majesty of
the conditions that are being resolved upon, for conclusions have not
yet been reached.

My uncle, Fray Andres de Hurdaneta, is returning and is going to serve
your Majesty in this discovery, and he will be accompanied by Fray
Andres de Aguirre. Felipe de Salzedo is in command, and Juan de
Aguirre—persons who we believe will serve your Majesty with entire
loyalty, fidelity, and cheerfulness. I beseech your Majesty to have us
provided with the religious and seculars that are needed for the
preaching of the holy gospel to these natives, in consideration of its
great service to God, our Lord and your Majesty.

The men whom your Majesty must have provided besides the contingent
that will be provided from Nueba España for our relief, namely two
hundred well-armed and well-equipped men, [are as follows]. Besides
these will your Majesty please have six hundred well-armed men sent
immediately—four hundred of whom should be arquebusiers, and the
other two hundred, pikemen. [Will you also send] heavy artillery, such
as culverins, and ammunition. The men should be the best that can be
found, and should have the best of morals. [Will you also send]
ammunition and arms for those who are here now.

I beseech your Majesty in all humility to confirm the appointment that
was given me in your Majesty’s name by Don Luis de Velasco, viceroy
and governor of Nueva España (may he rest in peace); and that you will
give it to me to hold. Your Majesty will be doing a service to God our
Lord, and a blessing and grace to me, by justly ordering an increase in
my salary to the sum of three thousand ducados in good money, in
consideration of the fact that all the articles necessary for our
sustenance in this land are very dear.

May our Lord preserve the sacred royal Catholic person of your Majesty
with great increase of large kingdoms and seigniories, as I, your
Majesty’s faithful servant, desire. The island of Cubu, [illegible or
blank in original] 1565. Sacred Catholic Majesty, your sacred Catholic
Majesty’s faithful servant, who kisses your Majesty’s royal feet
with all humility.


    Andres de Mirandaola [32]







LETTER FROM GUIDO DE LAVEZARIS TO FELIPE II


Sacred Catholic Majesty:

I informed your Majesty by the flagship which was despatched from this
island, in the month of June of the year sixty-five to discover the
return route to Nueva España, as your faithful vassal and servant, of
events that had happened up to that time; and I petitioned you to
reward me in consideration of the twenty-seven years that I have served
your Majesty in the discovery of these districts. [I told you] that I
had come here before as your Majesty’s accountant in company with Rui
Lopez de Villalobos; and further that I had taken the ginger plant
(which is now [grown] in Nueva España) at the great risk of my person.
I have done other services for your Majesty of which I gave
information. The present information that I have to relate to your
Majesty is that the “San Geronimo,” despatched from Nueva España
in the month of May in the past year sixty-six, by your president,
auditors, and officials of the royal treasury resident therein, arrived
in this island in the month of October of the said year. It made its
voyage so inadequately prepared with necessities and with the articles
that we asked from here, that we were placed in greater need than
before its arrival. The ship had no captain because he had been killed
during the voyage. There were also other mutinies and rebellions [on
the ship] as appears from the reports made here about it, which your
Majesty may see if so minded and determine its fortune. [33] At its
arrival all this camp received great happiness at learning that that
route, which had been so greatly desired by the emperor our sovereign
(who is in glory), by your Majesty, and by all your vassals and
subjects, had been discovered and so easily—and desired so very
rightly, since besides the fruit that will be attained in the preaching
of the holy gospel (the chief design of your Majesty and of your
Catholic ancestors) your Majesty will be greatly benefited in the
temporal, your royal crown greatly increased, your subjects and vassals
profited, and finally there will be a gateway opened for the Spanish
nation to have a place where it may employ its strength. I rejoice more
than I can tell, and rightly, since I gave advice to your Majesty and
to your royal Council of the Yndias, of the products of these districts
in the year fifty-four at Valladolid, and of the suitability and
fitness of these Philipinas for supporting the people in them both in
the interim until the route should be discovered, and until your
Majesty’s commands should be sent—all of which availed for the work
and affair. It has been very important for your royal service, and on
that account there is legitimate reason why your Majesty should reward
me. For, besides the above-mentioned services, I came to serve you in
this present expedition as treasurer of your royal estate. No other
person than myself of all those who took part in the expedition of
Villalobos came on this expedition, and I, by reason of my experience
in the past expedition, have given advice on what has been necessary;
for I came to these islands for this purpose and until the discovery of
this route should be made, and left my wife and family in Nueva
España. I put away everything else for what touches your Majesty’s
service, and I hope from your clemency to be rewarded for my services.
I shall not give a full report of the occurrences of this expedition
from the time of the despatch of the flagship until the present,
because the governor and we, your Majesty’s officials, give a report
of them in the relations and letters which are being sent. I shall only
mention that a huge quantity of cinnamon has been discovered on the
point of Quavit on the island of Mindanao. It is so abundant there that
it is heard that the mountains are full of it. Inasmuch as there is no
market for it in these islands we can easily procure at little expense
as much as your Majesty would like brought to España. It will be
necessary to have some settlement in the vicinity where the cinnamon is
gathered, both in order to gather the cinnamon and because the
Portuguese fleets en route from Malaca to Maluco pass that place, which
is also in the district of Borneo, Maluco, and other important places.
Since your Majesty has as yet sent no orders declaring your royal will,
we are only striving to maintain our men until the arrival of the
reënforcements of which we are in great need. It is advisable that
that aid be sent quickly, and that more zeal be displayed in the
despatch from Nueva España than hitherto; for although it is about
three years since we left there, only one ship has been sent, and it
put back (I mean came) in a condition more needy of aid than to aid.
Therefore, this ship is being despatched now. We send in it the
cinnamon that the little time at our disposal gives us opportunity to
gather. I entreat your Majesty, since it is a matter that is so
important to your royal service, to please send your orders promptly as
to what you wish most to be done. For after the arrival of
reënforcements, I intend (the Divine Will concurring), to go to kiss
your Majesty’s feet, and to report minutely concerning these
districts, as I am unable to give any adequate idea in a letter without
great prolixity. Two Portuguese ships such as the natives of Maluco use
came to this port on the tenth of the present month of July. They were
sent by the chief captain, Gonçalo Pereira Mamarraque, who went from
Yndia to Maluco by commission of the viceroy, Don Antonio de Loronha.
They bore letters from the chief captain for the governor which
informed him and declared that we were in their demarcation, and tried
to get us to go to Maluco and thence to Yndia. [34] I endeavored to
gain some information from those ships regarding the affairs of Maluco,
and some of the men told me that your Majesty’s old-time vassals, the
kings of Tidore and Geilolo, have been killed and persecuted by the
Portuguese and by the king of Ternate their [i.e., the Portuguese’]
friend and confederate. They killed the king of Tidore, and destroyed a
fort which the king of Geilolo possessed, who died while being pursued.
The king of Ternate had the latter’s son who succeeded him in his
kingdom killed; while the son of the king of Tidore who is yet living,
pays a yearly and very excessive tribute of one hundred bahars or more
than five hundred quintals of cloves to the Portuguese. In addition,
the vassals of those kings are greatly harassed and troubled by the
Portuguese and by the king of Ternate his friend. I believe, most
invincible prince, that such trouble and harassing proceeds from the
fact that those kings and their subjects are so affectioned to the
Castilian name; for I, as an eyewitness, assure your sacred Majesty
that the Castilians who sailed in the fleet of Villalobos were as well
received and as kindly treated by the kings of Tidore and Geilolo and
by their vassals, and that they always showed us as much love and
goodwill, and offered their persons and property, to relieve our
necessities, as if they had really been your Majesty’s natural
vassals for many years. And they assure me that they still live in
great constancy, and are in hopes that your Majesty will have them
delivered from the cruel bondage in which they live because they have
ever shown themselves so favorable to the Castilians. For that reason
their misery and trouble moves me to deep compassion when I remember
the kindness which I received from them when I was in Maluco, and the
love and affection that they bestowed upon us. Besides this the
Ternatans and the Portuguese in their company have made and are daily
making raids and captives among these islands, so that the natives are
in great fear when they see the harm that they receive from them. Those
Portuguese remained in this port of Cubu for thirteen days where they
were caressed and feasted by all generally. The governor offered his
services to them in whatever they needed, according to the orders of
your Majesty’s instructions. When the Portuguese left, they said that
the chief captain had received a resolution and express mandate from
Yndia to rout, destroy, and drive us out of this place by whatever way
he could, and that he had left Yndia with nine ships and eight hundred
soldiers for that sole purpose. That news threw us into great
consternation, as we are short of men, ships, ammunition, and
artillery, and because the masters of the sea hostile to us [i.e., the
Portuguese] can easily deprive us of provisions as they have many large
ships and oared boats and many friendly Indians from Ternate who are
well equipped with weapons and food, while we are in need of all things
generally. However, although we are so needy as at present, we have
firmly resolved to die in the service of your Majesty like true
Spaniards, and we shall not move from this place until your Majesty so
orders. Consequently we shall endeavor to defend ourselves as far as
possible, with our few forces. In the belief that I was doing your
Majesty a service, I endeavored to get the loan of a map and navigation
chart from the Portuguese, and quickly had a portion that falls within
the Castilian demarcation copied from it as well as certain remarks
made by one of our pilots. I enclose it herewith, [35] and if your
Majesty be so pleased the cosmographers may see by it the position of
the lands and islands now newly discovered. May your Majesty receive my
willingness to serve you. May our Lord prosper and preserve your royal
Catholic person with increase of greater kingdoms and seigniories, as
is the desire of your Majesty’s vassals. This island of Cubu, July
xxv, 1567. Your sacred Catholic Majesty’s faithful vassal and most
humble servant who kisses your royal feet.


    Guido de Labezaris


[Endorsed: “Examined. File it with the other papers treating of this
matter.”]







LETTER FROM THE ROYAL OFFICIALS TO FELIPE II


Sacred Catholic Majesty:

We reported to your Majesty all of the events up to the day of its
departure by the “San Pedro,” which came to these districts as
flagship and which left this port on the first day of June, sixty-five,
under favorable auspices for the discovery of this expedition and
voyage. We shall now relate to your Majesty as your Majesty’s
faithful servants what new things have happened here since then.

A ship with news of the arrival at Nueva España reached this port
where we are settled in your Majesty’s service, and of the flagship
which went to discover the route which our Lord was pleased to have
accomplished in the most invincible days of your Majesty. Not little
should all Christians entreat His Divine Majesty to grant many years of
life to your Majesty, so that the holy Catholic faith might be
increased and exalted by your Majesty’s influence in the so great
kingdoms and seigniories that are located in these districts.

After the departure of the “San Pedro,” the natives of this port,
both the chiefs and the other people, came to render obedience to the
governor in your Majesty’s name, and to place themselves under the
protection and dominion of your Majesty. They offered to recognize and
to hold your Majesty as their natural lord, and said that they would
give you the products of their land, namely rice, millet, and borona.
The governor received them as such vassals and told them what they were
to observe to keep our friendship. They are so vicious a race and have
so evil morals that they keep no faith nor perform anything although
they have promised it. Accordingly we have temporized with the natives
of this port and with the other natives who have as yet offered to
accept our friendship. Inasmuch as no further force is shown them than
that willed by you, we have as yet not been able to do less; and
inasmuch as (as we have remarked above), they are a vicious race and
possessed of bad morals, and recognize no ruler, therefore if their
chiefs try to force them, they will do nothing else than go to another
island. They find enough desert lands if one tries to force them in
their own. Until having your Majesty’s order and instructions, the
governor has not cared or consented to have war made on them; and we
consider it as certain that if that had been done, we would have
suffered, and have all met our death most wretchedly, for the first
thing that those natives do is to take away all the food, and the
misery in which they hold the land in which they live is such that war
cannot be made there under any circumstance. Had it not been for the
good government that has been exercised in all things in not making war
upon those natives, and treating them well, we would doubtless all have
died. Our Lord has been pleased to direct this entire affair as His own
and to show us miraculous rewards. May it please His Divine Majesty to
continue such actions and to preserve us in His holy service and in
that of your Majesty.

In view of the great delay in sending us aid from Nueva España, and
news of what your Majesty has ordered provided, it was determined to
despatch the patache “San Juan.” It carries seventy quintals of
cinnamon which was bartered for in the island of Bindanao, namely, at
the point called Cavite. We have heard that it is abundant in that part
and that it can be easily gathered. Bindanao is a well settled island
both in the north and in the south. We have heard that there is much
gold in all parts of it, and that if we settle it and cultivate the
land we shall learn many secrets of it. The inhabitants there are
warlike and full of malice. We have taken possession of it in your
Majesty’s name.

Moros have come to this port where we are at present from certain
islands called Luçon and Bindoro. They have brought rice and gold to
sell in exchange for silver and pearls. These men have told us that the
Chinese go to their land to trade and carry away all the products of
this archipelago, namely, gold, wax, and slaves. From the information
given us it is a rich land and has [plenty] of trade.

A mutiny happened on November xxviii of the year lxv, but our Lord was
pleased that those who took part in it should not succeed in their vile
purpose. That mutiny was of such a nature that had He permitted it [to
succeed] because of our sins, we would have all miserably perished. But
He was graciously [inclined] to show us mercy, and did not allow them
to succeed in the deceptions with which the devil had imbued them.
Consequently, the ring-leaders were punished, and the matter smoothed
over and settled. Justice is rightly done in what arises. There was
another mutiny afterward which was engaged in by the same ones,
although there were not so many in it and it was not a matter in which
they could succeed. All punishment was inflicted in accordance with
law. [36]

The said aid and advice that was despatched from Nueva España reached
this port in so desperate and so unfortunate a condition that,
according to our understanding, no Christians have ever heard of
anything so filled with chances. Our Lord was pleased to bring the ship
miraculously and those whom it carried, as your Majesty will see by the
report that the governor is sending of what happened. The crew killed
the captain and alférez and afterward hanged the sargento-mayor who
was coming with an appointment [to that post] in place of the absence
of the one here in this camp. He in company with other tyrants killed
the said captain and alférez, and his companions afterward hanged him.
After that event they reached certain islets, located about seven
hundred leguas from this port. They tried to abandon a great portion of
the men there, while they intended to go to the district where the
Chinese and Javanese trade, and to pursue their career of piracy if
they were able. Our Lord was pleased at that juncture to give courage
to the men who wished to serve your Majesty, some of whom were naked
while others were clad only in their shirts. They determined to go to
the ship and raise a shout in favor of your Majesty. It succeeded as we
have written. Our Lord was pleased to give them strength and to direct
them so that all the tyrants were left ashore on one of the said
islands where the ship was anchored. The ship arrived here without any
kind of aid either of arms or of ammunition, for all of which we had
sent to ask. The men were quite worn out and in a deplorable condition,
and all their clothing had been left ashore. As soon as they arrived,
the governor ordered an investigation of everything that had occurred
in all the affair, and he is sending the report to your Majesty, by
which everything will he more explicit and detailed.

By order and command of the governor, the master-of-camp, Mateo del Saz
(may he rest in peace), left this port to go to the place where we had
heard that cinnamon was to be found, and to run along the coast in
order to visit our friends there, and to go on to where the said
cinnamon was to be found. He, going upon that expedition, met with a
Portuguese galley during very furious weather. The master-of-camp,
desiring to know what ship it was, tried to go to them, upon which the
Portuguese retired. Thereupon the master-of-camp waited to see whether
there was any fear on the part of the Portuguese. Then the captain of
the galley sent him a letter, whose copy and reply is enclosed
herewith. When the said master-of-camp perceived what that meant, and
when he saw two other sails, he tried to come to this port with all
haste as he had a favorable wind. He met a large fleet of the
Portuguese, who, as was believed, did not see him or else thought that
his ship was one of their own which had become separated by a storm
which they had suffered. When the master-of-camp had reached this port
he immediately put us on the watch and lookout for whatever might
happen. In this way did we wait to see what the Portuguese were going
to do. After three days had passed we saw two galliots. When the
general saw them he waited to see what they wanted, ready for them with
his men. But as they did not wish to come or to wait, the governor
determined to send Martin de Goiti, who is the present master-of-camp
because of the death of Mateo del Saz (whom may glory have), to
ascertain their design. When he had reached them, he spoke to them and
told them if they were under any necessity, to let him know, for he was
ordered by his governor to aid and protect them if there was any
opportunity. If they would come to where the governor was stationed
they would be helped and protected with right good will, in accordance
with his Majesty’s order. They answered all with great politeness and
said that they had no need. On the contrary they would, aid and protect
us if we needed anything. When the governor heard their reply, he again
despatched his own captain, and sent the Portuguese some refreshment,
and wrote them that he would be very glad to see and speak to them, as
your Majesty will see by the copy of the letter which the governor is
sending.

All the men of this camp are in general very necessitous and have no
present resource, because as we have said above, the general did not
allow them to make war on the natives, awaiting to see what orders and
instructions your Majesty would be pleased to send, and what reward it
has pleased your Majesty to grant to all the men who have suffered the
imminent risk of their lives, and hardship and misery in the service of
your Majesty—which surely have been great, and for which we have been
given courage and strength, by the pleasure of our Lord, to suffer
them.

We humbly beg your Majesty to grant us the salary and increase which we
ask your Majesty to make us to the sum of three thousand ducados
annually, in consideration of the fact that we are in parts so remote
where the things which we need are so dear, as we have pledged and been
cheated out of our patrimonies in order to come to serve your Majesty
on this expedition, on which we have endured many hardships and
necessities. We hope to be remunerated for it all by a sovereign and
prince so Christian and one who has so munificent and liberal a hand as
your Majesty, by your showing us the favor to concede and grant us the
repartimientos which might be in this land.

At present there is nothing in this land from which our salaries can be
paid, unless in cinnamon which has no market in these districts. We
humbly beg your Majesty to grant us and concede us the power of being
paid in Nueva España from the proceeds of the cinnamon and other drugs
in these districts, and that they be paid to the person who shall have
and has had our power of attorney therefor. We beg and entreat [this]
of your Majesty with all humility.

Some of the natives have been converted to the true knowledge and have
received the waters of holy baptism. The chiefs and all the natives say
that since we have no wives we do not intend to remain in the country.
It is advisable for your Majesty to have some married people sent here
who are of good morals, and may they come quickly.

We have great need of artillery, ammunition, and arms for the men who
are here. Will your Majesty please have us provided with the best men
and men of the best morals that can be found, for this is necessary for
the service of your Majesty whose royal Catholic person we pray our
Lord to preserve with greater kingdoms and increasing seigniories, as
is desired by us, your Majesty’s faithful servants.

Two caracoas of Maluco Indians arrived at this port on the tenth of
this month. They carried twelve Portuguese, whom one Gonçalo Pereyra,
chief captain of a large fleet which the viceroy of India despatched to
Maluco because he thought that we must have stopped there, and Alvaro
de Mendoça, captain of the fort of the said Maluco, had sent. They
wrote to the governor that they had sure evidence that we had settled
in this port, and they thought that it must have been by accident, as
all the district hereabout was (as was a fact [they said]) in their
demarcation. Therefore if it were so, and we were here because of any
need, we should endeavor to go to the fort of Maluco where we would be
given the best of welcomes. The governor answered this putting them off
as much as possible, as your Majesty will see by the letters and their
reply to which we refer (as well as to Captain Juan de la Ysla, who has
a good understanding of this in detail and of all other things that
have happened in these districts, and from whom your Majesty will
receive as we have said, a true and extensive relation).

There has been a singular carelessness in providing us from Nueva
España with reënforcements; and if it should happen (which may God
our Lord avert) that we should suffer some loss, it would be because of
that. At present we have neither arms, ammunition, nor artillery with
which to defend ourselves if the Portuguese should try to harm us. May
His Divine Goodness remedy and direct everything as He deems best.
Surely His divine hand has protected us, and so we are ready to die in
His most holy service and that of your Majesty with great steadfastness
if occasion offers. May our Lord preserve your sacred Catholic Majesty
and give you greater kingdoms and increasing seigniories. This port
[i.e., Cebú], July XXVI, 1567. Sacred Catholic Majesty, your sacred
Catholic Majesty’s faithful servants, who most humbly kiss your
Majesty’s royal feet.


    Guido de Lavezaris
    Andres Calchela
    Andres de Myrandaola







LETTER FROM MARTIN DE RADA TO THE MARQUIS DE FALÇES


May the Holy Ghost dwell forever in your Excellency’s soul. I have
given infinite thanks to God since I have learned that your Excellency
[37] had come to act as viceroy of Nueva Spaña because of the report
of your virtues, prudence, and zeal concerning the service of God our
Lord and of his Majesty; and especially because, according to the
report here, you have shown zeal and willingness to try to protect this
expedition and to be the instrument by which the so great multitude of
infidels here may come to the knowledge of the true faith. This has
been the cause which has moved me to write your Excellency these lines.
Since I am engaged upon it I am obliged to give you an account of the
condition and character of the country. These islands, where we are
established, are numerous, and some of them are large; for, so far as
we are able to learn, the island of Luson must be about seven hundred
leguas in circumference. [38] All that is land is the richest that has
been discovered among these islands, for almost all its people are
traders and the Chinese come to trade with them. The nearest land from
the Chinese, namely, Ybalon and the Camarines, is fifty or sixty leguas
from this port. The wealthy village of Manila may be seventy leguas
from here. That island of Lusson contains quantities of provisions,
consisting of rice, swine, goats, and buffaloes. There is much gold
when compared with these other islands, and articles from China. The
island of Burnei is about five hundred leguas in circumference. It
yields pepper, sandal-wood, camphor, and other drugs. The island of
Baguindanao and that of Panae are each about three hundred leguas in
circumference. That of Panae is rich in food and that of Baguindanao in
gold, cinnamon, and pepper. Each of them is located about forty leguas
from this port. The island of Basbat [i.e., Masbat] has many gold
mines. There are many other islands also, which I shall not mention in
order to avoid prolixity. All of them in general yield gold, some more,
others less, partly from the rivers and partly from mines. There is
evident proof of this, for all the people, both great and small, wear
it, and the natives recognize whence the gold comes as soon as they see
it, and say that this gold comes from such an island, and this other
gold from such another. It is evident also because many merchants of
Lusson, Bornei, Xolo, and other parts travel continually throughout
these islands, and the object of their search is either gold or slaves.
However, no one of these Indians has more than a very little gold, for
if they get a couple of pairs of earrings and a couple of pairs of
bracelets, and a pair of anklets for the feet, they do not look for any
more, for they do not strive to hoard it. This race is the most
arrogant that was ever seen and the slaves are the freest that can be
imagined, for they do only what they wish; [39] and besides this [it is
seen] by the lack of loyalty which they preserve toward one another.
For although they be relatives or brothers if they meet one another in
the open, he who is strongest lays hands upon the other and sells him.
Consequently, no one dares to go ever so little a distance from his
village. If perchance any merchant junk comes [to trade] they buy all
the goods on credit, after which, in order to pay, all the village
assembles and goes armed to the placer or to the mines, in order that
no one will dare to touch them, and accordingly get the gold that they
have to give. If the place is settled by Spaniards, I am convinced that
(God helping), there will be abundance of gold extracted by them, for
there is little that can be seized from the natives. Pearls are also to
be found in some places, and other things such as pepper, cinnamon, and
drugs.

Soldiers are not needed to conquer this land, for they do not consider
the welfare of the land, but only how to amass wealth quick in order to
return home. When they are unable to attain their desire, they destroy
and lay waste the country. But colonists who intend to remain in the
country must be sent. The people of these islands have no king or
sovereign and are without any law. Most of them are heathens although
some are Moros. They can be converted and adopt our faith easily; and
are rather like monkeys very desirous of imitating us in dress, speech,
and all other particulars. The fear with which God has inspired them is
great, for no matter how large may be the village, when a dozen
Spaniards go to it, the natives come out immediately with their hands
tied and beg for peace, promising to give what tribute may be asked
from them. Consequently, when any village was carried by peace, we had
a great abundance whence to draw the necessary supplies. For more than
two years at this point a loose rein has been given in robbing friend
and foe, and we are now suffering extreme need. We have no place where
we can get anything, and no boats to get what we need, for most of the
villages in the entire radius of more than forty leguas are deserted
and depopulated. Wherever the Spaniards go, the natives do not dare
await them but all flee to the mountains with their goods.
Consequently, I am certain as to our fate, for if God does not
miraculously aid us, we shall all soon be lost. Our lack has always
been that we have had no [adequate] leader, not because any harm has
occurred by his command, but because he has passed it by. Consequently,
dissimulation is no longer sufficient to remedy the matter. The vilest
soldier of all dares to disobey his orders and to do only what he
desires. He knows that after all the matter will be ended by detaining
him in his quarters for a fortnight. Besides this the soldier is good
for nothing, and there is no man in the camp who considers the common
welfare but each looks after his own interests. I am writing this to
your Excellency so that you may institute a reform in it, for I avow
seasonably that unless we have a different harmony and another one to
direct the crowd, the country will be worthless, the king will draw no
profit therefrom, and the men will derive no advantage, but all of them
will perish by an evil death in a short time, and all the land will he
destroyed. This entire land is fertile and abounds with food, but we
are all dying of hunger. There is considerable timber and it is quite
easy to get at, but we have no boat, for we have on the contrary lost
those boats that we brought. The land is all very thickly settled, but
we have already caused the abandonment of many villages. Since the
soldiers indeed have much wealth, but when they die nothing more is
found than some old clothes, which arc good for nothing but to be
thrown into the sea, therefore, we shall not have more but much less
next year.

If his Majesty wishes to get hold of China, which we know to be a land
that is very large and rich and of high civilization, with cities,
forts, and walls much greater than those of Europa, he must first have
a settlement in these islands: first, because we cannot pass safely
among the so many islands and shoals that lie along the coast of China
with ships of high freeboard, but must use oared vessels; secondly,
also, because in order to conquer a country so large and that has so
vast a population, one must have aid and refuge near at hand, for any
contingency that might arise. However, as I have been informed both by
Portuguese and by Indians who trade with the Chinese, as well as by a
Chinese who was captured a while ago in a junk, the people of China are
not at all warlike. They rely entirely on numbers and on the
fortification of their walls. It would decapitate them, if any of their
forts were taken. Consequently, I believe (God helping), that they can
be subdued easily and with few forces.

I have wished to write this, for I trust in our Lord that this land
may, through the medium of your Excellency, receive the faith, and that
we shall have an entrance into China; but, on account of our great
uncertainty and because we do not know whether his Majesty will order
us to abandon this land, we have not dared to baptize. I believe that
if we had put our hands to baptism, we would already have more than
twenty thousand Christians. As soon as we know the king’s will they
will all accept our faith easily. May our Lord, etc. Cebu, July eight
1569.







LETTER FROM DIEGO DE HERRERA TO FELIPE II


Sacred Catholic Royal Majesty:

When I saw that the affairs of this land had no permanent settlement
and no hopes of one, and that the natives were very much molested by
the Spaniards, and that so far as I could see God was being served but
little in this region because of the great license which men have here
for evil and the lack of justice, and that very little service was
being rendered your Majesty, since they are ruining excellent lands
here for you: I determined last year, sixty-nine, to go to Nueva
España in order to give advice of what was passing here in order that
some reform might be instituted in this, and to discuss the matter with
the viceroy in order that he might relieve the condition as much as he
could and give notice of the other things to your Majesty. [40] [I
determined] that if the viceroy thought that I ought to go to España
to discuss the matter with your Majesty, I would also do so. When I
reached Nueva España and discussed this matter with the viceroy, and
its great necessity for reform, and the extremely ruinous condition of
affairs, he thought that I ought to return and give notice of it to
your Majesty. Accordingly he told me that I would be fulfilling the
service of God and of your Majesty if I would immediately return to
these districts on the first ships. He gave me to understand that until
the remedy was specified he could reform some of the evils. Although
that order was very grievous to me as I had reached Nueva España ill
and worn out by the sea, since the service of two so great lords as God
and your Majesty was placed before me, I considered it fitting, and
accordingly reëmbarked for these islands on the ninth of March of this
year one thousand five hundred and seventy. I reached this island of
Panay where the governor is established, on the twenty-second of July.
All the people were overjoyed at the reenforcements that your Majesty
orders sent them, and with the concessions of the petition made from
this land. I found the country in a most ruinous condition and such
that more has been destroyed in this one year here than during the past
five years. Your Majesty owns so many islands in this district that one
is surprised at the number. [41] They are all very rich and fertile and
contain many gold mines, pearls, and wax, while some of them have
cinnamon. They are thickly inhabited and the people promise better than
those of Nueva España. But since your Majesty does not provide anyone
permanently and prescribe the manner of living, and protect and defend
the natives, and keep justice for them, and power to punish whoever
injures them, all will be lost in a very short time, for the policy
employed with the natives could last but one year here if there is much
greater violence. That consists in robbing them, burning their
villages, and enslaving them. If this is not done it is affirmed that
it is impossible to find support. This is false, for on the contrary,
it is impossible to find support in this manner, for everything is
being destroyed [by this manner of acting]; and the natives are
becoming so exhausted because they are not left for an instant.
However, they all desire peace in an extraordinary manner and to live
under the protection of your Majesty and to pay the tribute. They would
give the sum asked of them, if they thought that no evil was to be done
them. But today they are made friends and on the morrow they are
robbed. Many of them have been killed and many villages burned. I am
writing this in general although not going into details in anything, in
order, not to trouble your Majesty. I wrote more at length to the
viceroy of Nueba España in order that he might inform your Majesty,
for he can easily ascertain whether these things are so from those who
come here. This fleet came here at the beginning greatly in need of
people who knew how to govern, and the same is true of war, for besides
the master-of-camp here, who has died, all the rest know but little as
was evident in the war with the Portuguese in Çubu. At that time
although the Portuguese were so few, they caused so great extremity
that some captains advised the abandonment of the site and retirement
to another part; and if the Portuguese did not cause the abandonment
while they were there, they caused it when they left, and the strongest
site and best port in all these islands, so far as has yet been seen,
was abandoned, and we came here to establish ourselves in Panay along
the swampy and very poor shore of a river. It will be very much less
strongh than Çubu and has no port, while it is hot and unhealthful. If
your Majesty do not appoint some one to govern, this colony will daily
become less, and will fall entirely into destruction. If we are not
more firmly established, we religious cannot treat of the conversion of
these natives with zeal and care nor with so much fruit as if the land
had peace and security.

They sent from here to petition your Majesty to concede them the favor
to allow them to rob and enslave the Moros throughout these districts.
The reason that they gave for it was to say that they were Moros and
that they were preventing and opposing the preaching of the gospel. The
statement that they were preventing the preaching of the gospel was
false, for they have never prevented it nor do so at present. On the
contrary, there is an increase to be observed in families where the
husband is a Moro and the wife a pagan, who come in order to beg the
religious to baptize their son and make him a Christian; for they do
not at all object to each one living according to the belief that he
likes best. For all the Moros who live in these islands have been Moros
for but few years back. Many of them, such as those of Luçon, have
nothing except the name, and the fact that they do not eat pork; for
they have no mosque or cacique [sic] [42] (who are their priests). This
worship is only a trifle more firmly established among those of the
island of Burney than in the other, although they are also of recent
date there. [43] Not all the island is Moro, but only certain villages
along the coast, for the inhabitants of the interior are heathens. None
of them possess the lands of Christians or wage war on them, or do them
any injury; although we do to them, and much, for four or five ships of
Burneo have been pillaged and many people killed, while many more from
Luçon have been killed, although excellent friends to us. As to the
chiefs, they made the land friendly to us, or at least exerted a great
influence in that direction. They supplied us with food in abundance
and stuffs very suitable for clothing, and gold for our silver, in
order that we might barter for our necessities. Now, however,
conditions are such that no one dares come [to trade]. I do not believe
that any other reason can be given for authority to rob them, except
that they are Moros; and that is no legitimate reason and cannot be
done.

After we religious came to these districts with the fleet, at your
Majesty’s command, nothing besides a little rice has been furnished
us for our sustenance every week in the same way as to the soldiers. It
is a ration, but even with bread a man cannot be supported by it. I
have written to that effect to the viceroy of Nueba España so that we
may be supplied from there with necessities until there shall be
sufficient means of gain in this land from which to supply us; but he
either has no authority from your Majesty to do that, or he does not
dare unless it be remitted to us here. I entreat your Majesty to please
order us to be supplied with an amount each week per religious as is
done in Nueba España, in consideration of the fact that our expenses
here are heavier than in Nueba España. For the Indians in Nueba
España know only how to give, but these Indians here know only how to
beg. The soldiers who are here now are so poor that it is necessary to
try to give to them and not to beg from them. Consequently, it will be
necessary for your Majesty to make us a more liberal concession than to
the religious of Nueba España. I believe that one religious can be
supported in these regions for two hundred pesos but not with less. I
trust, God helping, that the fruit which will be obtained in the
conversion in these districts, will be so great that your Majesty will
make us other greater rewards. We have hitherto stayed here because we
suspected here that your Majesty would order us to abandon this place,
but since we now know that it is your Majesty’s will that we continue
to advance the undertaking, we shall begin to baptize all the people;
for although there are some Christians, there would be many more if we
had known before what we now know. May our Lord preserve the sacred
royal Catholic person of your Majesty for many years, as I your humble
and least servant desire. This island of Panay, July 25, 1570. Your
sacred royal Catholic Majesty’s most humble servant,


    Fray Diego de Herrera


[Endorsed: “Examined. To be given to the reporter, so that he may
file it with the others.”]







ROYAL COMMUNICATIONS TO AND CONCERNING LEGAZPI


REPLY TO MIGUEL LOPEZ DE LEGAZPI

The King. Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, my governor and captain-general of
the islands of the West: I have received your two letters dated June
fifteen and twenty-three of the past year one thousand five hundred and
sixty-seven, [44] and I have taken note of the detailed account which
you gave of the events of your expedition, and of what you have done in
it; and it is what has been expected from your loyalty and goodness. In
regard to what you say of the islands that have been discovered, and
which are being discovered daily, and your sensible policy in not
waging war, you have done very well, and we charge and order you to
continue the same, striving by all good means to attract the natives to
the service of God our Lord and mine, and to the love and friendship
which they ought to have with you and with the Spaniards who reside
with you. You shall so carry yourself that you may not come to blows
with them nor with any other persons unless you should be provoked, and
in your own defense.

In regard to your statement that some galleys are needed for the trade
and commerce of those islands, we have ordered the matter to be
discussed, but as yet no resolution has been taken by which we can
advise you concerning our will.

Your son, Melchor de Legazpi, and Juan de la Ysla have asked for
certain things necessary for the solid colonization of that land and
for your defense and safety. [45] You will see what we have supplied by
the memorial taken by Juan de la Ysla, and by what our officials in
Nueva España will send you. The balance of what is yet to be furnished
will be sent in the first fleet that leaves for Nueva España. You will
watch over everything in your charge as we expect from your person; and
you shall have especial care in furthering the conversion of the Indian
natives of that country to our holy Catholic faith, and their good
treatment; for that is most important to the service of God our Lord
and mine. Since it is so important you shall obtain it by all possible
good means.

You shall assign and allot the villages of those islands which may be
reduced to our service as you think best, according to the law of the
succession of the Indians; provided that you do not assign or allot the
capitals, seaports, or places settled by Spaniards, for these must be
left for our royal crown, and we order that they be so left. [46]

We have also been petitioned in your name that, in consideration of the
fact that there are islands inhabited by Moros in that land, and that
they come to trade and traffic, thus hindering the preaching of the
holy gospel, and disturbing you, we grant you permission to enslave
such Moros, and to seize their possessions. You must take note that if
such Moros are Moros by birth and nation and come for the purpose of
spreading their cursed Mahometan worship, or to make war on you or on
the Indians subject to us and to our royal service, then you can
enslave them. But you shall under no consideration whatever enslave
those who were Indians who may have adopted the worship of Mahomet; but
you shall endeavor to convert them and to persuade them to accept our
holy Catholic faith by good and legitimate means.

Report has been made me on behalf of the conquistadors of that country
that many slaves have been made there by the natives of those islands.
I have been entreated to grant permission to those conquistadors to
purchase them and hold them as slaves in the same manner as the said
natives hold them. Inasmuch as I desire to be informed of the custom in
this matter and of what it is advisable to do, I order you to submit a
report of the causes why slaves are made in that country—whether
slaves are made mutually among the natives themselves; whether the
Moros who wage war upon the said natives are made slaves; or whether
there are various sects among them, so that they wage and maintain
mutual warfare among themselves and make slaves mutually of one
another. You shall report on the other characteristics of that race in
so far as they touch this matter; and when the said report is ready you
shall send it to our Council of the Indias, so that, after they have
examined it, the most advisable measures may be taken in accordance
with justice. [47]

If there are any Portuguese or foreigners of these kingdoms who have
gone with you or who shall have gone afterward, or who should be in the
ships sailing from Nueva España to those islands, you shall order them
to return to these kingdoms, even if such Portuguese or foreigners be
those who are allowed to be in those districts in accordance with my
laws, ordinances, and decrees. You must attend to this matter with the
greatest possible haste, for you know how dangerous it will be to the
welfare, peace, and quiet of the land and to the service of our Lord
and mine. The Escorial, November sixteen, one thousand five hundred and
sixty-eight.


    I the King


Countersigned by Eraso, and signed by Luis Quixada, Vazquez, Don Gomez
Çapata, Muñoz, Molina, Salas, Aguilera, Villafañe, and Votello.

[The above document is followed by one entitled, “Title of governor
and captain-general of the island of Cubu to Miguel Lopez de
Legazpi.” It is almost word for word the same as the document
presented in our VOL. III, pp. 62–66 (the few verbal differences not
at all changing the sense in any way), but it bears a date eight days
prior to that of the above-mentioned document. The ending of this
document is as follows: “Neither you nor they shall act contrary to
this under any consideration, under penalty of loss of our favor and of
a fine of one thousand gold castellanos to be paid to our exchequer and
treasury. Given at Madrid, August six, one thousand five hundred and
sixty-nine.


    I the King


Countersigned by Eraso, and signed by Luis Quixada, Vazquez, Molina,
Salas, Aguilera, Votello, and Maldonado.”]

[This document is followed by another one entitled “The said [Miguel
Lopez de Legazpi is granted] the lieutenancy of a fortress in Cubu.”
It reads practically the same as the above-mentioned document of VOL.
III, to the beginning of the last clause on page 62. We translate from
that point:]

And inasmuch as we believe that it is thus advisable for our service,
and the welfare and preservation of the same island and of the other
islands in its vicinity, we consider it fitting and it is our intention
and will that now and henceforth you be for all the rest of your life
our warden and keeper of the said fortress. You shall perform the
service, homage, and act of fidelity which are required in such cases
and which you must make. After that has been done, we order any person
or persons who may have or shall have charge of the said fortress, that
they shall, as soon as they shall be summoned by this our decree,
deliver and surrender it to you or to whomever is empowered by you
without consulting us further or awaiting any other decree or order
from us, or our second or third injunction. They shall give you full
and free possession of it in its entire height and depth and strength,
together with the arms, equipment, food, and other things that it might
contain, in inventory and before a notary. After they shall have done
this we do by the present or by a copy thereof, signed by a
notary-public, relieve and discharge them of any covenant, homage, act
of fidelity, or pledge that shall have been made by the said fortress,
and we declare them free and quit of it, both they and their goods, and
their heirs and successors forever. They shall do and perform this
notwithstanding that no known porter of our exchequer intervenes in the
surrender of it, or the other ceremonies that are usual in such cases,
under penalty of being condemned and of incurring the other penalties
which those who keep fortresses and do not deliver them at the command
of my natural kings and seigniors, are exposed to and incur. Further we
order the Council, justices, regidors, knights, squires, officials, and
good men of the said island of Cubu and of the other islands in its
vicinity, to consider and hold you as our warden and keeper of the said
fortress for the rest of your life as is said above; and they shall pay
and cause to be paid to you the fees annexed and pertaining to it for
its lieutenancy. They shall cause to be observed toward you the honors,
grace, rewards, exemptions, licenses, preeminences, prerogatives, and
immunities, and all other things which you ought to possess and enjoy
as our warden and keeper of the said fortress; and which must be kept
for you in the same way as they are possessed and held by the wardens
and keepers of the fortresses of these our kingdoms entirely and
completely, so that no omission shall be made to you. They shall not
place or allow to be placed any hindrance or opposition to this or any
part of it. Given in Madrid, August six, one thousand five hundred and
sixty-nine.


