Relation of the Filipinas Islands

Relation of the Filipinas IslandsBy a religious who lived there for eighteen years1Archipelagus orientalis, sive Asiaticus (Eastern or Asiatic archipelago); photographic facsimile of map by Joannis Blaeu (Amsterdam, 1659)Archipelagus orientalis, sive Asiaticus(Eastern or Asiatic archipelago); photographic facsimile of map by Joannis Blaeu (Amsterdam, 1659)[From original map inBibliothèque Nationale, Paris]The islands called Filipinas, because of having been conquered during the reign of Felipe II, were discovered in the year 1521, by Hernando Magallanes, a famous Portuguese, who gave his name to the strait. That great pilot, after having forever perpetuated his name by a navigation so new and so difficult, landed on one of the Filipinas Islands—a very small one, named Matan—where he was treacherously killed by the Indians. Ruy Lopez de Villalobos sighted the islands again after him in the year 1539.2Finally they were pacified in the year 1571 by the adelantado Miguel Lopez de Legaspi. It is a cause for surprise that the Portuguese, who haddiscovered the Malucas, China, and Japon, some years before, and had made their homes there, did not know anything about those islands until long afterward, although they are, as it were, the very center and middle part of their other discoveries. They knew well the island of Borneo, which is the last of those islands toward the south, but they had never stopped there while en route to the Malucas—urged, perhaps, by their too great greed for the spices and drugs which are produced so abundantly in those islands.The geographies say that there are eleven thousand islands in that great archipelago of which the Filipinas are a part, and that they are adjacent to Asia as are the Canaries and the Terceras to Africa. They cross into the torrid zone and extend along the coasts of China and India. South of them lie the Malucas, and on their northern coast, Japon. More than forty of them are subject to the king of España, the largest and most important being Manila and Mindanao. Manila is the capital of all the others, the residence of the governor and the archbishop, and the seat of the royal Audiencia. Those two islands are each six hundred miles in circuit; they are full of mountains, have rivers and dense forests, and lie in thirteen and one-half degrees north latitude. The other islands are not so large, some being one hundred miles in circuit, some fifty, and some even less. Almost all of them are inhabited by Indians, and those which are not are used by the Indians for their crops, and for the chase of deer and wild boars, and for the gathering of wax, with which the islands most abound.The islands not yet under the dominion of theking of España have their own kings, who are Mahometans. The island of Borneo, three times greater than the whole of Italia, is the largest of all the islands. Those subject to the king of España are Manila, Zebu, Oton, Mindanao, Bohol, Leite, Samar, Mindoro, Marinduque, the island of Negros, the island of Fuegos, Calamianes, Masbat, Jolo, Taquima, Capul, La Paragua, the island of Tablas, Verde Island, Burias, Tiago, Maripipe, Panama, Panaon, Sibuian, Luban, Bantajan, Panglao, Siquior, Catanduan, Imaras, Tagapolo, Banton, Romblon, Similara, Cuio, Cagaianes, Marivelez, Poro, Babuianes, the island of Cabras (which is distant from the others), and other smaller ones.In the islands subject to the king of España, every married man pays ten reals of tribute, and he who is unmarried five. Nearly all of them have received the gospel, and hence there are few heathen. However, in the islands of Mindanao, Taquima, and Jolo, conquered but recently, most of the people are Moros or heathen; but it is hoped that the zeal of the missionaries will convert them very soon to Jesus Christ.Before the conquest of those islands by the Spaniards, the natives of the country were subject to the chiefs among them, who were recognized as nobles, and all the others obeyed them. Those chiefs possessed a great amount of gold, and slaves in proportion to their nobility. I knew two chiefs, one in Bohol, and the other at Dapitan, a village of Mindanao, who had more than one hundred slaves apiece. They are not foreign slaves, as those of Angola who are in Europa, but of the same nation. It was a lamentable thing to see with what violenceand for how little a thing, these chiefs made slaves. For, however small a sum one owed to another, the interest, for lack of payment, amounted to so great a sum that it was impossible to pay it; and consequently, the person of the debtor being pledged for the debt, he became the slave of his creditor, together with all his posterity. They also made slaves, with unusual tyranny and cruelty, for crimes of slight importance, such as not keeping silent at the graves of the dead, and for passing in front of the chief’s wife when she was in her bath. Those captured in war were also all made slaves. Now with baptism, all those acts of violence and tyranny have been suppressed—although there still remains one very peculiar custom among them, which does not follow that general rule, namely,Partus sequitur ventrem;3for there are some who are wholly slaves, and others who are only half slaves. The former are those born of a slave father and mother; the others who are born of a slave father and a free mother, orvice versa. In some villages it is the custom that, if the father is slave and the mother free, one of the children is free and the other slave. The privilege of those half slaves is that if they pay a certain sum of money to their master, they may oblige him to grant them their liberty—an advantage that is not possessed by those who are wholly slaves.All the religion of those Indians is founded on tradition, and on a custom introduced by the devil himself, who formerly spoke to them by the mouth of their idols and of their priests. That tradition is preserved by the songs that they learn by heart in their childhood, by hearing them sung in their sailing,in their work, in their amusements, and in their festivals, and, better yet, when they bewail their dead. In those barbarous songs, they recount the fabulous genealogies and deeds of their gods, of whom they have one who is chief and head of all the others. The Tagáls call that godBathala mei Capal, which signifies “God the Creator.” The Bisayans call himLaon, which signifies “Time.” They are not far from our belief on the point of the creation of the world. They believe in a first man, the flood, and paradise, and the punishments of the future life.They say that the first man and the first woman came out of a reed stalk which burst in Sumatra, and that there were some quarrels between them at their marriage. They believed that when the soul left the body, it went to an island, where the trees, birds, waters, and all other things were black; that it passed thence to another island, where all things were of different colors; and finally that it arrived at one, where everything was white. They recognized invisible spirits, another life, and devils hostile to men, of whom they had great fear. Their chief idolatry was in adoring and regarding as gods those of their ancestors who were most remarkable for their courage, or for their intelligence. Such they calledhumalagar, or, as is said in Latin,manes. Each one, as far as possible, ascribed divinity to his father at death. The old men even died with that conceit, and that is why they chose a remarkable place—as did one in the island of Leite, who had himself placed on the seashore, so that those who went sailing should recognize him as a god, and commend themselves to him. They also worshiped animals and birds. They regarded the rainbow asa sort of divinity. The Tagáls worshiped a totally blue bird, of the size of a thrush, which they calledbathala, which was a name of the divinity. They worshiped the raven, which they calledmeilupa, meaning “the master of the earth.” They had a great veneration for the crocodile. [When] they saw it in the water, they called itnono, or “grandfather.” They offered to it prayers regularly, with great devotion, and offerings of what they carried in their boats, in order that it might not harm them. There was no old tree of which they did not make a god, and it was a sacrilege to cut it. I have seen a very large one callednonog,4in the island of Samar, which a religious ordered to be felled, in order to destroy all those superstitions. He was unable to find an Indian who would undertake it for him; and it was necessary for some Spaniards to go to fell it. They also worshiped the stones, rocks, reefs, and promontories of land which jut into the sea; and made offerings to these of rice, fish, and other like things, or fired their arrows at them in passing.Between La Caldera and the river in the island of Mindanao, a great point of land runs into the sea, which makes the coast dangerous and very high. The sea beats violently against that cape, which is very difficult to double. The Indians in passing offered it their arrows as a sacrifice, praying it to allow them to pass. They shot them with so great force that they made them enter the rock, and hence it is called the Punta de Flechas. One day the Spaniards burned a number of those arrows to show their hatred of so vain a superstition; and in less than one year more than four thousand were found there.When Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera conquered the island of Mindanao three years ago,5he ordered that that point be called no more Punta de Flechas, but San Sebastian. They had innumerable other superstitions. If they saw a snake or a lizard, or if they heard a bird that they calledcorocoro6sneeze or sing, they took it as a bad sign, and did not go farther. They had no remarkable temples, and no festivals of days of public sacrifices; but each one made his offerings to thehumalagarordivata(which was the name of their god) in private, according to their purpose or need. Although they had no temples, they had men and women who acted as priests, who were calledcatolonanby some andbabailanby others. Those priests were most inclined to allow themselves to be deceived by the devil, and to deceive the people afterward by a thousand tricks and inventions—chiefly at the time of their sicknesses, when they are depressed, lose courage, and crave a prompt remedy; and give all their possessions to him who promises it to them.There are some priests who have special communication with the devil. He speaks to them through the mouths of their little idols, and makes them believe that these are the voices of their ancestors, whom they worship. Sometimes the devil passes into the bodies of their sacrificers, and, during the short time of the sacrifice, he makes them sayand do things that fill the bystanders with fear. They take that order of sacrificers from among their friends or their relatives, who wish to learn the mystery of it from them. Their blindness causes them to esteem that rank greatly, for besides the reputation and respect that that employment brings them, they also receive large offerings. All who have been present at the sacrifice make them gifts, one cotton, one gold, and one a fowl. The sacrifice takes place in their houses. The victim is now a hog, now a fowl, now some fish or rice; and the sacrifice is differently named according to the various victims. It is performed by the sacrificer stabbing the victim amid certain ceremonies, which he performs to a cadence marked by a drum or a bell. That is the time in which the devil takes possession of them. He causes them to make innumerable contortions and grimaces, after the end of which they tell what they believe they have seen or heard.As for their persons, those people are well built, have handsome features, and are light-complexioned. They are clad in a garment that falls to the ankles, which is made of striped cotton of various colors. When in mourning, they wear white; however, that mode of dress is not so general. Those called Pintados, and those of the island of Mindanao, wear short white, yellow, or red tunics, which hang to the knees, bound in by a girdle one vara wide and two and one-half brazas long; this is, as a general rule, white or red, and always falls to the knees. They wear neither stockings nor shoes; and instead of a hat they use a bit of cloth, which they wind twice or thrice around the head. Their whole adornment consists in having very rich and beautiful necklaces,earrings, and gold rings or bracelets. They wear those bracelets above the ankle; some wear these of ivory, and others of brass. They also have little round plates three fingers in diameter, which they pass through a hole that they make in the ear. In some of those islands, the men