    I the King


Countersigned by Eraso and signed by the above.



THE SAID LEGAZPI. TITLE OF GOVERNOR OF THE LADRONES ISLANDS

Don Phelippe, etc. Inasmuch as report has been made me in behalf of
you, Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, our governor of the islands of the West,
that a certain fleet having been prepared at our order in Puerto de la
Navidad of Nueva España for the purpose of the discovery of the said
islands, our former viceroy, Don Luis de Velasco, appointed and named
you by our commission through the satisfaction which he had in your
person, to be the captain-general of it and our governor of the said
islands. We have heard that you, having gone in search of them, in
order to attain the end desired, and having spent a considerable sum of
gold pesos from your own property, discovered the said islands and took
possession of them in our royal name with the ceremonies requisite in
such cases; and made a settlement in the island of Cubu where you are
at present with the men whom you took. In that place you have heard of
other islands in that vicinity called the Ladrones Islands and of their
fertility and wealth. You have desired to explore and colonize them at
your own cost and expense, and petition has been made us to have
permission given you therefor, as well as the title of governor and
captain-general of the said islands, in consideration of the many
expenses that you have incurred in their discovery, and the hardships
that you have endured. We, respecting the said your services because of
the wide knowledge of them, and because of those which we expect that
you shall perform from this time on, and having discussed it with our
royal person, have considered it fitting. Therefore by the present we
grant license and permission to you, the said Miguel Lopez de Legazpi,
so that you are empowered to make for us in our name and at your own
cost—and you shall make—the exploration and colonization of the
said Ladrones Islands. You shall take and seize possession of them in
the said name with the ceremony that is requisite in such cases;
provided that you observe and cause to be observed in toto the
instructions and provisions which have been issued by us in regard to
the course to be followed in the said colonizations and explorations.
It is our wish and intention to make you our governor and
captain-general of the said Ladrones Islands and of all the villages
that you shall settle therein for the rest of your life. You shall hold
and exercise our civil and criminal justice with the offices of justice
which shall be in the said islands of the West. By this our letter, we
order councils, justices, regidors, knights, squires, officials, and
good men of all the cities, towns, and hamlets that shall exist in the
said islands, land, and colony, and those that shall be colonized, and
our officials and other persons who shall reside therein—and each one
of them—that, as soon as they shall be summoned by this order, they
shall take and receive from you, the said Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, the
oath and ceremony that is requisite in such cases, and that you ought
to give, without any further delay or procrastination, and without
informing us any farther, or consulting, awaiting, or expecting another
order or command from me, or a second or third decree. After you have
thus given the oath, you shall be considered and received as our
governor and captain-general of the said islands, and their coast,
land, and settlements all the days of your life. They shall allow and
permit you freely to exercise and enjoy the said offices and to perform
and execute our justice therein through yourself or through your
subordinates whom you have power to appoint and may appoint to the said
offices of governor and captain-general, alguacils, and other offices
annexed to or pertaining to the said government. You may remove and set
aside any of such officials when it is for our service and the
execution of our justice. You may appoint and substitute others in
their place; and you may try, despatch, and sentence all the suits and
causes, both civil and criminal, which shall arise and occur in the
said islands, coast, land, and village that you shall settle, and that
you shall have settled, both among the men who went to colonize, and
among the other natives of it. You and the said your alcaldes and
subordinates shall receive the fees annexed to and pertaining to the
said offices. You may make any examinations in the cases of justice,
premises, and all the other things pertaining to and annexed to the
said offices. You and your subordinates shall attend to that which is
advisable for our service, the execution of our justice, and the
colonization and government of the said islands, coast, land, and towns
that shall be established. In order that you may exercise and enjoy the
said offices, and perform and execute our justice, all men shall be in
harmony with you as to their persons and property, and shall give and
cause to be given to you all the protection and aid that you may ask
from them and that shall be necessary to you. They shall respect you in
all things, and shall obey and perform your orders or those of your
subordinates. They shall place no obstacle or opposition to your orders
or any part of them, nor allow any to be placed. Therefore by this
present we do receive you and consider you received in the said offices
and in the exercise and enjoyment of them. We grant you full power to
enjoy and exercise, and to perform and execute, the said our justice in
the said islands, coasts, land, and hamlets that you shall colonize and
in the cities, towns, and hamlets of the said islands and their limits,
either through yourself or through your subordinates as abovesaid. In
case that you are not received by them or by any of them into the said
offices, we do, by this our letter, order any person or persons who
shall exercise the authority of our justice in the villages of the said
islands, coast, and land, to deliver and surrender, and use such
offices no longer without our license and express mandate whenever they
shall be summoned by you, the said Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, under the
penalties incurred and suffered by those private persons who exercise
public and royal offices for which they have no authority or license.
Such persons we do by the present suspend and consider as suspended.
Furthermore, the fines pertaining to our exchequer and treasury to
which you and your alcaldes and subordinates shall condemn any persons,
shall be executed by you, and you shall cause them to be executed, and
shall have the fines given and delivered to our treasurer of the said
islands. Furthermore, we order that if you, the said Miguel Lopez de
Legazpi, consider it fitting for our service and the execution of our
justice, that any persons now in, or who may in the future be in, the
said islands, coast, and land, be banished and enter them no more or
live in them, and that they come to present themselves before us, you
may order it in our name and cause them to leave in accordance with the
ordinance regarding that matter. You shall give to the person thus
exiled the reason for his exile; but if you deem it advisable that the
matter be kept secret, you shall give the reason under lock and seal,
and you shall on your part send us another person, so that we may be
informed of it. But you are to take notice that when you have to exile
anyone, it must be only for a very urgent cause. For the abovesaid, and
so that you may exercise the said offices as our governor and
captain-general of the said islands, coast, land, and villages that you
shall colonize, so that you may perform and exercise our justice
therein, we delegate you full authority by this our letter, with all
their incidences, dependencies, emergencies, annexes, and rights; and
it is our will and we order that you receive and be paid the annual
salary, together with the said offices, of two thousand ducados (a sum
equivalent to seven hundred and fifty thousand maravedis). You shall
enjoy them from the day on which you shall set sail to pursue your
voyage, and thenceforth for the time that you shall maintain the said
government. If that sum is not had during the said time, we shall not
be obliged to pay you any part of it. A receipt shall be taken from
you, with which, and with the copy of this our provision signed by the
notary-public, we order that the said two thousand ducados be received
by you and placed on your account. Neither you nor any one else shall
act contrary to this under any consideration, under penalty of losing
our favor and one thousand castellanos in gold to be paid to our
exchequer and treasury. Given in Madrid, August fourteen, one thousand
five hundred and sixty-nine.


    I the King


Countersigned by Eraso, and signed by Luis Quixada, Doctor Vazquez,
Licentiate Don Gomez Çapata, Doctor Luis de Molina, Doctor Aguilera,
and Doctor Francisco de Villafañe.



TO THE SAID LEGAZPI [GRANTING HIM] THE TITLE OF ADELANTADO OF THE
LADRONES ISLANDS

Don Phelipe, etc. Inasmuch as we have granted license and authority to
you, Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, our governor of the islands of the West,
so that you may explore and colonize the said islands of the West for
us and in our name, and at your own expense; and because of the
expenses which you have incurred in it, and those which you shall incur
in the exploration and colonization of the said islands of the
Ladrones; and because we have you and your said services in mind
constantly, and in order that you and your descendants may be more
honored: therefore having reflected upon the matter in our royal
person, I have considered it fitting to bestow upon you the title of
adelantado of the said Ladrones Islands for yourself and for your heirs
and successors forever. Therefore it is our intention and will by this
present that you be now and henceforth forever, our adelantado of the
said Ladrones Islands, as well as of the villages that you shall
colonize therein; and after you, your heirs and successors, and he who
shall inherit your house. As such our adelantado, you may
exercise—and you shall exercise—the said office in all cases and
matters annexed to and concerning it, in the same manner in which they
are enjoyed by our adelantados of our kingdoms of Castilla and of the
said Indias. In regard to the enjoyment and exercise of the said office
and in the payment of the fees pertaining to it, you shall observe and
your heirs shall be obliged to observe the laws and ordinances of these
our kingdoms imposed in regard to it. All the honors, favors, and
rewards, licenses, liberties, exemptions, preëminences, prerogatives,
immunities, and everything else—and each one of them singly—which
because of being our adelantado, you ought to have and enjoy, and which
ought to be kept for you, shall be kept for you. You shall have and
receive the fees, salaries, and other matters belonging and pertaining
to the said office of adelantado. We do, by this our letter, order
councils, justices, regidors, knights, squires, officials, and good men
of all the cities, towns, and hamlets of the said islands of the
Ladrones to hold, receive, and consider you and your heirs as our
adelantado and to extend to you and to them the said office and all
causes and things annexed to and concerning it. They shall keep for you
and cause to be kept for you, all the honors, favors, rewards,
licenses, liberties, preëminences, prerogatives, immunities, and all
the other things—and each one of them singly—that you ought to have
and enjoy by reason of the said office, and which must be kept for you.
They shall pay, and cause to be paid, to you, all the fees and salaries
owing and belonging to the said office of adelantado up to their
complete value, so that you may suffer no lack in anything, according
to and in the manner in which it has been enjoyed and paid, and as it
must be enjoyed, paid, and kept for the other adelantados who have been
and are in these our kingdoms of Castilla and in the said Indias. They
shall place no obstacle or opposition to you in this matter or in any
part of it, or allow such to be placed. Therefore, we do, by this
present, receive and hold you as received into the said office, and to
its enjoyment and exercise. We grant you authority and license to enjoy
and exercise it; and in case that you are not received in that office
by them or any of them, we order you to give this our letter signed by
our hand and countersigned by our secretary mentioned below. Given in
Madrid, August fourteen, one thousand five hundred and sixty-nine.


    I the King


I, Francisco de Herasso, secretary of his Majesty, had this written by
his command. It is signed by Luis Quizada, Doctor Vazquez, Licentiate
Don Gomez Çapata, Doctor Luis de Molina, Licentiate Salas, Doctor
Aguilera, and Doctor Francisco de Villafañe.

[The above document is followed by one entitled, “The said Legazpi,
[granting him] the title of governor and captain-general of the island
of Cubu.” It is the same document, and bears the same date as that
published in VOL. III, pp. 62–66.]







INSTRUCTIONS GIVEN TO MIGUEL LOPEZ DE LEGAZPI, IN REGARD TO WHAT HE IS
TO DO IN THE LADRONES ISLANDS


The King. That which you, Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, our governor and
captain-general in the islands of the West, are to do and observe in
the government, exploration, and colonization of the Ladrones Islands
which we charge to you, is as follows.

1. First, after the said islands are explored, you shall select sites
and locations for colonization, taking care that the land be healthful
and fertile, and abounding in wood, water and good pasturage for
cattle. You shall see that the land be apportioned to the colonists,
but you shall not occupy or take possession of any private property of
the Indians. In order that this may be better performed, you shall for
the present, make the said settlement somewhat distant from the
districts and locations where the Indians may have their settlements,
pastures, and fields, so that all the abovesaid may be done without
harming them at all. On the contrary thorough good treatment must be
shown them.

2. The site of the place where the settlement is to be made having been
chosen, you shall order the colonists to build their houses, making in
them a sort of stronghold, where they may defend themselves and their
flocks if necessary, in case that the Indians try to attack them.

3. You shall see that the colonists who settle in this way, endeavor to
obtain peace and friendship with the Indians who dwell in that land.
They shall treat the latter well, and shall endeavor (for such is my
will) to have the Indians live near them in villages, and shall defend
them and help them to defend themselves against those who try to harm
them. They shall reduce the Indians to a civilized life, and shall
endeavor to separate them from their vices, sins, and evil customs.
They shall endeavor to reduce them and convert them willingly to our
holy Catholic faith and the Christian religion by means of religious
and other good men.

4. If there shall be any persons among the said Indians who oppose and
refuse to listen to our instruction, and convert or illtreat those who
do listen to it, you shall endeavor by all good means possible to you
to prevent it, so that the preaching of the gospel may not cease for
that reason. You shall proceed in this with all manner of discretion,
kindness, and moderation.

5. Further, you shall endeavor to have the Indians persuaded to adopt
our holy Catholic faith willingly, and to render submission to us. If
they do so you shall order that they be exempt from tribute for ten
years.

6. Item: You shall order that the Spaniards, who shall settle later in
the villages thus established, rule and govern in peace and quiet, and
that they shall not molest or injure anyone. They shall appoint their
ministers of justice, regidors, and necessary officials, for the
meanwhile and until we provide otherwise.

7. Some repartimientos of Indians shall be made to those persons who
shall go to make the said settlement, in accordance with their services
and the quality of the persons to whom they are made. The chief
capitals and the seaports shall be assigned to us, although first and
foremost the appraisal of the said tributes of such repartimientos
shall have been made. This is understood to be allowed after the
expiration of the ten years in which they are to be exempt and free
from tribute as abovesaid.

8. You shall also assign salaries to regidors and ministers of justice,
and to the seculars and religious. You shall instruct each one in his
privileges and duties so that he may know what he has to do, and that
those who have charge of the offices shall be obliged to give account
for the disorders and excesses that our men commit both against the
Indians and the latter among themselves.

9. You shall order that after the abovesaid has been done, the people
endeavor to open trade in their districts. You shall provide the
Indians with the articles that they need, and shall endeavor also to
get from the Indians the things that are needed from them.

10. You shall send religious and other good persons to instruct and
persuade the Indians to receive our faith. You shall see to it that if
they be sufficient, they endeavor to collect the Indians in villages so
that they may be instructed better.

11. You shall always instruct those persons whom you send to spy out
the land always to consider where they might find fitting and
commodious sites for the new settlements, without any resulting harm to
the Indians in accordance with the provision of the first section.

12. You shall provide that after the houses have been built and the
fields sown, the people try to discover minerals and other things in
which they will be benefited. They shall cultivate the land and enrich
it with new plants of vines and fruit trees for its support and gain.

13. Item: If the natives endeavor to prevent the said settlement, they
must be told that the men are not trying to settle there in order to do
them any harm or wrong, or to seize their possessions, but only to have
friendship with them and teach them to live in a civilized manner and
recognize God, and to expound to them the law of Jesus Christ by which
they will be saved. After that message and warning has been given
(which must be made three times as shall seem best to the person
appointed by you after consulting with the religious who shall go to
such settlement and by the tongue of the religious who shall tell and
declare it), then if notwithstanding the abovesaid, the natives refuse
to consent to the colony, the colonists shall endeavor to settle and
shall defend themselves from the said natives without doing them other
injury than that necessary for their defense and for making the said
settlement. All the mildness and moderation possible shall be observed
in the said defense.

14. Further, after having made such hamlet and settlement you shall see
to it that the citizens and religious who shall be there, try to trade
and communicate with the natives and to make friends with them, and to
make them understand the abovesaid.

15. If the said natives and inhabitants located near the said colony
should become friends because of such good efforts and persuasions, so
that they give the religious permission to enter to teach them and to
preach to them the law of Christ, you shall see that they do it. The
religious shall endeavor to convert them and allure them to the faith,
and to have them recognize us as sovereign king and lord.

16. Further, if the said natives and the rulers of the Indians refuse
to admit the religious preachers, after the announcement of their
purpose as above said, and after the natives shall have been petitioned
many times to allow the religious to enter to preach and to expound the
word of God, you shall make a report of it and send it to our Council
with the most justifiable testimony that you have of what has been
done, in order that we may have you ordered as to what course you are
to pursue. Meanwhile you shall endeavor to retain their friendship and
trade, and shall treat them well. You shall endeavor by all possible
means to bring them to a knowledge of our Lord.

17. If any of the officials appointed by us die, you shall appoint in
each island those that may be lacking, so that in accordance with the
instruction and order given them, they may administer our finances and
attend to the other things that are entrusted to the other officials of
the other provinces of the Indias. You shall make such appointments
until we provide for it, and you shall immediately advise us of it so
that we may have the proper measures taken.

18. The persons and our officials who shall be entrusted with duties,
shall be paid their salaries from the fruits of the land by our
treasurer, in accordance with a list made out and signed by the said
officials and signed by the governor of the province.

19. Item: You shall endeavor to take the most virtuous and Christian
people possible, and those who shall be best fitted for the said
colonization.

20. Item: You shall take four of the religious at present in the said
islands, and if you do not have them, you shall take two seculars who
must be persons of good life and morals, fit to give the instruction,
and to administer the holy sacraments.

21. Item: You shall endeavor with great care to see that the Spaniards
do no harm and show no force to the Indians, and that they do not wound
them or do them any other evil or harm, or deprive them of their
possessions, but they shall show them the utmost good treatment. If any
of the men offend the Indians, then you and your captains shall punish
him rigorously and shall warn him not to continue such actions. If he
be careless and negligent in this, then you shall have him punished
with great rigor; for this is a matter whose fulfilment we desire
greatly, and if this be not obeyed we shall consider ourselves greatly
disserved.

22. Item: Upon your arrival at the land you shall report to us the
events of your expedition and the manner in which you shall be
received, also what you ascertain and discover of the said land, and
everything else of which you think we should be advised. You shall
accompany it with your opinion of what you think ought to be done, so
that we may better order what is necessary for the service of God and
our own service; and you shall do the same whenever you deem it
necessary.

We charge and order you to observe and perform the above inviolably,
for if the contrary be done we shall consider ourselves disserved.
Given in Madrid, August xxviii, one thousand five hundred and
sixty-nine.


    I the King







MIGUEL LOPEZ DE LEGAZPI. CONCESSION OF TWO THOUSAND DUCADOS


The King. Our officials of the Western Islands, whose colonization we
have entrusted to General Miguel Lopez de Legazpi: Know that in
consideration of the services of the said Miguel Lopez, past and
present, in his expedition, and the loss that he has received to his
property in a caravel which sunk, I have after consultation with the
members of my Council of the Indias, considered it fitting to concede
to him, for one time, as I do by this present, a gift of two thousand
ducados (a sum equivalent to seven hundred and fifty thousand
maravedis). I therefore order you that from whatever gold or silver or
any other kind of property you may have in your possession and which
may be in charge of you our treasurer, you give and pay to the said
Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, or to whomever shall have his powers of
attorney, the said two thousand ducados of which we thus make him a
concession for this one time for the abovesaid reason. Deliver and pay
them to him, and take his receipt, with which and with this my decree,
I order that the said two thousand ducados be received from you and
placed on your accounts. Given at Madrid, August twenty-nine, one
thousand five hundred and seventy.


    I the King







LETTER FROM FRANCISCO DE ORTEGA TO THE VICEROY

Your Excellency: May the grace and consolation of the Holy Ghost dwell
forever in the soul of your Excellency. Last year I wrote a report and
an account to your Excellency of the affairs of this region, in
fulfilment of the directions given me by your Excellency when I came to
this country. Since in the previous report I wrote at length, I shall
be brief in this one, referring to the other one and to the statements
in it for the explanation of some things which I say here. I ratify
anew everything that I have said, and purpose now to give information
to your Excellency of what has happened in this country since my last
writing. I have accordingly to inform you that on August 13, of last
year, there set sail two vessels named “Santiago” and “San
Juan.” One week later, namely, the twenty-first of the said month,
our Lord took from this life by sudden death the adelantado and
governor, Miguel Lopez de Legazpi (may he be in glory). His death was
greatly deplored and is so even at the present day, for doubtless his
valor and wisdom have been greatly needed. Those who regarded him as
wicked in his life will now canonize him as a saint. I believe that he
is in glory or on the way to it, for he was a good Christian and if he
erred in some things, I believe that he desired to do right, while in
some other things he did the best he could. He died poor, which is a
great evidence of his goodness. That was a cause for great confusion to
those who regarded him as very rich, and who were murmuring about him
saying that he had a chest of gold and more than 25,000 pesos in
tostons. All that he was found to have on the day of his death was 460
pesos in two little sacks. These he had asked as a loan a few days
before. He had also in gold about 120 pesos not counting one large
chain and one small one which he brought from his own land. He had also
the wrought silver of his table service. All the rest of this was not
worth 500 pesos. This is the whole of the wealth and treasure which he
had. Of this fact I am practically an eyewitness, for I was present at
his death and at the inventory of his property. Three days after he had
died his grandson, Captain Joan de Salzedo, came from the opposite
coast of the island, where he had been three months, having gone by the
direction of the governor to explore that country and to pacify the
people who lived in it. He brought back very good news from there,
though he could not give it to him who had sent him out, and hence
great sorrow was caused to him who brought the news and even to the
rest. They reported that the population there was large and that there
were many good settlements close to one another and that they were
better ordered and governed than in the other parts. They said that
there were villages with 300 or 400 houses together, some more and some
less, and that there was among them one village that seemed to contain
more than three thousand houses, and another with 800, where he left
his alférez with thirty-five soldiers while he came to tell the news
and to make an extended report. He accomplished one thing which
astonished everybody, because without doubt it was a very daring and
courageous exploit. This was to attempt to circumnavigate the island,
which he accomplished in two tiny boats with 15 soldiers. These boats
did not draw one palmo of water. They are called barangays in this
country and are rowed with very short oars by Indians seated in the
boat. Though these vessels are of this character, and the sea of that
coast is so rough that not one of the natives, as they say, has
ventured to navigate it, still he dared to do it in order to know and
see what there is on the opposite coast. He suffered great hardships
but God delivered him from all of them. His boat was ofttimes almost
swamped, and he and the others with him on the point of drowning.
Finally he sailed one hundred leguas, coasting along the island to the
point of his settlement, and he has explored and circumnavigated it. In
all the length of that coast there was not a single village nor one
Indian, for the whole country is desolate where they supposed there
would be a great many people.

In the villages to which he went on this exploring and pacifying
expedition, he collected 800 gold taes in tribute. A tae is a weight of
one onza or a little more. Of this amount he gave half to the soldiers
and the other half to his Majesty’s treasury. This is the largest
amount of treasure that had hitherto been received in these islands.
Three months after his alférez, who had remained behind, arrived. The
reason of his coming was that almost all his soldiers were taken sick
and that they had no ammunition. He brought back a thousand taes of
gold in addition to as many more which he shared between himself and
the soldiers. All this was put in the royal treasury under the control
of our new governor, Guido de Lavezaris. Because of what he heard of
the country and its people and their wealth, the latter decided to send
the master-of-camp there with one or two captains to inspect the
population and the villages which were to be divided into
repartimientos. He who should not have gone, went [on that expedition],
and with him Captain Lorenço Chacon with more than 130 soldiers and
more than 800 Indians who rowed the boats in which they went. Without
discovering any new lands or seeing any new villages besides those
which Captain Joan de Salzedo had discovered and pacified, they
collected in tribute three thousand taes or more. It is fitting that
your Excellency should know the manner in which these tributes are
collected, and the way in which they are demanded before the time,
contrary to the law of God and the directions of his Majesty. The first
thing they do when they reach any village or province is to send them
an interpreter or two, not with gifts or presents, not to preach to
them or to speak to them of the things of God, but to order them to
bring tribute immediately and to be friendly to the Castilians. Since
this is a so new and strange thing for them, as being something to
which they have not been accustomed, as they have not been either
subjects or vassals of any native king or lord (of whom they have none
in any part of these islands, as was written in my other letter to your
Excellency), all this is confusion to them and causes them much evil by
forcing them to give as tributes the necklaces which they wear about
their necks and the bracelets which they and their women wear on their
arms. For few or none of them have any other property but what they
wear on their persons. When these so evil abuses are inflicted upon
them, some of them refuse to give the tribute or do not give as
liberally as those who ask it desire. Others, on account of having to
give this and of their fear at seeing a strange and new race of armed
people, abandon their houses and flee to the tingues [i.e., hills] and
mountains. When the Spaniards see this, they follow them, discharging
their arquebuses at them and mercilessly killing as many as they can.
Then they go back to the village and kill all the fowls and swine there
and carry off all the rice which the poor wretches had for their
support. After this and after they have robbed them of everything they
have in their miserable houses, they set fire to them. In this way they
burned and destroyed more than four thousand houses in this expedition
to Ylocos, and killed more than five hundred Indians, they themselves
confessing that they committed that exploit. Your Excellency may infer
how desolate and ruined this will make the country, for those who have
done the mischief say that it will not reach its former state within
six years and others say not in a lifetime. Will your Excellency
determine whether this is consistent with law, divine or human, with
religion or Christian charity. Your Excellency will also consider that
in these invasions and explorations the law of Mahomet is followed
rather than the law of God; for no account is taken of His precepts and
there is no care to follow His law and the Christian instructions
conformable with and akin to them, which have been given by our
Catholic and very Christian king and lord Don Ffelipe. The latter
commanded that by love and kindly treatment and with gifts and presents
the natives should be caressed and attracted to love and friendship for
us, so that in this manner they might come to the knowledge of our God
and Creator, and might subject themselves to his royal protection and
might recognize him as their king and lord. For all these purposes, he
spends most freely from his royal treasury, buying fine scarlet cloths,
stuffs, caps, silks, and other things suitable for this purpose, as
your Excellency knows better than I. Yet they do not follow his will
but invade the country of the Indians, killing and robbing, burning
their villages and houses, and collecting as enemies what his Majesty
commands us to take and receive from them as friends. In place of
engendering in their breasts and souls love and goodwill, they create
and engender hate and abhorrence against us and against the name of
Jesus Christ crucified whom they ought to teach and preach to the
natives. If by such pilgrimages and pacifications and services God our
Lord and his Majesty are pleased, let your Excellency judge. [48]

They also said in the beginning that in the province of Ylocos and in
the other three provinces which were explored on the opposite coast and
which they declare that they have pacified, there were more than four
hundred thousand Indians, and that there were enough to afford
repartimientos for all those who are in these regions. Now they declare
that there are not enough for forty soldiers, according to the account
which they bring back from there, for according to them there are not
as many as 40,000 Indians. I say this so that your Excellency may see
how closely this report conforms to the others which I wrote in my
former letter, and that your Excellency may be informed and may know
the truth if it should not be written [by others] from here.

It seems to me also desirable to inform your Excellency how and in what
manner they send the present of gold to his Majesty, that you may
understand the wealth of this country and the service rendered him in
it by them, and how that gold was got. In accordance with what has been
related and declared above, the quantity would be at most about 30,000
pesos; and how little appropriate it is to send this quantity of pesos
as a present, and to send as many more debts to the royal treasury of
this country is very clear. It is also very clear and plain that this
present is a trifling one after the royal treasury has spent more than
two millions or but little less as I am informed, within the fifteen
years since the expense of this expedition [i.e., Legazpi’s] began.
How far from the royal magnanimous, Caesarean, and more than
Alexandrine heart of our king, Don Ffelipe, this present is, is so
plain that the blind could see it and the most ignorant judge it; hence
on this point I do not ask your Excellency to form a judgment, but I do
ask you to decide what reward it deserves from a king so Catholic as
ours to make him a present and a payment into his treasury of what has
been robbed and wrung [from the natives] contrary to what God and the
king himself have commanded. In conformity with what your Excellency
with your delicate and most Christian conscience may feel and judge in
this matter, will you send thanks in the royal name. How much more
would God our Lord and his Majesty be served if the gold which is sent
to him as a present were worn on the arms of the Indians of the Ylucos
to whom it belonged, than that the ladies of our lady the queen should
wear it about their necks in the court.

This has been said partly that your Excellency might know what takes
place here and might understand the way in which this present was sent
to his Majesty, and partly to state again that, in spite of the wealth
which they will say and write to your Excellency as existing in Ylucos
and the other provinces, when his Majesty shall have paid the expenses
of this region, he will receive no lawful and Christian profit from
these islands, except perhaps the cinnamon which is taken from the
island of Bindanao as it is now taken, unless the gold mines in these
regions are worked. I believe that they will not be worked except with
the great oppression and loss of the natives, and that will mean their
total destruction, for experience has undeceived us in this matter by
what has happened in the island of Española and in other regions.

As for the government of the new governor, Guido de Lavezaris, I shall
discuss or say nothing; for your Excellency can learn about it there
from the people who go [there] from here, and by the letters which will
be written. Only I beg your Excellency not to take your information
from Joan Pacheco alone, for, according to his statement and opinion,
because of his obligation to the governor, and his affection and
friendship, and the things that the governor has done for him, he will
say that he is fit to rule and govern the kingdom of Napoles and the
state of Millan. It is no wonder that he says that, for the governor
has given him more than four thousand Indians in repartimiento, so that
there is not a better encomienda in this region, though Pacheco is but
a private soldier, and one of those who has seen least service in this
country. He has done nothing but act as sentinel for the
adelantado—may he be in glory—and that not for very many years,
though he is a man of wealth and of noble birth, as your Excellency
will have heard. Your Excellency may obtain specific information
regarding him, and that from father Fray Diego de Herrera [49] who is
on his way to inform your Excellency and his Majesty of affairs in this
country and of the events therein. He deserves great faith and credit
on account of his great goodness and devotion, for without anger or
bias or self-interest, he will tell your Excellency truthfully and with
a zealous Christian heart desirous to serve God and his Majesty, the
state of affairs here. He will give you a particular account of the
small favor in which the religious and the ministers of God are now
held here more than ever, and how insulted and little regarded they are
by the governor and his followers and allies and by those who have any
command and power here now. He will tell you how little is done for
them, and how little aid and favor is given to the instruction and the
things of God, and also how little favored and protected are these
natives and how oppressed and molested they are ordinarily. He will
also inform your Excellency how under color of sending his Majesty a
very rich present from everything brought from China by the Sangleys,
he has demanded a loan in the camp of more than four hundred taes,
taking from one ten, and from another twenty, and from another fifty,
in accordance with what he is sending, and what each one possessed. I
do not understand how the judge who receives loans as gifts or pledges
from those whom he must punish, can rightly judge and enforce justice.
He will also inform your Excellency of the many revolts and riots, the
factions and enmities which arise among the people here, how much
complaint all have in general to make of the new governor, and how they
are irritated by his policy and government and murmur at it, and how
well known he is to have a passionate temperament, as is manifest by
those whom he is sending to that country under arrest, which will
appear in the records of the process. He is also known to be very
biased and partial, and that not to the older, the more prudent, and
leading persons in the camp. For his companions he has an open door and
has always time to spend three or four hours talking with them, while
his door is shut to the religious and to the minister of God and to the
poor soldier who has any occasion to do business with him, and he has
no time to listen to the poor Indian about the wrongs that have been
done to him, or to the Spaniard who comes to state his complaints and
troubles, or to listen calmly and kindly to what is affirmed and
declared regarding a demand for justice. Upon these and other matters
of the same kind and quality one might say much and might write a long
document. This I do not do, but refer to those who are going there to
tell your Excellency that never have the forces in this camp been so
disturbed and divided as at present. In almost nine years during which
the good old man now departed—may he be in glory—governed us, there
were not so many dissensions and disturbances, nor so much discontent,
as there have been and are during the nine months in which Guido de
Lavezaris has been governing us. On this account, and since he is now
more than seventy years of age, and I think desires quiet, it is
necessary to provide a remedy; and that is for your Excellency to send
from there any person soever that is suitable for such a duty and fit
for the present necessity. For I believe before God and my conscience,
casting aside all bias and partiality, which in this matter have no
control over me, that this is desirable for the service of God our
Lord, and of his Majesty, the good of the natives, and the pacification
and preservation of this country. Believing this with honest purpose
and with a Christian heart desirous of the common welfare and of the
service of God and of his Majesty, I give your Excellency this advice,
so that, as a pious and most Christian prince you may, with your great
prudence and liberality, quickly provide the remedy. If your Excellency
does not see fit to send another new governor, it would be desirable in
my judgment for your Excellency to send an auditor of that royal
Audiencia and some person learned in the law, a man of character and a
good Christian, to visit and inspect this country and to undeceive your
Excellency with regard to some matters which have been written to you
there with perverse reports. It will be better to send a rich advocate
than a poor knight who as is suspected is pledged by gifts and by the
grant of a good repartimiento. This last point, however, I know only by
hearsay. If it is true, your Excellency will ascertain it there and
will judge if it is right that the encomienda should not be given to
those who have been here in service nine years pacifying the country,
and that it should be given to a man who came and goes back again with
a good salary without having been engaged in the pacification and
without any of the labor of conquest. At the same time I think it is
necessary that your Excellency in the name of his Majesty, or his
Majesty in person should confirm the repartimientos and grants which
the new governor has made without having had special permission
therefor and without special command from his Majesty. Your Excellency
will also decide if the regranting in encomienda of the villages which
became vacant, and were in his Majesty’s hands, has been proper. All
that I know of this is that the adelantado (may he be in glory) was
often importuned to have this done, but never could it be brought about
because he said that he had a command from his Majesty to the contrary.
What the other, in his great prudence and matured wisdom did not do, he
who now governs us has done with great promptness and liberality. The
cause which I believe has moved him to this is the lack of Indians to
be given in encomiendas to the soldiers; if this is true, it is very
clear and may easily be perceived and understood that there is not in
these islands the population which has been reported to your Excellency
by letter, though there has been no lack of Indians for him and for the
officials of the king, contrary to his Majesty’s prohibition.

If your Excellency should not send and provide another governor for
these islands, it would be just for your Excellency to have our present
governor ordered to take care to protect the affairs of the adelantado,
Miguel Lopez de Legazpi (may he be in glory), since he governed this
country with so great quietness and prudence, spent upon it his own
property, and died poor in the service of his Majesty. That is very
just, as is also that particular care be taken to show kindness and
favor to Captain Joan de Salzedo, inasmuch as he is one of those who
have labored most in this country and have shown the greatest zeal in
the service of his Majesty. He is very spirited and energetic, and for
a man so young, very cautious and prudent, and he has good desires and
purposes to serve God and his Majesty. Hence some office might be
assigned and entrusted to him. Therefore, any favor that your
Excellency may extend or may command to be shown him will be very well
conceded; although the governor has given him but scant reward, since
he has given as much or more to a private soldier, as has already been
said, by which he has given rise to comment and occasion to murmuring.

It is also just that your Excellency should show all possible favor to
the sargento-mayor, Joan de Moron, who is going to that country under
arrest on grounds which seem very slight, besides being imprisoned here
for ten months in his house and being burdened by the expenses of the
suit. Everybody thinks that there has been more passion than reason or
justice in this case, as may be seen there by the report of the
process. [50] He is a man of very good qualities, and though he is not
at all a courtier, he is prudent and very careful and diligent in the
service of his Majesty, and very useful. There is no one in this region
who has seen more service than he. If your Excellency is about to send
forces to this country, he might well be put in command of them,
because he is one of the first who came to this region, and because he
has served his Majesty so well in it, as is well known to all, and as
your Excellency will already have received report. If it should be
necessary for your Excellency to appoint a new captain of experience in
matters here, I think it would be the best thing for your Excellency to
assign to him and to the inferior captains whatever your Excellency may
be able to provide here, for there are many of them and few soldiers.
In this and in all other matters will your Excellency decide upon that
which is most for the advantage of the service of God and of his
Majesty.

The voyage to explore China has not been carried out, because of the
death of Governor Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, who was very obedient to the
command of his Majesty and your Excellency. After his death there was
little goodwill in him who had the duty of ordering the execution of
this command, since he and other captains had done what they could to
prevent it from the beginning. Hence, they gave their votes against
carrying it out. In spite of this, the adelantado—may he be in
glory—was determined to accomplish what your Excellency had directed.
After his death it happened that the ships which were going to that
country put back, and since the ship “Santiago” arrived at Çubu
without rigging or equipment, they took advantage of the occasion to
strip and dismantle one vessel in order to equip another. Thus they did
away with that which was necessary for the journey to China. However,
if they had not had this opportunity, I believe that they would not
have gone on with the voyage because of the little disposition which
the governor had for it. Upon this point, I believe that they have sent
full reports to your Excellency. What I am able to say from the little
that I know, and from what those say who judge the matter
dispassionately, is that it was a very desirable thing and a very
important matter, and one from which great service might result to our
Lord and to his Majesty, profit to the royal treasury, and increase to
the royal estate, and that this might all be done in a lawful and
Christian manner as is commanded and directed by his Majesty and by
your Excellency in his royal name. When it was supposed that the voyage
would he carried out, our father provincial commanded me to go with the
forces which were about to depart on this voyage of discovery. Although
the voyage is uncertain and the dangers and hardships are certain, I
had offered myself for the undertaking because of my desire to serve
our Lord and my king and your Excellency and would go with great
willingness. If the said voyage is undertaken again, I offer myself
anew to go on the expedition if your Excellency will regard that as a
service and will send me a command to that effect. Should it be the
will of your Excellency that the voyage should be prosecuted, it would
be necessary to send from there two or three thousand pesos in tostons
and to carry from here fifty quintals of wax and as many more of
cotton, which are the articles of barter that have the greatest value
there. It seems to me also very desirable that there should be two
ships in the squadron, so that if one of them suffer any mishap, such
as often occurs at sea, the men may be assisted and saved in the other.
It would also be possible for them to make their voyage with greater
safety from enemies, if any strive to do them harm. If it should be
your Excellency’s decision and if it should seem desirable to you for
two ships to go, the two above named, the “Santiago” and the
“Espiritu Santo” may go. By bringing from that country what is
necessary in the way of sails, rigging, and equipment, they may very
well be fitted out in this country with carpentry and calking. A
brigantine or pinnace may also be made for the return voyage to that
country. Your Excellency may discuss there with the pilots whether they
can go to the island of Cauchill [51] if the voyage is made; for it is
a matter of the greatest importance for this island to be explored and
examined, for it is said to be very rich and to have a great trade.
According to what is said, a great deal of pepper and Moluccan cloves
are exported every year. It is very near China and is also near Sian,
and I think not very far from Burney. In that island the king of China
has a governor and maintains a garrison. Yet as that race goes, 300
Spanish soldiers could take by assault twenty or thirty thousand of
them. They say that there are horses and elephants there, and that it
is a very rich and very important island. With reference to this matter
will your Excellency examine it and command what is of greatest
advantage to the service of his Majesty and to that of God our Lord.
May God preserve the very excellent person of your Excellency for many
years in His holy service with an increase of prosperity for the good
of that country and the preservation and increase of this, and after
this life may He grant you eternal and everlasting life. Amen. From the
city of Manila, June 6, 1573. Most excellent Lord, your Excellency’s
unworthy chaplain and suppliant kisses your hands.


    Fray Francisco de Ortega [52]







AUGUSTINIAN MEMORANDA


Memoranda of the religious of the islands of the West in regard to the
matters to be discussed with his Majesty or his royal Council of the
Yndias by Fray Diego de Herrera.

The matters which father Fray Diego de Herrera is to discuss with his
Majesty or with his royal Council. For the due discharge of our
conscience because of our obligation, your Reverence is going there
[i.e., to Spain], since you were one of the first in the country, in
order to inform him both by word and writing of the evil policy and
regimen in this country, both in the conquest and in the maintenance of
the land, so that his Majesty as a most Christian [king] may provide
their correction and discharge his royal conscience.