formerly marked all the body with figures, whence comes the Spanish name “Pintados” [“pictured,”i.e., tattooed]. That operation was performed in the flower of their age, and at the period when they had most strength to suffer that torture. They had themselves adorned in that way after they had performed some illustrious deed. The masters of that art first trace on their bodies the design of the picture, which they next follow up with pricks from very sharp points, and throw on the blood which comes out a powder which never fades away. The whole of the body is not pricked at once, but bit by bit; and formerly, in order that one might have the right of making it for each part, it was necessary to perform an illustrious deed, and to show new prowess. Those pictures are pretty, and well proportioned to the portions of the body on which they are made; and, although they are of an ashen color, they are nevertheless agreeable to the sight. The children are not tattooed at all. The women do not bear the marks of that adornment except on one hand and on some part of the other. In regard to their teeth, they imitate the men in everything. They file them from their earliest childhood; some making them even in this way, others filing them into points, thus giving them the appearance of a saw. They cover the teeth with a black, glossy polish, or one that is flame-colored; and thus their teeth become black, or as red as vermilion. Inthe upper row, they make a little covering which they fill with gold, which shows off to advantage on the black or red background of that polish.The women as well as the men are continually in the water, and they also swim like fish. They need no bridge to get over rivers. They bathe at all times of the day, as much for pleasure as for cleanliness. Women who have but recently given birth cannot be prevented from bathing, and bathe in the waters of the coldest springs. As soon as the child has issued from its mother’s womb, it is placed in the water; and on taking it from the bath its head is rubbed with ajonjoli [i.e., sesame] oil mixed with civet. They do that also on other occasions, and to show politeness, especially the women and little boys. They bathe also during their sicknesses, and have for that purpose springs of hot water, especially at the shore of Laguna de Bay, which is in the island of Manila.7There is no one language that is general for all the islands, but each district has a special one. True, they have some relation between one another, such as exists between the Lombard, Sicilian, and Tuscan. There are six dialects in the island of Manila, and two in the island of Oton; while there are some languages which are spoken in several islands. The most general are the Tagál and Bisayan. The latter is very rude, but the former is very polished, and most remarkable. Thus a religious, who was well versed in those islands, was in the habit of saying that the Tagál language had the advantages of thefour chief languages of the world: that it was mysterious, like Hebrew; that it had the articles of the Greek, both for appellatives and for proper names; that it had elegance and abundance, like the Latin; and that it was not less suitable than the Italian for compliments and business.8They have only three vowels, but these serve as five. They have only a dozen consonants, which they express differently by placing a little dot above or below, as can be seen in the following figure.Marginal note: “The consonants not marked with any point are pronounced with ‘a;’ if they have a point above, they are pronounced with ‘e,’ or ‘i;’ if the point is below, they are pronounced with ‘o’ or ‘u.’”They have learned to write from us9by making their lines from left to right, instead of their former way of writing from top to bottom. Reeds or palm-leaves serve them as paper, and the point of an iron style is used instead of a pen. They use their writing only to letters from one to another, for they have no histories or books of any learning. Our religious have printed books in the languages of the islands, concerning the matters of our religion. In the Malucas, they have a very pretty method of writingto their friends. They collect flowers of various colors, and make a bouquet of them; and he who receives the bouquet understands, on beholding the varieties of flowers and their colors, as if they were so many different characters, the thoughts of his friend. They have not sufficient capacity to apply themselves to learning, and they content themselves with being good carpenters, and with working gold and iron well. They have been employed during these last few years in making silk and cotton stockings; in writing and reading our characters; in singing and dancing; and in playing the flute, the guitar, and the harp. The strings used for those last instruments are made from twisted silk, and produce as agreeable a sound as ours, although quite different in quality. They formerly had an instrument calledcutiape, which some of them still use. It bears a close resemblance to a hurdy-gurdy, and has four copper cords. They play it so cleverly, that they make it express whatever they wish; and it is asserted as a truth that they speak, and tell one another whatever they wish, by means of that instrument, a special skill in those of that nation.Most of those islanders have only one wife, but it is not true that there are not some places in the country where they have several, especially in the island of Mindanao. It may be said that the husbands buy their wives there, since they generally make some present to their parents according to their rank: that ofdato, for instance, which signifies “a man of rank;” oftinaua, which signifies “free;” ororipuen, which signifies “a slave.” The women in the islands of the Pintados are calledbinocot, or “woman who is in the room;” forbocotsignifies“a room,” and the women go outside but rarely, and even are carried then on the shoulders of their slaves. I have seen one woman of Dapitan, a settlement of the island of Mindanao, so delicate and so fine, that she always had herself carried to church on the shoulders of her slaves whom she best liked. It is a mark of politeness among those women always to keep the right hand in front of the mouth when they talk to a man.10Those people live in houses thatched with straw, with the leaves of trees, or with large reeds which, divided into two, serve them as a tiling. There is but little furniture to be seen in their houses. But rarely are chairs seen there, for they always sit on the ground, or on carpets made from reeds. They have neither beds nor mattresses, as their reed mats serve as both. They eat on the ground or on very small low tables, but the tables are used only among the chiefs. Banana leaves, which are one braza long and one-half braza wide, serve them as napkins. Their employment consists of agriculture, the very abundant fishing along their coasts and in their rivers, and hunting wild boars and deer with dog and spear—an employment to which their agility and their skill renders them very suitable. They also go to gather honey and wax in the mountains or in the trees, where nature has taught the bees to make both those substances.The arms of some are spears, of others arrows; the campilan, which is a large cutlass; the kris, or poniard; thezompitesor blow-guns, through which they blow little poisoned arrows; andbacacaies, or little reeds hardened by fire at the end. To defendtheir grain from animals and from men who could harm it, they scatter caltrops, which the old men calltribulos,11made so that one of the four points of which they are composed is always up, and those who pass there get caught without perceiving the traps. But now the Spaniards have taught them how to use firearms, and they get along very well—especially a nation called the Pampangos, many of whom are enrolled in the Spanish troops. These men serve with great fidelity, and well second the courage of which the Spaniards set them an example in their combats by sea and land.They are very fertile, and I have seen but few married people without children. When these are born, they name them according to the incidents that happen at the time of their birth. One will be called Maglente, because of the thunder that sounded at the time of his birth; forlentesignifies a clap of thunder. Another will be named Gubaton, because the foes appeared on the coast at that same time; forgubatsignifies enemy. They esteem nobility; and I have known a woman called Vray—that is to say, “fine gold”—who had been given that name because of the nobility of her lineage. In some of the islands they were accustomed to put the head of a new-born child between two boards, and thus pressed it so that it would not be round, but long; and they also flattened the forehead, in their belief that it was a markof beauty to have it thus.12At the birth of a child to one among them who is of the highest rank, they hold a festival of a week, during which very joyful songs are sung by the women.They lose courage when they are sick. They do not use either bleeding or other remedies, except certain medicinal herbs, of which there is abundance in these islands. They use the cupping-glass; but it is not made of glass, for there is no glass in that country, but of small shells or the small horns of deer. They drink the liquor of cocoanuts after it has been kept some time in the evening damp; and that liquor is so healthful that their continual use of it keeps them from gravel, a disease of which the name is unknown among those peoples.When anyone dies, the music of the mourning and lamentation begins immediately. Some weep because they are truly touched by their loss; others are hired by the day to weep. Women are usually chosen, as they are most apt for that music. They wash the body of the deceased to that sad cadence, and perfume it with storax, and other perfumes which are used among them. After bewailing the body for three days, they bury it. They do not place it in the earth, but in coffins of very hard and incorruptible wood, which they kept in their houses. The boards of the coffins are so well joined that the air cannot enter. They placed a piece of gold in the mouths of some, and adorned their coffins with precious gems. Moreover they were careful to carryall sorts of food to their grave, and to leave it there as if it were to be used by the deceased. Some they would not allow to go alone, and it was necessary to give them some male and female slaves to keep them company. They killed the latter after having given them a fine repast, so that they might go with the deceased. With one of their chiefs of the country they once encased a galley equipped with rowers, so that they could serve him in the other world. The most usual place of burial was the house of the deceased, in the lowest story, where they dug a hole to place the coffin. Sometimes the burial was in the open field; and in such case great fires were made below the house, and sentinels were posted there, for fear lest the deceased should come to take away those who were yet alive. The tears and lamentations were finished with the burial; but the feasts and orgies lasted a greater or less time, according to the station of the deceased. The Tagáls wore black as a sign of mourning; the Bisayans wore white, and shaved the head and eyebrows. When a person of rank happened to die, silence was observed throughout the village, until that the interdict should have been removed—which lasted a greater or less time, according to the quality of the deceased. During that time not the least noise could be made. But the mourning of those who had been killed in war or by treachery lasted a longer time, and did not end until their children and relations had killed many others—not only those who were known as enemies, but even strangers or unknown men; for their fury having thus been assuaged, they thought that they could put an end to their mourning,and solemnize it by great festivities and prolonged feasting.They are for the most part good sailors—I mean for the navigation among the islands; for, as they do not use the compass, they do not get along so well on the open sea. They use various kinds of craft, which are propelled by sail and oar. The largest craft of the second class are called caracoas. Although these are not very large, they do not hesitate to put one hundred Indians in them; for there are three banks of rowers on each side. They make use of those craft for trading among those islands; and they lade them with dried fish, wine, salt, wax, cotton, cocoanuts, and other like merchandise.They are cowards naturally, and more apt to make an ambuscade than to face their enemies. Upon that is chiefly founded their submission to the Spaniards, for they do not serve them out of affection.They readily received our religion. Their meager intelligence does not permit them to sound the depths of its mysteries. They also have little care in the fulfilment of their duties to the Christianity which they have adopted; and it is necessary to constrain them by fear of punishment, and to govern them like schoolchildren. Intoxication and usury are the two vices to which they are most addicted. The piety and care of our religious have not as yet been able to make them lose those habits altogether.The climate of Manila and most of the other Filipinas Islands is very warm. The difference between the seasons is not perceived, for the heat is equally great all the year. The rains commence at the end of the month of May and last for three or fourmonths without interruption; but beyond that time it rains but rarely. In the months of October, November, and December, the country is subject to hurricanes, which the natives of the country callvaguios. They are furious winds which make the entire round of the compass in twenty-four hours, commencing at the north. They break the palm-trees, uproot the largest trees, overthrow the houses, and sometimes carry persons into the air; and some have been seen which have hurled vessels a musket-shot inland.At the extremity of the island of Manila, near the Embocadero, where the vessels en route from Nueva España enter, there is a volcano or mountain whence often issue flames, and always smoke.13In those islands there is neither grain, wine, nor olive-oil, nor one of the fruits which we have in Europa, except the oranges, of which I shall speak later. Rice grows there in great abundance, and serves instead of bread. They have two kinds of it. One kind is sown in places always under water, and the other on the mountains, where it is moistened only by the water from the sky. Their drink also is made from rice, by soaking it in water; or it is taken from palm-trees, or cocoanuts, or from another variety of small palm called nipa. They keep those liquors in large crocks, and draw from them only on holidays and days of rejoicing. Those liquors mount to the head and intoxicate, as much as does the wine of Europa.The horses and cows in those islands have been carried thither from Mexico and China, for therewere none there formerly. The flesh of swine is their most usual food, and there is a great abundance of it; it is very healthful and savory. There are also innumerable fowl, deer, wild boars, goats, and civet-cats; also plenty of beans, cotton, strawberries, and even cinnamon—which is found only in the island of Mindanao, and which does not begin to be as good as that of Ceilan. They have no silver mines in those islands, and the little silver seen there has been carried from Mexico, in return for the merchandise exported there annually. There are gold mines in the island of Manila, and on the river of Butuan in the island of Mindanao. There is truly not sufficient to satisfy the desires of the Spaniards; but the little that there is of it sufficed the Indians, who value it only for the little use that they make of it, since it does not enter at all into trade. There is a quantity of honey and wax in their mountains; and since the Spanish have lived there they have built many sugar mills; and sugar is so common there that one may buy twenty-five libras of sixteen onzas apiece for one teston. They have three varieties of fruit that are most common: bananas, santors, andbirinbines.14There are fifteen or sixteen kinds of bananas, some of them are sweet, but that sweetness has an admixture of bitter in others. Some of them smell good, but all of those varieties are very agreeable to the taste. I know of no fruit in Europa to which to compare them, unless it be themusaswhich grow in Sicilia. The birinbines and santors areeaten preserved more often than in any other way, because of their tartness; when prepared in preserves, they taste like plums. If they are allowed to ripen on the tree, they smell like quinces, although they have no other resemblance to quinces at all. Those islands have many other trees which grow wild. Their mountains furnish them with roots, from which they draw their most usual nourishment; these are calledpugaianandcorot.15They have other roots which they cultivate, such as theapari, theubi, thelaquei, and others which they callcamotes, which are the potatoes16of España. The Spaniards use the last named, as also do the Indians.But the most useful tree of all is the palm—not that which bears the date, for they do not have thatspecies, but those which bear cocoanuts, of the size of an orange. Those nuts are filled with a very sweet liquor, which is very good to drink. They make wine, vinegar, and honey of it; and when that fruit becomes dry as it ripens, that liquor changes into white meat harder than an almond. It is from that meat that oil is extracted and a milk resembling that extracted from almonds. The cocoanut has two coverings. The first, which is less hard, is used for tinder when dried; also for the rigging and smaller cordage of the ships, or as tow for calking them. The other covering is harder, and is used for drinking vessels, or as dishes in which to prepare their food. The palm-leaves are the tiles with which their houses are thatched. The trunks of the same trees are used to support the houses, and in making the pillars. They have one other tree which is no less useful to them, for it serves them as a perpetual spring, and furnishes water to an entire village—which, being located on a very high and dry site, has no other water than what they get from that tree by making incisions in its trunk, and in its largest branches; for a clear sweet water flows out of it. The trees of those islands are always green, and there are only two species that shed their leaves, one calledbatelan,17and the otherdabdas.The reeds [i.e., bamboos] of those islands have the following peculiarity, namely, that they are as much as three palmos in circumference and eight brazas in length. They are used as the materials out of which to build a whole house. The pillars, the lintels, the stairs, the floors, and the walls aremade from them. They are used as rafters for the roof, and split into several parts, as tiles for covering the roof. They have no other saucepans in which to cook their food than those reeds, and no other wood to burn; for the trees serve them as material with which to build their little boats—or rather, rafts—with which they carry for traffic their rice, cocoanuts, and abacá, the hemp of that country.Those islands have a great abundance of various kinds of oranges, peculiar to those countries for their good taste. I have seen them so large that they were four palmos in circumference. Some were red as scarlet inside, and very sweet. There are some which contain another little orange in the place of the seeds; and these are called on that account “oranges which have children.”18I will place in the list of vegetables a sort of leaf which serves them for nourishment, or rather for refreshment. It is used very commonly among the Indians, both Christians and Mahometans, and even among the Spaniards. A mixture is made of it which is calledmamuen, into which three things enter: one is this leaf, which is calledbuio, which is smooth, and resembles in color and size a large ivy leaf, but it is not so thick. It smells very good, and is aromatic. It is planted under some dry tree, on which it climbs. The other fruit that enters into that mixture is calledbonga, and it is as large as an olive. Lastly, they mix in a small quantity of quicklime. A little cornucopia is made of the leaf, the bonga and lime are placed inside, and it is all chewed together. That mixture colors the saliva as red asblood, and the lips the most beautiful vermilion ever seen. It preserves the teeth, strengthens the stomach, and produces a very good breath. Eighty of those leaves can be bought at Manila for one real. Nevertheless, so great a quantity is consumed that it has been ascertained that it was sold in one year to the amount of ninety thousand reals, of seven and one-half sols apiece.There are many snakes in those islands, which are very dangerous; some of them, when they have young, attack people.19The bite of those calledomodrois very dangerous, and those who are bitten by it do not live one-half day. It is from that effect that it derives its name, forodrosignifies one-half day. There is another very large snake calledsaua. I have killed one of that species which was two and one-half brazas long. The skin of another, which measured thirty-two [Spanish] feet in length, was brought to our residence at Manila. The sauas hang to the branches of trees along the roads, whence they dart down upon people, or deer, or on any other prey. They wind themselves three or four times around the body, and after having broken the creature’s bones devour it. But God has provided a number of herbs in those islands which are used as antidotes to all kinds of poisons. Roots and herbs are found in the mountains, which are so many specific remedies against snake-bites; the chief onesaremanongal, manambo, logab, boroctongon, maglingab, ordag, balucas, bonas, bahay, igluhat, dalogdogan, mantala.There are also animals in those islands of which I ought to give a description. The civet-cat is found in the mountains. Its skin resembles that of a tiger, and it is no less savage than the tiger, although much smaller. It is captured and bound, and, after its civet is obtained, which is contained in a little pouch under its tail, it is set at liberty to be caught once more. The crocodiles, of which their rivers are full, are so huge that when their jaws are open, a man of the largest size could stand upright between the two jaws. The crocodile is quite covered with scales; has scarcely any tongue; and its teeth are set closely together, and are very sharp, and arranged in several rows. The teeth of the middle lower row fit into holes or breaks in the others which correspond to them in the upper jaw; and consequently, when it seizes its prey, there is no force that can make it let go. It lays a great number of eggs. In the water it is furious, and attacks boats. It is not so greatly feared when ashore—where it goes sometimes to seize some prey, or to sun itself.The woman-fish20is so called because its face and breast are quite like those of women, whom it also resembles in its manner of copulation with the male. That fish is as large as a calf, and its flesh, of whichI have eaten, tastes like beef. It is caught with lines as thick around as the finger, and when the line becomes fast within [its mouth] it is killed by javelin-thrusts. Its bones and teeth have great virtue against all sorts of dysentery, especially against bloody discharges. Some have tried to assert that those fish were the sirens of the sea, so celebrated among the poets; but they have nothing of the beauty of face and of the voice that is attributed to sirens.I will end [this account], finally by a description of thetabon, an ashen-colored bird as large as a hen, which lays eggs three times as large as those of hens, but which lays them in a peculiar manner. It chooses desert islands and those full of sand, where it first makes a hole one or one and one-half brazas deep; and after having laid its eggs, it covers them over with sand. The chicks break the shell, and gradually turn up the sand that covers them with their feet. If any of those chicks is so unfortunate as to break the egg at the lower end, it does not succeed so well, and dies for lack of strength to overturn the sand. Sometimes one hundred and fifty of the eggs are found in the same hole. I have eaten those eggs often when I have had occasion to stop at those islands during my voyages.There is cinnamon in the island of Mindanao; and pepper at Patani, and at Champan, a country lying on the mainland of China.The political government of those islands is the same as that of other provinces subject to the crown of Castilla. The governor resides at Manila, and is president of the Audiencia; while, as captain-general, he has charge of all the posts of peace and war, as well as of the encomiendas of one or twothousand Indians [each], who pay their encomendero the tribute that the other Indians pay to the king. But the encomendero who has been appointed by the captain-general is obliged to get the confirmation of his grant from Madrid within three years.The governor establishes the corregidors and alcaldes-mayor, or governors of the provinces into which these islands are divided. He appoints the captains and the admirals of the fleets which sail to Acapulco and Terrenate annually. He takes cognizance of civil affairs, on which the royal