First: This is the way in which the land is pacified and colonies
established. A captain goes with soldiers and interpreters to the
village of which he has had notice only, or to one that has been
pillaged by other Spaniards. The people are told that if they wish
friendship with the Castilians they must immediately give them tribute.
If the people acquiesce, then they consider the amount that each man
must pay, and they are compelled to pay it immediately. Sometimes, the
village has been pillaged because the people did not agree to what was
asked from them. It also seems to be the proper thing to pillage them,
if they do not wait and if they abandon their houses. All this takes
place without having benefited the natives at all, and without giving
them to understand that his Majesty sent them to inform the natives of
God. We Spaniards are held in ignominy in this country and our name is
held in abomination, as is even the most holy name of the Lord, and we
are considered as the usurpers of others’ possessions, as faithless
pirates, and as shedders of human blood, because we illtreat our own
friends, and harass and trouble them; while many acts of violence and
force are used toward them both to their own houses and to their wives
and daughters and possessions, and they themselves are illtreated by
word and deed. In this they have no one to defend and protect them. The
most abandoned inhabitants and those at a distance commit the greatest
injuries and murders; and when those in command hear of it, they do not
institute relief by sending to make investigations of events so far
away, for they say that it must appear in writing, and that it is a
great expense and trouble to send to a distance time after time, as [is
said by] the present visitor who is the first to complain of it. But he
gives information of it and asks why he should go to visit all the
land. Item: Because of the great outcries, murders, and captivities
that have been made, both by captains and by other leaders and soldiers
throughout the islands, under pretext that they did not have peace
writs, although Spaniards had never gone there; and also to many who
had the peace writ already and were promised safety in his Majesty’s
name, that writ has been transgressed and broken. There has been no
punishment inflicted for all the above which is very well known and
notorious to all people. Consequently, great dissoluteness has reigned,
and I believe that there are very few whose skirts are clean of this
vice. For example, no aid has been given to the friends who pleading
their just causes and the injuries that they have received from others,
have asked protection and aid. Neither have amends been made to them as
it seemed more trouble than gain. Such have been few [who have thus
pleaded]. I only remember of a chief of Xaro, by name Mamicoan, a
Christian, who pleaded before the alcalde-mayor of Çubu, Don Gonzalo
de Luna, and the justice of Çubu, saying that while he was absent
another old man, his neighbor, had burned his house. His father and
mother had been burned and other damages committed, and that, as the
chief declared, simply because he had just been married and become a
Christian at Çubu. The religious who lived there at the same time
interceded for him, asking that four Spaniards be sent to arrest that
old man. They were answered that it would cause an insurrection in the
land if they did that. Besides the above there is a pirate called
Caxabic, who devastates Çamal and Masbat every year. Item: The Joloans
devastate all the Pintados as well as Camarines, and those of Ylo and
Vilnabagan. The Spaniards never go in pursuit of them or punish them,
or humiliate them, or make them restore their booty. But they only go
to rob those sheep for the second time by demanding tribute from those
whom they know not to have been entirely cleaned up by the others.

It is considered as a just cause for war in the War Council if the
Indians say that they do not care for the friendship of the Spaniards,
or if they build any fort to defend themselves. Such Indians are
killed, captured, pillaged, and their houses burned. For that reason
occurred the war of Bitis and Lubao [53] and the forts which were taken
by Juan de Sauzedo; and those of Cainta, where the night before, an
Indian having climbed into a palmtree cried out: “Spaniards, what did
my ancestors do or owe to you that you should come to pillage us;”
and that of Papagan. In all of the above many people were killed and
captured, and sold as slaves, especially in Papagan, for it is said
that they defied the Spaniards, although there was no resistance in any
of those places. It is considered as an occasion for just war by the
War Council and a village may be destroyed and all those captured may
be enslaved, if any Spaniard has been killed in the village; although
the occasions that the dead man might have given or the wrongs that he
might have committed are not considered, as is neither the fact that
those natives do not understand or have anyone whom they can ask to
avenge them unless it be God and their justice. They formerly had no
king or ruler from whom to ask satisfaction. This chastisement is meted
out without any thought of the guilty ones, and often although only one
man is to blame, the entire village is punished. Almost never has the
guilty one paid for his crime, or the accomplice to it, for they
immediately take to hiding. So was made the war in the island of Çubu,
against those villages of Candaya, because a common seaman was killed;
and in Bohol, because they killed a worthless fellow on account of his
many exactions in the collection of the tribute. There as they did not
find any people in the village where he was killed, they seized seven
Indians from a village lower down which is called Baye, and hanged them
because they confessed that they had known beforehand that the other
villages had agreed to kill the man. Item: Because the natives killed
Mena and three others who asked them for tributes, in the island of
Marinduc [i.e., Marinduque], Captain Luis de la Haya went by the
governor’s orders and that of all the Council of War and destroyed
the islands of Banton and Malindus [i.e., Marinduque], and also that of
Guimbar. [54] The greater portion of the land has no other peace than
that some captain and soldiers have lodged there and told the people
that they must pay tribute if they wished peace with the Spaniards.
They have no other cause or reason for it than being there one or two
days to collect what tribute the people could give and then pass on to
another village. This was the procedure along all the coast of Bulinau
and Ylocos for nearly one hundred leguas, where raids have been made
twice in one year. Thus have more than six thousand taes of gold been
collected, a sum equivalent to about one thousand marcos, and quite
equal to that amount in fact. The same thing has been done along other
coasts although not in the same proportion.

With no greater pacification than the above, the land is assigned and
divided, whereupon the encomendero taking some companions with him goes
to the village or villages which have been given him, and makes them
the following speech: “Take heed that I am your master, and that the
governor has given you to me to protect from other Spaniards who annoy
you.” This is the universal reasoning of most of them, and they make
no mention of God or the king. Then they immediately demand the
tribute, each one the amount that he can get without any limit. They
have generally asked three or four maes apiece from the Lusones, and
two or three from the Pintados. That is a very excessive sum in the
beginning for a people who do not know what it means to pay tribute. If
some of the people do not wait for the encomendero in order to agree to
give him the tribute, their houses and village are burned, as was done
by the master-of-camp in the village of Baban, and Navarro in his
encomienda of Çurigo. Many of the encomenderos stay in their
encomiendas all or the greater part of the year looking after their
interests, where they prove a great hindrance and obstacle to their
Indians.

No attention is paid to the instruction, nor is protection or aid given
to the religious for it. On the contrary they have hitherto opposed us
going out or building houses among the Indians, but [try to force] us
to live among the Spaniards. Neither then nor now has there been any
aid extended on the part of those who govern, either to attract the
natives to our holy faith or to induce them to forsake their evil
customs, for they say that it is too early, although they could be got
rid of with a single word. For as they are a timid race they obey
immediately in this; and the Spaniards have never tried to overlook
anything in the Christians in order thus to invite all the others. On
the contrary they have generally harassed them more than the others as
they are more peaceful and nearer at hand. They have been very slow to
recompense them even in words, and it has consequently happened that
very few natives outside of Çubu have been baptized for the above
reasons. There is in general very little Christianity among the
Spaniards, who pay very little attention to divine worship and to their
ministers and even with great difficulty have poor shacks been erected
in which to celebrate the divine offices. There is great lewdness among
the [native] women both among infidels and the influential women—this
last secretly. Many slaves have been sold and many others have been
retained who have been enslaved and captured illegally and unjustly.
Some, in order that they might be made use of, and might not be taken
from their owners in order to return them to their own villages, have
fraudulently been made to come to ask for baptism and have become
Christians. Many islands and villages are devastated and almost wiped
out, partly by the Spaniards or because of them, and partly by famines
of which, or at the beginning of them, the Spaniards were the reason;
for either by fear or to get rid of the Spaniards the natives neglected
their sowing, and when they wished to sow then anguish came upon them,
and consequently, many people have died of hunger.

Many injuries have been and are still practiced on the Indians by the
Spaniards or by their encomenderos themselves. Even murders have been
committed; and since they live in remote regions, and since the
aggrieved parties cannot go to plead their justice, or have no one to
plead it for them, if it even comes to the ears of the governor, it is
not corrected. For the latter either says that it must appear in
writing or that when he shall go to that place he will inflict
punishment for the matter. So he remarked to me when I told him of an
Indian woman whom Luys Perez had killed, and of the other chief woman
who had been imprisoned, and of the Indian whom Gudinez killed. So
declared the adelantado when the deeds of Luys de la Aya, Andres de
Ybarra, and of the accountant were discussed.

All or most of the Spaniards act as justices when they go through the
villages and decide the suits and quarrels among the natives. They take
pay for it, although they often judge unjustly in favor of him who pays
more. Your Reverence will inform his Majesty of the condition of the
people and that they do not have any king or sovereign, but live in
bands or families where the richest or the most powerful is the leader.
Some tyrannize over and pillage the others. The slaves owned by the
natives are partly so from time immemorial, for their parents and
grand-parents were slaves, as were their ancestors; Some have become
slaves for loans and debts because they always reckon the loans by
usurious rates which are greatly practiced here. Some are slaves for
crimes, either for having stolen the slightest thing or for having
given false testimony, or having dared do anything by word or deed
against a chief. Others, and these are the fewest, are those who have
been captured in the wars which they wage among themselves, some of
which have been waged for many years between enemies, while others are
waged because of some injury done to one side by the other. It is
difficult to ascertain which of those causes is just. However, they are
so evilly inclined a race in respect to this that when occasion offers
they do not keep faith with their friend. Since the coming of the
Spaniards to this land there has been another kind of slaves who have
sold themselves very cheaply in times of famine in order to live during
the famine—the father to his son, the brother to his brother, the
uncle to his nephew, and others likewise—in which he who bought
showed charity to the one purchased. Such slaves were never sold unless
by such an one who could not live through his own efforts. I do not
speak of those who pillaged the timauas and sold them as slaves.



The requests to be made of his Majesty

That his Majesty provide relief in all the above as a most Christian
[king] and give instructions for what is yet to be discovered and for
the future; and that in so far as it is possible he try to give some
satisfaction to the villages and provinces destroyed by the Spaniards,
or because of them, and for the tributes that have been wrongly
collected. That all the Indians who are and have been captured by
Spaniards and sold into foreign lands be ransomed and returned to their
lands. That he declare for this the method which has been ordered here
for restitutions. Likewise that the Cebuans be ransomed wherever found
although it be in the estate of his Majesty in these islands, since
that village has been depopulated because of the Spaniards.

That an inquiry be made into slaves acquired wrongly and of timauas
wrongly held who are in the power of Spaniards; and that such be taken
away from them even though they be Christians. That his Majesty send
men for this purpose who are not infested with vice, or who are not
pledged by gifts or loans as are the men here. That his Majesty endow
two hospitals, which can be done with vacant encomiendas to the sum
that seems advisable to his Majesty. You must give him to understand
his obligation for it and the gain that will accrue to his Majesty in
the preservation of the people, which will be so greatly furthered by
this. That his Majesty order the method by which we may be supplied
with religious who are necessary here, although it even cause a lack of
them there.

That his Majesty send a couple of secular priests of learning and
conscience so that they may correct the customs of the Spaniards; and
that he might strictly order the justices to correct them as far as
they are concerned. That if a trip should be made to China or
otherwhere, although when that be done there be religious of the other
orders here, that we be the first, since our order can conveniently
furnish such religious. Item: In order that nothing may be asked, which
may be justly denied to us after first consulting the president and
auditors [of Nueva España] or some secretary, you shall petition his
Majesty to have such and such a sum given us as aims annually in order
to build one or two monasteries in which to rear novices and give them
a chance to study wherever it shall be deemed most advisable here. In
order that he may not imagine it to be for an infinite time as it is in
Mexico, let him assign a limited period of so many years. You shall
give him to understand and make much of the relics of the child Jesus
and the image which our Lord was pleased to keep in this land for so
many years for our consolation. That if his Majesty permit the natives
to be held as slaves by the Spaniards as they are among the natives,
that he do not permit them to be taken from their lands, for by so
doing in a short time the land will be depopulated and destroyed. That
the slavery be more mild than that of the negroes, and you shall give
the king to understand how free the slavery of the Indians is, and that
the Indian cannot sell more right than that which he possesses [over a
slave]. That from him who maltreats his servant, the latter may be
taken away by the justice, or the owner may be compelled to sell him,
for the slaves have this right among the natives themselves. That his
Majesty order that, under heavy penalties, no one buy slaves from the
natives by force. That the determination of who can be rightly held as
a slave be at the advice of the religious. That his Majesty order that
the chiefs be treated as such, and that they do not pay tribute in
their persons or be made prisoners except for very serious matters. You
shall tell him that that is a very insulting thing among them and will
anger them greatly, for among them only fugitive slaves are made
prisoners. You shall inform him that they are thrown into irons or
stocks here for very slight causes, and often for the fault of their
slaves, who run away or do not obey the orders of the Spaniards; since
it is a fact that the chiefs have very little control over their
slaves.

That no one be taken on raids or [word illegible] or to any other place
by force or against his will unless it be a very necessary case and
then by paying him. And if any slave is killed in the raid, that his
master be paid if he gave the slave against his will and under special
restriction, if his death happened through any fault of the
Spaniards—which is always to be presumed since they so evilly go to
the lands of others who owe them nothing to beg or to seize their
property.



Memorandum of the products or means of gain in this land

There is gold both in mines or native deposits, and in places in the
rivers in almost all parts of the land; although, notwithstanding that,
not much is seen among the Indians (although the mines are rich)
because they are a lazy race, because the slaves are very arrogant, and
because of the plundering and warfare among themselves, so that they do
not dare to leave their houses unless they are in bands and armed.
However, the chief mines that the Indians work and of which we have
notice, are those of Pangasinan, Ylocos, those of Paracali, Vicor,
Camarines, and Bongdo. They are all located in the island of Luzon, and
in another island outside it, called Catandoanes. Item: In the island
of Ybabao, in that of Samal, in that of Masbat, in the island that the
Spaniards call Vermeja about two leguas from Çurigao, where, according
to the report of the Indians, was the greatest wealth of all. However,
that island is now deserted because of a certain superstition until the
death of the children of the one who was its ruler. Also in many parts
of the island of Mindanao, especially in the river of Çurigao, in that
of Parasao, in that of Butuan, and in that of Vaguindanao. The gold in
the last named island is fine and in quantity.

Pearls are also found near Tandaya in the island of Ybabao, in the
island of Vatayan, in that of the Cagayanes, in that of Bohol, in that
of Mindanao between Cavite and the bay of Baguindanao, and in the
island of Xolo, where there is reported to be a very great quantity.

There are spices and drugs, especially cinnamon, in the island of
Mindanao, where it is found in quantities in Cavite, in Cagayan, in
Compor, and in the bay near Butuan. There is also pepper, both long and
round, although not in quantity, but if it were planted, as much as one
would desire could be raised. There are quantities of it in an island
called Cauchin [55] located near China where there are also many
elephants. There are also elephants in the island of Xoloc. [56] There
are ginger, cubebs, tamarinds, and other drugs. This is without
touching on the mainland of China, Sian, and Patani, or in Java or the
Malucos, where all manner of spices, drugs, and perfumes are found. In
some of those places precious stones are found, according to the report
of both the Portuguese and the Borneans who trade with them.







LETTER FROM MARTIN DE RADA TO VICEROY MARTIN ENRIQUEZ


Most Excellent Sir:

May the grace of the Holy Ghost dwell forever in the soul of your
Excellency. I received a letter from your Excellency last year after
the departure of the ships from this place, in which your Excellency
orders me to write at length and minutely of events in these islands.
Although I wrote your Excellency last year and father Fray Diego de
Herrera went to that country from here to report both to your
Excellency and to his Majesty concerning all the matters of this land,
and concerning the manner of the conquest and the wars waged here, and
concerning the encomiendas: yet inasmuch as we do not know what
happened in the voyage nor how affairs have been discussed there, I
shall briefly retell the most essential things, first advising your
Excellency of what happened here after [the departure of the ships].
This is that the governor immediately sent Captain Juan de Salzedo
accompanied by Captain Pedro de Chaves and some men to pacify the river
of Vicor and the Camarines, which are located in this same island of
Lusson. The people there are the most valiant and best armed men of all
these islands. Consequently, although they never attacked the
Spaniards, still they defended themselves in all their villages, and
would not surrender unless conquered by force of arms. Consequently all
those villages were entered in the same way, by first summoning them to
submit peacefully, and to pay tribute immediately unless they wished
war. They replied that they would first prove those to whom they were
to pay tribute, and consequently, the Spaniards attacking them, an
entrance was made among them by force of arms, and the village was
overthrown and whatever was found pillaged. Then the Spaniards sent to
have the natives summoned to submit peacefully. When the natives came,
they asked them to immediately give them tribute in gold and to an
excessive amount, for which they promised to give them writs of peace.
Therefore, since all the people defended themselves, more have perished
in that land than in any other yet conquered. After he had accomplished
this, Juan de Salzedo returned with the gold, and left Pedro de Chaves
settled on the river of Vicor with seventy men. Juan de Salzedo having
returned, the governor again sent him with forty or fifty men to
colonize Ylocos. He apportioned the land among them, and in that the
governor showed himself to be very partial; for although three
companies had come together from Nueva España, namely, those of Felipe
de Salzedo (which was later transferred to Juan de Salcedo), Artieda,
and Andres de Ivarra, to only the company of Juan de Salsedo did he
grant repartimientos, while he gave nothing at all to those other
companies. Although we have declared here how unjust has been the
affair of the Ylocos, as is so evident a thing, they cannot believe us,
for they have done nothing there for two years back but make raids to
tell the people that they should be friends and pay tribute
immediately. Accordingly, a portion of the people gave it through fear,
and a portion because they are not very warlike; and they did the same
lately for the second year. They even pillaged the people in the place
where they fled and wasted their village. They have now gone to collect
the tribute for the third time. They have done them no other benefit or
kindness and have had no other communication or contact with them than
the abovesaid. The same thing happened in the island of Acuyo which was
granted some two months ago to Luys de la Haya. The master-of-camp went
there about four years ago with soldiers and pillaged them of tribute
to the sum of two hundred taes. As they have been unable to go there
since it is out of the way, the governor ordered those who went thither
for Luys de la Haya to collect the entire sum that those people ought
to have paid during the past years for his Majesty, and the tribute of
this year for Luys de la Haya. But since the Indians either refused or
were unable to pay the back tribute, they paid only that of the present
year. The governor exhibited considerable annoyance over this, and
finally took one-half of what they brought in the name of his Majesty.
Although there is little or no justice or reason in the other regions
[of the Indias] for the tribute that is asked of those districts, there
is no trace or surplus of it here. Besides that the tribute that is
collected from the natives is excessive and intolerable, judging by the
wretchedness of the natives; and in order that your Excellency may see
the senselessness and harm perpetrated there in all this matter, I am
enclosing to your Excellency in this present letter, the copy of an
“Opinion” I handed to the governor the other day, in regard to the
tribute that was collected. [57] In that “Opinion” I declared
briefly, inasmuch as I was dealing with a person who knows the
conditions of the country, the injustice that was and that is being
done. Although I believe that he will send it to your Excellency, still
whether he does or not, I am sending this copy. Although I charge in it
that war has been made without his Majesty’s order, besides that the
land is so slightly pacified that the collectors have to go in bands to
ask the tribute and with guards and arquebuses to collect the tribute.
Little is consequently lacking to make them highwaymen. Item: The
villages that are somewhat distant from the Spaniards also pillage one
another as before, and as many pirates are to be seen as formerly. Even
those who come to plead justice are very ill attended to or despatched.
Finally since both the governor and the officials and all the rest who
hold posts are encomenderos, there is no one to protect the poor
Indians. The governor having assembled the men who were in this city,
read them this “Opinion” of ours, and asked them for their opinion.
They all said as one man that the tribute which was given them was
little in proportion to what could be given, for each of them was
considering his own interests and was not frank. In regard to the
justification for their wars, they say that some are waged on the
authority of father Fray Andres de Urdaneta, and some on mine. In those
on my authority, I know that they have never asked my opinion in any of
them except at the beginning (not at the first entrance in Çubu, but
in the insignificant warfare waged at Baybay). That was for no other
purpose than to destroy some boats of the natives, for no people or
anything else were encountered in the villages. Also at other times
when they were going in search of provisions when they were suffering
dire necessity, [my opinion was asked]. They also summoned me when it
was resolved that the master-of-camp should go for the first time to
this city of Manila. It was, however, resolved in that council that
hostilities must not be engaged in with the natives, although the
Spaniards should be provoked. Whether they did it is seen from the
result, for they entered Manila by force of arms, and turned the very
artillery of the natives upon the latter when they were fleeing, and
burned their village. If they have no blame in the matter, then let
them allege their excuses, and that doctrine has been preached to them
often. 1 gave my “Opinion” in writing so that they can clear
themselves if they can truly do so; for I wish that most heartily, or
any greater good, rather than that they should have any blame before
God. However, I cannot discover that they are cleared, for they have
made war and conquest by their sole authority and without his
Majesty’s order. After that they made a false report to his Majesty,
saying that the land was subdued, and that the natives had become
subject to his Majesty voluntarily and without any war. I would like,
just as was shown by our “Opinion,” that you would examine his
Majesty’s instructions, so that one may see whether I say true, or
whether the conquest has been made according to his Majesty’s
instructions. Many complaints are made against the governor, and some
of them with good reason. For will your Excellency consider whether he
can be a good governor who is favorable to bribes, and not only that,
but who even asks them from all persons, even if they be for mean
considerations; and who although they be given outright and not loaned,
readily grants his pay-warrant [on the treasury], the payment for which
will be made even if another [than the original holder] should demand
it; and who hates to hear Indians on whom he was taking vengeance
complain. But insomuch as this is so notorious here that your
Excellency can get information regarding it from all who come to this
country, I refer the above to them, as well as other slight faults of
which I shall say nothing although they arc public property. I will say
no further, for I am well assured that some one will not be lacking who
will give his pen full sway in this, to say nothing of his tongue.

Blessed be God, the instruction goes on, and the Indians are taking it
up. Already there are many Christians here at Manila. Although there
are religious also at Tondo, Lubao, Mindoro, Octon, Çubu, Vahi, and
Bonbon, the Indians have not yet begun to be converted. [58] We priests
are living each one singly in his own house, except in Manila where
there are two, and in Çubu where there are also two.

Although some of the religious desire to return to that Nueva España
because of their great scruples concerning the actions of this country
and the lack of permanence here, I have detained them and am detaining
them in the hope that your Excellency or his Majesty will provide the
relief that is advisable by the first ships.

A general epidemic of smallpox has raged here this year, which has
spared neither childhood, youth, nor old age. I believe that there are
very few who have not had it (that is, of the natives), and many people
have died of it.

I have seen one of his Majesty’s decrees, in which he orders the
governor to inform him of the causes for making slaves among these
natives. [59] Although the causes might be more largely drawn out, yet
all the causes might be covered under four heads: those who are slaves
of long standing or from their birth; those by captivity; those for
crimes; and those for loans. Although there is nothing known about the
causes for the slavery of those were born slaves, because their fathers
and grandfathers were slaves, it is presumed that the cause is one of
the other three. The captives are generally made slaves by unjust wars,
for all these people are pirates who go annually by sea to pillage
those who live in careless ease, or to any village which may not be
bound to them by ties of blood or alliance. At times when they see
their own people, they do not even keep peace with them. I speak of the
Visayans or Pintados, who are more quarrelsome than the Lussones or
Moros. However, some villages have just wars against others because the
others have shown them some act of treachery under guise of friendship;
for they are a very treacherous people, and eager to shed blood. But
very few are captured in this way unless they are very young children,
for they kill all of them, even the women, when they make any
prisoners. Those enslaved for crimes are generally enslaved for theft,
however small it be; and for other small offenses that break their laws
and prohibitions. The chiefs invent many things in order to subject the
common people. When they break any of the laws, whether they know it or
not, they are immediately fined. If the culprit has nothing with which
to pay the fine to which he is condemned, he is immediately enslaved.
If one commits a serious crime such as murder, adultery, administering
poison to any influential person, not only he but his children,
parents, brothers and sisters, and relatives are enslaved. Slaves are
also made for loans, for the principal of the loan continues to
increase at such a rate that however small a sum may have been borrowed
(although it be only of the value of four reals), it will have
increased to such an extent before four years have passed that one will
become wholly a slave on account of it. The same thing occurs for the
mere fact of having fed one for a few days during a period of need.
Also among the slaves lately made one may, strange to say, find a man
who seems to have been made a slave justly, and we believe it is also
true of those slaves of long standing, although the origin of their
slavery is unknown. I write this here distinctly and clearly as a man
who has mixed and lived with the natives and in their midst from the
beginning. I know their customs, more intimately, I believe, than most
of the people who live in this country. [I write this] so that there
may be no occasion for the ruination of the land because of the false
relations made there [in Nueva España]. May our Lord preserve the
great and excellent person of your Excellency and prosper you for many
years with ever increasing station. Manila, the last of June, 1574.
Your Excellency’s most humble servant and chaplain kisses your hands.


    Fray Martin de Herrada







LETTER FROM THE ROYAL OFFICIALS TO FELIPE II


Sacred Catholic Majesty:

We wrote your Majesty a report of occurrences in these regions by the
ships that left these islands in the month of July of last year.
Inasmuch as we have heard from the viceroy and officials of Mexico that
the letters have been received, as well as the other things sent to
your Majesty, we shall repeat nothing of that letter in this except to
say that the ship “San Juan,” one of the three that set out last
year, returned to port again, although we thought here at the time of
its return that it was already in Nueva Spaña. Consequently, it was
necessary to allow it to remain, and again careen and scrape it since
there was time for it. Therefore the deck was again entirely replanked
and the keel releaded, and it is as good as if just from the shipyard.
It will sail somewhat short of rigging, for we have not been able to
get any, try as we would; and although we have written to Mexico asking
them to supply it thence, we have not been supplied because of what
will be related below in the present letter. However, it is ready to
sail at the first opportunity with that defect remedied as well as
possible. Consequently, we are writing this letter in order to advise
your Majesty of the other things that have occurred hereabouts.

We are again sending in the ship “San Juan” certain cases of
earthenware, boxes, and gold jewels which were sent your Majesty in the
same ship last year; and in addition, one crown, two chains, and two
daggers for the prince Don Ffernando our sovereign (whom may God
preserve for many years). At the news of his birth we thanked our Lord
heartily for having given your Majesty an heir, [60] as well as for the
good news and the victory of his most serene [Don Juan] of Austria,
[61] against the Turks, which came together with the news of your heir.
May our Lord preserve your Majesty and give you life to enjoy such
victories for many years and other greater ones for the exaltation of
His holy Catholic faith.

A ship from Nueva Spaña arrived here on the sixth of the present
month, which was despatched by the viceroy and royal officials. One
night before these islands were sighted, the other ship separated [from
it], not because of bad weather but because the flagship struck its
sails while the almiranta passed on ahead though somewhat senselessly.
It is thought to be among these islands taking on fresh supplies, for
the ships sailed somewhat short. Consequently, we are looking for it
daily, and we have sent a searching party for it, in case that it needs
anything. If it arrives ere the departure of this ship, we shall inform
your Majesty of it. We have already said that we have informed your
Majesty of all the discoveries made here [as yet]. Later occurrences
are that the province of Ylocos which is located in the northern part
of this island of Luçon has been allotted in repartimientos, and we
have sent men to colonize it. Another province located in the eastern
part of this same island, called Camarines, has also been explored and
pacified. The men are warlike and well armed for Indians; for they have
corselets of buffalo hide, iron greaves, and helmets set with fishbones
and stout shells, which no weapon except the arquebus can damage. Those
people told us that they would be our friends, and they are so,
according to the advices that we have received. We are awaiting a
captain who is there with some soldiers, in order to see the result of
what has happened, and in order that we may assign the land, and reward
in your Majesty’s name those who have served and are serving you in
these regions.

The king of Burney was expected here last year, for we heard that he
was going to attack us with more than three hundred sail. In reality we
have learned that he had tried to do it, as he has two young warlike
sons who intended to come for that purpose; but some chiefs of this
island advised them not to do it. On the contrary we have heard from
some men who have come from that island that the king desires our
friendship and to become your Majesty’s vassal. Upon that the
governor sent a Moro messenger, a native of this island, to the king
with letters advising him to become our friend and your Majesty’s
vassal. The letters said that all those who wished should come to these
islands to trade as formerly, and the governor offered them all peace
and love. We are daily expecting the return of those who went thither.
When they have come, we shall also advise your Majesty of it. It will
be a great benefit for us who live here to have that king as our
friend.

The chief and ruler of the river of Mindanao has also written a letter
to us in which he says that he wishes our friendship and to become your
Majesty’s vassal. He has put his desire into works, for while the
Spaniards were at the point of Cabit bartering for cinnamon (for it is
obtained in quantity there in that same island called Bindanao) that
king came personally with five ships laden with food and other things
for the Spaniards. The Spaniards had already left when he arrived, and,
upon discovering that, the king determined to send some Moros of this
island of Luçon with a letter, in which he offered himself as a
friend. They also sent us an oral message by those who came, to the
effect that the chief would aid and protect us in all our necessities.
Since these two chiefs have become our friends this whole land is very
quiet. This will be of great service to your Majesty.

The Chinese come hither annually with their merchandise, although they
do not bring anything valuable. Six ships came this year—three here
and three to Bindoro. They have been told to bring good and rare
articles, and they have promised to do so next year. They were very
well satisfied with the good treatment that has always been and is
shown them, because of the profit that they make in trade with us. If
they bring rare articles, we shall serve your Majesty with what shall
be brought. This archipelago of islands is large and the islands many.
This island of Luçon is the best and largest of all because it has a
numerous population. It is rich in gold, and has mines. So long as the
mines are unworked, your Majesty cannot fail to incur great expense in
these parts; and since ships have to be sent annually, as is ordinarily
done, by granting permission for this to merchants, your Majesty could
send what people had to come here and the reënforcements; and from the
cargoes that they carried to these parts, you could impose such and
such a per cent; whence you could meet the expenses [incurred here].
You could send only one large ship of five hundred tons or more, in
which the cinnamon and other spices and drugs which are being found
could be carried, while another consignment could be carried in each
merchantman. This ship which is about to sail now is small and will not
carry more than eighty quintals or so of cinnamon. A huge quantity of
cinnamon is gathered here and will be gathered for next year. We shall
continue yearly to send to Mexico what can be carried there, whence
advice will be given to your Majesty of what will be sent as well as of
what shall have been done in regard to that which has been sent during
former years.

We have written to Nueva Spaña to the viceroy and officials of your
Majesty, notwithstanding that no treasures have been sent them since we
have not had them hitherto in so great quantity, in order that they
might send us in your Majesty’s name, the necessities that are needed
daily in these regions. The officials reply to us that they have no
commission from your Majesty for it. We beseech your Majesty to
exercise your magnanimity and please have your officials of Mexico
ordered to supply us with the things for which we send to ask them for
the service of your Majesty and the sustenance of this camp. At the
least, we generally need powder, arquebuses, and the other ammunition
that is generally used, besides the other things that must necessarily
be had, in consideration of the fact that your Majesty’s ships must
come to these districts. For the most abundant thing that we have for
this ship “San Juan” which is now about to depart, is the poor
rigging that it carries, for there is no other, although it is taken
from three ships which are here. The ship which arrived lately carried
nothing of consideration except that which it needed for itself.
Therefore, there is great need of rigging also. The memorandum which
was sent to them [i.e., the viceroy and the royal officials of Mexico]
in the other ships is herewith enclosed for your Majesty, so that you
may please have rigging provided although it arrive late. The viceroy
and officials write us that they have given your Majesty a report of it
in the advice ships which they despatched from Nueva España to your
Majesty.

We have heard that your Majesty sent us certain decrees in the time of
the adelantado [Miguel Lopez de Legazpi] which we have not as yet seen;
but the governors retain them without giving us any knowledge of them.
We petition your Majesty that the decrees and provisions be sent to us
henceforth and enclosed in the letters that your Majesty may be pleased
to write us, so that your Majesty’s orders to us may be carried out
with all diligence; and that you will have the governors of these
districts ordered not to meddle in what concerns the royal treasury and
estate, in accordance with the concession that your Majesty has granted
to the officials of Mexico, and that we be neither more nor less than
they, judges and officials of your Majesty’s royal estate; for so is
it advisable for your royal service.

The Augustinian religious who are in these districts have endeavored to
appraise the tributes of this land, both those of the villages assigned
to your Majesty and the others which are held by the encomenderos.
However, no more is collected than that assigned and imposed by the
adelantado Miguel Lopez de Legaspi. That consists of one manta two
brazas long and one wide, and two fanegas of rice, and if they do not
possess that, three maes of gold. Each maes is equivalent to two and
one-half reals, which is its value in this land. The Augustinians
declare on their consciences that it is enough for each Indian to pay a
tribute of one maes or two and one-half reals. We have daily disputes
on this score and the Augustinians even went so far during the Lent
just past as refusing to confess us. They have declared that your
Majesty does not own or possess this land with good title, and say that
the order requisite in the conquest and pacification of it has not been
observed. Will your Majesty order what must be done in this matter and
whether we are here in this land under a just title or not. The
governor is sending a detailed relation and report to your Majesty
regarding all the above, so that after you have seen it you may enact
what must be done regarding it and in the other matters, so that the
encomenderos and people in this country may be rewarded for their
labors and may not go to hell as the friars say. Until this matter is
determined, we shall collect the amount imposed by the said adelantado,
for most of the encomenderos have less than one thousand Indians. [62]

We are advising the viceroy so that he can write to your Majesty,
representing the slight benefit that we have received as yet, and after
so long a time, although we were among the first to come for the
discovery of this land, in order that we may enjoy some repartimientos
as conquistadors, explorers, and colonists—at least I the accountant,
Andres Cauchela. For your Majesty’s treasury has not contained the
wherewithal from which we may be paid our salaries because of assisting
with its receipts in the affairs of this camp—a matter for the good
of all—and in aiding the carpenters and the other men who are wage
earners. Therefore, we petition your Majesty to please remunerate us in
this by exercising your so magnanimous power as king and sovereign.
Inasmuch as the governor is writing to your Majesty at length and is
giving you advice of all the events of these districts, we refer you to
him in this regard.

When Governor Miguel Lopez de Legaspi died, Guido de Labaçaris was
treasurer of your Majesty’s royal estate. He succeeded Legaspi and is
now the governor of these districts.

Inasmuch as that office [of treasurer] became vacant, and the factor
Andres de Mirandaola was sent a prisoner to Nueva Spaña, and hence
only the accountant was left to look after the royal estate, the
governor appointed me, Salvador de Aldave, to the office of treasurer
until your Majesty should provide otherwise. I petition your Majesty to
please concur in this and confirm it, in consideration of the fact that
I have served your Majesty well and faithfully in these parts for more
than seven years in the discovery, conquest, and pacification of these
islands. May our Lord preserve your royal Majesty’s sacred Catholic
person with an increase of greater kingdoms and seigniories as we your
Majesty’s servants desire. Manila, July 17, 1574. Sacred Catholic
Majesty, your Majesty’s faithful servants who humbly kiss your royal
feet.


    Andres Cabchela
    Salvador de Aldave







ENCOMIENDAS ASSIGNED BY LEGAZPI


[The following document has been abstracted from a portion of the
original document by Pablo Pastells, S.J., and is given by him in his
edition of Colin’s Labor evangélica (Barcelona, 1904), i, pp. 157,
158, note. In it will be found many of the names of the early
conquistadors, and abundance of proof of the inexact knowledge of the
country obtained by the Spaniards.]

In the testimony given by the notary Fernando Riquel in the city of
Manila, June 2, 1576, and which was taken from the government records,
appears an attested relation of the encomiendas which were distributed
among the original Spanish conquistadors of Filipinas. From this
document especially noteworthy from the viewpoints of history,
geography, and politics, it appears that the islands at the time of
Sande’s arrival, had been divided into encomiendas in the following
manner. In Cebú, Legazpi assigned to his Majesty the port and the
village as far as Canipata (January 16, 1571). In the rest of the
island he apportioned (January 25, 1571) 3,000 Indians to Jerónimo de
Monzón; 2,000 to Cristóbal Sánchez; and 1,000 to Francisco Carreño.
In Panay, he assigned to his Majesty (January 16, 1571) the river and
settlement of Panay from the coast to Catitlán. On October 31, he
apportioned about 4,000 Indians of Sogut (the mouth of the Araut River)
and Malpa, with their tingües (mountains) and hills to the
chief-constable Gabriel de Ribera; about 6,000 Indians on the Araut
River near the coast from the villages of Dayt, Payán, Pinabao, Tongo,
Pandán, Nonoc, Dumangal, Cararao, Balig, Bantao, Mata, Harún, Daripe,
and the villages of the tributary that flows into the Bumey River
between Potocán and Bulney with their tingües and hills, to Captain
Luis de la Haya; to Lope Rodríguez and Diego López de Valdepeñas,
2,000 Indians apiece, in the villages of Cali and Sibucao up the river
(at the entrance of the Araut River) past the village of Daripe and as
far as Sicapurut. On November 2, he assigned 4,000 Indians of the Pua
River between Bago and Marianao, and the branch of Barbarán, with
their tingües and hills, to the soldiers Baltasar Rodríguez and
Alonso Sánchez; 2,000 Indians apiece on the tributary of the Sibalinte
between Amíndan and Banga to the soldiers Francisco de Ribera and
Diego García; the Indians of Maluhud and its creeks to the soldier
Alvaro de Angulo; 2,000 Indians of the bay of Moguín, namely, the
Indians of the creek of Batán, Aguísan, Initantarón, Capulanbaril,
Dinao, Moguin, and Manuc, with their tingües and hills, to the soldier
Gonzalo Riquel; and 2,000 on the tributary of the Mayo to the soldier
Francisco Rey. On November 3, 2,000 Indians on the river of Daclan, and
the villages of Amacatan and Tagaun, with their tingües and hills, to
Antonio Flores; the Indians of the villages of Guimba, Caranga,
Argahao, Marabagui, and Bugau, with their tingües and hills to
Hernando de Monroy; the Indians of the river of Arui, and the natives
of Barugo, Uyungán, Cuyuran, Naorguán, Bangot, Tibao, Lonio,
Cabáyan, Lalac, and Tabangan, with their tingües and hills to Rodrigo
de Vargas; the Indians of Tibaguán and Baguinguín, with their
tingües and hills to Estéban Rodríguez; and the Indians of the river
of Xaro and those of the villages of Calataca, Pasanhan, Cabuga,
Alenguen, Samble and Sunamburi, with their tingües and hills, to
Francisco Durán. On April 5, 1572, the natives of Xaro and the others
whom Francisco Durán had held to Luis Pérez. On April 15, the Indians
of Dulúngan, Antique, Bunital, and Aslúman to Diego Ximénez. On June
1, the Indians of the villages of Otón with its tingües and hills to
Miguel de Loarca. In Cibabao and Paita, on January 25, 1571, Legazpi
assigned the 2,000 first Indians to Bartolomé Cindila; 2,000 to Juan
de Aguera; 2,000 to Diego de Quintanilla; 1,500 to Diego Godínez;
1,500 to Damián González; 1,500 to Antonio Ginovés; and the same
number each to Juan Méndez, Francisco de Torres, Andrea de Luca, de la
Xari, and Juan Pérez; 1,000 on the river of Panae of the said islands
to Augustín Duerto. On above two islands in order to avoid disputes
among February 14, Legazpi united the encomiendas of the the
encomenderos, giving the Indians of Limanca, Vaván, and Samal to
Augustín Duerto and Bartolomé Andrea; those of Paita to Juan Griego;
those of Caguayán to Juan Méndez; those of Buri to Felipe de la Xara;
those of Tunaoyiran to Juan Pérez; those of Paranas to Andrés de
Luca; those of Calviga to Juan Gutiérrez; and those of Bondó to
Miguel Godínez and Antonio Ginovés.