Audiencia pronounces the decisions or decrees. That Audiencia is composed of a president (who is always the governor), four oidores or auditors, and one procurator-fiscal. There are four cities in the Filipinas—Manila, Zebu, [Nueva] Caçares, and Nueba Segovia; and one town, called Arevalo. There is a garrison at Manila and at Cabite, which is the port where the warships enter, six miles from Manila. There are also garrisons at Zebu, Otong, Carouga, Lanbuangang [sc.Zamboanga], Jolo, Nueva Segobia, the island of Hermosa, and the Malucas. All those ports are fortified, and have their redoubts mounted with artillery. Whatever is necessary for those garrisons is sent from Manila. It would be a very difficult task to mention the names of all the different peoples among the Indians, and in those islands, who are subject to the king of España. There are fully three hundred thousand families, who might count one million souls.The archbishop of Manila has three suffragans, those of Zebu, [Nueva] Caçares, and Nueva Segovia. They have no other income than what the king gives them; that of the archbishop is threethousand ducados, while each of his suffragans receives one thousand five hundred. The city of Manila is small, but it is beautiful and well fortified. Its houses are all built of stone, and are spacious, and very airy. Its streets are long and straight, and one may walk in the shade all hours of the day. The churches are beautiful. There are five convents: that of the Augustinians (which is the oldest); that of the Franciscans, that of the Dominicans,21and that of the discalced Augustinians. There are two universities, one in charge of the fathers of St. Dominic, and the other in that of the Society. Those religious are also distributed among the islands, where they have charge of the instruction of the Indians. The city is enclosed by a fine wall and moat; and its redoubt and its ramparts are well garrisoned with artillery. At the foot of its wall flows a river, which is navigable; over this is a wooden bridge, with stone pillars. There are two thousand Spaniards in Manila (counting soldiers and inhabitants), and twice as many Indians. There are also twenty thousand Sangleys or Chinese, who practice all the arts needed in a community; and every year they pay nine escudos and six reals of tribute. Galleons much larger than those which sail the Mediterraneanare built at Manila; for there is a great abundance of wood, pitch, and abacá—which resembles European hemp, and of which good rigging is made for the ships. The anchors are imported from Goa; and the iron for the nails comes from China in little bars, and is very serviceable.The Spaniards of the Manilas trade throughout the islands of that archipelago, at Borney and Camboa, whence they carry wax, butter,camanguienor storax, ivory, and bezoar. They formerly traded in Japon, before the persecution of the Christians was begun. Thence were carried iron, flour, all sorts of fruit, and little boxes, and cabinets, varnished [i.e., lacquered] and very well made. Nangoza [sc.Nagasaki], which was the port where that trading took place—and for which it was very suitable, because it is not distant from Manila—is now closed to us; for the emperor of Japon believes that people are entering his country, under pretext of that trade, to preach the gospel, the thing that he fears most of all. We trade also with the Portuguese of Macao, who come to the Manilas every year with two or three ships, and bring here silks, musk, precious stones, and eagle and calambac wood—which is a sweet-scented wood that is very valuable. The inhabitants of the Manilas also go to Macao sometimes, to carry their merchandise there; but their chief trade is with the Chinese, who come annually, at the end of the month of December and the beginning of January, with twenty or thirty vessels, laden with products and valuable merchandise. They sail usually from Ocho and Chincheo, ports of Anay, a province of China which faces the Filipinas. They carry small oranges, nuts, chestnuts, plums, raisins,andchicuei—a fruit resembling an apple, very round, transparent, and, when it is ripe, having the color of yellow amber; its peel is very loose, and its flesh very sweet and very pleasant to the taste.22They also bring all sorts of cloth stuffs, and some of these are as fine as those which come from France and the Low Countries; and many black stuffs of which the Indians make their clothes. They bring silk, plain and twisted, of all colors; damasks, velvets, tabbies, and double taffetas; cloths of gold and silver, galoons, and laces; coverlets, and cushions; and porcelain—although not the finest variety, as the trade in that is prohibited. They bring pearls and gold; iron, in little bars; thread, musk, and fine parasols; paste gems, but very beautiful to look at; saltpetre, and flour; white and various-colored paper; and many little fancy articles, covered with varnish, and gold in relief, made in an inimitable manner. Among all the silk stuffs brought by the Chinese, none is more esteemed than the white—the snow is not whiter; and there is no silk stuff in Europa that can approach it.The Chinese return in the month of March, and carry to China silver in return for their merchandise. They also take a wood called sibueno23—that is, brazil-wood, which is used in making their ink. Those Chinese merchants are so keen after gain that if one sort of merchandise has succeeded well one year, they take a great deal of it the following year. A Spaniard who had lost his nose through a certain illness, sent for a Chinese to make him one of wood, in order to hide the deformity. The workman madehim so good a nose that the Spaniard, in great delight, paid him munificently, giving him twenty escudos. The Chinese, attracted by the ease with which he had made that gain, laded a fine boatload of wooden noses the following year, and returned to Manila. But he found himself very far from his hopes, and quite left out in the cold;24for in order to have a sale for that new merchandise, he found that he would have to cut off the noses of all the Spaniards in the country.Besides the Chinese merchandise that is brought into the islands, there is wax, cinnamon, civet, and a sort of very strong cotton cloth which is calledcampotes[misprint forlampotes]. All those goods are exported to Mexico, where they are sold at great profit, and on the spot. I do not believe there is a richer traffic in the world than that. The duties that the king gets out of it are large, and, with what he gets from the islands, amount to fully five hundred thousand escudos. But he spends eight hundred thousand in the maintenance of his governor, the counselors, the archbishop, the bishops, the canons, those who possess the prebends, and the other ecclesiastics. The greater part of that sum is employed in the equipment of the galleons that are sent to Mexico and to the Malucas, and of those which are kept in those seas to resist the Dutch. A considerable sum is spent on the maintenance of alliance with the kings of those districts—especially with the king of one ofthe Malucas, called Tidore. Consequently, the king of España rather holds those islands for the conservation there of the faith, as was stated by Felipe the Second in a certain council-meeting, than for the profit that is derived from them to this hour. The Dutch have been unable to get a footing on those islands, although they have attacked them many times. They have a considerable city [i.e., Batavia] on the island of Java Major, whence they send what their garrisons at the island of Hermosa, Amboina, and Terrenate need. They have made an alliance with the inhabitants of that island, and they secure the greater part of the cloves of the Malucas. They trade in Japon, in a port called Firando. The Chinese have refused to have trade with them, because of a tradition current in China, that blue-eyed men will some day conquer them.The voyage from Manila to Mexico lasts four, five, six, or seven months. Manila, which lies in thirteen and one-half degrees, is left in the month of July, during the vendavals. The course is taken to the north, until the ship reaches thirty-eight or forty degrees. The pilots take that course because they are more certain of finding winds; for otherwise they would run the risk of encountering calms, which are more to be dreaded in long voyages than are the most furious gales. From the time that the Filipinas are left until almost the coast of Nueva España is reached, no land is seen, except a chain of islands called the Ladrones, or La Sapana,25which lie three hundred leguas from the Embocadero of the Filipinas. The people whoinhabit those islands are barbarians, who go quite naked. When our vessels pass there, those people carry to them fish, rice, and fresh water, which they exchange for neither gold nor silver, but only for iron, which they value much more, because of the use to which they put it in the manufacture of their tools, and for the building of their little boats. The first land sighted after that is the island of Cedros, quite near the Mexican coast. The open expanse between that island and those of the Ladrones is subject to great storms, which are to be feared especially near the Japanese Islands—which are passed, however, without being sighted. During the whole course of so long a voyage, scarcely a day passes without seeing a bird. There are usually some birds that live in the sea, and many large whales and porpoises are seen.As the [American] coast is neared, at a distance of sixty, eighty, or one hundred leguas signs are to be seen in the sea by which it is recognized that the ship is within that distance. Those signs consist of long reeds, brought down by the rivers of Nueva España, which being massed together resemble a kind of raft; and on those reeds are to be seen monkeys—another sign that they are approaching the coast. When the pilot discovers those signs, he immediately changes his course, and instead of continuing east he puts the nose of the ship south, in order to avoid getting caught in the land, or in some gulf whence he would have a hard time to get out; but, when he has sighted the coast of Nueva España, he follows it to the port of Acapulco, which lies in eighteen degrees.Acapulco is a fine port, well sheltered from all the winds, and defended by a celebrated redoubt. There the passengers and goods are disembarked,and are afterward carried by mules to the City of Mexico, which is eighty leguas distant thence. The way is desert and bestrewn with mountains; and the pest of mosquitoes is suffered, as well as the extreme heat. In order to go to España from Mexico one goes to the port of Vera Cruz, a journey of eighty-five leguas; en route is passed the city of Los Angeles, which has about six thousand inhabitants, and whose bishop gets a salary of sixty thousand escudos. The reefs and rocks at the mouth of the port of Vera Cruz defend the entrance better than the fortress that commands it, although that fort is an excellent one. At that port anchor the trading fleets that come from España, laden with wine, olive-oil, cloths, wax, cinnamon, paper, and other European merchandise. Those trading fleets formerly passed the winter there, as they arrived [formerly] in the month of June, and remained there until the same month of the following year. Now they reach that port in the month of May, and leave about the month of August. They take as a rule three months to go to España. For my part, I took one hundred days in making that voyage. The port of Havana in Cuba, which is the best port of the Western Indias—and which is very safe, and defended by three redoubts—is touched at. There the two trading fleets—that of Mexico and that of Tierrafirme—are united with the galleons. Thence, after having coasted along the shores of Florida, and of Nueva Francia, they make the cape of Fineterre [Finisterre] or San Vincent, in order to lay their course toward Cadiz, which is the end of their voyage. That will also be the end of this relation, which I have written in order to be obedient to a person to whom I earnestly desire that it may prove agreeable.1Marginal note: “This relation has been translated from a Spanish manuscript existing in the library of Don Carlo del Pezzo.”This relation is unsigned, and undated, but Rev. Pablo Pastells, S.J., said during the course of a conversation with one of the Editors, in 1903, that the author was undoubtedly Father Diego de Bobadilla; and in his edition of Colin’sLabor evangélica(Barcelona, 1904), he says (iii, p. 798, note): “This father [i.e., Father Bobadilla] was the author in 1640 of the famous relation which was translated by Melquisedec Thévenot.”2See ourVOLS. IandIIfor the history of these early expeditions. It