In the island of Mindanao, the chief river Vindanao, the point of
Cauit, the port of Caldera, the village of Zamboanga and all the
villages and coast where cinnamon is grown, were assigned by the
adelantado to his Majesty on January 16, 1571. On January 25, he
assigned to Juan Griego the natives of the villages of Cagayan, Gonpot,
and Tagoloan(?), with their tingües and hills; to Pedro Brizeño de
Oseguera, regidor of the town of Santísimo Nombre de Jesús, the
Indians of Dapitan, Si Cáyap, Siripolo (Dipólog) and Guindáyan
(Ilaya), with their tingües and hills; to Pedro Navarro and Garci
Sierras Chacón, the rivers and villages of Surigao and Parasao, with
their tingües and hills; and to Diego de Porras, the villages of
Layaguán, Lucúlan, and Silamaylegue with their tingües and hills.
The same adelantado assigned, on January 25, 1571, to Luis de Santa
Cruz the first two thousand Indians to be reduced; to Diego López
Povedano, a like number; and the same to Mateo Sánchez, Domingo de
Zuazo, Benito de la Cerda, Francisco Rodríguez, Simón García,
Andrés de Villalobos, and Pedro Isardo; 1,500 to Alonso Osorio,
Martín López, Bartolomé Madrigal, Juan Gutiérrez, Cristóbal
Núñez Pareja, Miguel Galván, Gaspar Ruiz, and Martín de Campos. He
did not assign the above any definite villages, but the tribute was to
be divided pro rata in proportion to the number conceded to each one.
However, in order to avoid disputes, on September 6 of that same year,
Legazpi assigned to Francisco Rodríguez and Luis de Santa Cruz the
rivers of Tanac, Davi, and Monalongon, with their tingües and hills;
to Francisco Téllez, Domingo Zuazo, Benito de la Cerda, Martín
López, Simón García, and Martín de Campos, the river and villages
of Ilo and Majamio, with their tingües; to Andrés de Villalobos,
Diego Lopez Povedano, Mateo Sánchez, and Pedro Isardo, the river and
villages of Inabángan and Adelinte, with their tingües; to Juan
Gutiérrez Cortés, the river of Bago; to Gaspar Ruiz, that of
Tigaguán, and to Cristóbal Nuñez Pareja, that of Caracol. In the
island of Leite, Legazpi assigned, on January 25, 1571, the two
thousand Indians first reduced to Juan Martín; 2,000 to Juan Vexarano,
Lázaro Bruzo, Alonso de Henao, Francisco de Sepúlveda, and Pedro
Sedeño; 1,500 to Juan de Trujillo, Juan Fernández de León, Lorenzo
de Villafaña, Gaspar de los Reyes, and Martín de Aguirre. September
5, 1571, he assigned 2,000 Indians to Francisco de Quirós. On the
sixth, he assigned to the abovesaid the villages and environs of
Maracaya, Omoc, Calbacán, and the rivers of Barugo, Palos, Vito,
Mayay, Vincay, Inunganga, Zuundaya, Cabalían, Minaya, and de los
Mártires [i.e., of the martyrs], and the villages of Súgut,
Canamocán, and Ilongos.

In the island of Luzón, January 16, 1571, he assigned to his Majesty
the settlements of Manila, the port of Cavite, and the seacoast
settlements lying between them. July 28, he conceded to Goiti 8,000
Indians of the lake and river of Bombón; November 14, to Juan
González de Pedraza, the villages of Bondo, Butanguian, Tonacatán,
Marabatau, Purusgu, Manilau, Mahauay, Naos, Camaurón, Tarique,
Macabaras, Bigo, and Nuslan; to Fernando Riquel, the Indians of the
principal branch of the river Macabur, and its creeks; to Andrés de
Ibarra, from the point of the bay of Manila, to the terminus of Bonbon;
to Juan de la Isla, the Indians of Malinao, Banban, Tuxas, Palatnia,
and others of the Pasig River, island and hill, and the villages of
Bayáuan and Pasún; to Captain Juan Maldonado, the Indians of the
river of Morón of the lake of Bai, and eleven villages of the said
lake; to sargento-mayor Juan de Moron, the Indians of the Islet of
Calumpit; to Hernan Lopez, 19 villages of the province of Batán near
the river of Lubao of the bay of Manila; to Marcos de Herrera, 8
villages of the creek of Malolos; to Gaspar Ramírez, 16 villages, 14
of which are on the river of Calamba; to Francisco de León, 12
villages of the river of Lunbán, belonging to the lake; to Francisco
de Herrera, 4 other villages of the lake; to Martín Gutiérrez, 5
villages of the same; to Alonso Ligero, 5 villages; to Pedro de
Herrera, the Indians of the river of Sinoluán and 6 villages of the
lake; to Antonio Alvarez, 12 villages of the river of Manila; to Lope
García de Herrera, 4 [villages] of the lake. April 15, he assigned to
Jerónimo Tirado, 6 villages on the creek of Atlae; to Juan Mateo
Obregón, 15 [villages] of the lake; to Francisco Bañol, 3 [villages]
of the same lake; to Benito Díaz, 7 [villages] of the creek of
Olimare, toward Pampanga; to Amador de Carrurán, 15 villages. May 16,
1572, the adelantado assigned to his Majesty the village of Castilla,
[63] (so that no other but his Majesty might be lord of the village
that bears such a name), and the villages of Cabacite and Cabuyal, and
likewise those of Ubán, and Bilílan, of the bay of Ibalón. May 17,
he assigned to Cristóbal Sánchez, 13 villages of the bay of Ibalón;
and to Juan Lopez, 15 [villages] of the same bay. May 23, to Pedro de
Arnedo, 1 village of the bay, and 7 on the coast opposite the entrance
to Ibalón, called Busáygan. In the islands of Mindoro, Lubán, and
Elín, on January 16, Legazpi assigned to his Majesty the port and
village of Vindoro. April 15, 1572, he assigned to Felipe Salcedo the
rest of the island of Vindoro, and those of Lubán and Elín. April 10,
1571, the island of Imarás, to Juan Ramos; February 12, to Andrés
López Povedano and to Andrés de Villalobos, the islands of Masbat,
Capul, and Maçagua; April 11, 1571, the island of Maripipi to Agustín
Duerto; January 25, 1571, the island of Camiguinin to Pedro de
Figueroa; November 2, those of Tablas and Çubuyan, and the creeks of
Mahalúd, of the island of Panae, to Alvaro de Angulo; June 28, 1571,
the islands of Bohol and Bantayán to Rodrigo de Frías; October 31, of
the same year, the islands of Malinduque and Bantón to Pedro de Mena;
April 24, that of Donblón to Gonzalo Riquel; September 12, 1572, that
of Cagallanes or Negros to Benito de la Cerda, Domingo de Zuazo,
Francisco Téllez, Martín López, Simón García, and Martín de
Campos. For brevity we omit the encomiendas assigned by Lavezaris and
Doctor Sande, which are also named in this document. This document
shows 143 encomenderos whose names are expressed in it.







DOCUMENTS OF 1580–1605


    Letter to the viceroy of Nueva España, Martin Enriquez. Miguel
    Loarca; June 15, 1580.
    Letter to Gregory XIII. Pablo de Jesus, O.S.F.; 14 Kalends
    of July, 1580.
    Bishop Salazar’s Council regarding slaves. [Notarial document
    signed by Bishop Domingo de Salazar, O.P.; October 17, 1581.]
    Erection of Manila cathedral. Bishop Domingo de Salazar, O.P.;
    December 21, 1581.
    Letter to Felipe II. Antonio Sedeño, S.J.; June 17, 1583.
    Letter to Felipe II. Bishop Domingo de Salazar, O.P.;
    June 18, 1583.
    Relation of the Philipinas Islands. [Unsigned and undated; 1586?]
    Letter to Felipe II. Juan Bautista Roman; July 2, 1588.
    Letter to Felipe II. Gomez Perez Dasmariñas; June 21, 1591.
    Royal decree regarding hospitals for natives. Felipe II;
    January 17, 1593.
    Augustinian affairs. Thomas Marquez, O.S.A., and the nuncio of
    Spain; 1599.
    Letter to Felipe III from the ecclesiastical cabildo. Juan de
    Bivero, and others; July 3, 1602.
    Letter to Felipe III. Bernardino Maldonado; June 21, 1605.


    Sources: These documents are all obtained from MSS. in the
    Archivo general de Indias, Sevilla, except the second and
    eleventh, which are obtained from MSS. in the archives of the
    Vatican, Rome, and the seventh which is obtained from a
    pamphlet in the British Museum.

    Translations: The second, fourth, and eleventh are by Rev.
    T. C. Middleton, O.S.A.; the remainder are by James Alexander
    Robertson.







LETTER FROM MIGUEL LOARCA TO MARTIN ENRIQUEZ


Most Excellent Sir:

Whenever I have been in this city at the departure of the ship, I have
sent your Excellency a report of matters in this country. I did so last
year by the ship “Trinidad” which left this port of Manilla. I
informed your Excellency of the trouble and the expense to my property
to build that ship and the other oared vessels which were built during
the two years that the shipyard was established there and I was
superintendent of it; and of the pay which Doctor Francisco de Sande
gave me for it. He not only did not reward me, but tried to undo me in
all possible ways. [He would have done that] if it had been possible,
but God has ever upheld me by His hand, so that no unfitting thing
could be done to me. When he saw that he could not harm me, he deceived
me with promises, all of which have turned out false. All this great
hatred that he has exercised toward me has been because of my having
gone to explore China by order of Guido de Laveçaris while he was
inside the islands. He would have liked that expedition to have been
carried on by his own order. Now God has been pleased to deliver us
from his wrath. May it please God that it be for the best. I shall tell
here in brief what I know about China and this land, as a man who has
seen it all and understands a part. [64] I petition your Excellency
most humbly to pardon my extreme boldness. It is a fact that neither
his Majesty in España nor your Excellency in that land are informed
truly of what is advisable for the prosecution of these conquests and
the increase of his royal crown. Consequently, just the reverse to what
is necessary here is enacted, and thus the money is wasted, and all the
men who are sent are exhausted. I have recognized this during the
present year more strongly than in former years. I would willingly be
more specific, but I am sharply warned by experience. Thus the letters
which I wrote to your Excellency last year which were carried by father
Fray Jeronimo Marin, [65] the latter wrote me were either lost or
stolen from him. Next year, if it please God to have Captain Pedro
Caraballo make the journey I shall dare to write your Excellency at
greater length. I beg your Excellency to make use of me as a servant
and to shield me with your protection. That is what sustains all of us
who are here; and I need it more today than any one else. For, since I
had the shipyards for two years in my villages [66] without receiving
any salary, and without anything needed for the construction of the
ships being furnished, or help being sent to those who were working
there, and since I was continually written by Dr. Sande and his
Majesty’s officials that the royal treasury was entirely empty, and
that I should advance money from my household: consequently, as I
attended to my obligations in his Majesty’s service, I spent all my
substance and have exhausted all my repartimiento. Therefore have I
become poor and have now so little relief from any reward unless your
Excellency concedes it from there by ordering it to be given me. May
our Lord preserve your Excellency’s person for many long and happy
years with the health and increasing prosperity that your Excellency
merits and that your Excellency’s servants desire. The city of
Manilla, June 15, 1580. Most excellent sir, your Excellency’s humble
servant kisses the very excellent hands of your Excellency.


    Miguel de Loarca







LETTER FROM PABLO DE JESUS TO GREGORY XIII


    Account of the journey to the Philippine Islands of Brother Paul de
    Jesus of the congregation of the discalced [Franciscans].


To the most blessed father Gregory XIII, chief pontiff, the humble
congregation of discalced brethren resident in the Philippine Islands
offer homage.

Since in the midst of such weighty, such burdensome labors and
sorrows—the while everywhere the mighty forces of so many and such
various heresies are raising up storms against the Church, and
threatening it as it were with sword and flame, nay, even utter
destruction, there is no doubt that with the same charity wherewith, as
the true father of all, thou dost embrace all, thou deplorest this most
grievous loss of souls; nor can that benignity and clemency of thy
spirit, which is from on high, bear without grieving, nor grieve
without ceasing, for this most direful plague that is daily spreading
apace in the sight of all men, with the havoc of towns, cities,
provinces, even kingdoms that at one time were the flourishing abodes
of Catholic faith and piety. Therefore, most blessed Father, it has
seemed worth our while, as well as our duty, as thy most loyal
children, to strengthen thy Blessedness as it were with fresh pleasure
and fresh joy, through the recountal of those things which the most
merciful God is working in these far away seas and countries. Nor do we
think thy spirit, thirsty as it is for the safety of souls, will be
refreshed with merely ordinary joy at the news that in these islands of
the Indias holy Mother Church has brought forth without number as it
were new offspring and new children of the faith. For inasmuch as by
order of thy Holiness we have come to these shores, we deem it our duty
to relate the whole course of our journey and of our wanderings. From
the place where Brother Pedro Alfaro, at the time guardian of our
congregation, sent letters to thy Blessedness, we encountered a
difficult voyage, all of us nearly having been stricken down with
illness, wherefrom six of the brethren our companions died. At length
we reached Nova Hispania, whence after a sojourn of six months in order
to recover our strength and former good health, we set sail on the Ides
of March in the year 1578, [67] and after a very long voyage of two
thousand one hundred leagues, we fifteen brethren landed at the islands
known as the Philippines. While on our voyage thither we touched at a
certain island three hundred leagues distant from the Philippines, very
fruitful in rice, and cocoanut-bearing palms. This island is inhabited
by men who are savages going utterly stark, with no covering at all,
the women, however, concealing their private parts with the leaf of a
tree. The people are large of frame, robust, and given to pilfering,
whence the name of the island Ladrones. The natives brought us fruits,
fish, rice, and other eatables, which they bartered for iron, which
they value more than gold. Some of our companions through pity for
those islanders wished to remain with them, in order to bring them to
the light of the faith. But we did not think it wise to leave them
alone and without arms among such a multitude of barbarians. Sailing
thence we soon reached the Philippine Islands, where we found the
fathers of the Augustinian order, who, fairly worn out with their
unspeakable hardships, toils, dangers, and sufferings for the last
twelve years, gave us the heartiest of welcomes. In the beginning they
seemed to be without any hope that we ever could bring those Indians to
the light of the Christian faith; all their labors, they said, had been
fruitless, their efforts in vain, their toil for the benefit of those
people without result. For twelve years they had employed every
endeavor, nor left anything undone whereby they might induce them to
forswear their idols and embrace the true Catholic religion, but all to
no purpose. Wherefore, they had it in mind to prepare for baptism only
those whose tender and youthful age gave promise of success. But
happily by divine bounty, before long, after hope had given out, after
we had been stationed in different parts of the islands, so great a
multitude of men, women, and children flocked to us for instruction and
baptism, that we were unable to cope with their numbers—a matter that
was the more wonderful since this wild and savage race of men had never
displayed the slightest trace of religion, and had neither places of
worship, nor sacrifices. Very many of them practiced circumcision and
many other similar vanities from their relationships with the
Mahometans of Burneo, an island three hundred leagues distant. Thus
they would not eat swine-meat, nor that of animals that had been
strangled, besides other such practices. Some of them, who practiced
circumcision, traced its origin not to the Mahometans, with whom they
had no acquaintance, but to their own very remote ancestors. Some of
them worshiped a certain bird, others the crocodile; for holding the
same fancy regarding the transmigration of souls as was held by
Pythagoras in his palingenesis, they believed that, after certain
cycles of years, the souls of their forefathers were turned into
crocodiles. To their parents and children after death, they erected
statues rudely hewn of wood, in the belief that the souls of the
deceased found lodging in such images. They celebrated Bacchanalian
feasts with drinking-bouts and barbarous outcries, with offerings of
food and garments made to the idols themselves, from which they sought
health and riches. They worshiped the moon, with sacrificial offerings
to it in many places at the time of the new moon. Priapus [68] after a
similar fashion of the Romans they revered as the guardian of their
fields. Among these Indians were priests known as catolonas, who were
held in such respect that, if they prophesied of a person ill of any
disease that he would die of that disease, forthwith the poor patient
refusing all food would soon end his life through starvation. Among
them are no real rulers and no form of administrative government.
Whoever among them is mightiest in strength and riches, whether by
force or strategy, reduces all others to bondage to himself. As among
them there is constant recourse to bloodshed, robbery, and plundering,
so nothing is ever settled by agreement or law. With regard to marriage
the same custom does not hold everywhere. For some, the far greater
majority, even recognize no real marriage bonds, as for the most
trivial reasons they divorce their wives, take up with other women,
some of them, the chieftains especially, whom they style maguinoos,
having two wives at one time. We have been told that among some Indian
tribes the laws of marriage are held in much higher regard. For after
the marriage rite has been performed, prayers are offered to the gods
to endow the spouses with fruitfulness, nor ever let them be sundered
save by death; otherwise, should they be parted, they are cursed and
the wrath of the gods called down upon them. Should any person be
guilty of securing a divorce, the culprit is punished, the wife with
the loss of her dowry, the husband with the payment of gold. Whoever
violated these ancestral rites and customs forfeited the respect of the
people. By nature these barbarians are sharp-witted beyond belief, and
gifted with such tenacity of memory that whatever they once have been
taught, for they are wonderfully quick in learning, they rarely if ever
forget. Therefore, they easily yield to truth, and when shown what is
wrong, quickly detest it, treating the brethren who go among them
preaching with courtesy and kindness. Nay, not infrequently, they
themselves seek out a brother, to whom as they hearken with readiness
they let him depart with tears in their eyes. If we only had enough
missionaries, there would be nowhere in the Philippine Islands unbelief
of any sort. Very many of the natives confess their sins with sorrow
and faith. They believe in the many and very frequent miracles which
Almighty God works among them through blessed water, the sacred holy
gospels, and the relics of the saints.

Bearing in mind that mandate of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ our Lord,
“Go ye into the whole world and preach the gospel to every
creature” [Mark xvi, 15], we were fired more and more every day with
the desire of preaching the gospel in the mighty kingdom of China.
Wherefore, four brethren of our congregation with three soldiers sailed
in a small vessel to Quanton [i.e., Canton] the richest city of China,
where during their six months’ sojourn, by means of interpreters they
preached the gospel of the heavenly kingdom assiduously in the presence
of viceroys and governors. But the interpreters, through fear of losing
their heads should they speak in disfavor of idols, deceived our
brethren by giving their words a far different meaning than uttered.
The Chinese marveled indeed at the poorness of the clothing worn by our
brethren and their spare diet; while especially did they wonder at our
contempt of money when they offered us gold. For this people are lovers
of money beyond belief, wherefore they styled our brethren good men who
had fallen from the skies. Yet with all their pleadings could Ours not
get leave to remain any longer, since the laws forbade strangers from
taking up their abode in that kingdom. They accorded them leave,
however, to stay in the city of Machán [i.e., Macao], a place
inhabited by Portuguese, and distant from Quanton on the mainland
twenty leagues away, where two of our priests to the great delight of
the patriarch and the Portuguese found a home in the monastery which
they built. [69] Therein the fathers hoped that with the defeat of the
demon’s sway a vast field would be opened to the preaching of the
gospel. The kingdom of China is immense, being even a thousand leagues
in extent, with such a multitude of inhabitants that the whole kingdom
seems one mighty city. The Chinese are fair of color, with small eyes,
much given to trafficking, sharp-witted, and masters at trade, though
in matters that concern the safety of soul exceedingly dull and
senseless. Though fond of letters they yet are as babes in science,
with naught of artistic polish. Among them he is held as the greatest
scholar who is the quickest to read and write, and from such as these
are chosen governors, judges, viceroys, whom the people revere as gods.
Above all other nations they are given to sorcery, superstition, and
idol-worship. The sky they style the father of the gods, while to the
moon to whom they pay their vows, they offer a sheep, pig, goat, and
bull. To such men as they judge are superior to others in bravery and
probity of life they rear statues. They have too their own monks and
hermits, who living in out-of-the-way places feed on herbs and fruits
of trees under the belief that after death they will be summoned by the
moon to a residence in the sky. Among them reigns a great concern for
the observance of equity, along with great skill in the management of
the state. In their women so high is their regard for modesty, even in
the largest and wealthiest cities, that barely one ever was seen by
Ours. The men are most unchaste, utter slaves to sodomy, and so vain as
to think themselves the wisest of men.

Inasmuch, most blessed Father, as we were in doubt what course to
follow with regard to men, who having set aside their first wife had
married another, from whom no separation seemed feasible—a
stumbling-block too of no little importance in the way of their
conversion, we read the letters of the predecessor of thy Holiness,
Pius the Fifth of happy memory, which we have taken care shall
accompany this letter to thy Blessedness:

Inasmuch as we foresaw that many of these [heathen], if bound to return
to their first wives, would refuse baptism, after reading those letters
we allowed them, after baptism, to live with the wives they then were
mated with, although their former wives were still living, whom they
had divorced too for the most trivial of reasons. We were blamed by
some who held that the privilege of Pope Pius the Fifth of happy memory
was to be understood as applying to those who no longer remembered
which of their wives had been married first. But this does not seem
reasonable if the ground alleged in this privilege be well considered;
moreover, prior to this privilege is another granted by Paul the Third
of blessed memory, wherein this very case of one’s separation from
his first wife is recognized, should he fail to know which of them
really was first. But the second privilege, it seems, ought to have a
broader application than the former. Tell us now, most blessed Father,
we humbly implore thee, what we are to do—what course to take as to
the past, what provision for the future—whether in the case of wives
who have been set aside for the flimsiest of reasons, nay, for none
save sheer lust of passion, the [second] marriages are to be recognized
when made in pursuance of common custom and as it were by force of law.
For thus we shall be relieved of the chief part of our burden not only
here, but in the kingdom of China. Let thy Blessedness also give
instructions to the end that we be not hindered in any way by the
Spaniards when traveling to heathen countries, no matter where they be,
but on the contrary that we be aided in every manner with due help and
favor. Let thy Blessedness also impart from the treasures of holy
Church a share of indulgences to this new plantation and to us, the
most unworthy servants of thy Blessedness, especially that, whenever
mass be said at any altar in the Philippines and at any in the kingdom
of China, through the mercy of God a soul be freed from the pains of
purgatory. God grant, most blessed Pontiff, especially through thy
prayers and aid, that the intestine storms and havoc of heresy be
quelled, the pride of the Turks laid low, that with all peoples brought
to the light of Catholic faith in this thy age, with thee reigning as
pontiff, be fulfilled to thy supreme praise that prediction of our
Savior: “There shall be one fold and one shepherd” [John x, 16].
Manila 14 Kalends of July, 1580.

The most obedient son of thy Holiness,


    Brother Pablo de Jesus, and all our congregation







BISHOP SALAZAR’S COUNCIL REGARDING SLAVES

    The meeting and resolution held by the bishop in regard to the
    execution of the decree about slaves


Monday, October sixteen of this year one thousand five hundred and
eighty-one, while the most illustrious and reverend Don Fray Domingo de
Salazar, first bishop of these Philipinas Islands, was in the monastery
of St. Augustine in Tondo, he had the very reverend fathers, Fray Pablo
de Jesus, [70] custodian of the Order of St. Francis, Fray Andres de
Aguirre, [71] provincial of the Order of St. Augustine, Father Antonio
Sedeño, [72] rector of the Society of Jesus, Fray Francisco Manrrique,
[73] prior of the monastery of St. Augustine in Manila, Fray Diego de
Muxica, [74] prior of the said convent of Tondo, Father Alonso Sanchez,
[75] of the Society of Jesus, Fray Cristobal de Salvatierra, [76] of
the Order of St. Dominic and the bishop’s associate, Fray Puan de
Plasencia, [77] of the Order of St. Francis, and Fray Alonso de Castro
[78] and Fray Juan Pimentel, of the Order of St. Augustine, [79]
summoned and assembled in the said monastery. He informed them that the
very illustrious Don Gonçalo Ronquillo de Peñalosa, his Majesty’s
governor of these said islands had communicated with his Lordship in
regard to the decree concerning the slaves certain methods that he
thought advisable in order that his Majesty’s instructions in regard
to the matter might be carried out with more mildness and less severity
and hardship to the community. Their Lordships having exchanged
opinions regarding the matter, the bishop declared that he thought the
matter one of so great seriousness as it touched so deeply on the life
and conscience that it ought not to be determined without referring it
to the prelates of the orders and the learned and weighty persons of
the orders. For his Majesty had sent him to that land and was
supporting them there for such necessities and cases. After his
Lordship had informed all the abovesaid fathers of the above matter, he
said that he had assembled them in order to lay the following matters
before them.

First: Whether the hardship that it is thought will follow on the part
of those who hold slaves or any other reason that the former can offer
in their behalf will be a sufficient reason so that the governor may in
conscience neglect to publish and execute the said decree.

Second: Whether, after the publication and order to execute [the
decree], he can in conscience neglect the prosecution of its terms and
execution because of the petition that may be presented to his Majesty
in behalf of the masters of the slaves.

Third: Whether, after the said decree has been ordered executed, the
governor can in good conscience assign any limit within which the
masters shall release the slaves and the latter be recognized as free;
or whether the masters be obliged to declare them free immediately.
Inasmuch as the matter is so serious the bishop requested and charged
them to commend it to God, and to consider and confer, and then under
charge of their consciences to declare their opinion with all freedom
and truth. After they had examined and conferred upon the matter among
themselves, they resolved as follows.

In reply to the first point they declared that his Majesty’s decree
is no new law or order, but a declaration of the justice that the
matter of the Indians has of itself, and a reply and resolution of the
petitions and reports that have been made from here. It is the
confirmation of another decree given for the same purpose by the
emperor Carlos Fifth of blessed memory in the former year one thousand
five hundred and thirty. He ordered therein that from the time of its
date and thenceforth all the Indians yet discovered or to be discovered
should not be allowed to become slaves however they might be acquired,
whether in just war, or got or bought from the natives, although they
should be held by the latter as legitimate slaves. Consequently, it is
clear from the above that no fear or suspicion of any inconvenience or
hardship is sufficient for the governor or any other person, on whom
devolves the execution of the decree, to neglect the execution of it,
or to declare the liberty which the Indians possess inherently, and
which his Majesty declares and concedes. On the other hand he who shall
do the contrary, besides the most grave sin that he will commit, will
be obliged to restore immediately to the Indians all the service and
wrongs that they shall have received in their persons, possessions, and
honors. The former governors were in duty bound to have endeavored to
free the slaves, although no new decrees were despatched by his
Majesty, both because of the decree already issued and because of the
manifest injustice that was being practiced toward one whom they were
obliged to protect, defend, and give justice; for his Majesty has sent
the governors to this land for the correction of those and other like
injuries, and thereby relieves his conscience through them. In regard
to what is feared from any troubles, it is not credible that they will
follow to a people so loyal and obedient to their king, because they
are ordered to obey him in a matter so just and so reasonable.

In reply to the second point, they declared that it is clearly inferred
from the answer to the first article that the governor cannot
conscientiously neglect to follow up the liberty of the said Indians,
even though their masters appeal from the decree. For his Majesty has
also been informed of this matter as appears from the old and new
decrees, and from the general custom of all the other Yndias, in all of
which nothing contrary has ever been allowed or any slave permitted.
Hence, it is clear that the present petition is only a means to
postpone and prolong the injustice. The judge on whom this matter
devolves cannot in good conscience neglect to execute the decree and to
further the liberty of the Indians, in spite of any petition or effort
to the contrary.

In reply to the third point, they declared that the freedom of the
Indians could not be deferred as it was a matter of natural and divine
right and clear justice, just as he who has anything belonging to
another is obliged instantly to restore it, as soon as he knows it, and
the judge who tries the case is bound to order the restoration.
However, they thought that if the Indians were declared free
immediately and were set at liberty, the governor could order them not
to leave their masters for a brief time, because of the trouble that
they would suffer if their slaves left them suddenly. When they were
asked how long his Lordship could detain them in the power of their
masters without endangering his conscience, they said that that
depended on the judgment of good and prudent sense. They all thought
that his Lordship might extend the time for them for the space of
twenty or thirty days. Whoever dared to detain them for a longer period
would be committing mortal sin and be obliged to make restitution.

The bishop having examined the opinions of the abovesaid fathers,
declared that after he had left his Lordship he had also considered the
matter very deeply and had conferred upon it with grave and very
erudite persons of conscience. The above opinions and the final
resolution of the fathers seemed to him to be quite in harmony with the
law of God, and with natural, divine, and human law, and to be
established on entire truth and justice. As such he approved and
confirmed those opinions and said that his opinion was the same as
theirs. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, amen. His
Lordship signed the same and ordered it sealed with his seal. The
others above named, who gave their opinions in the form herein
contained, nemine discrepante, also signed it. Given in the convent of
Tondo, October seventeen, of the above-mentioned year. This opinion was
given to the governor with the signatures of all the religious herein
contained. In testimony thereof, I affixed my signature to it.


    Fray Domingo, bishop of the Filipinas.







ERECTION OF THE MANILA CATHEDRAL [80]


Brother Domingo de Salazar, by the grace of God and of the Apostolic
See bishop of the Philippines, to all the inhabitants thereof, of
either sex, faithful of Christ, health in Him, who is health indeed.

The providence of our Almighty God is such as it always has been and
will be for all time, that as ages roll by He reserves the doing of
certain wonders, whereby those things which happened to early
generations are more readily believed by their posterity, while their
descendants are led through the novelty of those wonders to a knowledge
of Him. Thus wonderful formerly was it that God led the children of
Israel, whom He had brought forth from Egypt, on dry land across the
Red Sea. While after the death of those who had been eyewitnesses of
this marvel it was believed by their children, just as it was believed
that God had the river bed of the Jordan made dry in order that He
might lead them into the Land of Promise. But not to delay in recalling
the marvels that as we read took place in the days of our early
fathers, let us pass to those that are nearer our times. Accordingly,
with the fulfilment of our redemption, our Redeemer being seated at the
right hand of His Father, what could have been greater, more wonderful,
not to say wholly unbelievable, than that a few men, and they of the
lowliest, as we read, should, with no human aid whatever, have
persuaded the men of their days, given over as they were to crimes and
lusts, and all of them thirsty for honors and the minions of riches, to
feel repentance for their sins and contempt for the world, besides
their belief in the Crucified? Yet in view of what we have witnessed
especially in our own days, this wonderful and almost unbelievable fact
ceases to be wonderful, or at the most is easy enough for belief. That
the Roman people proud in their conquests, haughty with their trophies,
and masterful through their spoils of a conquered world, should have
been brought to a belief in Christ, which demands that all these things
be despised, is a marvel that cannot be denied. But what surpassed the
power of Peter in the city of Rome, by whose [shadow] along the way the
ill were made well and set whole on their feet? or what could not Paul
attain at Antioch or Athens, whose girdle put evil spirits to flight?
or, in fine, what were the apostles not enabled to do in the whole
world, who, filled with the Holy Ghost, spoke in the tongues of those
to whom they were preaching the faith, who healed the ailing, and
raised the dead? Yet in the things that we have seen happen in our own
times, still mightier is shown the power of God, and more wonderful His
providence. Who, I ask, unless he wish to keep his eyes closed, but can
in an instant acknowledge that it has been even greater and more
wonderful that barbarous and unbelieving men, given over wholly to
vices of the flesh, sodden with the rites of their forefathers, with
barely other concern than that of bodily sense, should without
miracles, with no display of signs, but only through the preaching of
the word of God, have been converted to faith in Christ and bowed their
necks to the Christian religion, when in their conversion of the
Romans, haughty as these were through their conquests, or the Greeks
filled with their pride of letters, the apostles gave many signs, and
before their very eyes wrought so many and such stupendous miracles,
that for men, through the employment of sense alone, not to be
converted, would have been far stranger than their conversion after
seeing so many marvels.

But I am aware that many of Ours will assert that the heathen of our
time were won over to Christ and His teachings not through persuasion
but compelled thereto by the power of arms. But this very fact which
concerns this question very closely, displays the more marvelous power
of our God and the greater influence of His most holy faith, namely,
that human beings enslaved through force of arms, men dragged into most
pitiable bondage by savage enemies and stripped of their wives, their
offspring, and substance, should yearn to profess faith in that God and
embrace His law from whose followers they have received so many and
such woeful wrongs, and who by their practice belie the faith they have
taught. And what is still further amazing is the fact of their
conversion to this faith by ministers, who neither healed their sick as
Peter, nor raised their dead as did the apostles, nor spake with
tongues, but who without miracles of any kind, without any signs
whatever, save the preaching of the word of God, led them to embrace
the faith. Nay, what is even more wonderful, they were converted by
ministers who, though many of them were of unsullied life, and deeply
skilled in letters, yet (there is the fact, which, however, we wish not
to record as censure of any special individual but for the glory of God
and as signal proof of the power of faith), some of them were men utter
strangers to learning, and (what is more shameful) with but little
restraint on their lusts and vices. So great, however, was the
influence and power of faith whereby, through the medium of such
ministers, who portrayed its virtue by their preaching, so many
thousands of barbarians were brought to the bosom of holy Mother
Church, their number too still daily increasing more and more, that we
may recognize that the grandeur of the work is of God.

Thus, as one may see, this plain preaching of the word of God won over
for Christ and His church a new world, as it is styled, mightier than
the old. For that so great and marvelous work, the benignity of our
God, whose providence in human affairs is never wanting, received our
most glorious rulers of the Spains, the Catholic Sovereigns, at the
bidding of the holy Catholic Church, so that what He foresaw should be
lacking to preachers, might be supplied by those most powerful and most
Christian kings—a thing which was manifestly proved by the result.
For with such eagerness, such zeal for the spread of the faith and the
Christian religion did the sovereigns themselves welcome the task and
ministry thus entrusted to them by the Roman Church, that begrudging no
expense, undaunted by toils or dangers, moved neither by losses nor
hardships, they at no time set any bounds to their venture. Nay, with
no concern for these or other like drawbacks, they labor for this sole
end that by the inhabitants of the new world the Lord Christ might be
acknowledged, welcomed, and adored. Hence at the bidding and expense of
our kings have so many preachers of the mendicant orders and secular
clergy been enlisted to scour this new world and lead barbarous men to
the worship of the true God. Hence so many Spanish warriors [have been
enlisted] to guard these preachers from receiving harm from the
barbaric cruelty of infidels. Hence, in fine, so many metropolitan, so
many minor cathedral churches, have been erected, and sees established,
whereby the hierarchical order as maintained by the Roman Church, might
be upheld, and the budding colonies planted in the garden of the Church
bring forth fruit of their conversion. Moreover, in order that nothing
might be lacking to our most Christian king Philip, in his endeavor to
set further forward the bounds of the Roman Church, as he knew had been
the practice of his forefathers, from whom he had inherited zeal for
the faith and the Christian religion, as well as kingdoms without
bound, under his auspices were discovered the isles of the west called
the Philippines after his name, which besides being innumerable, abound
in worshipers without number, to whom at the behest of the Catholic
king, and not without great loss to his treasury, and many hardships
and dangers to his soldiers, the truth of the Gospel has been
announced, and hearkened to by no petty number, which daily even grows
greater, so that one may see fulfilled the prophecy of Isaias, wherein
he says: “The islands saw it, and feared, the ends of the earth were
astonished, they drew near, and came;” and again: “Thy sons shall
come from afar.... Then shalt thou see, and abound, and thy heart shall
wonder and be enlarged, when the multitude of the sea shall be
converted to thee;” and in another place: “Enlarge the place of thy
tent, and stretch out the skins of thy tabernacles, ... lengthen thy
cords, and strengthen thy stakes;” [81] to the end that as he forsaw
the Church might harbor so mighty a multitude as would be converted to
it images to come.

Such is the glory of the sovereigns of the Spains, which no other of
the rulers of the world has ever won. To whom else than the sovereigns
of the Spains, I ask, has it been given, along with the domain of the
world, to perform an angel’s task, and to wear as king a diadem that
has been adorned with the charge, ennobled with the dignity, and
accompanied with the authority of an apostle? Should one view the
temporal power of our sovereigns he will observe that they hold the
kingdoms of Castile, Leon, and Bœtia [i.e., Andalusia] by hereditary
right; those of Aragon, Flanders, Austria by the right of succession;
and those of Sicily and Naples by the right of war. But as to the other
kingdoms and provinces whereof the number is so great that one could
never count them, these they hold through the free will of God and from
the grant of holy Roman Church.

For should you travel from the land styled Labrador, [in the MS.:
“terra quæ laboris”], which faces the north, through the land of
Florida, New Spain, Tierra Firma, to the river Orellana [i.e., Amazon],
and thence towards the south to the Straits of Magellan, then through
the region of Chile and the kingdoms of Peru, how many thousands of
leagues would you not have to cover, and of how many races of men would
you not have to study diverse customs, besides languages beyond count?
Moreover should you embrace the countries, which, hitherto the property
of the kings of Lusitania [i.e., Portugal], now by right of succession
have fallen to the crown of Castile (to our invincible monarch Philip)
you would style king Philip master of the world rather than by any
other title. For if, after his victory over Darius and certain other
kings of Asia, Alexander of Macedon claimed to be master of the world;
if the Romans who however planted not their banners on the farthest
shores of Europe, or Africa, nor could subdue the whole of Asia, albeit
they too styled themselves conquerors and masters of the world: by how
much stronger right may not the kings of Spain be entitled, as in fact
they are, the masters of the world, when under their rule and sway have
fallen kingdoms without number, of boundless extent, whose very names
were unknown to Alexander or to Roman ear. Lest however our words bear
us farther away from our purpose, return we thither.

Accordingly, to the end that, as was befitting the grandeur of his
zeal, he might act in full correspondence with so excellent and divine
a charge—the conversion of peoples—which through his forefathers he
had received from God and Church, our most Christian and truly pious
and Catholic king Philip, in order that thence the light of the Gospel
might spread to foreign lands, choose therefore of all the Philippine
Islands, Luzon, which besides being nearer to the most mighty kingdom
of the “Sinorum,” commonly styled China, is nearer also to the
Japanese, the Moluccas, Burneo, and the Javas, greater and lesser,
besides other well-known islands. Wherefore, the aforesaid Catholic
sovereign obtained from our most holy master Gregory Thirteenth the
erection in the city of Manila, which is situated midway in the most
approachable part of that island, of a cathedral church [dedicated] to
the immaculate conception of the virgin, to which under one Catholic
prelate holding communion with holy Roman Church, all the other
Philippine Islands should be subject by diocesan law, and be governed
therefrom; who, moreover, in the said cathedral church was to
establish, erect, and create prebends, dignities, canonries, as well as
other church offices, and in the lesser churches, benefices, besides
all other things that appertain to the divine worship of God: to this
end that in these countries as elsewhere under obedience to the holy
Roman Church the order of the hierarchy (as said) should be established
and maintained. In furtherance of this design our said most holy master
at the instance of the most Christian king Philip, chose and named me
(a useless servant and one of the lowliest in the Order of Preachers),
as is more fully displayed in the letters of our same most holy master,
which with due reverence and loyalty we received at Madrid from the
official of the king—the same having been written after Roman style
on parchment with the apostolic seal in lead pendent therefrom on
silken cords of red and yellow color [whereof all were] whole, entire,
uninjured, not in any way giving rise to suspicion, but wholly
faultless and without flaw. Whereof here follows a literal copy.

Gregory Bishop, servant of the servants of God. In remembrance of the
affair forever.

Trusting in the guardianship of Him, whose are the hinges of the earth,
etc.

Accordingly, we, Brother Domingo de Salazar, the aforesaid bishop and
commissary, as appears from the aforesaid apostolic letters, desirous
as a true and obedient son to carry out fully with diligence (as we are
bound) the apostolic commands entrusted to us, do accept reverently the
said commission, and through the same apostolic authority wherewith in
this regard we are empowered, do, through tenor of these presents,
erect, create, and establish as cathedral church, the church of the
city of Manila, situated on the aforesaid island of Luzon, formerly
honored under the name of [blessed?] Peter Apostle, to the honor of
Almighty God and our Lord Jesus Christ, as well as of His most blessed
Mother Mary, under the title of whose conception the cathedral was
erected by the said our most holy master. Moreover, while decreeing and
declaring the church thus erected, created, and established, we
establish and create its dignities, prebends, canonries, along with the
portiones [82] and other offices and charges that are needed by the
same church for divine worship, in the following manner:

The dean, who in the Church ranks first after the bishop, has as his
duty the provision of whatsoever appertains to the divine office and
all other matters that regard the worship of God, both in choir as well
as at the altar, or in processions in church or outdoors, in chapter,
or wherever else church or chapter meetings be held, to the end that
all be done in silence, with due decency and modesty, according to
ritual and rightly. To the dean also it shall appertain, should any one
for reasons wish to leave choir, to give him leave after he has stated
his reasons and not otherwise.

The archdeacon of the same city, whose duty it shall be to examine
clerics for orders; attend the bishop at all solemn functions; visit
the city and diocese whenever so charged by the prelate; and anything
else ordained by common law. He shall be a graduate of some university,
a licentiate at least in one or the other law or in theology.

The chanter, for which post none may be presented unless he be learned
and skilled in music at least in plain song. It shall be his business
to sing and teach whatever chant requires. In choir or anywhere else he
shall of himself and not by proxy lead [the singers], and correct and
amend them.

The schoolmaster, for which post no one shall be presented who is not a
graduate of some general university, a bachelor in one or the other
law, or a court practitioner [in the MS.: “aut martibus”]. Either
of himself or by proxy he shall teach the clerics, the church servants,
and all the diocesans who wish to learn grammar.