will be noticed that the author of the present relation is inaccurate in regard to the date of the voyage of Villalobos, and that he omits mention of some of the early voyages.3That is “Birth follows the womb.”4SeeVOL. XXII, p. 300, note 61.5For this expedition to Mindanao by Hurtado de Corcuera, see previous documents. This reference proves the present relation to have been written in 1640, as the expedition above mentioned occurred in 1637.6Visayan name (alsocolocolo, elsewhere) of the fishing gannet (Sula piscatrix). Delgado says (Historia, p. 820) that he had a tame one in his house, which would bring home fish that it had caught, and carry them to the kitchen.7French,Estang du Roy(“the King’s Pool”); evidently referring to the hot springs near Laguna de Bay (seeVOL. XIV, p. 211), and the wordRoyis probably a misprint forBay.8It is Chirino who is here (although inexactly) cited; seeVOL. XII, p. 236.9See Chirino’s account, inVOL. XII, p. 241; he says that the art of writing was imparted to the Visayans by the Tagals.10Marginal note: “Prudish” (melindrosa).11That is, “star-thistles”—the common name of a genus (Tribulus) of plants, which bears prickly fruits, very injurious to the feet of animals or men. The military instrument called “caltrop” resembles that fruit, from which it may have been evolved; and the appellationtribolois one of the etymological elements in “caltrop.”12See the Cleveland reissue of theJesuit Relations, lxv, p. 131, for a description of head-compression by the North American Indians.13Mt. Bulusan, near the center of the province of Sorsogón, Luzón; at present “almost extinct, but at times emits an abundance of watery vapor and sulphurous fumes” (Reportof U. S. Philippine Commission, 1900, iii, p. 149).14Also calledbalimbín; the fruit ofAverrhoa carambola; used for food and sweetmeats, and also has medicinal qualities. See Blanco’s description,Flora, p. 274; and Delgado’sHistoria, pp. 505, 506. For note on santor, seeVOL. XVI, p. 87; on banana (Musa),VOL. V, p. 169.15Thecorot(Dioscorea triphylla) is very common, with leaves one palmo long, and very small flowers. Its sap is yellow and very poisonous, and has cleansing power which is utilized to whiten abacá. The root is very large and is eaten cooked by the Indians, after having soaked it in the water for three or four days.Theubiis theDioscorea alata, and the plant grows rather high and is widely disseminated. The root is violet in color, and often attains a great size; it is eaten cooked. The best variety is that known as the Cebú ubi or ube, which comes from Bohol, and which makes a delicious jelly. The ubi and analogous roots must be carefully prepared, or else they prove poisonous. See Blanco’sFlora, andU. S. Gazetteer of the Philippine Islands. Delgado (p. 763) enumerates eight varieties of this root.Theapariis perhaps theapaliaorparia(Montordica balsamina), a climbing plant, which bears a fruit which is rather bitter to the taste, and eaten in salads. The juice of its leaves is used instead of soap. The ripe fruit soaked in olive, cocoa, or beneseed oil makes an excellent balsam that is used for medicinal purposes.16French,patanes, apparently a misprint forpatatas. The camote or sweet potato (Convolvulus batatas, Linn.; now namedBatatas edulis) is extensively cultivated in the islands. Blanco (Flora, p. 69) cites Mozo as saying that this plant was carried to the islands from Nueva España; but Blanco regards it as indigenous in the Philippines. Delgado (pp. 766–768) enumerates twenty-nine varieties of camote.17TheBatelanis perhaps thebalete; seeVOL. XII, p. 214, note 56. For note on dabdab, seeibid., p. 215, note 57.18Apparently a reference to the variety of orange known at the present day as navel oranges.19For a treatise on the snakes and poisonous animals of the Philippines, see Delgado’sHistoria, pp. 889–907. He describes theomodroas theodto(Hemibungarus collaris)—from the word meaning “half-day” or “noon,” and given to it because the bite proves fatal if given at noon, but at no other time. It is of various colors and very furious at the hour of noon. The saua (Python reticulatus) is the largest snake of the islands and is often domesticated, and is not poisonous to man.20The dugong (a word corrupted from the Malay nameduyong); not a fish, but a marine mammal (Helicore australis). Crawfurd says (Dict. Indian Islands, p. 125) that it is found in the shallow seas of the Malayan archipelago, but is not often captured; and that its flesh is greatly superior to that of the green turtle. This creature is one of those from which originated the fable of the mermaids.21Thevenot has translated the Spanish term for Franciscans (padres de San Franciscoorpadres franciscanos) into the popular French termcordeliers, so called because of their girdle. Similarly he has translated the term for Dominicans (padres de San Domingoorpadres dominicanos) asJacobins, also the popular French appellation, so called from the name of the church of St. Jacques, which was given them in Paris. See Addis and Arnold’sCath. Dict., article “Franciscans,” p. 356; and Chevin’sDict. Latin-Français, p. 353.Either Thevenot the translator, or the author, omits mention of the convent of the Society of Jesus, only the four above mentioned being given.22The persimmon; seeVOL. XVI, p. 180.23A misprint for sibucao (VOL. III, p. 196;XV, p. 256).24There is evidently a play of words in this passage. The French readsMais il se trouua bie loing de ses esperances, & auec vn pied de nez.Pied de nez(literally “a foot of nose”) is an exact equivalent of the Spanish phrasepalmo de narices, and the French expressiondemeurer avec un pied de nezis equivalent to the Spanish idiomquedar con un palmo de narices, which signifies “the frustration of one’s hopes,” or “to be left out in the cold.”25Apparently a corruption of Zarpana, the name given by its inhabitants to the island of Rota, one of the Mariannes or Ladrones Islands.

Relation of the Filipinas IslandsBy a religious who lived there for eighteen years1Archipelagus orientalis, sive Asiaticus (Eastern or Asiatic archipelago); photographic facsimile of map by Joannis Blaeu (Amsterdam, 1659)Archipelagus orientalis, sive Asiaticus(Eastern or Asiatic archipelago); photographic facsimile of map by Joannis Blaeu (Amsterdam, 1659)[From original map inBibliothèque Nationale, Paris]The islands called Filipinas, because of having been conquered during the reign of Felipe II, were discovered in the year 1521, by Hernando Magallanes, a famous Portuguese, who gave his name to the strait. That great pilot, after having forever perpetuated his name by a navigation so new and so difficult, landed on one of the Filipinas Islands—a very small one, named Matan—where he was treacherously killed by the Indians. Ruy Lopez de Villalobos sighted the islands again after him in the year 1539.2Finally they were pacified in the year 1571 by the adelantado Miguel Lopez de Legaspi. It is a cause for surprise that the Portuguese, who haddiscovered the Malucas, China, and Japon, some years before, and had made their homes there, did not know anything about those islands until long afterward, although they are, as it were, the very center and middle part of their other discoveries. They knew well the island of Borneo, which is the last of those islands toward the south, but they had never stopped there while en route to the Malucas—urged, perhaps, by their too great greed for the spices and drugs which are produced so abundantly in those islands.The geographies say that there are eleven thousand islands in that great archipelago of which the Filipinas are a part, and that they are adjacent to Asia as are the Canaries and the Terceras to Africa. They cross into the torrid zone and extend along the coasts of China and India. South of them lie the Malucas, and on their northern coast, Japon. More than forty of them are subject to the king of España, the largest and most important being Manila and Mindanao. Manila is the capital of all the others, the residence of the governor and the archbishop, and the seat of the royal Audiencia. Those two islands are each six hundred miles in circuit; they are full of mountains, have rivers and dense forests, and lie in thirteen and one-half degrees north latitude. The other islands are not so large, some being one hundred miles in circuit, some fifty, and some even less. Almost all of them are inhabited by Indians, and those which are not are used by the Indians for their crops, and for the chase of deer and wild boars, and for the gathering of wax, with which the islands most abound.The islands not yet under the dominion of theking of España have their own kings, who are Mahometans. The island of Borneo, three times greater than the whole of Italia, is the largest of all the islands. Those subject to the king of España are Manila, Zebu, Oton, Mindanao, Bohol, Leite, Samar, Mindoro, Marinduque, the island of Negros, the island of Fuegos, Calamianes, Masbat, Jolo, Taquima, Capul, La Paragua, the island of Tablas, Verde Island, Burias, Tiago, Maripipe, Panama, Panaon, Sibuian, Luban, Bantajan, Panglao, Siquior, Catanduan, Imaras, Tagapolo, Banton, Romblon, Similara, Cuio, Cagaianes, Marivelez, Poro, Babuianes, the island of Cabras (which is distant from the others), and other smaller ones.In the islands subject to the king of España, every married man pays ten reals of tribute, and he who is unmarried five. Nearly all of them have received the gospel, and hence there are few heathen. However, in the islands of Mindanao, Taquima, and Jolo, conquered but recently, most of the people are Moros or heathen; but it is hoped that the zeal of the missionaries will convert them very soon to Jesus Christ.Before the conquest of those islands by the Spaniards, the natives of the country were subject to the chiefs among them, who were recognized as nobles, and all the others obeyed them. Those chiefs possessed a great amount of gold, and slaves in proportion to their nobility. I knew two chiefs, one in Bohol, and the other at Dapitan, a village of Mindanao, who had more than one hundred slaves apiece. They are not foreign slaves, as those of Angola who are in Europa, but of the same nation. It was a lamentable thing to see with what violenceand for how little a thing, these chiefs made slaves. For, however small a sum one owed to another, the interest, for lack of payment, amounted to so great a sum that it was impossible to pay it; and consequently, the person of the debtor being pledged for the debt, he became the slave of his creditor, together with all his posterity. They also made slaves, with unusual tyranny and cruelty, for crimes of slight importance, such as not keeping silent at the graves of the dead, and for passing in front of the chief’s wife when she was in her bath. Those captured in war were also all made slaves. Now with baptism, all those acts of violence and tyranny have been suppressed—although there still remains one very peculiar custom among them, which does not follow that general rule, namely,Partus sequitur ventrem;3for there are some who are wholly slaves, and others who are only half slaves. The former are those born of a slave father and mother; the others who are born of a slave father and a free mother, orvice versa. In some villages it is the custom that, if the father is slave and the mother free, one of the children is free and the other slave. The privilege of those half slaves is that if they pay a certain sum of money to their master, they may oblige him to grant them their liberty—an advantage that is not possessed by those who are wholly slaves.All the religion of those Indians is founded on tradition, and on a custom introduced by the devil himself, who formerly spoke to them by the mouth of their idols and of their priests. That tradition is preserved by the songs that they learn by heart in their childhood, by hearing them sung in their sailing,in their work, in their amusements, and in their festivals, and, better yet, when they bewail their dead. In those barbarous songs, they recount the fabulous genealogies and deeds of their gods, of whom they have one who is chief and head of all the others. The Tagáls call that godBathala mei Capal, which signifies “God the Creator.” The Bisayans call himLaon, which signifies “Time.” They are not far from our belief on the point of the creation of the world. They believe in a first man, the flood, and paradise, and the punishments of the future life.They say that the first man and the first woman came out of a reed stalk which burst in Sumatra, and that there were some quarrels between them at their marriage. They believed that when the soul left the body, it went to an island, where the trees, birds, waters, and all other things were black; that it passed thence to another island, where all things were of different colors; and finally that it arrived at one, where everything was white. They recognized invisible spirits, another life, and devils hostile to men, of whom they had great fear. Their chief idolatry was in adoring and regarding as gods those of their ancestors who were most remarkable for their courage, or for their intelligence. Such they calledhumalagar, or, as is said in Latin,manes. Each one, as far as possible, ascribed divinity to his father at death. The old men even died with that conceit, and that is why they chose a remarkable place—as did one in the island of Leite, who had himself placed on the seashore, so that those who went sailing should recognize him as a god, and commend themselves to him. They also worshiped animals and birds. They regarded the rainbow asa sort of divinity. The Tagáls worshiped a totally blue bird, of the size of a thrush, which they calledbathala, which was a name of the divinity. They worshiped the raven, which they calledmeilupa, meaning “the master of the earth.” They had a great veneration for the crocodile. [When] they saw it in the water, they called itnono, or “grandfather.” They offered to it prayers regularly, with great devotion, and offerings of what they carried in their boats, in order that it might not harm them. There was no old tree of which they did not make a god, and it was a sacrilege to cut it. I have seen a very large one callednonog,4in the island of Samar, which a religious ordered to be felled, in order to destroy all those superstitions. He was unable to find an Indian who would undertake it for him; and it was necessary for some Spaniards to go to fell it. They also worshiped the stones, rocks, reefs, and promontories of land which jut into the sea; and made offerings to these of rice, fish, and other like things, or fired their arrows at them in passing.Between La Caldera and the river in the island of Mindanao, a great point of land runs into the sea, which makes the coast dangerous and very high. The sea beats violently against that cape, which is very difficult to double. The Indians in passing offered it their arrows as a sacrifice, praying it to allow them to pass. They shot them with so great force that they made them enter the rock, and hence it is called the Punta de Flechas. One day the Spaniards burned a number of those arrows to show their hatred of so vain a superstition; and in less than one year more than four thousand were found there.When Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera conquered the island of Mindanao three years ago,5he ordered that that point be called no more Punta de Flechas, but San Sebastian. They had innumerable other superstitions. If they saw a snake or a lizard, or if they heard a bird that they calledcorocoro6sneeze or sing, they took it as a bad sign, and did not go farther. They had no remarkable temples, and no festivals of days of public sacrifices; but each one made his offerings to thehumalagarordivata(which was the name of their god) in private, according to their purpose or need. Although they had no temples, they had men and women who acted as priests, who were calledcatolonanby some andbabailanby others. Those priests were most inclined to allow themselves to be deceived by the devil, and to deceive the people afterward by a thousand tricks and inventions—chiefly at the time of their sicknesses, when they are depressed, lose courage, and crave a prompt remedy; and give all their possessions to him who promises it to them.There are some priests who have special communication with the devil. He speaks to them through the mouths of their little idols, and makes them believe that these are the voices of their ancestors, whom they worship. Sometimes the devil passes into the bodies of their sacrificers, and, during the short time of the sacrifice, he makes them sayand do things that fill the bystanders with fear. They take that order of sacrificers from among their friends or their relatives, who wish to learn the mystery of it from them. Their blindness causes them to esteem that rank greatly, for besides the reputation and respect that that employment brings them, they also receive large offerings. All who have been present at the sacrifice make them gifts, one cotton, one gold, and one a fowl. The sacrifice takes place in their houses. The victim is now a hog, now a fowl, now some fish or rice; and the sacrifice is differently named according to the various victims. It is performed by the sacrificer stabbing the victim amid certain ceremonies, which he performs to a cadence marked by a drum or a bell. That is the time in which the devil takes possession of them. He causes them to make innumerable contortions and grimaces, after the end of which they tell what they believe they have seen or heard.As for their persons, those people are well built, have handsome features, and are light-complexioned. They are clad in a garment that falls to the ankles, which is made of striped cotton of various colors. When in mourning, they wear white; however, that mode of dress is not so general. Those called Pintados, and those of the island of Mindanao, wear short white, yellow, or red tunics, which hang to the knees, bound in by a girdle one vara wide and two and one-half brazas long; this is, as a general rule, white or red, and always falls to the knees. They wear neither stockings nor shoes; and instead of a hat they use a bit of cloth, which they wind twice or thrice around the head. Their whole adornment consists in having very rich and beautiful necklaces,earrings, and gold rings or bracelets. They wear those bracelets above the ankle; some wear these of ivory, and others of brass. They also have little round plates three fingers in diameter, which they pass through a hole that they make in the ear. In some of those islands, the men formerly marked all the body with figures, whence comes the Spanish name “Pintados” [“pictured,”i.e., tattooed]. That operation was performed in the flower of their age, and at the period when they had most strength to suffer that torture. They had themselves adorned in that way after they had performed some illustrious deed. The masters of that art first trace on their bodies the design of the picture, which they next follow up with pricks from very sharp points, and throw on the blood which comes out a powder which never fades away. The whole of the body is not pricked at once, but bit by bit; and formerly, in order that one might have the right of making it for each part, it was necessary to perform an illustrious deed, and to show new prowess. Those pictures are pretty, and well proportioned to the portions of the body on which they are made; and, although they are of an ashen color, they are nevertheless agreeable to the sight. The children are not tattooed at all. The women do not bear the marks of that adornment except on one hand and on some part of the other. In regard to their teeth, they imitate the men in everything. They file them from their earliest childhood; some making them even in this way, others filing them into points, thus giving them the appearance of a saw. They cover the teeth with a black, glossy polish, or one that is flame-colored; and thus their teeth become black, or as red as vermilion. Inthe upper row, they make a little covering which they fill with gold, which shows off to advantage on the black or red background of that polish.The women as well as the men are continually in the water, and they also swim like fish. They need no bridge to get over rivers. They bathe at all times of the day, as much for pleasure as for cleanliness. Women who have but recently given birth cannot be prevented from bathing, and bathe in the waters of the coldest springs. As soon as the child has issued from its mother’s womb, it is placed in the water; and on taking it from the bath its head is rubbed with ajonjoli [i.e., sesame] oil mixed with civet. They do that also on other occasions, and to show politeness, especially the women and little boys. They bathe also during their sicknesses, and have for that purpose springs of hot water, especially at the shore of Laguna de Bay, which is in the island of Manila.7There is no one language that is general for all the islands, but each district has a special one. True, they have some relation between one another, such as exists between the Lombard, Sicilian, and Tuscan. There are six dialects in the island of Manila, and two in the island of Oton; while there are some languages which are spoken in several islands. The most general are the Tagál and Bisayan. The latter is very rude, but the former is very polished, and most remarkable. Thus a religious, who was well versed in those islands, was in the habit of saying that the Tagál language had the advantages of thefour chief languages of the world: that it was mysterious, like Hebrew; that it had the articles of the Greek, both for appellatives and for proper names; that it had elegance and abundance, like the Latin; and that it was not less suitable than the Italian for compliments and business.8They have only three vowels, but these serve as five. They have only a dozen consonants, which they express differently by placing a little dot above or below, as can be seen in the following figure.Marginal note: “The consonants not marked with any point are pronounced with ‘a;’ if they have a point above, they are pronounced with ‘e,’ or ‘i;’ if the point is below, they are pronounced with ‘o’ or ‘u.’”They have learned to write from us9by making their lines from left to right, instead of their former way of writing from top to bottom. Reeds or palm-leaves serve them as paper, and the point of an iron style is used instead of a pen. They use their writing only to letters from one to another, for they have no histories or books of any learning. Our religious have printed books in the languages of the islands, concerning the matters of our religion. In the Malucas, they have a very pretty method of writingto their friends. They collect flowers of various colors, and make a bouquet of them; and he who receives the bouquet understands, on beholding the varieties of flowers and their colors, as if they were so many different characters, the thoughts of his friend. They have not sufficient capacity to apply themselves to learning, and they content themselves with being good carpenters, and with working gold and iron well. They have been employed during these last few years in making silk and cotton stockings; in writing and reading our characters; in singing and dancing; and in playing the flute, the guitar, and the harp. The strings used for those last instruments are made from twisted silk, and produce as agreeable a sound as ours, although quite different in quality. They formerly had an instrument calledcutiape, which some of them still use. It bears a close resemblance to a hurdy-gurdy, and has four copper cords. They play it so cleverly, that they make it express whatever they wish; and it is asserted as a truth that they speak, and tell one another whatever they wish, by means of that instrument, a special skill in those of that nation.Most of those islanders have only one wife, but it is not true that there are not some places in the country where they have several, especially in the island of Mindanao. It may be said that the husbands buy their wives there, since they generally make some present to their parents according to their rank: that ofdato, for instance, which signifies “a man of rank;” oftinaua, which signifies “free;” ororipuen, which signifies “a slave.” The women in the islands of the Pintados are calledbinocot, or “woman who is in the room;” forbocotsignifies“a room,” and the women go outside but rarely, and even are carried then on the shoulders of their slaves. I have seen one woman of Dapitan, a settlement of the island of Mindanao, so delicate and so fine, that she always had herself carried to church on the shoulders of her slaves whom she best liked. It is a mark of politeness among those women always to keep the right hand in front of the mouth when they talk to a man.10Those people live in houses thatched with straw, with the leaves of trees, or with large reeds which, divided into two, serve them as a tiling. There is but little furniture to be seen in their houses. But rarely are chairs seen there, for they always sit on the ground, or on carpets made from reeds. They have neither beds nor mattresses, as their reed mats serve as both. They eat on the ground or on very small low tables, but the tables are used only among the chiefs. Banana leaves, which are one braza long and one-half braza wide, serve them as napkins. Their employment consists of agriculture, the