The treasurer, whose duty it is to close and to open the church, ring
the bells, guard all church utensils, look after the lamps, and lights,
take care of the incense, candles, bread, wine, and whatever else is
needed for church celebrations, besides giving account whenever so
ordered by chapter of the Church revenues. Then ten canonries and
prebends, which besides decreeing their utter separation from the above
dignities, we ordain shall never be held along with any dignity.
Moreover, to the said canonries and prebends no one may be presented
who has not also been promoted to the holy order of priesthood. Each
canon besides shall celebrate mass daily, except on feasts of double
rite, [83] when the prelate, or if he be hindered, some one of the
dignitaries shall celebrate.

Moreover, as decreed by the holy Council of Trent, we ordain that,
whenever feasible, all dignities and a moiety at least of the canonries
in our cathedral church shall be conferred only on masters or doctors,
or at least on licentiates in theology or canon law.

Besides we establish six whole portiones and as many half ones. Whoever
is up for presentation for the said whole portiones, must have
deacon’s holy orders, which he is to exercise daily at the altar,
apart from his having to chant the Passions [84] [in Holy Week]. While
he who is to be presented for the half portiones, besides being in
subdeacon’s holy [orders] must chant the Epistles at mass, and the
Prophecies, Lamentations, and Lessons in choir.

Again we wish and decree that in chapter these portionarii, providing
they be in holy orders, and not otherwise, be entitled to vote with the
dignitaries and canons in spiritual affairs as well as temporal, but
not at elections or other cases reserved by law to dignitaries and
canons exclusively.

We also wish and ordain that to the said dignities, canonries, and
whole portiones as well as halves, or to any other benefice of our
whole diocese, no one be presented who by reason of any order,
privilege, or office is exempt from our jurisdiction. And should any
one thus exempt happen to be presented or installed, such presentation
or installation is to be held as null and void in law.

And, whereas the naming of rectors to whom is to be entrusted the care
of souls is of no slight moment, nay, one rather that bespeaks even
greater and more watchful care on our part, hence do we ordain that
whatever rectors we or our successors choose in our cathedral, as well
as in all parish churches of this our see, whether now erected, or to
be erected hereafter, just so many according to our judgment shall have
been needed for service. Their business is to celebrate mass according
to ritual and rightly; to confess the faithful entrusted to their care
and administer to them carefully and solicitously, by the other
sacraments; besides they are to fulfil and carry out all other duties
as such rectors are wont and bound to do. Whereof all and singular are
to be appointed by us, or our successors for the time being, and to be
removable at will.

Then six acolytes, who by our orders, are daily by turns to exercise
their office of acolyte in the ministry at the altar.

Besides these also six chaplains whereof, at both night and day offices
as well as at mass solemnities, one shall be personally present at the
faldstool in choir, and moreover, unless rightly hindered by illness or
impediment, shall celebrate monthly twenty masses.

The election or provision of the said acolytes and chaplains we decree
shall belong to us and our successors together with our chapter. We
wish, moreover, that the said chaplains, who are to be elected for the
time being, belong not to the bishop’s retinue, nor to that of any of
the said capitulars, even merely at the time of their appointment.

The duty however of sacristan is to do those things that appertain to
the treasurer’s duty, in the latter’s presence however and by his
commission; but in his absence by direction of the chapter.

The duty of organist is to play on feast days and at other times at the
direction of the chapter.

The duty of the beadle is to lead in processions, and go ahead of the
prelate, priest, deacon, subdeacon, and other ministers of the altar,
on their way from choir to sacristy or altar, or on their return from
altar to sacristy.

The duty of the econome, or procurator of the church building and
hospital, is to oversee the architects, carpenters, and other workmen
charged with the erection of churches. Either of himself or by agents
he shall collect and pay out the yearly revenues and incomes with
whatever other emoluments and obventions in any manner belong to the
said building and hospital, besides giving yearly to the bishop and
chapter, or the officials thus deputed by the same, an account of his
receipts and payments. He shall be appointed as well as removed at
their pleasure; but is not to be entrusted with administration without
first giving proper security.

The duty, moreover, of the chancellor or notary of the church chapter
is to note, copy, and guard all contracts whatever made between the
church, bishop and chapter and church or churches erected or to be
erected hereafter; to distribute to beneficiaries their share of the
revenues; and to keep and receive accounts.

The duty of the dog catcher [Canicularii] is to keep dogs away from the
church on all Saturdays and the vigils of whatever feasts have vigils,
and otherwise to clean the church wherever and whenever so bid by the
treasurer.

But inasmuch as for the present, the fruits, revenues, and incomes do
not support, nor are sufficient for the support of so many dignities
and prebends as have been enumerated and established by us in the
present erection, by the same apostolic authority, we decree and
declare that all the aforesaid five dignities, ten canonries, and six
whole and six half portiones, have been declared and newly established
and created for the service of our cathedral church to the end that
they need no establishment and creation hereafter, but are now as then
created and established. And thus do we mean it to be.

Moreover, we wish and declare that inasmuch as the said fruits and
revenues do not suffice for the support of so many ministers as have
been established by us in the present erection, we, or our successors,
may suppress as many of the dignities, canonries, and whole or half
portiones as the necessity of the times may seem to require, until such
fruits as derived from royal grant or donation, or from the payment of
tithes, prove sufficient for the proper and decent support of the
ministers so named and deputed for church service, to the end that
ecclesiastical dignity be not debased through a multitude of servers
having but a meager stipend. However at whatsoever time or in
whatsoever manner it may seem proper in our opinion, we, or our
successors, may make suitable provision therefor, since thus have we
been empowered. But after the said number of dignities, canonries, and
whole and half portiones has been filled by our nomination and
election, or that of our successors, by the same authority, we reserve
the nomination and presentation to all the said prebends whenever in
the future any fall vacant, to the Catholic Majesty of our sovereigns,
as provided by law and apostolic authority.

And inasmuch as, according to the apostle, whoso serves the altar is
entitled to support from the altar, [85] [we ordain] that to all and
singular the dignities, persons, and canons, prebendaries, and whole
and half portionarii, chaplains, petty clerics or acolytes, and other
offices with their officials, [shall be apportioned] according to the
enumeration above set forth, all and singular the fruits, revenues and
incomes deriving from royal donation as well as from right of tithes,
or otherwise in any manner whatsoever appertaining to them, either now
or in the future, as now is provided by written order [ut licet ordine
literario] to the dean, archdeacon, chanter, schoolmaster, treasurer,
and canons, as well as to the [whole] and half portiones, and all
others above noted and named, in the following manner:

To the dean, namely, one hundred and fifty libras [literally
“pounds”] pesos de Tepuz[que], as commonly styled in these
countries, whereof each is worth eight silver reals of Castilian money.

To the archdeacon, one hundred and thirty; to each of the dignities, as
many; to each of the canons, one hundred; to each of the portionarii,
seventy; to the halves, thirty-five; to each of the chaplains, twenty;
to each acolyte, twelve; to the organist, sixteen; to the notary, as
many; to the beadle, as many; to the econome, however, fifty; to the
dogcatcher, verily twelve libras of gold of the above value. Thus do we
now and henceforth, in accordance as said with the written order, apply
and assign the fruits, revenues, and perquisites as soon as the
increase thereof shall warrant.

And inasmuch as said we wish the benefice to be for duty fulfilled, we
strictly order and command, in virtue of holy obedience, that the said
stipends be daily distributions [to be] assigned [and] distributed
daily among those taking part in both each night and day hour on
account of their fulfilment of the said duties. Accordingly, no one
from dean to acolyte inclusively, who has been absent from any
[recitation of] hour in choir, shall receive the stipend or
distribution for that hour; and any official who has failed to exercise
or fulfil his duty, shall similarly be mulcted each time in so much of
his salary as would correspond to the distributions withheld from
absentees, the same to be divided among those who are present.

We wish also, and under the same authority ordain, that all and
singular the dignities, canons, and portionarii of our said cathedral
church be held to residence and service for nine continuous or
interrupted months. Otherwise, we or our successors for the time being,
or sede vacante, [86] the chapter, shall be bound, the delinquent first
having been summoned and heard (should he not have or allege a just and
reasonable cause), to pronounce the said dignity [personatum], canonry,
or portio, vacant, regard being had, should he be a capitular, to the
Council of Trent; and, moreover, to provide a fit incumbent for that
canonry, or that dignity, for presentation to his Catholic Majesty or
his successors in the Spanish kingdoms only. A just cause herein for
absence we define to be illness, provided, however, the ill beneficiary
stay in the city, or the suburbs of the city; or should he have
incurred illness, outside the city, when returning or preparing to
return thither; provided, however, he can show by legal proofs that he
was absent with leave of the bishop or of the chapter, and for the sake
or advantage of the Church. Accordingly, let both [87] these be
concurrent in his absence.

Moreover, we wish and by apostolic authority establish, decree, and
command, that the fruits, revenues, and income of all tithes both of
the cathedral and of other churches of the said city and diocese be
divided into four equal parts, whereof one shall belong to us and the
bishops our successors, for all times forever, for the maintenance of
the episcopal dignity; and in order that with greater decency, and in
view of the exigencies of the pontifical office, we may be enabled to
maintain our rank, we are to receive this without any decrease for our
episcopal revenues. To the deans, the chapter, and the other ministers
of the church as above we assign another fourth part, to be divided
among them in the manner set forth previously. The other two fourths we
decree shall be again divided into nine parts, whereof we apply two to
his royal Majesty to be presented to him in all times to come forever,
in token of his suzerainty and right of patronage, as well as of his
conquest of these kingdoms. The remaining seven parts of all tithes
whatsoever, we require shall be divided into two, whereof four of the
said seven we assign to the parish priests of our cathedral church as
chapter table so that the church be better administered; of these four
parts, we and our successors assign to each rector sixty pesos (as
commonly styled). To the sacristan, however, [we assign] forty, the
rectors to have all the first fruits excepting an eighth part thereof
which we assign to the sacristan. Moreover, to the end that they may be
more easily found, whenever the sacraments are to be conferred and
other church duties attended to, the same rectors shall daily be
present at the chief mass and evening hours only in choir; and until
such time as the fruits shall have increased [a stipend] from the said
four parts shall be given to the acolytes, organist, and beadle; while
should anything remain over it is to go to the chapter table.

In each of the parish churches of the said city as well as of our whole
diocese, we apply as benefices to be erected and created in each of the
said churches the said four parts of the said seven. We declare,
moreover, that in similar manner the eighth part of the said four parts
applied for benefices, is to be given to the sacristan of each parish
church of our said city and diocese.

Moreover we wish and ordain that, our cathedral church being excepted
in all the parish churches of our said city and diocese, as soon as
they can conveniently be erected, as many simple benefices be created
and established as [may be warranted] by the amount of the revenues of
the said four parts thus applied to these benefices. A suitable and
decent support, however, is to be assigned to the clerics to whom
benefices should be given. Accordingly, the number of the said
benefices has not been determined, but as soon as the fruits increase
in these churches, let the number of ministers also increase. And
whenever, for any reason, it happens that the said simple benefices of
service, which for the time being, as said, may be created in the said
churches, fall vacant, we wish provision to be made, and therefore
decree, that, after [due] competition and examination, the said
benefices are to be conferred only on the children, the patrimonial
descendants, of the settlers who come thither from Spain to the said
province, or who hereafter may come thither for the sake of becoming
residents. This shall be done until such time in the future, when we,
or our successors, shall have seen and recognized that the Christianity
and capacity of the Indians is such that the said benefices may be
conferred on them. Then they shall and must be conferred on the Indian
natives also in accordance with the aforesaid form. Moreover, we wish
and by apostolic authority decree and declare that, after the said
benefices in the parish churches of this city as well as in the
churches of our whole diocese have once been erected and created by us
or our successors for the first time, the collation of the same
benefices on the patrimonial children, according to their number or
capacity, or on others in default of patrimonials, is to be made by
presentation to the said Catholic sovereigns or their vicegerents and
not otherwise, as provided by law and apostolic authority.

But since principally and chiefly the care of souls of the said city
[and] of our whole diocese is incumbent on us and our future
successors, as being those who, according to the apostolic saying, are
to render an account thereof on the day of Judgment, by our aforesaid
authority and tenor we wish and ordain that in our cathedral church,
and in all the parish churches of the said city and of our diocese, we,
and the prelates for the time being, commend and enjoin the care of
souls, according to our free choice, on any beneficiary or
beneficiaries of the churches themselves, or on anyone else even a
non-beneficiary for the time being, and under such form as shall seem
to us best to ensure the care of the said souls; moreover, recognizing
that we, and all our successors, shall be at the Divine Judgment, we
exhort and require them in this commission of souls to have no respect
of persons, but to regard solely the advantage and safety of the souls
entrusted to them by God. And to the end that whoso undertakes the
aforesaid care of souls, receive also some temporal gain, to each one
of them we assign all the first fruits of that parish, whereof he has
undertaken the care of souls, a portion, however, as above designated
to be given to the sacristan.

Moreover, we wish and ordain that the appointment and removal of the
sacristans of all the churches of our diocese be always at the will and
discretion of ourselves and our successors for the time being, together
with the readjustment of their salary, whenever the said eighth part,
which as provided should be paid them, amounts to a large sum, in which
case whatever amount shall have been withdrawn from the said eighth
part by us or our successors is to be set aside for the maintenance
fund of the church itself, or some increase of divine worship, and for
no other use.

Likewise the three remaining parts of the said seven are to be divided
into two equal parts, whereof we freely assign one, namely, one-half of
the said three parts, to the church maintenance fund of each of the
above towns [i.e., towns in the diocese where churches may be
established]; the remaining part, however, namely, the other half of
the said three parts, we assign to the hospitals of each town, from
which half or part so applied the said hospitals are to pay a tenth to
the principal hospital standing in the place where the cathedral church
shall be. But inasmuch as at present no hospitals have been founded in
the towns of our diocese, nor does the necessity of the poor require
any, as moreover in this city the sick poor are cared for in the royal
hospital, we ordain that the revenue due the hospitals from the said
half of the three parts go by right to the seminary, or college, for
the support therein of poor students, wherein, according to the decree
of the holy Council [of Trent] ministers are trained and taught in
order that later on they may serve divine worship and the dioceses of
our Church more worthily. And this is to hold until, on account of
exigencies of place and time, some other arrangement be made by the
aforesaid Catholic Majesty, or ourselves, or our successors.

Likewise, by the same authority, we assign to the maintenance fund of
our said church of most holy Mary, all and singular the tithes of one
parishioner of the same church and of all other churches of the whole
city and diocese, provided, however, that the said parishioner be not
the first [in rank] or the elder, or wealthier member of our cathedral
church and the other churches of our said diocese, but the second after
the first.

Moreover we wish and ordain that, in our said cathedral church, besides
feast days, whereon only one mass is said solemnly, daily two masses be
celebrated at the hour of tierce [hora tertiarum], whereof on the first
Friday of each month one [mass] (the first) shall be an anniversary for
the sovereigns of Spain, past, present, and to come. On Saturdays,
however, the said mass shall be celebrated in honor of the glorious
Virgin, for the safety and health of the said sovereigns respectively.
On the first Monday of each month the same mass shall be celebrated
solemnly for all the souls dwelling in purgatory. On other days,
however, the said first mass may be celebrated according to the wish
and intention of any one wishing to endow it, and the said bishops and
chapter may receive for the celebration of the same mass any endowment
offered them by any person whatsoever. The second mass, however,
celebrated at the hour of tierce, according to the fashion of the Roman
Church, is to be of the feast of the feria [88] that whoever celebrates
the chief mass besides the usual share [distributionem] assigned, or to
be assigned, to all taking part in that mass, gains a threefold stipend
more than by celebrating at any other hour; the deacon also is to
receive a double stipend; and the subdeacon a single. And whoever shall
not have been present at the chief mass, is not to gain the tertia and
sexta [89] of that day, unless he have been away for reasonable and
just cause, and with leave of the dean, or whoever presided in choir at
the time; and herein we charge the conscience both of him who seeks
leave [to be away] and of him who grants it. And whoso likewise has
been present at matins and lauds shall gain a stipend threefold greater
than at any other hour of the day, besides the stipend for prime, even
though he were not present at it. We wish also, and by the aforesaid
authority decree that whoever was absent [from choir] at the first
vespers, or procession, or the chief mass of any feast of first class,
or was absent from the matins of Christmas or Easter, shall lose the
whole stipend of that day, even though he were present at the other
hours. Moreover, we ordain that chapter be held twice a week, namely,
on the third feria and the sixth; that on the third feria current
business matters be treated therein; while on the sixth feria nothing
else be treated of than the correction and emendation of faults
[morum], and of whatever appertains to the due celebration of divine
worship and the safeguarding of the decorum of clerics in and through
all things both in Church and outside. On all other days chapter is
forbidden, unless a case of emergency should warrant it. But hereby we
wish not that the jurisdiction of ourselves or our successors relative
to the correction and punishment of the said canons and of other
persons of our cathedral church should in any way be hampered. On the
contrary, in accordance with the chapter rules of the decree of the
Council of Trent, we reserve all jurisdiction, correction, and
punishment whatsoever of the said persons to ourselves and our
successors.

Likewise, by the same authority, we resolve and ordain that, in order
that any cleric of our said church and diocese having first tonsure
enjoy [his] privilege, he must carry the clerical tonsure [90] of the
size of one silver real [regalis] of the usual money of Spain; his hair
at the back of the head shall he wear clipped with scissors [scisirra]
only for two fingers’ breadth below the ears; he shall go decently
appareled, namely, with a cloak, or mantilla, or robe, commonly styled
loba, or a closed or open mantle reaching to the ground, not however of
red or yellow, but of some quiet color, which is to be used not only
for the outside clothing, but for the inner also.

Moreover, we determine and ordain that in choir, at the altar, in
processions, and on all other occasions relating to divine and church
worship, the ritual and ordo [91] to be used in our cathedral and in
all the parish churches of our diocese is to be the one held and
followed by holy Roman Church. And, by the same authority, we declare
and decree that, in the interest of good government and the adornment
of our cathedral and parish churches, we and our successors are
empowered and enabled freely and lawfully to employ and transplant the
praiseworthy and approved uses, fashions, and customs of other
churches, the Mexican especially, to which we and our church are
subject by metropolitan law.

Moreover, the divine office, of both daytime and night, at mass, as
well as in the hours in choir and outside must always follow the custom
and use of the Roman Church.

Moreover all the households, inhabitants, settlers, and residents,
inside the aforesaid city as well as in the suburbs thereof, at the
present time or hereafter inhabitants or dwellers therein, we depute
and assign as parishioners of our same cathedral church, which we have
erected forever in honor of the most blessed Virgin, until such time as
a division of parishes may conveniently be made by us or our
successors; and to it by parish law all the aforesaid shall pay their
tithes and first fruits and make their offerings, and from the rector
or rectors of the same church they shall all of them receive all the
sacraments.

While, moreover, to the same rector or rectors, we grant and bestow the
power of conferring the aforesaid sacraments to their said
parishioners, to the parishioners themselves, we likewise give leave to
receive the same sacraments from the said rectors.

And whereas change of circumstances calls for new arrangements, by the
said apostolic authority we reserve for ourselves and our successors,
for the time being, the fullest, free, and absolute power and
authority, in all the aforesaid [arrangements], and relative to the
same, to commend, correct, change, restrict, and enlarge and in the
future even to establish and ordain otherwise. Let our successors
however employ wisely this free and absolute power, and be always
mindful of the warning of the Apostle that power has been given to
prelates by God for edification and not for ruin. In order that in any
changes they may essay in the aforesaid, they move not rashly and
without wisdom, nor through mere self will, nor through hatred or
partiality, but to the honor of God alone and Church and the spread and
advantage of the commonwealth, let them first sift the matter
thoroughly with the advice of skilled and Godfearing counselors, that
they pass not the bounds set by our fathers: “Pass not,” saith the
wise man, “beyond the ancient bounds which thy fathers have set.”
[92]

For sin lieth not in one’s passing beyond the bounds, but in the
motive [causa] for one’s thus passing beyond, that it be done,
namely, not through caprice but through necessity. Accordingly, since
in the present erection all matters have been established and ordained
by us, who therein have not followed our own fancy but the views of the
Fathers, hence the things which we have decreed and ordained are to be
held and kept and worshiped as so many oracles of the Fathers, nor,
therefore, to be changed or altered without great advantage and
necessity. In virtue then of our letters, and by the apostolic
authority granted to us therein, which in this regard we are employing
in the best way, manner, and form in our power, we erect, establish,
create, do, dispose, and ordain all and singular the above together
with all and singular the things needed and opportune thereto,
notwithstanding all things whatsoever to the contrary, those things
especially which in his apostolic letters our said most holy master
wished not to conflict with what therein was inserted. Wherefore, to
all and singular, who are present or will be of no matter what state,
rank, order, preëminence, or condition they be, we hereby intimate,
insinuate, and convey and bring to their knowledge, all and singular,
those things. Moreover, we wish and through these presents by the
aforesaid authority we command all and singular the above, in virtue of
holy obedience that they observe and cause to be observed, all and
singular, the things as by us established. In faith and testimony
whereof, of all and singular the foregoing, we have ordered and had
these present letters or present public instrument, with our common
seal attached, drawn up, and written and published by the notary public
as below. Given at Manila, in the Island of Luzon, the twenty-first of
the month of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand five
hundred and eighty-one.


Brother Domingo, bishop of the Philippines.

By order of my most reverend master

    Salvator Argone, apostolic notary and secretary.







LETTER FROM ANTONIO SEDEÑO TO FELIPE II


Royal Cæsarean Majesty:

Don Goncalo Ronquillo, your Majesty’s governor in these islands, the
bishop therein, and your Majesty’s officials petitioned me last year,
82, to order and give permission to Father Alonso Sanchez (who came to
these islands when I, with other religious of the Society of Jesus,
came hither, sent here by your Majesty’s orders) to go to China and
the city of Macan upon negotiations which the abovesaid communicated to
me as of your Majesty’s service. Upon consideration of the gravity of
the matters which demanded that expedition and the great service to God
and to your Majesty that might result therefrom, although it was
difficult for me, as I had no other priest associate except him in
these islands, and because of the need for him here, yet the
consideration abovesaid of God and your Majesty could not excuse it. He
went on that expedition, and I shall not be prolix on what occurred
both on the sea and in the land of China where the father wandered and
remained for about a year, and what he did in Macan and the despatches
that he brought regarding the obedience which that city rendered to
your Majesty and of all the other things that happened during that
time; for the father will inform your Majesty of it, as he ought, in
his letter, and more at length in a report which he is sending with
this and the other despatches. [93]

In order that we might know your Majesty’s will, and thereby that of
God; and since those of us who are here are in duty bound, since we
live in lands so remote from the shade of their king, to give you
advice of what we think will fulfil that obligation: I thought (since
it was necessary to write), that I would tell your Majesty the reason
for the many troubles and evils that have come upon this country, and
the wrongs that are worth correction. Your Majesty will be informed of
them in detail in many other ways, and they relate not only to the
wrongs against the native Indians of the country and against the
Chinese, which are of so great importance, but against the Spaniards
themselves and that which is most to the wrong of your Majesty and your
royal crown. Although the branch whence this fruit [of troubles] is
gathered, is other, yet the root which is reported is the governors who
come to these islands, and the insatiable greed which they bring hither
or which, at their arrival, is impressed sufficiently on them.
Consequently, not only to God (which is more easy for them), but even
to men (and of which men may judge and advise your Majesty), do they
break through the veil of their shame in order to do things that
neither I nor anyone else who has any shame would dare to break in
order to relate them—and nearly everything, or everything in this
matter of injuries, has every kind of mediator mixed up in it. For if
already God has desired to give your Majesty occasion to make an
innovation in the matter of the governor, it must now be innovated,
even if in regard to former governors, neither in person nor in fact is
there anything to say. But that which in the future we dare report with
all humility (only because of the compassion which the destruction of
this land of your Majesty causes us) is that if it be possible he who
shall be governor do not come from España. For since he is suddenly
changed and dispossessed of his possessions and property that he had
there, and spends all his substance on account of the so long journey
and preparation for it, and even arrives deeply in debt, and with many
followers and people who are destitute and rely on his protection; and
also perhaps has to provide and to satisfy their past expenses and even
present hunger, to provide houses for them, and to give them the
offices which he has promised—this, and what is necessary to
reimburse him for his expenses, and afterward to fatten him to the
proportion that his hunger demands and that the pasturage invites (that
pasture here being very sufficient to swell the breasts, although it be
at the cost of the poor and beyond doubt that of your Majesty, for whom
the governor with his artifices and those of his intimate friends is
destroying the land)—I declare that for only the abovesaid for each
new governor who comes from España, we need a new and a very rich and
abundant land such as this was formerly. Now we behold it almost
destroyed and it does not need much to completely destroy it, [which
will happen] if only another governor comes who will exercise the
cunning abovementioned; especially if he should have the support of a
wife and children, and some relatives and friends and clients for whom
to provide in proportion to their imagination and their desires.

In accordance with the above, your Majesty (for the said causes) ought
to order now that he who should become governor should not come from
España, because of the service of God, which is the only thing that
moves us here, because of compassion for this country, whose so great
remoteness is a reason for your Majesty to have that compassion, as you
do not see how it is given over, and because of your royal crown to
which you are under obligations. For it is considered and judged that
there will be persons here who can serve your Majesty satisfactorily in
this office. Of those here your Majesty should not appoint any one
indiscriminately for the present, until this land regains its strength
and vigor. Nor less should there be here so great a burden of wife,
children, relatives, friends, and other people, to whom the governor is
under obligations, and for whom almost by necessity he must fulfil that
obligation at the cost of your Majesty and of this your land. Although
we are aware that we are very audacious and bold toward so great a
Majesty as to point out to you a person, yet placed between two things
so weighty on the one part as the abovesaid, and on the other the
reverence due your Majesty, we are bold in preference toward your
Majesty, which is not so serious a matter according to our opinion, as
would be boldness toward God and to that which we (some persons of us
who have discussed the reform of this land) judge that we are obliged
by true respect for Him (I mean of God) and compassion for this land
and your Majesty’s service. The above then, has made us here feel and
write to your Majesty that the factor Juan Baptista Roman, [94] whom
your Majesty has appointed in these islands, is a man of great
judgment, prudence, clear understanding, and (unless we are deceived),
of good conscience. He has always opposed the governor and other
persons in regard to matters which he perceived were not being attended
to in accordance with your Majesty’s instructions and decrees, as
well as in many other matters of your royal service, for almost no
injury that does not bear, or result in, damage to the royal crown can
be done in this land. The above-named person is here, and will incur no
further expenses, or new and lawless famines, or [expenses of] wife, or
children, or any other frauds that we can perceive; although we believe
that he is so prudent a man that he could have them without their being
perceived. But this is also difficult and there cannot be much when it
is not seen. It does not appear that one can be judged prolix in a
matter so weighty and important, even if I have been so.

In addition to the above, I am obliged to inform your Majesty that in
the year 81, and at your Majesty’s order and decree, which the
viceroy of Nueva España has for that purpose, I was sent to these
islands with three others—one the priest whom I mentioned above as
having served your Majesty in the expedition to China, and the other
two well fitted for the service of this land, although one of them has
died. We came to consider whether this land was a place where we could
serve God and your Majesty. Now, inasmuch as we have to send our
determination concerning the matter to our general as he is awaiting
it, we find ourselves in confusion, for we had to write that we cannot
stay here, or else to tell him in what way we can stay and to ask for
more men. We have not been able to find any other way except to do our
duty. Will your Majesty order that the Society occupy itself as in the
other parts [of the Indias] where they are established, in rearing and
instructing the children of this city and of these islands, and in
teaching grammar to those who should be [fitted] for it. Let those who
are now about to be able to do something take some lectures in
philosophy, or theology, or at least cases of conscience, so that the
Society may have something to do, and the community be aided. For now
not only the children, but also many adults and those ordained by some
of the orders are misguided. Both they and many others whom God
influences and will influence to change their estate and become priests
or religious have no relief or do one or the other thing, or else go to
España. Many seculars and religious have not been completely reformed
in their studies, or do nothing or do it wrongly. They are filled with
doubts and have no one who can settle those doubts for them. They will
not be able to take any Indians into the Society unless there is a
house in Manila to serve as the mother of all the ministers who should
go to the Indians; for, according to their custom, they do not fulfil
their duty by having absolute and exclusive houses however few they
be—one or two or three—but although they be among Indians, those
houses must be subordinate to the large house so that the order may be
preserved. If this house and seminary be thus established for the said
teaching, your Majesty will save much of the trouble and expense of
sending ministers from so great a distance as five thousand leguas, who
after their arrival do not accustom themselves to the land or to the
difficulty of the language. Some of them return and few of them really
settle. But those here are already accustomed to the climate and are
skilled in the customs and language. Consequently, in the time that it
takes one to come from España, one is turned out here, and one of
those already naturalized and with two years of grammar is worth more
than a preacher who comes from España and at so great an expense. For
the little with which your Majesty can establish this seminary or fount
of ministers here, it appears that it would be sufficient to apply some
little trifle from your Majesty’s treasury; and with that the Society
will have a new obligation here and everywhere to serve your Majesty,
in addition to the many that it has already. May God preserve your
Majesty’s health and life, and prolong it for as many years as we see
to be necessary here for His great honor and glory. Manila, June 17,
1583. Your Majesty’s unworthy servant in the Lord.


    Antonio Sedeño







LETTER FROM DOMINGO DE SALAZAR TO FELIPE II


Royal Cæsarean Majesty:

In this letter (the fourth of those which I am writing to your
Majesty), I intend to discuss a matter no less important than those
which I have discussed in the others. This matter is that when I came
to this land, the provincial of the Society of Jesus who resides in the
City of Mexico sent here at your Majesty’s orders four religious of
his order. They consisted of Father Antonio Sedeño, who came as rector
and occupies that position at present, and Father Alonso Sanchez, whom
I have mentioned in the letter which I wrote in regard to Chinese
affairs, and two other religious who were not priests, one of whom died
at sea, and the other of whom is still alive. Those fathers came to
this land to examine and consider the opportunity that may exist here
for the Society to settle and send religious here. That is in
accordance with the practice of that order before they settle
definitely. Inasmuch as they have as yet had no time to write to their
general how the land impresses them, for Father Alonso Sanchez was
absent on the expedition to China last year; and desiring now to write
their impressions of it they both came to speak to me and said that
they had considered the manner in which they could come to this land to
serve God and your Majesty according to the custom of their order; and
that since they had to write their resolution to their provincial and
general, that resolution was that they would go away unless they could
remain in a religious manner and busy themselves in the things in which
that order is wont [to busy itself] in all other districts, namely, the
teaching of letters and the instruction. They said that support was
necessary for those religious who had no other thing to do than to
teach and study, just as for the other religious in the villages of the
Indians. Since they did not see any disposition or possibility to be
able to build a college where they could have a sufficient number of
religious to conserve their order, and to maintain there persons who
might have charge of the teaching of the children and the others, of
whom they might wish to make use, from the first letters of the
alphabet to the arts and theology, they could not write otherwise to
their superiors than that there was no disposition for the Society to
be established here. I was very sorry to hear that, for I assure your
Majesty with the truth that I owe you, that, since my arrival in these
islands, I have had no other recourse or consolation than in them in
all the matters that have been offered to me and all the afflictions in
which I have found myself (which have not been few). Had I been without
them I believe that I would not have dared to have remained in the
land. Leaving out of consideration what concerns me for my consolation
and the security of my conscience, their establishment in this city and
in these islands is so necessary, that not only should your Majesty not
permit those who are here to go away, but it is necessary that you
order their general and provincial of Nueba España to send others to
keep them company, so that they may enter upon the exercises of their
order and inaugurate a college, where they may have persons to teach
the children of the inhabitants of this city and those of the hamlets
of these islands, as well as the mestizos and the sons of the chief
Indians. They should also have persons to teach grammar and matters of
conscience which are so necessary in this land. This college cannot be
established at present unless your Majesty be pleased to order that,
until such time as there be in these islands, a founder [95] of the
said college, according to the custom of these fathers, it be attended
to from the royal estate; or, if your Majesty prefer, that a fund be
created from some villages that are assigned to the royal crown for
that purpose, for what period your Majesty may order. By that means the
religious who are to work in the teaching as abovesaid can be
supported. Although this appears to be a great expense even for your
Majesty, yet consider the extreme necessity of this so that this land
may be maintained and advance, and that if those tributes are not
employed in this manner, they will be given to soldiers who as is
understood will not use them, as well as the fathers will, especially
since we do not petition that this be permanent but that it be only for
a limited time or until there may be a founder [of a college] here. I
trust in the divine Goodness that many days will not pass before some
one will be invited to become a founder and will have the good fortune
to be admitted as such.

There is another more urgent reason that makes me dare to petition your
Majesty to concede this favor to the fathers, or rather, to me and to
this city and these islands, namely, that although this seems to be an
expense and drain to the royal estate, it really is not so, but a
saving of the expenses and drain. For your Majesty cannot neglect to
annually send ministers, either seculars or religious, or some of both,
for the discharge of your royal conscience, in order that they may work
at the conversion and maintenance of these natives. Since the way is so
long the expense is necessarily very heavy; and it is a pity that after
a friar has been brought here at so great trouble and expense, on his
arriving here, he finds that the land is not to his taste nor the
Indians what he expected, and consequently he desires to return
immediately. Further, if one oppose this, it means the useless
detention of one who will attain his end. Experience has shown us that
this does not happen from one man or for only one time. Pursuing the
argument those who come from that country accustom themselves to the
land very slowly, and many years elapse before they know languages by
which they may profit the natives, and some do not even begin to study
them, while many leave the land after they have learned them. Therefore
if this college be established, your Majesty will save great expense,
since ministers will be reared therein (and they will really be reared
there) who can profit the natives much, your Majesty will not be
obliged to send so many religious from España as you would have to if
none were reared here; and consequently the expense will not be so
heavy. In addition, the inconveniences found in those who come from
España will not be met in those reared here, for a minister of our own
can be turned out here in the time that it would take one to come here.
Those who are reared here are accustomed to the manners and customs
here: and the college will graduate masters thoroughly instructed for
necessary work among the Indians. If this college is established, the
soldier whom God touches will resolve to become a secular upon seeing a
place where he can study, and I shall have persons to appoint from
their number to the church service and to the villages of the Indians.
Those villages are innumerable and have no person to tell them that
there is a God. I know that there are many who neglect to change their
status [i.e., to become priests] because they see the poor disposition
at the present, and some of them are so excellent interpreters that
they would prove very useful. This college would also be profitable for
the religious who are here, for the graduates from it would be ready to
be received into the orders. Those who are received at present remain
as ignorant as when they enter, inasmuch as they have no arrangements
for study. That causes me no slight scruple when they present
themselves before me for ordination, while the inconveniences ensuing
from men so ignorant having charge of the administration of so many
Indians as at present, are not few. The above reasons and my obligation
to procure and consider the welfare of this land have given me the
boldness to petition your Majesty to please have the said college
instituted in which the fathers of the Society may live for the
purposes above mentioned. If your Majesty bestow this concession upon
us it will give life to this land and give it an impetus for great
onward growth. Of a surety, your Majesty should not hold the dignity of
this city in small consideration, but should exalt it, for as I say in
another place, your Majesty has nothing of more importance anywhere in
the Yndias than this city. If this college is not built, I do not know
how we can maintain ourselves in the ministry of these Indians, nor
where we can get ministers who will serve the Church. For seven or
eight students whom I ordained with the hope that there would be
someone to teach them, remain in the same condition as when they were
ordained because there is no one to teach them. They are disconsolate,
and I am troubled because I ordained them. Many, as I have remarked,
hesitate to become seculars although they desire it, because of the
poor arrangements that they see for it. Therefore, I humbly petition
your Majesty to order the fathers of the Society to come to this city
either in the above manner or in any other way that your Majesty may
prefer, for by their aid and by their solicitude in caring for the
interests of the community, I trust that this city will once more lift
up its head, for it is now fallen very low.

The above is not the only good that is claimed for, and hoped from,
this college, but there is another of equal and even greater
importance, namely, the aid of the Indians. The fathers claim that they
will aid them and have already asked me for villages so that they may
begin to treat with the Indians. But since the Society is wont to have
a seminary wherever it goes, where those who take the habit of their
order are reared so that each one may go thence to work in the
salvation of souls either of Spaniards or Indians, according to the
order of their superiors, those fathers say that if they do not have
such a college they cannot persevere in this land, for the above is
their manner of preservation and the source of their profit to their
neighbors.

Confident in your Majesty’s kindness, I have prevailed upon those
fathers not to write their general of their intention of departing, but
on the contrary to write him to send others to live with them. I have
assured them that when your Majesty sees the necessity of their coming
here, your Majesty will be pleased to have this concession that we beg
bestowed upon us, or some other which will be better for all of us. In
the meanwhile I shall endeavor to support and to aid them here in
everything, for they also aid me and all this community considerably,
by which your Majesty is not slightly served.

Inasmuch as fathers of the Society will come to this land if your
Majesty grant us this favor, and many will take their habit here (and I
hope religious of my order as well who have not come here as yet), it
will be necessary for your Majesty to issue a royal decree ordering
those religious who have more Indians in charge than they can
conveniently instruct to allow the religious who shall come later or
the seculars who shall come from that country or those who shall be
here to enter upon the instruction of those Indians whom the former are
unable to instruct, in order that I may not have quarrels and strife
with the religious who are here now. The decision of this matter should
be for the bishop and not for the religious, for by embracing a large
territory and by preventing others from entering their districts, they
have taken in this entire bishopric, so that they are trying to occupy
with one friar the space that four or five could not suitably fill.
Whenever I endeavor to relieve this situation the friars complain that
I am preventing them from exercising their prerogatives, and they
prefer to allow souls to perish rather than to allow other friars to
enter to help them. If your Majesty do not correct this, we must
necessarily be at strife, for I cannot, on my conscience, avoid aiding
those souls whom I see to be perishing. May our Lord preserve your
Majesty’s royal Catholic person for many years for the good of His
holy Church, and the conservation of so many and so great kingdoms as
our Lord has placed under your Majesty’s protection. Manila, June 18,
1583. Royal Cæsarean Majesty, your least servant and chaplain kisses
your Majesty’s royal hands.


    Fray Domingo, bishop of the Filipinas.


[Endorsed: “Have a decree issued ordering the president and the
bishop to discuss together how the contents of this letter may be best
complied with and with what income. In the meanwhile let them settle
and determine how the adequate instruction that the Society petitions
may be best obtained.”]







RELATION OF THE PHILIPINAS ISLANDS


The islands of the West, which are commonly called Philipinas, are so
numerous that no number can be assigned to them, and most of them are
inhabited. They begin almost at Maluco and run in a general north and
south direction to the island of Luzon, which is the northernmost and
the nearest to China and Japon. This island of Luzon, the one where we
are settled, is the principal one of the islands, and the richest and
largest. It is about four hundred leguas in circumference. It was
formerly circumnavigated by Captain Juan de Salzedo and then after the
year 80 by Captain Don Juan de Arze at the order of Governor Francisco
de Sande. It extends northwest and southeast. This island has many
different peoples and languages quite distinct one from the other. The
principal ones, however, are the Tagálogs, whom the Spaniards commonly
call Moros, though without any right or reason, for they are not nor
have ever been Moros. Others are the Pampangos, Zambales, Ylocos, and
Camarines. The remaining peoples can be reduced to the above. [96] This
island has four large wealthy provinces where the Spaniards are
colonized at present.

The first is the province of the Tagálogs and Pampangos. It is near
the city of Manila which was founded by Adelantado Miguel Lopez del
Gaspi. The governors [of the islands] now reside here. It is located in
a latitude of fourteen and two-thirds degrees. The people of this
province are the best of all these islands. They are the most civilized
and are truly our friends. They are better clothed than the others,
both men and women. They are a light-complexioned people, well-built
and even-featured, and are very fond of adorning themselves with
jewels, of which they have a great plenty. They also reap large
harvests of rice and of cotton, and weave considerable cloth which is
exported to Nueva España; while there is wax in great abundance. They
are keen traders, and have traded with China for many years, and before
the advent of the Spaniards, they sailed to Maluco, Malaca, Hazian,
[97] Parani, Burnei, and other kingdoms. These peoples had no kings in
these islands, but their method of government was by chiefs, who were
the ones who were most powerful and possessed more property. Those
chiefs were tyrannical to a degree, and treated all the other people
like slaves, seizing their possessions and children whenever they
pleased. They were very much inclined to wars and one village was
constantly waging war against another, so that there were very few that
were at peace, and they acted like barbarians in those wars. At the
death of any chief, they had to cut off many heads in order to avenge
his death, and they made many feasts and dances in honor of those
heads. As a sign of mourning they ate no cleaned rice for a whole year,
but only herbs and vegetables.