very abundant fishing along their coasts and in their rivers, and hunting wild boars and deer with dog and spear—an employment to which their agility and their skill renders them very suitable. They also go to gather honey and wax in the mountains or in the trees, where nature has taught the bees to make both those substances.The arms of some are spears, of others arrows; the campilan, which is a large cutlass; the kris, or poniard; thezompitesor blow-guns, through which they blow little poisoned arrows; andbacacaies, or little reeds hardened by fire at the end. To defendtheir grain from animals and from men who could harm it, they scatter caltrops, which the old men calltribulos,11made so that one of the four points of which they are composed is always up, and those who pass there get caught without perceiving the traps. But now the Spaniards have taught them how to use firearms, and they get along very well—especially a nation called the Pampangos, many of whom are enrolled in the Spanish troops. These men serve with great fidelity, and well second the courage of which the Spaniards set them an example in their combats by sea and land.They are very fertile, and I have seen but few married people without children. When these are born, they name them according to the incidents that happen at the time of their birth. One will be called Maglente, because of the thunder that sounded at the time of his birth; forlentesignifies a clap of thunder. Another will be named Gubaton, because the foes appeared on the coast at that same time; forgubatsignifies enemy. They esteem nobility; and I have known a woman called Vray—that is to say, “fine gold”—who had been given that name because of the nobility of her lineage. In some of the islands they were accustomed to put the head of a new-born child between two boards, and thus pressed it so that it would not be round, but long; and they also flattened the forehead, in their belief that it was a markof beauty to have it thus.12At the birth of a child to one among them who is of the highest rank, they hold a festival of a week, during which very joyful songs are sung by the women.They lose courage when they are sick. They do not use either bleeding or other remedies, except certain medicinal herbs, of which there is abundance in these islands. They use the cupping-glass; but it is not made of glass, for there is no glass in that country, but of small shells or the small horns of deer. They drink the liquor of cocoanuts after it has been kept some time in the evening damp; and that liquor is so healthful that their continual use of it keeps them from gravel, a disease of which the name is unknown among those peoples.When anyone dies, the music of the mourning and lamentation begins immediately. Some weep because they are truly touched by their loss; others are hired by the day to weep. Women are usually chosen, as they are most apt for that music. They wash the body of the deceased to that sad cadence, and perfume it with storax, and other perfumes which are used among them. After bewailing the body for three days, they bury it. They do not place it in the earth, but in coffins of very hard and incorruptible wood, which they kept in their houses. The boards of the coffins are so well joined that the air cannot enter. They placed a piece of gold in the mouths of some, and adorned their coffins with precious gems. Moreover they were careful to carryall sorts of food to their grave, and to leave it there as if it were to be used by the deceased. Some they would not allow to go alone, and it was necessary to give them some male and female slaves to keep them company. They killed the latter after having given them a fine repast, so that they might go with the deceased. With one of their chiefs of the country they once encased a galley equipped with rowers, so that they could serve him in the other world. The most usual place of burial was the house of the deceased, in the lowest story, where they dug a hole to place the coffin. Sometimes the burial was in the open field; and in such case great fires were made below the house, and sentinels were posted there, for fear lest the deceased should come to take away those who were yet alive. The tears and lamentations were finished with the burial; but the feasts and orgies lasted a greater or less time, according to the station of the deceased. The Tagáls wore black as a sign of mourning; the Bisayans wore white, and shaved the head and eyebrows. When a person of rank happened to die, silence was observed throughout the village, until that the interdict should have been removed—which lasted a greater or less time, according to the quality of the deceased. During that time not the least noise could be made. But the mourning of those who had been killed in war or by treachery lasted a longer time, and did not end until their children and relations had killed many others—not only those who were known as enemies, but even strangers or unknown men; for their fury having thus been assuaged, they thought that they could put an end to their mourning,and solemnize it by great festivities and prolonged feasting.They are for the most part good sailors—I mean for the navigation among the islands; for, as they do not use the compass, they do not get along so well on the open sea. They use various kinds of craft, which are propelled by sail and oar. The largest craft of the second class are called caracoas. Although these are not very large, they do not hesitate to put one hundred Indians in them; for there are three banks of rowers on each side. They make use of those craft for trading among those islands; and they lade them with dried fish, wine, salt, wax, cotton, cocoanuts, and other like merchandise.They are cowards naturally, and more apt to make an ambuscade than to face their enemies. Upon that is chiefly founded their submission to the Spaniards, for they do not serve them out of affection.They readily received our religion. Their meager intelligence does not permit them to sound the depths of its mysteries. They also have little care in the fulfilment of their duties to the Christianity which they have adopted; and it is necessary to constrain them by fear of punishment, and to govern them like schoolchildren. Intoxication and usury are the two vices to which they are most addicted. The piety and care of our religious have not as yet been able to make them lose those habits altogether.The climate of Manila and most of the other Filipinas Islands is very warm. The difference between the seasons is not perceived, for the heat is equally great all the year. The rains commence at the end of the month of May and last for three or fourmonths without interruption; but beyond that time it rains but rarely. In the months of October, November, and December, the country is subject to hurricanes, which the natives of the country callvaguios. They are furious winds which make the entire round of the compass in twenty-four hours, commencing at the north. They break the palm-trees, uproot the largest trees, overthrow the houses, and sometimes carry persons into the air; and some have been seen which have hurled vessels a musket-shot inland.At the extremity of the island of Manila, near the Embocadero, where the vessels en route from Nueva España enter, there is a volcano or mountain whence often issue flames, and always smoke.13In those islands there is neither grain, wine, nor olive-oil, nor one of the fruits which we have in Europa, except the oranges, of which I shall speak later. Rice grows there in great abundance, and serves instead of bread. They have two kinds of it. One kind is sown in places always under water, and the other on the mountains, where it is moistened only by the water from the sky. Their drink also is made from rice, by soaking it in water; or it is taken from palm-trees, or cocoanuts, or from another variety of small palm called nipa. They keep those liquors in large crocks, and draw from them only on holidays and days of rejoicing. Those liquors mount to the head and intoxicate, as much as does the wine of Europa.The horses and cows in those islands have been carried thither from Mexico and China, for therewere none there formerly. The flesh of swine is their most usual food, and there is a great abundance of it; it is very healthful and savory. There are also innumerable fowl, deer, wild boars, goats, and civet-cats; also plenty of beans, cotton, strawberries, and even cinnamon—which is found only in the island of Mindanao, and which does not begin to be as good as that of Ceilan. They have no silver mines in those islands, and the little silver seen there has been carried from Mexico, in return for the merchandise exported there annually. There are gold mines in the island of Manila, and on the river of Butuan in the island of Mindanao. There is truly not sufficient to satisfy the desires of the Spaniards; but the little that there is of it sufficed the Indians, who value it only for the little use that they make of it, since it does not enter at all into trade. There is a quantity of honey and wax in their mountains; and since the Spanish have lived there they have built many sugar mills; and sugar is so common there that one may buy twenty-five libras of sixteen onzas apiece for one teston. They have three varieties of fruit that are most common: bananas, santors, andbirinbines.14There are fifteen or sixteen kinds of bananas, some of them are sweet, but that sweetness has an admixture of bitter in others. Some of them smell good, but all of those varieties are very agreeable to the taste. I know of no fruit in Europa to which to compare them, unless it be themusaswhich grow in Sicilia. The birinbines and santors areeaten preserved more often than in any other way, because of their tartness; when prepared in preserves, they taste like plums. If they are allowed to ripen on the tree, they smell like quinces, although they have no other resemblance to quinces at all. Those islands have many other trees which grow wild. Their mountains furnish them with roots, from which they draw their most usual nourishment; these are calledpugaianandcorot.15They have other roots which they cultivate, such as theapari, theubi, thelaquei, and others which they callcamotes, which are the potatoes16of España. The Spaniards use the last named, as also do the Indians.But the most useful tree of all is the palm—not that which bears the date, for they do not have thatspecies, but those which bear cocoanuts, of the size of an orange. Those nuts are filled with a very sweet liquor, which is very good to drink. They make wine, vinegar, and honey of it; and when that fruit becomes dry as it ripens, that liquor changes into white meat harder than an almond. It is from that meat that oil is extracted and a milk resembling that extracted from almonds. The cocoanut has two coverings. The first, which is less hard, is used for tinder when dried; also for the rigging and smaller cordage of the ships, or as tow for calking them. The other covering is harder, and is used for drinking vessels, or as dishes in which to prepare their food. The palm-leaves are the tiles with which their houses are thatched. The trunks of the same trees are used to support the houses, and in making the pillars. They have one other tree which is no less useful to them, for it serves them as a perpetual spring, and furnishes water to an entire village—which, being located on a very high and dry site, has no other water than what they get from that tree by making incisions in its trunk, and in its largest branches; for a clear sweet water flows out of it. The trees of those islands are always green, and there are only two species that shed their leaves, one calledbatelan,17and the otherdabdas.The reeds [i.e., bamboos] of those islands have the following peculiarity, namely, that they are as much as three palmos in circumference and eight brazas in length. They are used as the materials out of which to build a whole house. The pillars, the lintels, the stairs, the floors, and the walls aremade from them. They are used as rafters for the roof, and split into several parts, as tiles for covering the roof. They have no other saucepans in which to cook their food than those reeds, and no other wood to burn; for the trees serve them as material with which to build their little boats—or rather, rafts—with which they carry for traffic their rice, cocoanuts, and abacá, the hemp of that country.Those islands have a great abundance of various kinds of oranges, peculiar to those countries for their good taste. I have seen them so large that they were four palmos in circumference. Some were red as scarlet inside, and very sweet. There are some which contain another little orange in