Their houses were filled with wooden and stone idols (which they called
Taotao and Lichac) for they had no temples. They said that the soul
entered into one of those idols at the death of any of their parents or
children. Consequently, they reverenced them and asked them for life,
health, and riches. Those idols were called anitos. When they were sick
they cast lots to ascertain which anito had caused them the sickness,
and thereupon made great sacrifices and feasts for that anito. Their
feasts always ended in drunken revels, for they were much given to the
vice of drinking, and it has happened that they will drink constantly
for two or three days. However, they have one characteristic, namely,
that although they are drunk, they do not entirely lose their senses,
and I have never seen any of them fall down because he was drunk. We
believe the reason to be because the wine, although powerful at the
beginning, soon loses its strength. They worshiped idols which were
called Alpriapo, Lacapati, and Meilupa, but God has, in His goodness,
enlightened them with the grace of His divine gospel, and they worship
the living God in spirit. All these people have abandoned all their
superstitions and alone profess the holy Catholic faith. [98] To the
glory of the Lord, most of them are Christians, and for those who are
not it is for no other lack than that of ministers, which is one of the
greatest pities and miseries that has ever been seen. All this people
give tribute in gold, silver, and other things, both to the king our
sovereign and to others [who are] private persons, by whom they are
seized and betrayed and compelled to perform services, both in the
raids and wars which are made, and in other services, and do not
receive instruction. Those people observe that fully and declare it.
There are many excellent churches, and the people are eager to serve
them. The boys are very clever and bright, and very easily learn how to
write, read, sing, play, and dance. They are taught all those things so
that the church may be better served and so that they may be incited to
become good Christians upon seeing how to serve God. I have always
lived in this province, where I have baptized many with my own
hand—more, I believe, counting little and big, than one thousand. I
trust, God helping, from what I have learned of them, that many of them
are saved. The boys especially will become excellent Christians; for
they have lively understanding and take very earnestly to the things of
our holy faith and become such that our Spaniards are astonished at it.
I have confessed many, both men and women, and I have been astonished
to see with what contrition they confess, and how well they know how to
accuse themselves—much better than many Spaniards. There are very few
in this province who are not Christians although they have not heard
the preaching for more than ten years, for before that time there was
enough to do in pacifying the land. They hold the holy water in great
devotion and always keep it in their houses. They take it to their
fields and whatever their necessity, they immediately go to the church
for water. They even bathe their swellings with holy water, and always
take it on entering and leaving the church so that it is necessary to
replenish the founts two or three times a week.

It is a temperate land and not so hot as is thought there [in España];
especially for eight months of the year when no cold or heat is felt.
The city of Manila is located near the sea, whose waves beat against
the houses, on the shore of a very large and full river. That river
flows from a lake located about six leguas from the city. That lake is
of fresh water, is thirty leguas in circumference, and its marge and
[surrounding] mountains are densely populated. There are twelve
convents with their churches which are very large and well built of
wood in the vicinity of that lake. Eight of them are of discalced
friars [99] (and two of those convents are now built of stone), and the
other four belong to the Augustinian fathers. There are also many other
churches in the villages which are the visitas of the capitals where
the convents are located. That lake is divided among ten encomenderos
[100] and they live very well, for it is a rich land and abounds in all
kinds of food, especially game and fish, more than one would believe
possible, and also buffaloes, deer, and [wild] swine. The city of
Manila is well supplied from there.

The people of this island are very skilful in their handling of gold.
They weigh it with the greatest skill and delicacy that has ever been
seen. The first thing that they teach their children is the knowledge
of gold and the weights with which they weigh it, for there is no other
money among them. This province, as well as all the others, has the
greatest abundance of cocoa palms. This is one of the most fruitful and
profitable trees that has ever been found hitherto for [the sustenance
of] human life. The things that are obtained from this tree seem
incredible to one who has not seen it. For, first, the wood is used in
the construction of houses, and the leaves are used for tiles. The
fruit is the cocoanut which is good to eat. They have a liquor inside,
from which is made milk for cooking rice and other things. Oil is
obtained from it which is medicinal like the oil of aparicio. Drinking
vessels are made from the shells and a considerable number of them are
taken to España. Wine is also made from it (and it is so good that
that of España is no better), as well as brandy, vinegar, honey,
preserves, and other things that I do not remember. Consequently from
the palm the people get whatever they wish. This province contains a
very great abundance of game such as buffaloes (which the other islands
do not have), many deer, wild boars, a great abundance of goats, and
many waterfowl. Many swine and fowl are raised in the houses, eight of
the latter being sold for four reals. A very great abundance of fish
including sardines are caught in all the settlements of this island,
and those people relish it more than meat.



Province of Ylocos

The second part of the island of Luzon is the province of Ylocos, which
is located more northerly than Manila. That province contains a Spanish
settlement called Villa Fernandina, which was founded by Captain Juan
de Salzedo by order of Governor Guido de Labazares. It is seventy
leguas from Manila and lies in eighteen degrees of latitude. That
province is densely populated and contains larger settlements than the
other provinces. The people are however more barbarous, and they are
not so well clad or so light complexioned as the others. They are
husbandmen and possess very large fields. Consequently, it is a land
abounding in rice and cotton. [101] There is also considerable gold,
for the chief mines of these islands are situated in the mountains of
that province. Those people enjoy it for they have more communication
with the miners than anyone else. The Spaniards have endeavored often
to colonize the mines in order to work them; but it has as yet been
impossible, although Governor Gonçalo Ronquillo was very hot after it,
and it cost him many men as the land is very rude and food is scarce.
That province of Ylocos is a very unhealthful land and consequently
poorly populated by Spaniards. It contains many churches and
Christians, and all the people are not wholly Christian because of the
lack of ministers. They desire and beg to be made Christians. They are
a very simple, domestic, and peaceful people, large of body and very
strong. They are a most cleanly race, especially the women in their
houses, which they keep very neat and clean. They have a practice of
going three or four times a day to bathe in the river. [102]



Province of Cagayan

About thirty leguas farther on from that Villa Fernandina and past the
cape called Boxeador and in a latitude of nineteen degrees lies the
province and river of Cagayan. It is a very large province and very
densely populated and exceedingly well supplied with rice, cotton,
[103] very large fowls, deer, buffaloes, and a great quantity of wax.
The shore of that river which is called Tajo is very large. About two
leguas from the sea is settled the city of [Nueva] Segovia. It was
colonized by Captain Juan Pablo de Carrion by order of Governor Don
Gonçalo Ronquillo. That river is about eighty leguas distant from
China, less rather than more. Inasmuch as it is so near, and also
because it contains so many people and is so rich and well supplied
with food, the effort has been made often to completely subdue it and
settle it, but that effort has not as yet been successful. I believe
the cause is the few Spaniards and the few religious that can enter it
at one time. That land is very fitting for commerce with China as that
country is so near, and has excellent rivers for galleys and ships. One
can cross to China in one and one-half days, and the mainland of China
is often reached at night. In the month of March of the year 82,
Captain Juan Pablo de Carrion went to colonize that province, and since
then many more people than before live there. [104] When he reached
that place he found a fleet of Japanese pirates who desired to settle
there and had taken possession of the river. Passing through their
midst without receiving any harm, he went up higher on the river and
with the greatest haste made a sort of fort from an old galley that he
had, in which he mounted his artillery as well as possible. The
Japanese general wrote him a letter, in which he said that he knew well
that they were robbers like himself, but that he was there first, and
had come at his king’s command; consequently, if Carrion wished him
to go away and leave him the river he was to give him a large sum of
gold. The captain replied to him that he came only to protect the
natives and to take from the Japanese the gold that they had seized
from them and drive them out of the country. When the Japanese found
that nothing would be given them, more than six hundred men came one
morning at dawn to attack the fort, armed with excellent muskets and
weapons. Our men numbered about eighty but they were defended by their
small fort of old stakes. A great number of the Japanese were killed
while not more than one of our men was killed, and it is even said that
he was killed by accident by those who were inside the fort. When the
Japanese saw how evilly the day was going for them and tasted of the
skill of the Spaniards, they determined to retreat, and leave not only
the fort, but also our men and return to their country. I was told by
Father Francisco Cabral, [105] of the Society of Jesus, who was then
provincial in Japon, that he had talked with them and that they were
afraid of the Spaniards, and said that such people [as the Spaniards]
had never been seen. They were astonished above all else at the
rapidity and skill with which the Spaniards discharged their weapons.
Surely they had good reason to be afraid, for I believe that there is
now no better soldiery than that of the Philipinas, especially the
arquebusiers. The people of the province cf Cagayam resemble those of
Ylocos. They are very vile, and poorly dressed, but are fine
husbandmen. Christianity has not entered there to any extent, but there
are some fathers there. They have begun to build churches although the
land is not entirely quiet. It will be pacified soon, our Lord willing,
as in the other parts, especially if there are priests to send.



Province of Camarines

The other cape of this island of Luzon lying to the southeast is called
Buza y Gan. [106] It lies in a latitude of thirteen and one-third
degrees. There is a port there which is at times made by the ships from
Mexico. Twenty leguas from the cape of Buza y Gan inland is the village
of [Nueva] Caceres. That village was colonized by Captain Don Juan de
Arze at the order of Governor Francisco Sande.

That province is called Camarines and is very large and densely
populated. It contains many small provinces in its confines. The people
are well featured and are excellent husbandmen, and therefore they have
considerable rice. There are many gold mines in that province and many
excellent goldsmiths after their fashion. Those men roam throughout the
island in order to gain their living. Many interesting things made by
them are taken to Mexico, especially filigree work. It is a very
healthful land, has good air, and is well populated by Spaniards. That
province also contains many Christians. Its people are very ready to
receive our holy faith, and are of considerable intelligence; but they
are not all Christians for lack of ministers. [107] It is a cause for
pity to see so much ready for the harvest in these islands and to see
how few workers there are, although they are full to overflowing in the
convents of España. The above is what occurs to me to tell briefly of
the island of Luzon and of the city of Manila. Manila is of great
importance viewed in any light, and must become very great and a
general center for many parts. The distance from this city of Manila to
the city of Macan in China is one hundred and sixty leguas. The
Japanese also are slightly farther away from the upper point of this
island, namely, the cape of Boxador. The island of Burnei is one
hundred and eighty leguas from Manila and extends northeast and
southwest from Manila. It is a very large island and densely populated.
Doctor Francisco de Sande went to that island in the year 78, with
three royal galleys and some other small ships and less than four
hundred men, to summon the king of the island to make peace and
friendship with us; for the natives of Luzon were daily threatening us
with the coming of the king of Burney. When Sande arrived near the
island he sent two Indian interpreters with a message to the king, but
the latter refused to listen to the message, and with great fury
ordered the ambassadors to be killed. However, it was the Lord’s will
that one of them should escape as by a miracle, for he made a vow when
he beheld himself in that predicament to become a Christian if the Lord
would save him. The Lord saved him and he afterward performed his vow
and is now an excellent Christian, and has produced much fruit among
his fellow-natives, as I am a good witness. When the governor learned
of the insult that the king of Burnei had shown him, he resolved to
gain by force what they refused to give him willingly. The king of
Burneo sailed out into the sea with a great number of galleys and
galliots and a considerable quantity of good artillery. But when our
artillery was discharged, and the Borneans saw that it had so long a
range, while their own had no effect, they began to turn and flee. The
small ships went in pursuit of them and captured their galleys which
they had abandoned and a quantity of their artillery, although much of
the latter was also thrown into the water. The governor followed up his
victory, and entered the city where he pillaged a great part of wealth.
Almost all the people fled to the mountains. That city was very large
and rich, and was built on a very broad and deep river, and had the
appearance of another Venecia. [108] The buildings were of wood, but
the houses were excellently constructed, many of them being constructed
with stone work and gilded, especially the king’s palaces which were
of huge size. That city contained a very sumptuous mosque, a very large
and interesting building quite covered with half-relief and gilded.
When the governor returned to Manila he ordered that mosque to be
burned. That king of Burnay is a Moro from Meca and is the ruler of the
seaports and rivers of that island where he has settlements of Moros.
The natives of the island however are heathen as are all the other
peoples of the Philipinas. The governor sent a message to the king in
order to get him to make peace with him, but it was impossible to find
him for he refused to put in an appearance. More than five hundred
Indians came to make peace, among them an uncle of the king who acted
as his master-of-camp. At that juncture it was the Lord’s will that
all the men of our camp commenced to fall sick so that there was almost
no man in the camp who could perform sentinel duty, and many died. It
was thought to be caused by an herb which the natives put into the food
or which they had thrown into the water. The governor was, therefore,
forced to abandon the settlement and return to Manila. The Moro king
returned to his city and rebuilt his mosque and fort. He has many
galleys and a quantity of artillery at present, but it will be of no
avail if the Spaniards return thither. It is reported that he had his
uncle killed as well as the other leaders who made peace. Burney is a
way-station of great importance, for it is on the way from Malaca to
Meluco, and Manila, while it is an excellent harbor for the fleets
which sail to Malaca destined far Patan, Sian, and other kingdoms. From
Manila toward the south lies Maluco at a distance of three hundred
leguas, and in the midst of the way lie the islands called Philipinas.
The latter are densely populated, well supplied with food, and rich in
gold. Among them are Mindanao, Sebu, Panay, and others which I do not
name although they are large. All the above-named islands are inhabited
by Pintados, whom we call Vizayos. They exhibit but few differences
among themselves. They are a robust and energetic race, and more
inclined to war and pillage than to work. They are not traders as are
those of Manila nor so wealthy, for they are satisfied if they have a
bit of rice and wine. The island of Zebu is one of these islands. It is
the province where the Spaniards were stationed, and where they
established the oldest colony on the seashore on one of the finest
harbors in the world. It was colonized by Adelantado Miguel Lopez de
Legazpi, and was called the city of Nombre de Jesus; for, when our men
went thither, they found a very beautiful child Jesus there, which had
been there since they had killed the famous Magallanes. The Indians
reverenced that image highly and commended themselves to it in their
necessities. Especially at times of drought they took it and bathed it
in the sea, whereupon the Lord gave them rain in plenty. It is now kept
in the convent of the Augustinian fathers of that city. That was the
first church in these islands. The Lord works many miracles at present
by means of that image. The Spaniards were living in that island when a
vast Portuguese fleet composed of galleys and galleons came to take
them to India. Its captain was a certain Gonçalo Pereira Marromaquez,
and notwithstanding that our men were so few [109] and had no fort,
they managed so discreetly and the Lord (who knew the great benefit
that must follow from their permanence), aided them so well that the
Portuguese retired in confusion seemingly with their hands to their
heads. That island [of Cebú] is small but very healthful. All its
inhabitants are Christians, being the oldest Christians of all the
islands. That island lies on the way and route to Malaca. The
adelantado went to the island of Panay from that island as it was
inadequate, after leaving a sufficient number of Spaniards there, and
settled on a large river called by the same name [of Panay]. He stayed
there until he went to Manila where even to this day is the settlement
of the Spaniards, and where I believe that it will always be as it is a
fine center. That island of Panay is the best of those under his
Majesty’s dominion except the island of Luzon. Its inhabitants are
Pintados like the others. It abounds in all sorts of provisions, and
has quantities of cotton cloth. It has an excellent Spanish colony at
the present, although it is not in the same location as at first. That
settlement is called the city of Arevalo. Panay is a healthful and
temperate island and contains many Christians, for there are a number
of convents of the Augustinian fathers in nearly all parts of it. There
are many other islands which are of quite large size and densely
populated. They are under the dominion of his Majesty and pay an annual
tribute. However, they have no Spanish colonies, and cannot have any,
because the Spaniards are few in number and have much to which to
attend. If his Majesty should send more men here to these islands, they
are located in a center where great things can be undertaken and
success assured, for finally as abovesaid all of the inhabitants are
Indians.







LETTER FROM JUAN BAUTISTA ROMAN TO FELIPE II


Sire:

For the last eleven years that I have been serving your Majesty in
these regions of the Indias, I have continually written what has
occurred to me regarding your royal service and the benefit and
increase of the treasury; and although nothing of notoriously great
convenience has been enacted, I shall not neglect to inform your
Majesty of the things that occur to me at present in order that I may
fulfil my obligation and discharge my conscience so that your Majesty
may enact what measures are most advisable.

Your Majesty will have heard from Nueva España of the depredations
that the English pirates have committed, and that two extremely small
ships—one of one hundred and fifty toneladas, and the other of one
hundred, and carrying seventy men in both ships—captured your
Majesty’s ship “Santa Ana” [110] of six hundred tons’ burden,
on the coast of Nueva España. It contained two thousand three hundred
marcos of gold belonging to private persons and one million
[ducados’] worth of merchandise with which it was laden. Then they
burned the vessel. Inasmuch as your Majesty will have as definite
information as that known here, I shall only relate what happened to
the English later according to what has been learned from them
themselves and what we have seen. After they had burned the ship, they
sailed toward these islands, but the smaller vessel went adrift in the
open sea. The other arrived in January of this year at the island of
Capul, the first island of these Filipinas, which forms a strait with
this large island of Luzon. The captain bought some food from the
Indians at Capul, for which he paid them very liberally and did them no
damage. He hanged a Spaniard whom he had brought from the ship “Santa
Ana,” one Alonso de Valladolid, because he found on him a letter in
which he advised the president of the royal Audiencia of all that had
happened. The Indian who was to carry the letter and who was the
servant of the said Spaniard, escaped by swimming and concealed himself
so securely in the island that the English were unable to find him.
They told the Indians of the island that they were hostile to the
Spaniards, and that they had left their country for the sole purpose of
harming us. They said that they would return with a fleet within three
years, in order to colonize these islands and drive us out of them; and
that they did not care for any tribute from the Indians, but only for
their friendship and trade. After a stay of eleven days they set sail
and went to another island called Panae, more distant from this
settlement of Manila, and toward the south. There is a small city in
that island called Arevalo of which Captain Don Juan Ronquillo is
alcalde-mayor. A large ship was being built nearby at the expense of
the royal treasury. The Englishmen arrived between the hamlet and the
shipyard where the ship was building on the seventh of February, where
he captured by means of his ship’s boat a sailor who was coasting
along in a boat quite inapprehensive of any such danger. All the
information that could he desired was learned from that sailor. Next
day the Englishman landed the sailor with a letter for one Manuel
Lorenço, who had the construction of the ship in charge. The letter
contained some threats and arguments of little moment and was signed
Tomas Candis of Trimbley, as your Majesty will see by the original in
the papers sent by the president. At that time that sailor learned of
the disaster to the “Santa Ana,” from one of the Portuguese who had
been captured and from certain Flemish sailors whom he knew. It was
also learned immediately from the Indian who had escaped in Capul. Both
of them declared the captain to be a youth of twenty-two or
twenty-three, and that the ship contained scarcely forty Englishmen.
After having done that the English set sail and laid their course
toward the island of Vindenao, the last one of these Filipinas lying
toward Maluco. They will necessarily be forced to winter in some desert
island near Maluco (as Francisco Draque did) until the month of
December, for they can not make use of the brisas of this year for the
voyage to, and the doubling of, the cape of Buena Hesperanza, as it is
already very late. And especially since it would take all the rest of
February and March to sail to the Javas, where one disembogues from
this archipelago into the open sea, for that distance is more than four
hundred leguas, and one can sail only by day because of the great
labyrinth of the many shoals, channels, and doublings which are
encountered, where one needs a small boat to go ahead especially to
sound the shoals of this archipelago; it is therefore a foregone
conclusion that they are now wintering in some one of the islands
between here and the Javas.

The greatest damage and injury that can be received from this
occurrence is that a robber should dare with so few forces to pass
among these islands so leisurely; and since he was able to pass without
us forming his acquaintance, that he should try to make so much outcry,
to boast of his capture, and to utter threats for the future. If your
Majesty be so pleased you may consider that the royal Audiencia boasts
that there are here in these Filipinas Islands six Spanish settlements,
one master-of-camp, thirty-five captains, three galleys, and three
ships with high freeboard, the smallest of which is of three hundred
tons’ burden, besides many fragatas and native ships, powder and
weapons, and four hundred soldiers, all of which has not served or
serves for an affair of so little difficulty and one so necessary. I
was constantly of the opinion that the pirate should be pursued
immediately, and some others were of the same opinion, but the governor
and the majority (which always temporizes in regard to following their
opinion) held contrariwise, and said that it was possible that a fleet
was coming from Inglaterra after the ship, and that if we pursued the
latter, this city and fort would be left with insufficient defenders.
It was better to attend to the relief and defense of this city than to
pursue the pirate. With a determination so illy founded nothing but the
strengthening of the fort was thought of, and that with great diligence
as if all Ingalaterra were coming to attack us. A few days later I was
sick in my bed, and grieving over this so manifest error, I had the
bishop and the rector of the Society of Jesus, who are weighty
individuals and very skilled and zealous in the service of God and of
your Majesty, asked to come to my house. I asked them to treat with the
governor since he had not exercised diligence in pursuing the
Englishman at that time, to at least assemble the fleet at the island
of Çubu (which is near Bindanao), since it is a foregone conclusion
that the pirate will have to winter in this archipelago; and, since he
would be assured soon that no other English ships were coming, to send
the fleet from that island to pursue the enemy. Although the fleet
should sail with west and northwest winds, which prevail during August
and September and are favorable for our navigation and contrary to that
of the Englishman, they could sail in pursuit of him and it would be
easy to find him, for the Indians of the islands would immediately
report him wherever we went, as the vessel was a foreign one and the
men of a race never before seen. We could especially take so many
light-oared vessels that they could search for the English ship
anywhere. It would not be difficult to capture it with a single galley,
and the capture would be much easier with twelve or thirteen fragatas
that could be assembled. I also asked him that even if he did not wish
to take that upon himself, to at least send word to Juan de Silva,
governor of Malaca, and the chief captain of the sea, Don Paulo de
Lima, who came from Goa with twenty oared vessels and ships of high
freeboard and five hundred soldiers to make war on the king of
Joor—one reason being so that they might go or send men along the
coasts of the Javas to look for that pirate, as that would be a very
easy thing; and another so that the ship which should leave Malaca to
sail to Portugal might be warned; and another so that the governor of
Malaca might advise the viceroy of India. The latter could despatch the
ships or a portion of them early and they could await that enemy at the
island of Santa Elena, and at least they would be on the lookout during
all their voyage, for the route is necessarily the same until near the
vicinity of the Azores Islands. All those warnings are so evident that
if your Majesty orders pilots to be assembled, no matter how little
they know, they will agree in their account of this voyage. But the
governor and his captains held a council, and it was voted in writing
(and all were in accord) that not a single one of the above precautions
ought to be taken. The one who is least to blame is the governor, for
since it is a matter that is foreign to his profession and the manner
in which he has lived until his old age, he took counsel with those who
understand it or at least ought to understand it. The latter (some of
them in order not to go upon this expedition and the others because
they had no further news), gave that opinion to the governor nemine
discrepante. Finally, the Englishman will return scotfree to his
country on this account, while if there were any energy displayed here
(I do not mean the precautions abovesaid, but a ship well equipped), a
ship might be sent in pursuit of him as far as England, for he is
sailing so carelessly that it would be easy to overtake and capture
him.

Although the remedy that your Majesty orders to be taken in order to
punish the audacity of those Englishmen by making war on Ingalaterra is
the best and surest remedy, yet for any event I proposed what seems the
most convenient and the easiest method of driving the English from this
sea of the south. All the men who have sailed through the sea of
Magallanes in order to return [home] by way of the cape of Buena
Esperanza (namely, Magallanes himself, Francisco Draque, and this
pirate) sail by way of the island of Vindenao, as far as the Javas
where they disembogue from this archipelago into the ocean sea. There
are many straits and channels between islands along this route (which
must necessarily be taken), some of which are not one-half mile wide.
If they should be in those districts from the first of February to the
end of June (the season for the brisas, by which the pirates must
navigate), two fragatas of high freeboard with their lanchas and well
equipped with artillery and carrying two hundred men, would infallibly
be sufficient to prevent the enemy from passing; and would allow them
no method by which they could pass through the strait of Magallanes to
these parts. For if the ships should coast along Piru and Nueva
Hespaña, and this passage were taken, and the ships attempted to
return by the same path, it would be very difficult for them, and the
viceroy of Piru would have time to pursue them. The cost of such
fragatas and lanchas in these islands would be six thousand pesos de
Tipusque [111] all finished and ready for sailing. Twenty-four pieces
of bronze artillery of thirty quintals will cost here a total of eleven
or twelve thousand pesos or thereabout in addition to the salary of the
founder. The pay that could be given to the soldiers and to sixty
sailors is ten pesos per month while two captains will receive
twenty-five apiece. Thus not only would this fleet serve for the above
mentioned effect but also to pacify the islands between Vindenao and
Maluco and those between Maluco and Java, and to reduce and collect the
tribute from the island of Ternate which has been in revolt for many
years. From that island the cloves are sent all over the world. That
reduction could not be effected by placing a settlement there since the
island is not well fitted for a settlement, but by preventing commerce
of the Moros of Java who trade for cloves and carry away almost all of
them. That would be very easy for the Moros do not carry any artillery
with which to make attacks, and the king of Ternate would be completely
ruined if he had no outlet for his cloves. For the men of Java take him
rice and other food, saltpetre, metal, and powder, by which he
maintains and defends himself. If he lacks those things he must
immediately surrender because of hunger and necessity. All the
abovesaid could be accomplished by the governor of these islands if
money were sent him from Nueva España, and if he had the men necessary
to take part in it and who could carry out the plan.

Many useless expenses to the royal treasury result from the poor
administration in many things in the government of these islands,
especially in the cost of the ships of this line. All of the ships
belong to your Majesty, although they could belong to private persons.
In the former year of eighty-five, Captain Esteban Rodriguez de
Figueroa brought a new ship of three hundred toneladas to the port of
this city, in order to freight it for Nueva España; but instead of
encouraging and aiding him in it, he was denied all protection, so much
so that in order that the ship might not rot in the port, he was
obliged to sell it for a certain exploring expedition which was made at
your Majesty’s expense by order of the archbishop of Mexico.
Consequently, all those who intended to build ships were discouraged.
The reason for this is that since the governors engage in trade and
traffic, they do not want any ships belonging to private persons where
heavy freights have to be paid. It is known what goods are exported and
whose they are if they do not belong to your Majesty, and that his
merchandise goes under false pretense and that he does not pay so heavy
freight duties. Consequently, in order that the governors may gain one
real, it must cost your Majesty one hundred. Two of your Majesty’s
ships are being despatched this year, one of six hundred toneladas and
the other of four hundred, at an expense of more than fifty thousand
pesos. It is unnecessary to despatch more than one ship, for one ship
of one hundred toneladas is sufficient to bring the ammunition and
soldiers to be sent from Mexico. However in order that those two might
be laden with merchandise they are sent, and this is one of the
incongruities above mentioned. If the merchants of Mexico and of these
islands wish commerce they should build ships, and not all carry on
their business to the so great harm and loss of the royal treasury.
Finally these islands have never been or are of further use than to
enrich the governor, and to enable him to gain two hundred thousand
ducados, while your Majesty loses ten times as much. Things will
constantly get worse in this direction, unless your Majesty orders the
matter corrected. I am serving your Majesty as factor and treasurer,
but I have no part in anything, for the governor manages things to suit
himself. I have always advised your Majesty of these and other
incongruities, but no relief has ever been given to anything that I
have mentioned touching your royal service, and my letters cannot have
had the credit that my faithfulness merits. However, I shall at least
have performed my duty as your Majesty’s servant and vassal, and to
my conscience.

A stone fort is being built in this city of Manila at the governor’s
order and at the cost of the royal treasury and of certain imposts on
the Indians and Spaniards. All that is spent in this is time and money
lost, for as your Majesty will see by its model, it is a rounded pile
of stones in the old style, having seven arms on top, covered with
tiling. If it were to be beaten down from above, those inside would
perish with the stones and tiles which would fall on them. A modern
fortress with three ramparts could be built with the amount that it is
costing, and not a defense so useless that any Englishman or Frenchman
who might besiege it would take it the first day that he bombarded it.
For as I say above, the same ruin that strikes the upper works must be
the death-blow of its defenders. Besides that there are some towers
with stone houses which are built nearby. The fort has no moat or
platform, while the artillery cannot be easily handled, for there are
only some round loopholes through which the pieces protrude.
Consequently, all parts of the fort cannot be commanded or even one
curtain aided from another. It is a shame to us that we are building
such a fort. Will your Majesty please order the matter examined and
corrected? May our Lord preserve your Majesty many years with the
increase of kingdoms and seigniories that we your subjects and vassals
desire. Manila, in the Filipinas, July 2, 1588.


    Juan Baptista Roman







LETTER FROM GOMEZ PEREZ DASMARIÑAS


Although I am awaiting the ships and in them a letter from your Grace
with good news of the health and prosperity that I desire for your
Grace, yet I have wished because of the shortness of the time and
because these ships are about to sail, to write this present letter to
your Grace, in order to inform you of the condition of affairs here. I
wrote your Grace last year, although briefly, for I had only been in
this country for twenty days. Now that I have lived here one year, and
know more about conditions here, I say that in regard to the camp and
soldiers that I found here, the condition was very imperfect, and they
had no organization or [knowledge of] military art. For there was no
greater force or difference between our men and the natives of the
country than the advantage of weapons and arquebuses. Even those the
Indians were accustomed to carry, as was the case in a review that was
held here at my order of all the soldiers here before my arrival. Since
then I have managed to give this matter the best system and
organization possible. Accordingly, the soldiers who came with me
appoint their guards daily, and attend to their posts, sentries, and
patrols with concert and punctuality—a matter that has been
introduced and maintained since my arrival. The soldiers are cheerful
and well paid, for they received one aid in Mexico and another one here
a few days ago. I trust that this matter will be thoroughly perfected,
notwithstanding the not slight obstructions and opposition to the new
soldiers in the slight aid and vile persuasions of those who were here
before. The latter asked them why they tired themselves out in this
work, and said that it was unnecessary, and worth nothing except to
make them fall sick and die. It is because they have so honorable
thoughts, that although they see that the pay is drawn now from the
king and so punctually, yet with the new system that has been ordered,
not a single one of them has ever wished to concur in it, although they
are perishing of hunger, and besides have nothing to do except to
suffer themselves to come to submit in order to receive pay. For they
are good for nothing else than to do bad turns to the others, and
notwithstanding that, they publish more services than those of the duke
of Alva; [112] and together with that they act in so unbridled a manner
to the others in the guardhouse that it became advisable to punish them
slightly for some offenses that could not be passed by especially in
these beginnings. Those punishments consisted of tying the hands behind
the back and suspending the soldier, imprisonment, exile, and other
things. The matter even went so far that one day a certain soldier gave
the lie to his corporal of the guard and raised his hand against his
alferez and resisted him. Any of those actions merited death, and he
was accordingly executed, in order that the soldiers might understand
that I was in earnest and that the matter had gone farther than was
desirable. That had a very salutary effect, and acted as a check to
all, for from that time, there has been no disturbance but all has been
quiet and good discipline prevails.

There are very few soldiers here, for I only brought 270, and about 40
of those have died already. Before they reach here, those who are sent
die and desert on the way. In fact the soldiers of Nueva España are
not suitable, and consequently, it will be advisable for those who come
here to be sent from España.

The pay also that is given here to captains, officers, and soldiers is
very little toward their maintenance. Therefore I petition your Grace
to favor this, so that they may increase in service to his Majesty, and
so that I may have more leeway in rewarding them and encouraging them
to [exert themselves] in his service.

There was no ammunition here nor a house for it, or any magazines or
money to get ammunition or other very important things. There were no
barracks for the soldiers, who were quartered on the houses of the
citizens, to the great discomfort of the latter. That also gave
opportunity to the soldiers themselves to live loosely and sensually.
Consequently, I have built a barracks that will accommodate 400, and
they will be readily accessible for guard duty and for anything that
arises.

I have surrounded the city with a suitable stone wall, that stretches
from the point of a fort which is being built to another which was
built in a very improper manner, and will only serve now for show. This
wall is about one thousand brazas long and has a foundation below
ground of about one and one-half estados. It is about 16 feet broad,
[at ground level] while above ground level it tapers in another one and
one-half estados from the 16 feet, to twelve feet. From the 12 feet
thickness it tapers to about one vara of slope if one measures from the
level of the ground. Then begins the right curtain, and it has a width
of 8 feet—a space sufficient to drag a piece of artillery along it.
At the very least it will serve for a good entrenchment on any
occasion. At present all the seacoast side is in some state of security
and suitability. I trust, God helping, that in one year’s time, it
will have so much security that it will be seen that it will not be as
heretofore; for one would believe that we have been here only as
guests, and have been awaiting no more than the arrival of the hour of
departure, and to leave it as it was. [113]

In regard to the soldiers here before my arrival, such as they were, I
have done what his Majesty orders me, namely, rewarded them and given
them whatever there was of importance and interest, all in accordance
with the memoranda of my instructions; [114] although in that regard I
am sure that there was some manipulation and that an evil report was
given to his Majesty. Although hitherto everything has been given to
the soldiers here, I must tell your Grace that I brought very honorable
captains and soldiers with me who have served his Majesty considerably
in Ytalia and Flandes. I also brought excellent gentlemen, to whom,
since no posts or encomiendas of the country have as yet been given to
them (at least of posts of war on sea and land), I would like his
Majesty to permit me to assign such posts according to the rank of each
and to support them, for as yet they have had no other support than
that of being near my person, and that I may in this manner assign them
suitable pay. I petition your Grace to protect and favor me before his
Majesty, for this is a post that needs men, and it costs so much to
conduct them here, and there is no other kind of support for them,
except the power and faculty that his Majesty gives in this, so that it
might be had here; for since his Majesty entrusts other things to me,
he might well entrust this, being assured that I shall not spend one
real improperly for his Majesty, nor more than what I may deem
advisable.

When I arrived here I found a province called Zambales which was in
strong revolt, and many thefts and murders had been committed there. I
endeavored to attract the people to make peace by good means; hut
having found that none of them availed, I determined to send two
captains there, one by sea and the other by land. I ordered them to
build two presidios in the districts most suitable for aiding the
people from, and for making them obedient to his Majesty. One of the
presidios is called Tarla, and the other Las Arenas. The Zambals seeing
that the presidios were so located that they restrained their steps and
thoughts, and that active measures were being taken, by those means
more than two thousand five hundred men have been reduced and have
settled near the presidios. [115] By means of that reduction, another
province called Pampanga has been assured. [116] All this city is
supplied with food from the latter province, which was greatly harassed
and troubled by the Zambals. Besides the abovesaid the Zambals are
slowly being reduced fifty by fifty, and that work will continue until
they all come in.

I also found another province called Cagayan which had been in revolt
from his Majesty’s service after they had rendered homage for some
years. I sent a captain and 80 soldiers there, and after the same
methods employed toward the Zambals had been used, and after having
seen that the latter refused to render obedience, it was necessary to
open war. By that means all the inhabitants of that province were
reduced in the space of six months, and came to pay the tribute to his
Majesty—they and others who had never been discovered until then. It
is said that there are many people still to discover. Good methods will
be used toward them so that they may come into the service of his
Majesty. The last-named province has a port located near the cape of
Bojador and that of El Engaño. One may enter that harbor without
passing amid these islands, and the exit from it is so good that one
has only to take to the open sea on leaving it. It is so near China
that one can reach that country in three days and return in another
three. I believe that we could annually despatch a ship hence with
merchandise for España, and it would be very advisable to have a good
Spanish settlement in that port. I propose that matter to your Grace,
petitioning you to please order such a settlement to be made if it seem
suitable, since it is good for the future to have a settlement so near
to China.

The above is all that occurs to me at present of which to inform your
Grace. In the one year and ten days now since I came to these islands,
I can say that in most of that time, I have been busy settling
oppositions and innovations of the bishop and the doubts and inventions
of him and his friars who do nothing except to obstruct and embarrass
everything that is done here. Although whenever the bishop came to me
with new causes, for anger he left me well satisfied and content, that
condition did not last longer, on account of his age and inconstancy,
than the arrival of any other person who influenced him to whatever
side he would. Consequently, he has proved only a constant opposition
to my office, and I have been unable to do my duty with any sort of
liberty as the royal jurisdiction has no weight here. For besides that
this is so little and new, it was all seized by the many justices
appointed by the bishop, who had an infinite number of fiscals and
alguacils all over, and a vicar and protector at every step. They were
appointing alguacils, building prisons, and setting up stocks,
arresting and lashing Indians, and were very domineering and meddlesome
in all things. The bishop, although I have opposed his journey as much
as possible, is going there. [117] However, he says obstinately that it
cannot be avoided; and his heart is full of venom and he is desirous of
doing harm. But since he cannot in truth say anything that can touch me
one jot and prove disservice to my king, his imaginings give me no
concern for I know how he usually succeeds in them. The ships have now
arrived, and with them Diego Ronquillo, who gave me your letter. I am
well satisfied with it, and will reply to it in another letter. May our
Lord, etc. Manila, June 21, 1591.


    Gomez Perez Dasmariñas


I enclose herewith a copy of the letter which I am writing to his
Majesty in regard to the affairs of the bishop and his friars, so that
your Grace may be forewarned about it, and able to show me favor in
everything.

[Endorsed: Letter from Governor Gomez Perez Dasmariñas, treating of
the condition of the soldiers in that country. Manila, June 21,
1591.”]







ROYAL DECREE REGARDING THE HOSPITALS FOR THE NATIVES


The King. Reverend Father in Christ, bishop of the Philipinas, and
member of my Council: I am writing to Gomez Perez Dasmariñas, my
governor and captain-general of those islands, to immediately take
possession of the hospital of the Indians of that city of Manila and of
the hospitals that may be in the other villages of those islands, for
me and in my name, as patron, which I am both by right and by apostolic
bull of all the hospitals that may be instituted and founded in the
Indias; [118] and to take the residencia of all those who shall have
had charge of the incomes, alms, and other things touching the said
hospitals. I have desired to advise you of this in order that you may
not prevent it, since you will know it to be my orders, and also, so
that if you wish to be present at the taking of the said accounts, you
may do so. I am writing to this effect to the said governor. Madrid,
January seventeen, one thousand five hundred and ninety-three.


    I the King

By order of the king our sovereign:

    Juan Vazquez

Signed by the [members of the] Council.







AUGUSTINIAN AFFAIRS


    Petition of Brother Thomas Marquez of the Order of Saint Augustine
    that the definitorship in the Philippine Islands be maintained in
    force.


Most blessed Father:


Following is a petition humbly made to your Holiness in the interests
of the devout brother of that order, Thomas Marquez, [119] professed of
the Order of Hermits of St. Augustine, from his twenty-third year a
member of the definitorship of the same order of the province of the
Philippine Islands in the West Indies, [120] and in the name of the
said province. Whereas, on account of his great skill in the management
of affairs, as well as of his learning, the convents and the provincial
definitory of the said order for those regions (as may be seen in the
letters addressed by them to your Holiness, and acknowledged by your
Holiness), chose him to remedy the very many grievances and scandals
which distressed the mission-bands of the brethren of the said order
that were sent by royal command to those regions to preach the gospel,
which arose through the negligence or malice of their leaders, as well
as from the hindrances on the part of the provincials of Castile to
prevent such as they deemed useful and necessary to their own province
from going thither. Wherefore, he was appointed procurator-general in
order to act at your curia, as well as at the Spanish, for the
transaction of weighty affairs concerning the order in the said
regions, since his superiors in Spain in contravention of the wish and
decree of the most reverend prior-general as well as of the general
chapter, had usurped the title of vicar-general of the aforesaid
Indies, and thereby were guilty of disobedience. Inasmuch as they
barred him from exercising his said office of procurator-general,
besides taking from him all his papers and reports bearing on the above
affairs, which he was carrying with him; moreover, in virtue of holy
obedience and under other penalties they enjoined him from applying to
the Roman curia or to the general of the said order in the interest of
the aforesaid countries; and lastly besides depriving him of his former
conventship located him instead at San Felipe of Madrid: [121] he now
prays your Holiness humbly while making due provision in the premises
also to charge the most reverend nuncio of those countries to see that
he be reëstablished in the exercise of his said office, that all his
papers be restored, and himself enabled in accordance with the tenor
and wish of his province to take with him all the brethren of the said
order [in Spain] who wish to go with him for the purpose of converting
the peoples of those countries and preaching to them the word of God.
Moreover your Holiness is implored to restrain under grave penalties
and censures all who may hinder him in the exercise of his duty, as
well as strive in any way to dissuade the brethren who may wish to
devote themselves to the said ministry, for which they shall have been
adjudged worthy, from going thither; moreover, to enjoin them [i.e.,
the provincials of Castile] under the same censures from using their
vicargeneralship in opposition to the will and decree of the most
reverend prior-general, or from attempting to contravene his mandates.
Finally he seeks to be free in the exercise of his said office of
procurator-general, according to the decree and command of the
prior-general of the order. Wherefore he always will pray God for your
health, which may God, etc.

[Addressed: “Our most blessed pope.”]

[Endorsed: “Case of Brother Thomas Marquez, procurator-general of the
province of the Philippines of the Order of St. Augustine in the name
of the said province.”]

[Endorsed: “Received, October 13, 1599; sent to our Lord.”]

[Endorsed: “To the Cardinal San Severino [word illegible] to be acted
upon in the new congregation.”]







MEMORIAL OF TOMÁS MÁRQUEZ


Most illustrious Sir:

Following are the reasons advanced by brother Master Thomas Marquez,
procurator-general of the province of the most holy Name of Jesus, of
the Order of St. Augustine of the Philippine Islands, in the interest
and name of the said province, wherefore he seeks to be released from
the authority and jurisdiction of the provincials of Castile (who under
the claim of being vicars-general seek to govern it), and be subject
only to the most reverend general, as the true sole head and father of
the whole order, the same as do the other provinces of the West Indies.

The first reason is the avoidance of great confusion and chaos which we
have because of a plurality of rulers; inasmuch as being subject to two
rulers, namely, the most reverend father general, our true and worthy
superior, as well as to the provincial of Castile, who styles himself
vicar-general, we thus would receive diverse orders from the two whence
confusion would arise. For as we would be in doubt which one to obey,
our province would therefore be in grave peril.

1st. [122] Because the provinces of the Indies with their numerous
religious men of learning and virtue, who through their discretion and
wisdom are experts in the government of those countries, are troubled
with the orders, mandates, and censures of the provincials of Castile,
who to the grave injury and disgrace of the said provinces, being
concerned only about their own interests and not those of the
community, aim to govern them, now by issuing contrary ordinances that
are hurtful to the common good, and again by their unjust mandates that
are at variance with our constitutions and laws. For example, they
forbid those provinces to send to general chapter as definitor or
procurator any one who is prior, and should such a one be chosen, they
require him first to resign all his dignities so that should he go he
appears merely as one of the brethren. Whereas, they send to general
chapter their own brothers and friends, men laden with honors and
titles. Should any of Ours appear therein, they are referred to as so
many young men with no responsibility, who are wholly unfit to hold
office. Such grievance, so dishonoring to the brethren, is not only
very aggravating and harmful to all those provinces, but to the whole
order itself.

First. Because our constitutions require that every province send to
general chapter its own definitor and discreet, [123] in order that
these report to the chapter fathers relative to the state of their
province, the character of their brethren, etc.—a report that as
things are now managed is made through trickery, not by the expert
representatives of the provinces themselves, but by strangers, chosen
in Spain to take their place in the said chapters.

Secondly. Because although the said provinces commission their
procurators to go to general chapter, they do not attain the end in
view, for the reason that the said provincials of Castile, in concert
with the priors of that province, not content with charging the said
procurators two silver pieces [numis argentiis] and the remuneration
for the mass, which are also two other pieces, given to them for their
daily board by those procurators, from day to day, and being suborned
with money and gilts which the procurators give unwillingly to them
(but which they receive willingly) in order that they may be permitted
to carry on the things charged to them and be given associates, they
[i.e., the provincials and priors] as abovesaid not content with the
above charges, and imagining that the procurators are carrying with
them large amounts of money which they are greedy to get into their own
hands, worry and harry them by annulling their powers of
procuratorship, by forcing them to reveal all their affairs, which
thereupon they are inhibited from using, and by forbidding them under
censures from applying to the Roman curia or to the most reverend
general. Moreover, they are assigned by the provincials for residence
certain set convents, wherein, as happened to me, they have to lodge,
although I showed them an order from the most reverend general
forbidding the provincial of Castile from making any change in this
regard, such being the order and sentence of general chapter, confirmed
by his Holiness Clement the Eighth. But that was of no avail, for, as
appears from the letters and patent of the provincial of Castile, which
I have handed over to the reverend father, Brother John Baptist of
Piombino, [124] procurator-general [of the order], and which are now in
his keeping, I have been forced to flee hither.

Third reason. That authority of vicar-general which they arrogate to
themselves, serves them only for despoiling all the Indies, and
transferring the funds of the convents of the Indies to Spain; for by
that authority they send brethren to seek alms in those convents under
the title of alms-seeker, supporting their greed [cuditias] and sowing
(so that the convents might give readily and they receive) news to the
effect that they are about to send visitors to them and that they are
already appointed. Under that title they obtained twelve thousand gold
escudos from the province of Peru for the Salamanca house.

Lastly. This authority over those provinces is coveted by them in order
that thereby their own province may be relieved of restless characters.
For whenever the procurators of those countries reach Spain in their
search for ministers of the gospel to aid them in their ministry, they
are given the scourings of the province—unruly and ill-disciplined
brethren—instead of upright and learned persons, such as have been
picked out for their need, who, moreover, are not allowed to go
thither—a practice most hurtful to the preaching of the gospel, which
calls for learned and religious men.

For these and other reasons herein omitted for the sake of brevity, the
province of the [Philippine] Islands, whose procurator I am, is
grievously distressed; wherefore, in the hope of securing a remedy for
such evils, it has been moved to send me as its procurator, with power
to act as such in Spain and before this curia, as an expert in matters
appertaining to those countries for twenty years and upwards. In
consideration then of all these plaints, I pray your most illustrious
Lordship, in the name of my province, to deign to remedy these
grievances, by enjoining the said provincials of Castile from further
use of their authority; moreover, in accordance with the mandate of the
most reverend father-general, to command them to restore to me all the
things they have taken away, besides what I myself left in the convent
at Madrid; and again by enjoining them, even under censures, from in
any manner hindering the procurators of the said province of the
Philippines in their business, which they are to be allowed to carry on
freely, or from hindering the brethren of any province whatever of
Spain, who may wish to go to the said islands in order to engage in the
most holy work of preaching the gospel, whom they are besides, under no
matter what pretense, neither to impede, nor harass, nor dissuade from
going thither. The execution whereof may be left to the most
illustrious nuncio of Spain.

[Addressed: “To the most illustrious lord by brother Master Thomas
Marquez, procurator-general of the Order of St. Augustine of the
province of the Philippines in the name of the said province.”]

[Endorsed: “Received November 20, 1599.”]



Report of the Nuncio

When the West Indies were brought to the Catholic faith and thereby
made subject to the holy Roman Church, his imperial Majesty Charles the
Fifth being their master in temporals, the province of Castile of the
Order of St. Augustine sent thither twelve religious, who while
founding convents in the City of Mexico [125] and other places were for
some years under the provincial of Castile, who however had no other
title of jurisdiction over them than the fact that he had sent thither
the first brethren to preach the holy gospel. Subsequently the brethren
and convents having increased in number, they became subject to the
provincial of their own choice, nor did they ever recognize the
provincial of Castile as their chief, but only the most reverend father
[general], the same as was always done by other provinces. The reasons
wherefore the provinces of the Indies are not subject to the province
of Castile are as follows:

First. Because from the foundation of the order, it was divided into
provinces, which, no matter how small, never were made subject to one
another. All are under provincials, who in turn are under the immediate
jurisdiction of the said most reverend father-general as head of the
whole order. Otherwise, unless the brethren had recourse to their
father-general, disorders and disagreements would spring up among them
and they moreover would be distressed and ill-treated.

2d. That every province of the Indies, besides being larger and
wealthier than the province of Castile, is every bit as observant and
religious, with men of equal worth, who, in short, live there in such
perfection and so uprightly. Therefore, it [i.e., subjection to another
province] would cause the greatest disturbance and trouble to those
brethren who serve the Lord God in the conversion of those new plants
with so great sincerity of heart.

3d. That the purpose wherefore the brethren of the province of Castile
strove to rule the provinces of the Indies was one of self interest
rather than zeal, in that they carried off the wealth of the convents
of the Indies to those of Castile, and whenever in need sent brethren
thither to get money under the plea of alms, as in fact has happened.

4th. That, as provincials hold office only for three years, they cannot
become acquainted with or get information relative to the persons or
affairs of those countries. Wherefore, their government of them would
be confused. For, as every three years the superior is changed, he
could get information of those provinces only once [during his term of
office], whence it would follow that he would have to rule blindly in
all matters.

5th. That all the provinces of the Indies have entered objections to
being subject to the province of Castile, which on many occasions in
its endeavor to uphold its mastery over the said brethren of the Indies
has harassed them and put their provinces to great expense in their
efforts to free themselves from that yoke.

6th. That the provinces of the Indies have no need of the brethren of
Spain. Nay, they would rather send to the Philippine Islands their own
brethren, such as would wish to go thither in order to apply themselves
with zeal in the preaching of the gospel.

7th. And finally, in no way is it right to have so extensive and
important a part separated from the body of the order. For, with the
increase of leaders an increase of confusion ensues, which in turn
leads to the ruin and annihilation of the commonwealth, and of the
authority of the father-general, from whom as from a common head all
the members depend, to the end that he be recognized and revered, and
the order governed well; wherefore, it is not right that the brethren
of the Indies, who, besides being so well disciplined, are learned, as
well as observant of their constitutions, should be governed by a chief
whom they themselves have not chosen. Moreover, to withhold from them
the right of selecting their own general, to whom they may apply in
need, would be doing them a grave wrong, in that their essential vows,
which they profess conformably to our constitutions, would thus be
disregarded.

8th. The provincials of Castile received express mandate and command
from the father master, Thaddeus of Perugia, [126] general for the time
being, and from the most illustrious Cardinal of Mont Claro when in
Spain, not to busy themselves with the government of the provinces of
the Indies, by not only giving up the office of vicar but also the use
of that title.

Lastly. In general chapter held in Rome in 92, a petition was presented
in the interest of the province of Mexico and of other provinces. The
reasons whereof having been considered, the definitors of the province
of Castile having been summoned, and the reasons of each side heard, a
decree was passed which, while enjoining the provincial of Castile from
any longer busying himself with the said government, ordered him under
pain of being treated as a rebel, as well as under divers other
penalties and censures, to hold his peace for all time—a sentence
that was confirmed through the goodness of Pope Clement the Eighth. Of
this, notice was sent to the provincial of Castile and the
procurator-general of the province [of the Philippine Islands?]. From
that day to this no change has been made and [the decree] is faithfully
observed at present.

[Endorsed: “By the most illustrious Cardinal Santa Severina.”]

[Endorsed: “Reasons why the provinces and provincials of the Indies
be not subject to the provinces and provincials of Spain.”]

[Endorsed: “Submitted by the reverend father prior-general of the
Order of Hermit Brethren of St. Augustine, November 7, 1599.”]

[This Collection of three documents is addressed on the back of the
outside wrapper:

“To Cardinal Santa Severina, to be acted upon in the sacred
Congregation of Propaganda Fide.”]

[Endorsed: “The Hermit Brethren of St. Augustine of the Philippine
Islands.”]

[Endorsed: “I received it September [sic: perhaps, December] 18,
1599.”]







LETTER FROM THE ECCLESIASTICAL CABILDO TO FELIPE III


Sire:

We have written your Majesty whenever occasion has offered by means of
the ships that have left these islands, relating to you the necessity
of this holy church, as you are its true protector and defense.
Inasmuch as it is farther from this blessing, so much greater is the
loneliness and disconsolation which it suffers especially in this the
period of its widowhood, [127] which has been so long because of our
sins. So long as we do not receive word that your Majesty has received
our letters, we shall make use of our permission to write you. We shall
continue in this letter to mention certain matters which we related in
former ones. Perhaps this letter will have a different fate and will
merit a royal reception by your Majesty.

The king our sovereign, your Majesty’s father, (may he be in heaven),
having been informed of the slight service enjoyed by this church
(which amounts to only four prebendaries, to whom a stipend is paid
from your royal treasury), was pleased to despatch a decree ordering
the president and auditors of these islands to inform him of the facts
regarding this matter so that he could enact the advisable measures. An
investigation was made in accordance with that order, and this cabildo
published the need of this church of being better served than others,
as it is surrounded by so many barbarous nations who are daily
receiving the light of the gospel and entering through its gates. We
petition your Majesty, as a service to your Lord to please consider
this matter, and enact regarding it what most pleases you.

Report has also been given your Majesty that the royal Audiencia is
trying to have the ecclesiastical judge plead its aid in arresting
Indians. Were that to be done it would be a great wrong to the
miserable wretches, for the aid is not given unless the secular judge
first examine the acts which are not fulminated in regular form against
the Indians. We however, proceed briefly and summarily against the
Indians, conforming thereby with the royal decrees. If their aid had to
be asked, it would necessarily become a cause for receiving witnesses
and issuing peremptory orders, and the expenses which now amount to
nothing would be heavy. The provisor is continually taking Indian women
from the houses of the inhabitants and soldiers with whom they are
living in evil relations. If account had to be given to the civil judge
for that, delays would ensue and the [guilty] parties would hear of it
and would hide themselves so that the sin could not be corrected. The
correction of sin is the end of the ecclesiastical tribunal and it has
no other object. Consequently, since the aid [of the Audiencia] is not
asked for any matter concerning the Indians throughout the Indias, it
would not be advisable to cause any innovation in this region where the
Indians are so poor that besides a few chiefs no one possesses ten
pesos’ worth of property. In consideration of the above arguments and
others, the former Audiencia issued acts of revision and review, by
which the ecclesiastical judge was permitted to arrest the Indians
without any aid until your Majesty was consulted. We humbly petition
you to please order the course taken in this hitherto to be followed;
since in what concerns the Spaniards and other matters we conform so
closely to the laws that we have never, so far as we are concerned, had
any encounters with your judges.

Some of the orders in this city claim a concession from your Majesty
for the founding of a university, the establishment of chairs, and the
granting of degrees in their courses. The unfitness of that has also
been expressed to your Majesty by our letters, and if for no other
reason than the consideration that all the greater part and the best of
these islands have religious, and that the latter are all from the
outside, while the poor sons of this land who are inclined to take the
habit of St. Peter (who are in great number now by the grace of God,
and have nothing to which they can aspire while the bishop has nothing
to give them), will with the attraction of a chair, and the so
honorable reward that will thereby be attained, be encouraged to work
in their studies and there will always be educated men who will glorify
this holy church. For so just considerations it is wise for your
Majesty to advance its interests and favor its causes. We consider this
as one of the most important matters as we wrote more at length to your
Majesty last year, six hundred and one. We petition your Majesty to
have the matter re-examined and to have enacted what appears best for
your royal service and the advancement of these islands.

We said in a private letter that we wrote to your Majesty in the said
year six hundred and one that the conquistadors of these islands, in
order to ease their consciences, had made certain restitutions to the
natives in common by agreement with Don Fray Domingo de Salazar, first
bishop of these islands. With those restitutions quitrents were bought,
and the money received therefrom is spent in ransoming the many
captives in the power of surrounding enemies and in other alms which
are made, both general and private. In the times of famine and sickness
which the Indians suffer, they are aided. Very often this alms assists
the hospital of the Indians of this city and that of the city of
[Nueva] Caceres in the province of Camarines. In particular another
hospital was founded a year ago among various natives who have been
discovered twelve leguas from this city, where a great number of sick
people are found, who would die if deprived of this aid. The fathers of
the Society of Jesus are trying to have these so fitting works of
charity converted into a college building for students. Such an action
would be to divert those funds from their true and legitimate masters
who are so needy to a matter that can never under any circumstances be
of any use to the Indians. A father of the said Society and others are
now going [to Spain] with that object in view. We petition your
Majesty, for the love of our Lord, not to allow any innovation in this
particular or in any other that concerns us without first hearing us,
and your Majesty being informed by disinterested persons.

Opposite this city on the river side is a small hamlet containing less
than one hundred native houses, all poor folk. They with the permission
of the governor, come during the solemn feast to adorn and clean this
poor church. That village is instructed by the cura of the natives of
this city. The said fathers of the Society bought an estate in that
village some years ago. [128] Little by little they have been extending
themselves in that village so that they now have the greater part of
the little land that it contains. They rent it to heathen Chinese, from
which results not only that the wretched Indians are despoiled of their
lands whether they are paid or not and that they have no place where
they may plant their rice fields except in the vicinity of the Chinese.
That is very harmful to the Indians for the Chinese arc a vicious race
with evil customs. It is also said that the above-mentioned father of
the Society intends to beg your Majesty for the concession of the
instruction of that village and another called Sant Miguel which lies
on the other side outside the walls of this city. The inhabitants of
the latter place attend service in the house of the Society, and they
might be satisfied with that, and leave the instruction to the cura who
is a canon of this church. The latter has no other income than fifty
thousand maravedís, which your Majesty grants him for his curacy. We
also petition your Majesty to concede us the favor to deny this to
those fathers, and not to allow us seculars to be despoiled for the
religious. For they have too much while we have some men so poor that
they do not possess more than the alms of one mass.

As your Majesty will have heard, the Order of St. Augustine has charge
of the instruction of the best villages in these islands. Although
there are many villages in the island without any convent, where they
could spread and exercise their charity by preaching to and teaching
the people who have no knowledge of God, without going to any great
distance from this city, they thought it best to found a convent in the
port of Cavite, two leguas from this city, where there has been a
racionero of this church for the last sixteen years, as poor as the
others. For that purpose the Augustinians went to the said port one day
accompanied by the governor, Don Francisco Tello, who gave it to them
as theirs to found a convent without any permission from the ordinary
(according to his right) having preceded. He put them in possession of
it and they immediately established a chapel, and said mass. When we
tried to repair the harm that had been done us by this, the said Don
Francisco Tello favored the Augustinians by saying that his permission
alone was sufficient for the deed, and that ours was unnecessary. We
had the provincial of the said order notified of the acts in order that
he might have the church torn down, but he answered us as had the
governor, saying that it had been established by the latter’s
permission, and no other was necessary. Although the ecclesiastical arm
has sufficient authority of itself to tear down that church, in order
to avoid a scandal and the wrath of the governor which was terrible,
the aid of the royal Audiencia was asked. There in order to justify our
cause more thoroughly, the royal patronage, which orders that such
foundations be made with the double permissions of the patron and the
ordinary, was presented, as was also a clause of a letter of the king
our sovereign, your Majesty’s father who is with God, written to
Gomez Perez Dasmariñas. In that letter order was given the governor
not to allow a church to be established in any other village where
there was an establishment without the said two licenses, and it is
your royal will that one should not be given without the other.
However, as yet no decision has been reached in regard to the matter.
This same conduct is true of all the affairs that work in favor of the
church in this land, while those things that work against it are rushed
through as your Majesty will see. There is a chapel an arquebus-shot
from the walls of this city, called Nuestra Señora de Guia, where the
natives outside the walls have always been administered. Archbishop Don
Fray Ygnacio de Santivañes erected it into a parish church, and placed
a cura in charge of it, giving him lately charge of the instruction of
the said natives with canonical provision and collation. There was a
suit with your royal officials before your royal Audiencia, as to
whether he was to be paid a stipend or not. Acts of investigation and
review were issued by the Audiencia in which they were ordered to pay
the stipend. The said beneficiary having been in quiet and peaceful
possession for four years, the said religious of St. Augustine, not
satisfied with the past, published a royal decree which had been gained
at the petition of Fray Francisco de Ortega of their order in the year
ninety-four, by mentioning a doubtful relation which he had made, so
that if it seemed best to the governor, he could give them that chapel
as a house of retreat. [129] However, it was so unsuitable for that,
that they having recognized it, have kept the decree until the present
without caring to make use of it. But now piqued by the affair of the
house of Cabite, they presented the decree to the said Don Francisco
Tello, who, as he was so favorable to them, deemed it advisable to give
it to them without notifying us or giving a copy [of the decree] to the
cura of the said chapel. He ordered the Augustinians to be put in
possession of it, and immediately sent an alcalde-in-ordinary to give
it to them, in company with eighteen friars. We heard of it, and it was
necessary to defend our house by closing the door and by making
protests and petitions to the alcalde. In the meanwhile the said cura
presented himself as the interested party to the royal Audiencia and
appealed from the governor’s measure. He was ordered to cease and to
go to make a relation, by which a great scandal was avoided, which
would easily have happened if we had not had patience. The cause is now
pending. We humbly petition your Majesty to pity our want of
protection, in consideration of the fact that we are subject to
innumerable insults and so far from relief, and to have silence imposed
on the claim of that chapel, since it has become a parish church and a
collated curacy as abovesaid. Will your Majesty also order your
governors to keep the royal patronage, and not permit or consent that a
church be erected in any other place where there is a religious
establishment unless that of the ordinary precede. By so doing troubles
will cease and peace and harmony will reign among all. If the contrary
be done, many damages will ensue, for license is being so extended that
even the Franciscan friars, with all the humility that they profess,
also deny the jurisdiction to the ordinary, and have built another
church in the village of Dilao, outside the walls of this city, by
their own authority and without other license or permission, in order
to instruct the Japanese. Although the provisor enacted an act ordering
them not to do it, they have also made a suit and have occasioned no
less scandal than the other friars. In order that your Majesty may see
how unrestrained some of the religious live here, in these ships which
arrived here from Nueva España this year, came a visitor for the Order
of St. Augustine with authority from their superiors. They have refused
to receive him, but have on the contrary treated him so that they
obliged him to retire to the convent of St. Francis. He goes through
the village with a friar of the latter order at his side. That has
caused a great scandal in the community among Spaniards and Indians. It
is thought that he will return without making the visit, although there
are so many excesses and disorders that demanded that correction be not
postponed, that perhaps we can not have it later by human agencies.

It is the custom here to give to all the monasteries both of this city
and those outside it wine and flour from your royal treasury in order
to celebrate [mass] each year. Since this church is so poor as appears
to your Majesty, we petition your Majesty to order that it enjoy this
alms and that sufficient be given of these two articles for that
purpose, since the conventual masses which are celebrated in it are for
your Majesty to whom this church belongs.

We have also advised your Majesty of two innovations in this church
which no other church has. The first is a bench for the wives of the
auditors to use which fills a great part of the principal chapel. The
other is a very long bench with an inscription in large letters for the
officials of the Holy Office. Both are very improper for a cathedral
and metropolitan church. From the second it has resulted, moreover,
that because a canon of this church had the bench removed one day and
shoved over to the wall, for just reason, the commissary who is a
Dominican friar excommunicated him and had him placed on the lists as
excommunicated. Not content with that he gave the tribunal of Mexico
what information he wished, from which it has resulted that after the
arrival of the ships from Nueva España at these islands this year he
arrested the canon, and kept him in prison for seventeen days and
fulminated a cause against him which he sent to Mexico. It is not known
where he will stop; and the same may be said of an unbridled letter
which the inquisitors wrote to this cabildo, of which we complain more
at length to your Majesty in your royal Council of the Holy
Inquisition. In this letter we petition your Majesty to please correct
this matter, and have these two benches removed. There are just causes
for it as may be seen in a letter written the past year of six hundred
and one.

Above all we petition your Majesty to consider that this church is so
poor that we are unable for that reason to send a person to look after
its causes as the religious are doing. The latter are sending persons
suitable for the matters that concern them, and so that they may not
leave anything undone. We humbly petition your Majesty for correction
in this and in all things. We petition our Lord God to communicate to
your Majesty grace and ability to serve Him and aid you to govern the
kingdoms rightly in which He has placed your Majesty. May He preserve
you for us many long and happy years as He is able, and as we have
need. Manila, July 3, 1602. Your Majesty’s chaplains and vassals.


    Don Juan de Bivero, dean of Manila.
    Archdeacon Arellano
    Sancto de Castro, precentor of Manila.
    Juan de la Za, canon.
    Diego de Leon, canon.
    Licentiate Gabriel Sanz
    Juan Galindo de Mesa
    Ramirez de Cartajena, canon.
    Pablo Ruiz de Talavera
    Blas Vela Melquior
    Crisanto de Tapiayo







LETTER FROM BERNARDINO MALDONADONADO [130] TO FELIPE III


Sire:

I have attended carefully to my obligations as your Majesty’s servant
and to my duties as castellan of the chief fort and redoubt of this
city of Manila every year, and have reported to your Majesty the
advisable reform for its fortification and security. For in that
consists the defense of this kingdom and that from which danger is most
imminent, on account of its site which is on the point and at the
junction of the river and sea. At that place anchor the ships that come
to this city from the surrounding kingdoms of the Chinese, Japanese,
Borneans, Siamese, and other nations. Although those people come under
pretense of trading, they are suspicious and treacherous peoples, over
whom we must keep a close and never-ceasing watch as is advisable. In
order that we might maintain that watch here in this redoubt, I begged
and petitioned Don Francisco Tello, the former governor, once and many
times, to station the necessary presidio and garrison of soldiers here,
for it had no guard, at the time when I was given charge of it, but
only an outpost of three soldiers was set at night, and they stood
watch in their quarters, although we were stationed so far distant from
the city and had in our keeping the arms, artillery, ammunition, and
powder which your Majesty has in this kingdom for its defense.
Accordingly, I petitioned that greater care and vigilance be exercised
than formerly, because of the great fear generally held of the enemies
by whom we are so closely surrounded and who are inside the bar [of the
river] by night and by day. I insisted that there should be a garrison
of infantry sufficient for its ordinary defense, and intimated to the
governor for this purpose the orders and instructions given him by your
Majesty for his policy and to Gomez Perez Dasmariñas his predecessor,
in which it was urgently ordered him. In accordance with that, the
governor appointed some soldiers under command of an alférez and
sergeant, as your Majesty will have seen by the testimonies which I
have sent to the royal Council. Will your Majesty have them examined,
since it is very important to your royal service and to the welfare and
security of this kingdom that there should be no neglect in this
redoubt and that it be placed in no danger as formerly; as has been
experienced by the good which resulted in having it garrisoned with
soldiers, by what happened in the former year of one thousand six
hundred and three, when the Sangleys who were living here in this city
rose in insurrection. Had it not been for the care that I exercised,
the Sangleys would have entered the redoubt if it had been found with
the neglect of former years.

A castellan’s lieutenant was also appointed. In order that he might
get his pay it was necessary to bring a suit in the royal Audiencia
because of the opposition of your Majesty’s fiscal. It was ordered
that his pay be given him, although it was very short by three hundred
pesos, because the governor had so provided in accordance with the
instructions of your Majesty. In those instructions it is ordered that
the alférez do not receive his pay until your Majesty so order and
command, as it is a new office; although your Majesty has ordered and
commanded that all that which is advisable be put into execution. It is
a necessary office, and appeared to be so to the governor and
captain-general when he made the appointment. Will your Majesty enact
what is most in accordance with your will in all things.

There are not more than fifty soldiers in this redoubt, and they are
the offscouring of the companies of this camp. Some of them have been
exiled from Nueba España for crime and are mestizos from that country.
They are a vile lot of men, although they ought to be the most
honorable and trustworthy men of these islands. Both in the above
regard and in the number of men necessary for a redoubt so large and
which occupies so great an extent of space with its three bastions, we
need two hundred soldiers for its ordinary defense. The governor
intends to station a hundred soldiers [here] according to the answer he
made me when I petitioned him for men. This number is to be understood
together with those that I have at present. It is a very small number
of soldiers for a place that has the enemy so near and close to the
wall of this redoubt, and on the other side of the river.

It is also necessary that the artillerymen assigned to this redoubt
live and reside inside the redoubt, and that they be in sufficient
number and paid with the soldiers of the redoubt. They ought not to be
taken to other places, so that it happens that there are no
artillerymen for the manipulation of the artillery, as happened during
the insurrection of the Chinese. At that time there were no more than
three, and it might have given rise to the greatest injury. Fifteen or
twenty artillerymen are needed, for each gun needs one man for any
occasion that may arise. Those assigned should not be taken to other
places for that would be the same as not having them. They must be
instructed in the art [of handling artillery] and if not the castellan
should be able to dismiss them and engage others who may be sufficient,
since it is important for him and his reputation to have competent
artillerymen and not those assigned by the royal official. Those
soldiers are generally the latters’ pages and those of their wives;
and the latter have influence to get such places. In regard to what
concerns the soldiers, I had an order from Governor Don Francisco Tello
to dismiss those who were not competent and to get others who were.
Governor Don Pedro de Acuña does not want that to be done, and
accordingly the redoubt has the men above mentioned.

I have already advised your Majesty that Don Francisco Tello took some
of the artillery and the best of it for the expedition against the
Dutch pirate. [131] It was lost and went to the bottom in the encounter
with him and not more than twenty pieces or so, counting big and
little, were left, not more than ten of which are serviceable. Governor
Don Pedro de Acuña wishes now to take the best of those for the
expedition to Maluco. I would not be complying with my obligation or
covenant or my management if I did not oppose the taking of them, and,
in regard to the matter, take the precautions necessary for the
discharge of my conscience and for possible events, if the pieces were
taken. I know well that I shall be treated as on other like occasions
and shall be told in regard to it words that one could not believe
would be addressed to a man in the most private walks of life, much
more in a person who holds such offices and has such privileges [as I].
For it is not right that this redoubt and city be left without
artillery, and more, that the most experienced and important men be
taken away for the said expedition as are those who are being persuaded
to take part in it.

[A short account of the three Chinese mandarins that came from China in
1603 and the Chinese insurrection of that year follows. For an account
of this insurrection, see VOL. XII, pp. 83–97, 103–111, 136, 138,
139, 142–168; and VOL. XIV, pp. 119–139. Maldonado speaking of his
own part in the insurrection says:]

Having considered how restless the Chinese were, and because of the war
which was expected, I prepared provisions and other necessary things in
anticipation of whatever might happen, at the expense of my private
possessions so that this redoubt, the soldiers in its garrison, and
whatever other reënforcement entered might have food with which to
maintain and support ourselves. In order that we might not suffer any
lack in the future, and inasmuch as I did not know how long that
insurrection would last, I petitioned the governor to have this redoubt
provided with some food. The governor referred me to the royal official
judges saying that they would give them to me. They replied to my
petition that they had none and that there were no supplies in the
royal magazines which they could give me. The governor sent to ask me
for those which I had, and I gave them to the sergeant, Alonso de
Bargas, who has charge of the supplies and royal magazines. By that aid
were the soldiers acting as a guard for the walls succored. Not only
did I aid them with food on the said occasion but also with a sum of
money as appears by the attestations and testimonies which your Majesty
can have examined if it be your pleasure. By them will be seen how this
affair stood, and the precautions which this city took in case that we
had had a war as was expected. The governor will have written your
Majesty in addition of the great fear in which we are constantly of the
Japanese who were living in this city, and who generally live here.

Immediately the following year, a number of Chinese merchantmen came
upon their ordinary trading, without knowing what had happened until
they reached this bay. They exhibited great sorrow at the death of
sons, brothers, and relatives, and the loss of the property which they
had left here. The governor ordered them to be accommodated in this
city in the houses of the inhabitants, for their alcaicería had been
burned. Many persons were very angry when they saw so many Sangleys in
the city and houses of the inhabitants. There were more than four
thousand of them, while the inhabitants were so few that the number who
could bear arms did not reach seven hundred. Had it happened by
accident that any negro or Indian had set fire to any house (as has
often happened) in order to pillage, the greatest kind of evil would
have resulted. For no citizen would have dared to leave his wife and
children in order to rejoin his company or the guardhouse and arsenal
to which he belonged, without first having secured his house by killing
the Chinese. They on their part being in so great number, and being so
fearful and apprehensive of us, and thinking that we wished to kill
them, could not have done otherwise than to cause a great insurrection,
and endangered the majority of the Spaniards; by which everything would
be lost together with the trade. Consequently, our men would never be
assured.

The same thing has been done this year, although the number of Chinese
was less than one thousand; for the rest were lodged in the Parián,
which is being rebuilt.

I have also thought best to advise your Majesty of the many companies
that have been enrolled and enlisted for the last two years from the
natives of this country. They are put under regular captains and have
an alférez and other officials and carry company banners like a
regiment. They are in addition to the Spanish infantry which your
Majesty has here in your royal service, in which we ought alone to
trust. The latter have two masters-of-camp and sargentos-mayor to whom
so great obedience is rendered that it is a cause for wonder. This is
an occasion that demands that the faithful servants of your Majesty,
and especially those of us who have such obligations as I, ought to
report to you the manifest danger to this kingdom because of this.
Those companies have the best arms, muskets, and arquebuses of this
camp and in great quantity. A very considerable quantity of arms are
sent from Japon, especially catans (a weapon resembling a broad
cutlass), and a great number of iron pikeheads. Those weapons are used
in those companies, for the Spaniards do not use the catan; and the
native soldiers should be prohibited from carrying them. They go about
with swords and gilded daggers at the belt and wear military badges.
They pay one hundred pesos for a musket and do not refuse to buy them
because of the price, for such is their happiness and pleasure in this
and in being soldiers. Although this enrollment has been made because
of the expedition to Maluco, it must prove of greater injury than gain.
We lose great reputation if we give them to understand that we need
them for any occasion of war rather than for only rowers and servants.
It is, after God, the reputation of the Spanish nation in these
districts that has sustained and is sustaining us here. Those people
are now very skilful and are reared among us, especially those of
Pampanga and the vicinity of this city. They are a people of great
boldness only needing a leader whom they would recognize, and they are
so many in number that it is a matter that must be feared considerably,
and one of which your Majesty orders us to be fearful and watchful.

The soldiers of the garrison of this redoubt are ill paid their wages.
On that account they suffer many and extreme necessities. Since they
make no outside expeditions as do the soldiers of this camp, and since
they generally live here and have no other resource than their pay,
will your Majesty please have them paid according to the usual custom
before the soldiers of the camp, so that this redoubt may not be
deprived of its preëminence. For all the infantry and the galleys are
paid and the soldiers here are left without any pay and they are
injured thereby. Inasmuch as they entered suit in the royal Audiencia
in regard to the fact that the royal official judges did not pay them
from their situado, it resulted therefrom that the said royal officials
were arrested because they did not pay them as appears by the records
that I am sending to your Majesty. If I had not aided them from my own
property, they would not have been paid at all. No honorable soldier,
on this account, cares to enter upon service in this redoubt; and since
the governor has to station here a hundred soldiers whom according to
his declaration he is about to station here, for its ordinary defense,
it will be advisable that they be soldiers of greater satisfaction. For
if they are the class of people whom I have mentioned to your Majesty,
we shall be more fearful of them than of those outside. Will your
Majesty please order the pay of six reals which these soldiers receive
increased somewhat, because this country is very dear in the matter of
food; and I am enduring great anxiety and expense because of the great
need that the soldiers are suffering, as do the other officials who are
serving here, and endeavoring to have this redoubt an honored and good
post, and your Majesty better served.

This city needs arms badly, especially arquebuses and muskets in case
of any emergency. Will your Majesty please send one thousand muskets
here for this purpose so that we may have them at hand and that they
may not be taken out to any other place.

Now for twenty years I have served your Majesty in these islands in the
posts of infantry captain and castellan of this city, during which time
I was continually occupied in war matters; especially coming as
master-of-camp and commander of three companies which I raised for the
reënforcement of these islands for which purpose I went to Nueba
España by order of Governor Gomez Perez. No pay or aid was given me
because I offered to do it at my own cost, as appears from the paper
and offer that I made although the others who come here with like
duties receive a pay of three thousand pesos. The treasury saved six
thousand pesos by that. I did that in order to accumulate services so
that your Majesty might reward me more highly.

The command of this redoubt was given me in accordance with one of your
Majesty’s decrees in the former year of ninety-five. I have had many
expenses and costs in it as your Majesty will see by the testimonies
and documents that I am sending. Will your Majesty please send me if my
services deserve it, the title and confirmation [of this post], since
that is fitting and I have it by decree, so that I may better serve
your Majesty both in what pertains to this redoubt and in the cabildo
of this city, where the castellan has a vote. Will you please order the
privileges that are kept for those who serve your Majesty in similar
posts kept for me, and grant me six halberdiers for my personal
bodyguard from the number of soldiers assigned, without increasing
their pay; and who when occasion offers shall serve as do the others,
and whom it will be necessary that I have.

Also in accordance with my expenses and costs, which will appear there,
will your Majesty please increase my salary and assign me another sum
equal to the amount received by the master-of-camp. For this is a post
of equal caliber and one of closer residence and greater expense. If
there is no possibility for this will your Majesty please have the
encomienda which was granted me by your Majesty’s decree (which
amounts to an income of seven hundred pesos) increased for me, and give
it precedence over all those who have been here less time than I, since
I merit as much as he who merits the most in offices and services.

In the allotment of the cargo of the ships made to the citizens of this
city, I petition your Majesty to have me granted some leeway when I pay
the royal duties, for I am usually injured in this particular by the
occasions that arise; and that I may have recourse to the royal
Audiencia whenever I receive injury. May our Lord preserve the royal
Catholic person of your Majesty with the increase of greater kingdoms
and seigniories as is necessary to Christianity. Manila, June 24, 1604.


    Don Bernardino Maldonado


[Endorsed: “Letter from Don Bernardino Maldonado, castellan of the
redoubt of Manila, giving an account of the condition of that fortress.
Manila June 21, 1605.”]







BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DATA


The documents of the present volume come from various places as
follows:

1. Primo viaggio intorno al mondo, by Antonio Pigafetta.—See
Bibliographical Data, in VOL. XXXIII.

2. Description of the Philippines by Chao Ju-kua.—This is
retranslated into English from the Spanish translation by F.
Blumentritt of the fortieth chapter of Chao Ju-kua’s Chu-fan-chih,
which was translated from the Chinese by F. Hirth. Our translation is
made from the version published by Clemente J. Zulueta, in Periódico
Hebdomario Escolar (a students’ paper of Manila), for November 9,
1901, as the English version was not available.

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

3. Letter from Lavezaris.—Simancas—Secular; Audiencia de Filipinas;
cartas y expedientes vistos en el consejo; años de 1565 á 1594; est.
67, caj. 6, leg. 34.

4. Letter from Mirandaola.—The same as No. 3.

5. Letter from Lavezaris.—The same as No. 3.

6. Letter from royal officials—Simancas—Secular; Audiencia de
Filipinas; cartas y expedientes de los oficiales reales de Filipinas
vistos en el consejo; años 1564 á 1622; est. 67, caj. 6, leg. 29.

7. Letter from Rada.—Simancas—Secular; Audiencia de Filipinas;
cartas y expedientes de religiosos y misioneros en Filipinas vistos en
el consejo; años de 1569 á 1616; est. 68, caj. 1, leg. 37.

8. Royal communications to and regarding Legazpi.—Audiencia de
Filipinas; registros de oficio y partes; reales ordenes dirigidas á
las autoridades y particulares del distrito de la Audiencia; años 1568
á 1605; est. 105, caj. 2, leg. 11.

9. Letter from Herrera.—Simancas—eclesiastico; cartas y expedientes
de personas eclesiasticas vistos en el consejo; años 1570 á 1608;
est. 68, caj. 1, leg. 42.

10. Letter from Ortega.—Simancas—Filipinas; descubrimientos,
descripciones y poblaciones de las Yslas Filipinas; años 1566 á 1586;
est. 1, caj. 1, leg. 2, doc. 24.

11. Augustinian memoranda.—The same as No. 9.

12. Letter from Rada.—The same as No. 9.

13. Letter from royal officials.—The same as No. 6.

14. Letter from Loarca.—The same as No. 3.

15. Salazar’s council regarding slaves.—The same as No. 9.

16. Erection of Manila cathedral.—Simancas—secular; cartas y
expedientes del arzobispo de Manila vistos en el consejo; años de 1579
á 1679; est. 68, caj. 1, leg. 32.

17. Letter from Sedeño.—The same as No. 9.

18. Letter from Salazar.—The same as No. 16.

19. Letter from Roman.—The same as No. 6.

20. Letter from G. P. Dasmariñas.—Simancas—secular; cartas y
expedientes del presidente y oidores de dicha Audiencia vistos en el
consejo; años 1583 á 1599; est. 67, caj. 6, leg. 18.

21. Decree regarding hospitals.—The same as No. 8.

22. Letter from ecclesiastical cabildo.—Simancas—eclesiastico;
Audiencia de Filipinas; cartas y expedientes del cabildo eclesiastico
de Filipinas vistos en el consejo; años 1586 á 1670; est. 68, caj. 1,
leg. 35.

23. Letter from Maldonado.—Simancas—secular; Audiencia de
Filipinas; cartas y expedientes del presidente y oidores de dicha
Audiencia vistos en el consejo; años de 1600 á 1612; est. 67, caj. 6,
leg. 19.

The following are from the Archives of the Vatican, Rome:

24. Letter from Pablo de Jesus.—Principi 32; p. 174.

25. Augustinian affairs.—Arm. v, cap. 7, no. 7.

The following is from Pastells’s edition of Colin’s Labor
evangélica, i, pp. 157, 158, note:

26. Encomiendas assigned by Legazpi.

The following is obtained from an unsigned and undated printed pamphlet
in the British Museum:

27. Relation of the Philipinas Islands.







NOTES


[1] There is no direct reference as to the time in which Chao Ju-kua
lived, but his name is mentioned in the Imperial Catalogue, whence it
appears that he was probably descended from some member of the imperial
family of the Sung dynasty, whose real name was Chao; and that he was
born after the beginning of the second half of the twelfth century. He
was inspector of the salt gabel in the province of Fo-kien, and his
title was probably Shih-po, which means “Superintendent of Sea
Trade.” As this post existed in Fo-kien only during the years
1277–1287, it is probable that those dates fix the period of Chao
Ju-kua. His work is called the Chu-fan-chih, and the greater part of
his notes are copies from older records. His position, however, gave
him opportunity to gather information personally from the traders who
anchored at his port. At that time more foreign traders frequented
Chinese ports than either before or after, and it would be
comparatively easy to gather information. The Chu-fan-chih contains
more geographical information than do the court records. See F.
Hirth’s China and the Roman Orient (Leipsic and Munich; and Shanghai
and Hong-kong, 1885), pp. 21–25.

[2] “Ma-yi,” the ancient name for Luzón, is derived from
“Bahi” or “Bahy,” former names of the lake of Bay. In other
Chinese dialects, the name is given as “Ma-yit,” “Ba-hi,” or
“Ba-yit.” As the chief Tagálogs of Bulakan at the time of the
conquest bore the title of “Gat-maytan,” I infer that the name
“Ma-yi” might very reasonably be derived from the ancient name of
Bulakan, for that province was always the richest district of Luzón.
The whole of the Philippine archipelago was called “Ma-yi” by the
Chinese author. Dr. Hirth says also that the Chinese character
“Ma-hi,” may also be read. “Mo-yat,” “Ba-ek,” “Ma-i,”
“Ma-yek,” etc.—B.

[3] Ancient Chinese name for the island of Borneo.—B.

[4] Probably the river is the Pasig, and the settlement, Manila.—B.

[5] Sarong is the Malay word for skirt.—B.

[6] This confirms the statement that the Philippine Islands were once
under the influence of Buddhism, from India.—B.

It is far more likely that such images were traded by the Chinese to
the superstitious people, and that Buddhism never had any foothold and
was never introduced in the Philippines; notwithstanding P. L.
Stangl’s belief that Buddhism was introduced into the Philippines
from Java.

[7] The Chinese call all foreigners savages except the Japanese,
Koreans, and people of Anam.—B.

[8] San-hsii signifies the “Three Islands” and is attributed to the
Visayan Islands. Pai-pu-yen is perhaps the Babuyanes. Pu-li-lu may be
Mindanao; Li-yin-tung, Lingayen; Lin-hsin sounds like Lin-hsing (called
Lin-sung by Stangl), a Chinese name corresponding to their name for
modern Luzón. However, Lin-hsin appears to be the Chinese name for
Calilaya (modern Tayabas). Li-han is the primitive Chinese name for the
present Malolos, whose princes bore the title of “Gat-Salihan” or
“Gat-Salian.”—B.

[9] Stangl believes that the yellow wax is an aromatic resin resembling
wax, and somewhat like but not exactly the same as white pitch, and
today sold in Mindanao under the name of yellow wax.

[10] i.e., Tortoise-shell.—B.

[11] Yu-ta seems to be the abacá.—B. Stangl prints “yii-ta.”

[12] Coins of Siam and Java? For it appears that such coins circulated
in the country.—B.

Stangl reads the second half of this note “But how did it come to
pass current in the country?” It is probable that the commercial gold
was in the form of gold dust or ornaments of gold. If there were any
Javanese or Siamese gold coins in the country (and it is highly
improbable), they must have been taken there by the Chinese, who were
keen traders who early penetrated to all parts of the eastern
archipelagoes.

[13] Stangl inserts here “iron fixtures” [enseres de hierro].

[14] The following paragraph begins chapter xli in Stangl.

[15] Ka-may-en is Mait or the modern Mindoro; and Pa-lao-yu, Paragua.
“Pa-chi-neng” may also be read “Pa-kat-lung” and
“Ba-ki-lung.” It seems to be the term for the true Visayans, while
under the name San-hsii are understood the Visayans proper, together
with the islands of Mindoro and Palawan.—B.

[16] I believe that the word “tribe” means here village or
settlement; for I think that the author meant to say that the villages
usually had one thousand families.—B.

[17] This phrase needs explanation. The Indians were accustomed to
stain the teeth black, a custom quite general among many Malay nations.
The Negritos, on the contrary, did not stain them.—B

In Chao Ju-kua’s description, Stangl translates “round eyes of a
shining appearance,” instead of “round yellow eyes.”

[18] These “Hay-tan” are the Aetas, Itas, or Negritos of modern
authors. The antiquity of this ethnographical name surprises us. The
description of the Negritos seems to have been written yesterday. The
Chinese author, in speaking of the nests of the Negritos, seems to have
confused them with the houses that are built today in the forking of
the branches of trees by some heathen tribes of Mindanao.—B.

Mr. James A. LeRoy, in a letter dated March 14, 1905, says that it is
at least doubtful that the Negritos were ever tree-dwellers in the true
sense of the word, i.e., building solid, defensible structures like
those of the typical tree-dwellers. The Negritos do indeed spend a
portion of their time in the treetops and often hunt their game in that
way. It is probable that the tree-dwellers of the Philippines are
Malays, although some of them may have a strain of Negrito blood.

[19] This refers to the Indians and not the Negritos.—B.

[20] Of the mouth of the rivers?—B.

[21] By cotton, the author evidently means cotton textiles.—B.

This is not necessarily so. Stangl remarks that the author’s meaning
must be the tree cotton, which is called kapok, basing his assertion
upon the word that is used, presumably in the Chinese. The cotton plant
is called kapas in Java. Apropos of tree cotton, Census of the
Philippines, iv, p. 120, says: “A species of tree cotton (Ceiba
pentandra) is found growing in a wild state in many of the islands; the
cotton is useless for spinning purposes, the staple being very short,
but it is used for making cushions and other articles.”

[22] Foreign cloth: sinamay [a light fabric made from abacá] and other
textiles of the country?—B.

[23] Camotes?—B.

[24] The author accentuates the fact that the Visayan villages had no
common jurisdiction. This appears to imply that several villages in
Luzón were under the jurisdiction of one king or prince.—B. This
does not necessarily follow.

[25] The island of Mindanao was also more populous during the period of
the Spanish conquest than now. The islands of Sarangani which have now
1,500 Bilanes and 100 Moros, were very thickly populated by the latter
in 1548, and they had a large fort on a hill there.—B.

But see VOL. IX, p. 290, where it appears that the early reports of the
population of Mindanao were greatly overstated.

[26] According to the letters from the Jesuit fathers of Filipinas,
there are yet similar coasts near Zamboanga, and such as are described
by the Chinese author.—B.

[27] This reminds us of the dangerous and arduous navigation about the
eastern and southern coasts of Mindanao, especially near Cape San
Agustin.—B.

[28] The disastrous expedition to Florida was undertaken in pursuance
of a royal order to Velasco, although the latter was unwilling to
undertake it. The Spaniards imagining Florida to be overflowing with
riches, eagerly offered themselves for the expedition. The Spanish
force sent comprised six squadrons of cavalry and six companies of
infantry, and was accompanied by one thousand Indian archers. Under the
command of Tristan de Luna y Arellano (also called Acuña), this force
left Vera Cruz in thirteen vessels in June, 1559. On reaching Florida,
they were so harassed by the Indians that they were compelled to send
for aid, which was sent under Angel Villafañe, who was appointed
Luna’s successor. In a short time, however, the attempt was
abandoned, the few survivors reaching Mexico via Havana. See
Bancroft’s Mexico, ii, pp. 593–595.

[29] See VOL. II, p. 208.

[30] See VOL. II, pp. 209–210.

[31] See VOL. II, pp. 210–216.

[32] Andres de Mirandaola was treacherously killed by a private soldier
while attending to his duties regarding the collection of the tribute,
as appears from a letter to Felipe II from the royal officials, June
18, 1583, the original of which is conserved in Sevilla, with pressmark
“est. 67, caj. 6, leg. 29.” The document states further that the
soldier was not punished but was serving as alcalde-in-ordinary at
Oton, although his case was pending in the royal Audiencia.

[33] See VOL. II, pp. 149, 150; and the following letter.

[34] See VOL. II, for the negotiations between Pereira and Legazpi.

[35] The map does not accompany this letter.

[36] See VOL. II, pp. 143, 144, 148.

[37] See VOL. III, p. 44, note 7.

[38] The Census of the Philippine Islands (Washington, 1905) gives (i,
p. 57) the area of Luzón as 40,969 square miles, and that of Mindanao,
as 36,292 square miles. These figures being later than those of VOL.
XXIII, p. 165, note 29, have probably a better scientific basis, and
are hence more nearly correct.

[39] See Wallace’s Malay Archipelago (pp. 318, 319) for a modern
corroboration of this statement, with regard to the slaves of Ternate.

[40] See VOL. III, p. 52, and VOL. XXIII, pp. 189, 190.

[41] The number of islands and islets in the Philippine Archipelago is,
according to G. R. Putnam, in charge of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic
Survey in the Philippine Islands, 3,141. This number comprises
everything, however small, which at high tide appears as a separate
island. Of them, 1,668 are listed by name, while 1,473 are, so far as
known, without names. More accurate information will doubtless further
increase this number, which, as well as the following, cannot be
regarded as yet as entirely definitive. The total area of the islands,
so far as known, is 115,026 square miles. Two islands have areas
exceeding 10,000 square miles each; nine of more than 1,000 but less
than 10,000 square miles; 20, between 100 and 1,000 square miles; 73,
between 10 and 100 square miles; 262, between one and ten square miles;
and 2,775, less than one square mile each. See Census of Philippine
Islands, i, pp. 56, 57.

[42] Herrera probably confuses the word “kasis” (see VOL. XVI, p.
134, note 161—here also used wrongly) with the American word
“cacique” or “chief”.

[43] See Pigafetta’s statements, VOL. XXXIII, pp. 223–225,
227–231; see also his statement about the introduction of
Mahometanism into the Moluccas, ante, p. 73.

[44] These must be the letters dated July 15 and 23, q.v. VOL. II, PP.
233–239. The error in the month in the present document could easily
arise through carelessness of the royal secretary or clerk.

[45] See VOL. II, pp. 157–160.

[46] By a decree dated at Burgos, February 22, 1512, Fernando orders
that no encomendero may have more than three hundred Indians; for if
they have more than that number, “they cannot be well treated, aided,
maintained, or instructed in the matters of our holy Catholic faith, as
would be proper.” In the Philippines, encomenderos had sometimes as
many as one thousand two hundred natives. See Doc. Ined. Amer. y
Oceania, i, pp. 237–241, and Census of Philippine Islands, i, p. 423.

[47] See Lavezaris’s report on slavery in the Philippines, VOL. III,
pp. 286–288; also the memoranda of Augustinians, post, pp. 273–285;
and Rada’s letter, post, pp. 286–294, where the king’s order is
mentioned.

[48] On the question of the tribute, see VOL. VII, pp. 267–318, and
VOL. VIII, pp. 25–69.

[49] See post, the memoranda of the Augustinians, regarding the various
questions to be discussed in Spain by Diego de Herrera.

[50] See the viceroy’s report to Felipe II, regarding the arrest of
Mirandaola and Moron, VOL. III, p. 210. The viceroy appears to have
formed his judgment regarding the matter from the present letter.

[51] Evidently a reference to Cochinchina, and hence not an island, but
part of the mainland. See VOL. IV, p. 131, note 14.

[52] For sketch of this religious see VOL. IX, p. 95, note 18. See also
his reports on the Philippines in the same volume, pp. 95–119.

[53] The natives of these two rivers were assigned as encomiendas by
Guido de Lavezaris to himself, but he was deprived of them by Dr.
Francisco de Sande, although they were later restored to him. See VOL.
IV, pp. 74, 80, 81; and VOL. VIII, p. 101, where the natives of these
rivers have again reverted to the king.

[54] No such island appears in the list given in Census of Philippine
Islands (i, pp. 263–308). It may possibly be the island of Simara,
south of Bantón or Guimaras, south of Panay. There is a point called
Guimbal on the south coast of Panay.

[55] See ante, p. 271, note 24.

[56] See VOL. IV, pp. 176, 236, 237.

[57] See this “Opinion” in VOL. III, pp. 253–259; and
Lavezaris’s reply thereto, pp. 260–271.

[58] The original at this point is somewhat blind. The last two
sentences read there: Ay ya muchos xptianos aqui en manila y en tondo y
en lubao y en mindoro y en Octon y en çubu en vahi y en bonbon aunque
tan bien ay Religioso aun no an començado a convertirse.

[59] See this order in the letter written to Legazpi by Felipe II, on
November 16, 1568, ante, p. 237; and the report given by Guido de
Lavezaris, VOL. III, pp. 286–288.

[60] Of the four sons of Felipe II and Anna of Austria, only the third,
Felipe III, lived beyond childhood.

[61] This was the battle of Lepanto, which was fought October 7, 1571.
Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote, took part in this battle, in
which he was wounded.

[62] See ante, p. 236, note 19.

[63] Loarca mentions this village. See VOL. V, p. 85.

[64] See VOL. VI, p. 116, note 28; also Loarca’s Relation, VOL. V,
pp. 34–187.

[65] See VOL. VI, p. 88, note 22.

[66] The preceding document says that Legazpi assigned the villages of
Oton (where the shipyard was established) to Miguel de Loarca, June 1,
1572.

[67] This should be March 15, 1577, for the first Franciscan mission
arrived at Manila June 24, 1577. The date 1578 is also given by
Gonzalez de Mendoza (see VOL. VI, p. 125).

[68] Priapus, the son of Dionysus and Aphrodite, was the god of
fruitfulness of the field and of the herd. Horticulture, vine-growing,
goat and sheep-herding, bee-keeping, and even fishing were under his
protection. His statues (generally cut out of wood, stained with
vermilion) with a club and sickle and a phallic symbol of the creative
and fructifying power of nature were usually placed in gardens.—See
Seyffert’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, p. 515.

[69] See account of the Franciscan expedition to China by Gonzalez de
Mendoza in VOL. VI, pp. 125–134.

[70] Pablo de Jesus was born of a noble family in Catalonia in 1533. He
studied at Alcalá de Henares, and at the age of nineteen took the
Dominican habit in Madrid. In 1576 he was enrolled in the first
Dominican mission for the Philippines, where he arrived June 24, 1577.
He labored in the provinces of Camarines, Bataan and Zambales, until
July 1, 1580, when he became custodian. In 1583 he despatched the first
missionaries to Cochinchina. After the completion of his office he was
assigned to the villages of Santa Ana de Sapa and Taytay, and in 1591
was again elected to the head of his province. He sent the first
Franciscans to Japan. In 1600 he was appointed visitor, and on his
return to Manila retired to the convent of Manila. In 1602 he was
elected definitor. He died at the Manila convent in 1610. See
Huerta’s Estado, pp. 442, 443.

[71] See VOL. VI, p. 46, note 2.

[72] See VOL. IX, p. 311, note 46. He was born of a noble family in San
Clemente of the bishopric of Cuenca in 1532 or 1533. As a youth, he
went to England in the service of the duke of Feria. He entered the
Society of Jesus in 1558 or 1559, and studied at Padua, while at Rome
he had charge of the German college. There he was assigned to the
Japanese missions. He was sent to Nueva España in 1572, after his
campaign in Florida in 1568. After going to the Philippines, it is said
that he planned the first real fortifications of Manila. He endeavored
to introduce silk raising into the islands, and planted many mulberry
trees for that purpose; although his efforts failed. He also introduced
many plants into the islands. His death occurred, according to
Sommervogel, September 2, 1595, after having served his order as rector
of Manila and vice-provincial. Colin (p. 197) gives his official
permission for Sanchez’s journey to Spain in 1586. See Colin’s
Labor evangélica, pp. 335–342, and Sommervogel’s Bibliothèque.

[73] See VOL. XXIII, p. 226, note 79.

[74] See VOL. XXIII, p. 224, note 76.

[75] See VOL. VII, p. 137, note 9. He was born at Mondejar in 1547, and
entered the Jesuit novitiate at Alcalá, June 18, 1565. He went to
Mexico in 1579, going thence immediately to the Philippines. He was
twice in China. On his memorable journey to Spain in 1586, he also went
to Rome. He died at Alcalá, May 27 1593. See Colin’s Labor
evangélica, pp. 167–317 (a portion of which consists of documents by
Sanchez), and Sommervogel’s Bibliothèque.

[76] Cristóbal de Salvatierra was a native of Salvatierra in
Extremadura, and professed in the Dominican convent at Salamanca,
August 27, 1571. He accompanied Bishop Salazar to the Philippines. He
became provisor, and was inexorable in his denunciations of all
immorality; but notwithstanding his duties in that office had time to
minister to the natives. He died early in 1595, deeply regretted. See
Reseña biog., i, pp. 50–52.

[77] See VOL. VII, p. 185, note 21.

[78] Alonso de Castro was born in Mejialburgis, and took the
Augustinian habit at Salamanca in 1559. He went to the Philippines in
1577, where he became proficient in the Tagálog and Visayan languages.
In 1578 he labored in Calumpit; in 1581 in Tigbauan; in Tondo in 1583,
and in Otón in 1587. He was elected prior of Manila in 1589, and
presided at the provincial chapter of 1593 as senior definitor. Felipe
II proposed him as bishop of Nueva Cáceres but he died (1597) before
he could assume the office. He wrote three volumes of certain “moral
happenings” that occurred during his stay in the Visayas. See
Pérez’s Catálogo, p. 18.

[79] Juan Pimentel was born at Alba de Tormes, and professed at the
Valiadolid convent. He reached the Philippines, by way of Mexico, with
a mission of twenty religious in 1581. Having accompanied Father
Andrés Aguirre to Spain on an important mission in 1582, he died at
the Burgos convent in 1586. See Pérez’s Catálogo, p. 22.

[80] See the bull for the erection of the Manila cathedral in VOL. IV,
pp. 119–124.

[81] The citations from Isaias represent passages from three distinct
places, viz.: xli, 5; lx, 4–5; and liv, 2.—T. C. Middleton, O.S.A.

[82] The terms “portiones” and “dimidiæ portiones” (farther
on) correspond to the “raciones” and “medios raciones” of
Spanish church language.—T. C. Middleton, O.S.A.

[83] Feasts in the Catholic Church are divided according to their rank
into doubles, semi-doubles, simples, etc. It was the custom till late
in the middle ages to recite the office of the feria in spite of any
feast which might occur on it. Hence on greater solemnities, clerics
were obliged to recite a double office—one of the feria, another of
the feast. These double offices were few in number; even the office for
the feast of the Apostles was not double. On lesser feasts the office
was simple—i.e., the feast was merely commemorated—and in a third
class of feasts the office of the feria and feast were welded into one.
These last offices were called semi-doubles. Later on the ferial gave
way more and more to the festal offices, and before the end of the
thirteenth century the classification is used in a new sense. The word
“double” is applied, not to the two offices recited in one day, but
to the single office of a feast on which the antiphons were
doubled—i.e., repeated fully at the beginning and end of a psalm. On
semi-doubles, half of the antiphon was repeated before, the whole after
the psalm: in other words it was half doubled. The office for simple
feasts differed little from that of the feria. In modern office-books
the doubles are further subdivided into doubles of the first class, of
the second class, and greater and ordinary. The object of this division
is to determine which of the two feasts must give way to the other,
should both fall on the same day. See Addis and Arnold’s Catholic
Dictionary, p. 344.

[84] A reference to the history of the passion of Jesus Christ as read
in the four gospels.—T. C. Middleton, O.S.A.

[85] A reference to I Corinthians, ix, 13.—T. C. Middleton, O.S.A.

[86] i.e., “The see being vacant.”

[87] In the transcript the phrase is ista tua, perhaps an error for
ista dua.—T. C. Middleton, O.S.A.

[88] Feria is a name given to all the days of the week except Sunday
and Saturday in the ecclesiastical calendar. It seems strange that the
title of feria or feast should be given to days that are not feasts, or
at least are not considered as such, so far as they are called feriæ.
The explanation given in the breviary, that clerics are to be free from
worldly cares and keep a perpetual feast to God, scarcely suffices, and
perhaps is not intended, to account for the actual origin of the name.
The true explanation is probably this. The Jews were accustomed to name
the days of the week from the Sabbath, and thus such expressions as
“the first day from the Sabbath,” or, in other words “the first
day of the week” are found in the gospels. The early Christians
reckoned the days in Easter week in the same fashion: only as all the
days in that week were holy days, they called Easter Monday, not the
first day after Easter Sunday, but the second feria or feast-day; and
as every Sunday is a lesser Easter, the practice prevailed of calling
each Monday “feria secunda,” each Tuesday “feria tertia,” etc.
Feriæ are divided into greater and lesser.—The latter give place to
any feast-day within an octave or vigil, without even being
commemorated. The former are the week-days of Advent and Lent, the
Ember-days, and Monday (not Tuesday) in Rogation Week. If a simple
feast falls on such a feria, the ferial office and mass are said, the
feast being only commemorated, and if a double, semi-double, or day
within an octave coincides with the feria, the festal office is,
indeed, said, but the feria is commemorated. The privilege granted by
apostolic indult of reciting a votive office on certain days of the
week or month cannot be made use of on these greater feriæ. Some of
the greater feriæ are privileged (the days of Holy, Easter, and
Whitson Weeks, and Ash Wednesday). These days exclude any feast of
however high a rank, and cause it to be transferred to another day.
This must be understood of the celebration in choir, for the obligation
of resting from servile work and hearing mass on holidays usually
remains, even if the holiday falls on a greater feria. See Addis and
Arnold’s Catholic Dictionary, pp. 346, 347.

[89] Terms signifying the stipends falling to those bound to choir
office who were present at the recitation of Tierce and Sext.—T. C.
Middleton, O.S.A.

[90] Among some of the monastic orders and friars, the tonsure leaves
only a circle of hair round the head; the tonsure of the secular clerks
on the other hand, is small. The first tonsure is made by the bishop in
a form prescribed by the Pontifical, and the person receiving it is
thereby admitted to the state and privilege of a cleric. The bishop may
confer it at any place or time. Mitred abbots may give it to their own
subjects; cardinal priests to the clergy of their titles; and it may
also be conferred by other priests with special privileges. There have
been at various times different forms and degrees of the tonsure. It
was only gradually that the right to tonsure was limited to bishops,
abbots, etc. Till the tenth century it was given by simple priests, or
even by laymen to one another. See Addis and Arnold’s Catholic
Dictionary, p. 798.

[91] The “Ordo Romanus” arc certain ancient collections of ritual
prescriptions, or rubrics, as observed in the Roman Catholic Church.
They are represented at the present day by the “Ceremoniale” and
the “Pontificale Romanum.” The first of these collections to appear
in print was the “Ordo Vulgatus” (1559) of Melchior Hittorp. The
rubrics and directions contained in these collections relate to both
ordinary and extraordinary matters. Of the former class are the papal
mass, the episcopal mass, the celebration of baptism and extreme
unction, ordinations, the communion of the sick, the ceremonial of the
last three days of Holy Week, papal and cardinalitial functions during
the functions of the whole year, sacerdotal functions on all ferias,
benedictions, etc. Of the second class are the election and
consecration of a pope, the coronation of the emperor and of kings, the
creation of cardinals, the nomination of the legates, canonization,
etc. See Addis and Arnold’s Catholic Dictionary, p. 630.

[92] Proverbs xxii, 28—T. C. Middleton, O.S.A.

[93] See Colin’s Labor evangélica, pp. 170–192 for an account of
Sanchez’s trips to China and Macao. His second trip to Macao occurred
near the end of this same year 1583.

[94] See letter from this official in VOL. V, pp. 192–195, and post,
pp. 392–402. From a royal decree dated Madrid, March 27, 1591, it
appears that Roman had died in the Philippines while still exercising
his duties as treasurer.

[95] This founder was Captain Esteban Rodriguez de Figueroa, a native
of the Spanish African possessions, a Portuguese by birth, who had
accompanied Legazpi to the Philippines. By his will (1596) he gave two
thousand pesos to the Jesuit college of Manila, and signified that all
his property was to be given to the college of San José (whose
foundation was decreed) in case of the death of his daughters. See
Montero y Vidal’s Hist. de Filipinas, i, pp. 109, 110.

[96] See the excellent “History of the population” of the
Philippine Islands, by Dr. David P. Barrows, in Census of Philippine
Islands, pp. 411–491; and the succeeding articles on population, pp.
492–585.

[97] Possibly the state of Achen in Sumatra is meant.

[98] Cf. Loarca’s account of the beliefs of the Visayas Islands, VOL.
V, pp. 121–141, 163, 165, of the Tagálogs, pp. 171–175;
Plasencia’s account of the worship of the Tagálogs, VOL. VII, pp.
185–196.

[99] That is Franciscans, who first went to the islands in 1577.
Salazar in his relation (VOL. VII, p. 39), says also that there were
twelve religious houses in the province of La Laguna—ten Franciscan,
one Augustinian, and one secular. This would indicate that Salazar’s
relation is the later, for the tendency would be for the Franciscans to
increase.

[100] Loarca (VOL. V, pp. 87, 88) mentions the names of the ten
encomiendas about the lake of Bay. Salazar (ut supra) allows but eight
encomenderos to this district.

[101] The production of cotton in the Philippines has been almost
entirely confined to the island of Luzón, and was formerly much more
important than now. Ilocos (Norte and Sur) produced in 1902, 64.2 per
cent of the cotton grown in the archipelago (the cotton area in the two
provinces constituting 73.2 per cent of all the cotton area of the
island). The cotton area of Ilocos Norte for that year was 1,591
hectares, and the crop, 605,021 kilograms; and the cotton land of
Ilocos Sur, 645 hectares, and the crop, 244,140 kilograms. The greatest
rice-producing province in the Philippines is Pangasinán, which
produced 1,454,601 hectoliters in 1902, while Ilocos Norte is fifth in
order with 483,520 hectoliters, and Ilocos Sur eighth with 425,231
hectoliters. The archipelago does not raise enough rice to meet
domestic wants, as it is more profitable to raise other crops,
especially abacá. See Census of Philippine Islands, iv, pp. 209, 218,
219.

[102] Cf. Loarca’s account of the province of Ilocos, VOL. V, p. 103,
and Salazar’s, VOL. VII, p. 37.

[103] The cotton area of Cagayan did not reach 100 hectares in 1902,
and the rice crop for that year was only 89,285 hectoliters. In 1902
Cagayan was the third province in the production of corn (11,598
hectoliters) and sweet potatoes (5,415,626 kilograms). The total area
of that province is 1,308,468 hectares, of which 138,166 hectares or
10.6 per cent is agricultural. Of this 35,430 hectares or 25.6 per cent
are cultivated and 102,736 hectares uncultivated. See Census of
Philippine Islands, iv.

[104] Montero y Vidal (Hist. de Filipinas, i, p. 84) says of this
incident: “A Japanese pirate, called Tayfusa or Taizufa, having made
himself master of Cagayán, was committing many depredations among its
natives. Ronquillo sent Juan Pablo Carrión to oppose him, who
succeeded, although not without difficulty, in driving him from the
province. Then Carrión pacified the whole territory after defeating
the native chiefs. He founded the city of Nueva Segovia in Lal-lo. He
was accompanied in that expedition by the Dominican father Fray
Cristóbal de Salvatierra and the Augustinian Francisco Rodríguez.”

[105] Francisco Cabral was born at Covilham Portugal, in 1528, and
entered his novitiate in the Society of Jesus at Goa in 1554. He
professed philosophy and theology, and later became master of novices,
and rector of the colleges of Goa, Baçaim, and Cochim. Later he went
to Japan, where he was vice-provincial for some years. Going thence to
China, he returned later to the Indies, where he was visitor,
provincial, and an official in the professed house at Goa, where he
died April 16, 1609. Many of his letters have been published. See
Sommervogel’s Bibliothèque.

[106] The author probably includes in the term Camarines the modern
provinces of Ambos Camarines, Albay, and Sorsogón, and possibly
Tayabas. In 1902 Ambos Camarines was fourth in the production of
abacá, the provinces of Leyte, Albay, and Sorsogón, preceding it. Its
total area is 849,261 hectares, of which 106,371 hectares or 12.5 per
cent are agricultural. Of this 59,683 hectares or 56.1 per cent are
cultivated. Cf. the above account with that of Loarca, VOL. V, pp.
93–101. See Census of Philippine Islands, iv.

[107] This is the Bucaygan of Loarca (see VOL. V, p. 99), and must be
the point on the southeastern extremity of Sorsogón.

[108] See Pigafetta’s description of the city of Brunei, ante, VOL.
XXXIII, p. 221; see also VOL. IV, p. 160 ff.

[109] Literally: “Notwithstanding that our men were four cats.”

[110] See the account of Candish’s expedition in VOL. XV, pp.
291–299.

[111] Pesos de Tipusque: Pedro Gutiérrez de Santa Clara says (i, p.
171) in his Historia de las guerras civiles del Perú—called also
Quinquenarios—(Madrid, 1904; published for the first time from the
original MS.): “and it was all gold de minas, ten pesos of which are
worth sixteen and one-half pesos and four granos, of the money called
common gold or gold of Tepuzque in Nueva España.” See also VOL. II,
p. 221, and VOL. XII, p. 46, note 6.

[112] Fernando Alvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alva, the “hangman of the
Netherlands” (1508–82 or 83) was specially trained by his
grandfather for war and politics. He served under both Charles V and
Felipe II; and will always be remembered by his cruelty and atrocities
in the Netherlands. Motley’s estimate of him is interesting: “Such
an amount of stealth and ferocity, of patient vindictiveness, and
universal blood thirstiness has never been found in a savage beast of
the forest, and but rarely in a human being.” See New International
Encyclopedia.

[113] The following royal decree taken from a MS. book of decrees
entitled “Cedulas reales dirigidas à estas Yslas Filipinas, Copiadas
fielmente de las originales ò authenticas que se guardan en el archivo
de la real Audiencia de Manila” (a copy of the seventeenth or
eighteenth century) and kindly loaned by Mr. E. E. Ayer of Chicago, is
interesting. “The King. Leonardo Furriano, my engineer. Inasmuch as
it is desirable for my service that you go to the Philipinas Islands
with Gomez Perez Dasmariñas, knight of the Order of Santiago, whom I
have appointed as my governor and captain-general of them, so that
forts may be built according to your advice and design, which, in
accordance with the contents of the instructions of the said Gomez
Perez are to be built in the said islands: I order you to go with him,
and that you embark very speedily in order not to tarry an instant for
the sake of our cause. For that purpose, Don Luis de la Cueva, my
governor and captain-general of those islands of Canaria shall aid you.
Thus have I ordered him; and the officials of my royal treasury of the
said Philipinas Islands shall give and pay you at the rate of one
thousand ducados per year from the date when you shall show by signed
notarial testimony that you have set sail from any port of the said
islands of Canaria, and for so long as you are busied and engaged in
the construction of the said forts. When the forts are completed, you
shall return to these kingdoms with the design and plan of said forts.
Given at San Lorenzo, September twelve, one thousand five hundred and
eighty-nine.

    I the King

“By order of the king our sovereign:

    Juan de Ybarra”

[114] See the royal instructions given to Dasmariñas, in VOL. VII, pp.
141–172; and especially pp. 149–151.

[115] The opinions of the religious given January 19 and 20, 1592 upon
the question of waging war on the Zambals (see VOL. III, pp.
199–233), prove this assertion of Dasmariñas to have been made too
soon.

[116] The province of Pampanga is still an abundant source of supplies.
Of its total area of 224,812 hectares, 105,677 or 47 per cent is
agricultural, and of that 63,840 hectares (or 60.4 per cent) are
cultivated. It is the second sugar producing province in the
archipelago, producing 14,317,776 kilograms in 1902.

[117] Morga makes a statement somewhat at variance with this (see VOL.
XV, p. 75).

[118] See the bull of Gregory XIII, dated February 6, 1578, in VOL. IV,
pp. 119–124, where the patronage of the Spanish monarch in
ecclesiastical matters is conceded. Libro i, tit. 6, of Recopilación
de Leyes de Indias treats of the royal patronage. Law i, promulgated by
Felipe II, at San Lorenzo, June 1, 1574, and Madrid, February 21, 1575;
and by Felipe IV, June 15, 1654, is as follows:

“Inasmuch as the right of ecclesiastical patronage belongs to us
throughout the state of the Indias, both because we discovered and
acquired that new world, built and endowed there the churches and
monasteries at our own cost, and that of the Catholic sovereigns our
ancestors, and because it was conceded to us by bulls of the supreme
pontiffs of their own accord, for their conservation and for that of
the justice which we have there: we order and command that this right
of patronage of the Indias, singly, and in solidum, be reserved forever
to us and to our royal crown, and it cannot be deprived of it in whole
or in part; and by any grace, reward, privilege, or any other
disposition that we or the kings our successors may make or concede, it
shall not be adjudged that we concede the right of patronage to any
person, church, or monastery, or that we are prejudiced in the said our
right of patronage. Further, no person or persons, ecclesiastical or
secular community, church, or monastery, can make use of the right of
patronage by any custom, rule, or any other title, unless it be the
person who exercises it in our name, and with our authority and power.
No person, secular or ecclesiastical, order or convent, religious order
or community of any estate, condition, rank, and preëminence,
judicially or extrajudicially, shall dare, for any cause or occasion,
to meddle at all with anything touching the said our royal patronage,
or to damage us in our exercise of it, or appoint to church, benefice,
or ecclesiastical office, or receive such to which appointments are
made throughout the state of the Indias, without our presentation, or
that of the person to whom we entrust the same by law or
letters-patent. Whoever shall do the contrary, if he be a secular
person, shall incur the loss of the rewards that we shall have given
him throughout the state of the Indias, shall be declared incapable of
gaining and holding others, and shall be exiled from all our kingdoms
perpetually. If he be an ecclesiastical person, he shall be considered
and regarded as exiled from our kingdoms, and shall be unable to
possess or hold any benefice or ecclesiastical office in the said our
kingdoms. Both classes shall incur the other penalties established by
the laws of these kingdoms. Our viceroys, and royal audiencias and
justices shall proceed with all rigor against those who fail in the
observance and inviolability of our right of patronage. They shall
proceed by virtue of their office or at the petition of our fiscals, or
of any other party who pleads it, and shall observe the necessary
precautions in the execution thereof.”

Law xliv (dated San Lorenzo, August 28, 1591), treats of the hospitals
and is as follows:

“We order the steward or superintendent of the funds of the churches
and hospitals of the Indians to be appointed according to the ordinance
of the royal patronage, without any innovation. Thus shall it be
executed by the viceroys and presidents, and the others who are
concerned with the exercise of the patronage.”

See also laws xvi and xvii of this same libro and título which treat
directly of the Philippines, and which are given in VOL. XVI, p. 169,
note 220. Law xviii (dated San Lorenzo, October 5, 1606) also treating
of the Philippines, is as follows: “In order that the bishops of the
churches of Nueva Cáceres, Nueva Segovia, and that of Nombre de Jesus
of the Filipinas Islands may have persons to aid them in the pontifical
ceremonies and in order that they may have the requisite propriety of
form in their churches, and the divine worship have more veneration, in
view of the fact that there are no tithes by which any prebendaries can
be maintained in them, our governor of those islands shall appoint in
each one of the said churches two secular priests of good morals and
example who shall assist and aid the bishop in the pontifical
ceremonies and in everything touching the divine worship. He shall
assign to them some moderate sum from our royal treasury for their
maintenance, so that they might thereby serve the churches for the
present and until there is more faculty for endowing them with
prebendaries and supplying whatever else is necessary.”

[119] The information given by Pérez concerning Tomás Márquez (in
view of the present document) is unsatisfactory. He was a minister of
Cagayán in 1587 and 1590, where he taught the natives to develop their
natural agricultural resources. In 1597 he was elected
commissary-procurator in Spain, but did not make the voyage. He died in
Manila in 1616. The present document would indicate that Márquez did
go to Spain, and probably Rome. See Pérez’s Catálogo, p. 33.

[120] The Philippines were originally regarded by the Spaniards as
belonging to the West Indies.

[121] The Augustinian convent of San Felipe el Real of Madrid was
founded in 1545 or 1547.—T. C. Middleton, O.S.A.

[122] The numbering of the various parts of this section is very
confused, but we follow it throughout.

[123] Discreet (Latin Discretus) a representative of a province chosen
to go to a general chapter to make report thereto on all matters.—T.
C. Middleton, O.S.A.

[124] John Baptist Bernori of Piombino, Italy, belonged to the province
of the Augustinians of Siena. He was scripture professor at the Roman
Sapienza. See Lanteri, Eremus (Rome, 1874–75) ii, p. 233.—T. C.
Middleton, O.S.A.

[125] This was the first Augustinian colony in the New World. Seven
were sent at first to Mexico by San Tomás de Villanueva, then
provincial of Castile (leaving Spain, March 3, 1533, and arriving in
Mexico, June 7, of the same year). The names of these seven were:
Francisco de la Cruz, Agustín de Coruña, Gerónimo Jimenez, Juan de
San Roman, Juan de Oseguera, Alonso de Borja, and Jorge de Avila. Two
years later five others (under Nicolás de Agreda) were also sent to
Mexico from Spain. See Revista Agustiniana, xi, pp. 34, 35.—T. C.
Middleton, O.S.A.

[126] Thaddeus Guidelli of Perugia, general of the Augustinians, born
in Tuscany, filled many offices in the order: provincial of Ombria, in
1557; procurator-general for many years; vicar general of the order;
and finally general, having been elected in general chapter at Perugia,
May 14, 1570. He had been present at the Council of Trent. His death
occurred at Perugia in 1606, at the age of ninety-five. See Lanteri,
Eremus (Rome, 1874–75), i, p. 307; ii, p. 232.—T. C. Middleton,
O.S.A.

[127] The first archbishop of Manila, Ignacio de Santibañez, O.S.F.,
died August 14, 1598, after having been in the islands only since May
28, of the same year. His successor Miguel de Benavides, O.P., did not
assume his seat until 1603.

[128] This was the estate at Quiapo. See VOL. XIV, pp. 327–329.

[129] See Ortega’s relations and representations, VOL. IX, pp.
95–119.

[130] The benefactor of the Recollects. See VOL. XXI, pp. 194,
284–289.

[131] See the accounts of Morga’s fight with Oliver van Noordt in
VOL. XI, pp. 140–186, and VOL. XV, pp. 205–237, 300–306 (voyage
of van Noordt).