the place of the seeds; and these are called on that account “oranges which have children.”18I will place in the list of vegetables a sort of leaf which serves them for nourishment, or rather for refreshment. It is used very commonly among the Indians, both Christians and Mahometans, and even among the Spaniards. A mixture is made of it which is calledmamuen, into which three things enter: one is this leaf, which is calledbuio, which is smooth, and resembles in color and size a large ivy leaf, but it is not so thick. It smells very good, and is aromatic. It is planted under some dry tree, on which it climbs. The other fruit that enters into that mixture is calledbonga, and it is as large as an olive. Lastly, they mix in a small quantity of quicklime. A little cornucopia is made of the leaf, the bonga and lime are placed inside, and it is all chewed together. That mixture colors the saliva as red asblood, and the lips the most beautiful vermilion ever seen. It preserves the teeth, strengthens the stomach, and produces a very good breath. Eighty of those leaves can be bought at Manila for one real. Nevertheless, so great a quantity is consumed that it has been ascertained that it was sold in one year to the amount of ninety thousand reals, of seven and one-half sols apiece.There are many snakes in those islands, which are very dangerous; some of them, when they have young, attack people.19The bite of those calledomodrois very dangerous, and those who are bitten by it do not live one-half day. It is from that effect that it derives its name, forodrosignifies one-half day. There is another very large snake calledsaua. I have killed one of that species which was two and one-half brazas long. The skin of another, which measured thirty-two [Spanish] feet in length, was brought to our residence at Manila. The sauas hang to the branches of trees along the roads, whence they dart down upon people, or deer, or on any other prey. They wind themselves three or four times around the body, and after having broken the creature’s bones devour it. But God has provided a number of herbs in those islands which are used as antidotes to all kinds of poisons. Roots and herbs are found in the mountains, which are so many specific remedies against snake-bites; the chief onesaremanongal, manambo, logab, boroctongon, maglingab, ordag, balucas, bonas, bahay, igluhat, dalogdogan, mantala.There are also animals in those islands of which I ought to give a description. The civet-cat is found in the mountains. Its skin resembles that of a tiger, and it is no less savage than the tiger, although much smaller. It is captured and bound, and, after its civet is obtained, which is contained in a little pouch under its tail, it is set at liberty to be caught once more. The crocodiles, of which their rivers are full, are so huge that when their jaws are open, a man of the largest size could stand upright between the two jaws. The crocodile is quite covered with scales; has scarcely any tongue; and its teeth are set closely together, and are very sharp, and arranged in several rows. The teeth of the middle lower row fit into holes or breaks in the others which correspond to them in the upper jaw; and consequently, when it seizes its prey, there is no force that can make it let go. It lays a great number of eggs. In the water it is furious, and attacks boats. It is not so greatly feared when ashore—where it goes sometimes to seize some prey, or to sun itself.The woman-fish20is so called because its face and breast are quite like those of women, whom it also resembles in its manner of copulation with the male. That fish is as large as a calf, and its flesh, of whichI have eaten, tastes like beef. It is caught with lines as thick around as the finger, and when the line becomes fast within [its mouth] it is killed by javelin-thrusts. Its bones and teeth have great virtue against all sorts of dysentery, especially against bloody discharges. Some have tried to assert that those fish were the sirens of the sea, so celebrated among the poets; but they have nothing of the beauty of face and of the voice that is attributed to sirens.I will end [this account], finally by a description of thetabon, an ashen-colored bird as large as a hen, which lays eggs three times as large as those of hens, but which lays them in a peculiar manner. It chooses desert islands and those full of sand, where it first makes a hole one or one and one-half brazas deep; and after having laid its eggs, it covers them over with sand. The chicks break the shell, and gradually turn up the sand that covers them with their feet. If any of those chicks is so unfortunate as to break the egg at the lower end, it does not succeed so well, and dies for lack of strength to overturn the sand. Sometimes one hundred and fifty of the eggs are found in the same hole. I have eaten those eggs often when I have had occasion to stop at those islands during my voyages.There is cinnamon in the island of Mindanao; and pepper at Patani, and at Champan, a country lying on the mainland of China.The political government of those islands is the same as that of other provinces subject to the crown of Castilla. The governor resides at Manila, and is president of the Audiencia; while, as captain-general, he has charge of all the posts of peace and war, as well as of the encomiendas of one or twothousand Indians [each], who pay their encomendero the tribute that the other Indians pay to the king. But the encomendero who has been appointed by the captain-general is obliged to get the confirmation of his grant from Madrid within three years.The governor establishes the corregidors and alcaldes-mayor, or governors of the provinces into which these islands are divided. He appoints the captains and the admirals of the fleets which sail to Acapulco and Terrenate annually. He takes cognizance of civil affairs, on which the royal Audiencia pronounces the decisions or decrees. That Audiencia is composed of a president (who is always the governor), four oidores or auditors, and one procurator-fiscal. There are four cities in the Filipinas—Manila, Zebu, [Nueva] Caçares, and Nueba Segovia; and one town, called Arevalo. There is a garrison at Manila and at Cabite, which is the port where the warships enter, six miles from Manila. There are also garrisons at Zebu, Otong, Carouga, Lanbuangang [sc.Zamboanga], Jolo, Nueva Segobia, the island of Hermosa, and the Malucas. All those ports are fortified, and have their redoubts mounted with artillery. Whatever is necessary for those garrisons is sent from Manila. It would be a very difficult task to mention the names of all the different peoples among the Indians, and in those islands, who are subject to the king of España. There are fully three hundred thousand families, who might count one million souls.The archbishop of Manila has three suffragans, those of Zebu, [Nueva] Caçares, and Nueva Segovia. They have no other income than what the king gives them; that of the archbishop is threethousand ducados, while each of his suffragans receives one thousand five hundred. The city of Manila is small, but it is beautiful and well fortified. Its houses are all built of stone, and are spacious, and very airy. Its streets are long and straight, and one may walk in the shade all hours of the day. The churches are beautiful. There are five convents: that of the Augustinians (which is the oldest); that of the Franciscans, that of the Dominicans,21and that of the discalced Augustinians. There are two universities, one in charge of the fathers of St. Dominic, and the other in that of the Society. Those religious are also distributed among the islands, where they have charge of the instruction of the Indians. The city is enclosed by a fine wall and moat; and its redoubt and its ramparts are well garrisoned with artillery. At the foot of its wall flows a river, which is navigable; over this is a wooden bridge, with stone pillars. There are two thousand Spaniards in Manila (counting soldiers and inhabitants), and twice as many Indians. There are also twenty thousand Sangleys or Chinese, who practice all the arts needed in a community; and every year they pay nine escudos and six reals of tribute. Galleons much larger than those which sail the Mediterraneanare built at Manila; for there is a great abundance of wood, pitch, and abacá—which resembles European hemp, and of which good rigging is made for the ships. The anchors are imported from Goa; and the iron for the nails comes from China in little bars, and is very serviceable.The Spaniards of the Manilas trade throughout the islands of that archipelago, at Borney and Camboa, whence they carry wax, butter,camanguienor storax, ivory, and bezoar. They formerly traded in Japon, before the persecution of the Christians was begun. Thence were carried iron, flour, all sorts of fruit, and little boxes, and cabinets, varnished [i.e., lacquered] and very well made. Nangoza [sc.Nagasaki], which was the port where that trading took place—and for which it was very suitable, because it is not distant from Manila—is now closed to us; for the emperor of Japon believes that people are entering his country, under pretext of that trade, to preach the gospel, the thing that he fears most of all. We trade also with the Portuguese of Macao, who come to the Manilas every year with two or three ships, and bring here silks, musk, precious stones, and eagle and calambac wood—which is a sweet-scented wood that is very valuable. The inhabitants of the Manilas also go to Macao sometimes, to carry their merchandise there; but their chief trade is with the Chinese, who come annually, at the end of the month of December and the beginning of January, with twenty or thirty vessels, laden with products and valuable merchandise. They sail usually from Ocho and Chincheo, ports of Anay, a province of China which faces the Filipinas. They carry small oranges, nuts, chestnuts, plums, raisins,andchicuei—a fruit resembling an apple, very round, transparent, and, when it is ripe, having the color of yellow amber; its peel is very loose, and its flesh very sweet and very pleasant to the taste.22They also bring all sorts of cloth stuffs, and some of these are as fine as those which come from France and the Low Countries; and many black stuffs of which the Indians make their clothes. They bring silk, plain and twisted, of all colors; damasks, velvets, tabbies, and double taffetas; cloths of gold and silver, galoons, and laces; coverlets, and cushions; and porcelain—although not the finest variety, as the trade in that is prohibited. They bring pearls and gold; iron, in little bars; thread, musk, and fine parasols; paste gems, but very beautiful to look at; saltpetre, and flour; white and various-colored paper; and many little fancy articles, covered with varnish, and gold in relief, made in an inimitable manner. Among all the silk stuffs brought by the Chinese, none is more esteemed than the white—the snow is not whiter; and there is no silk stuff in Europa that can approach it.The Chinese return in the month of March, and carry to China silver in return for their merchandise. They also take a wood called sibueno23—that is, brazil-wood, which is used in making their ink. Those Chinese merchants are so keen after gain that if one sort of merchandise has succeeded well one year, they take a great deal of it the following year. A Spaniard who had lost his nose through a certain illness, sent for a Chinese to make him one of wood, in order to hide the deformity. The workman madehim so good a nose that the Spaniard, in great delight, paid him munificently, giving him twenty escudos. The Chinese, attracted by the ease with which he had made that gain, laded a fine boatload of wooden noses the following year, and returned to Manila. But he found himself very far from his hopes, and quite left out in the cold;24for in order to have a sale for that new merchandise, he found that he would have to cut off the noses of all the Spaniards in the country.Besides the Chinese merchandise that is brought into the islands, there is wax, cinnamon, civet, and a sort of very strong cotton cloth which is calledcampotes[misprint forlampotes]. All those goods are exported to Mexico, where they are sold at great profit, and on the spot. I do not believe there is a richer traffic in the world than that. The duties that the king gets out of it are large, and, with what he gets from the islands, amount to fully five hundred thousand escudos. But he spends eight hundred thousand in the maintenance of his governor, the counselors, the archbishop, the bishops, the canons, those who possess the prebends, and the other ecclesiastics. The greater part of that sum is employed in the equipment of the galleons that are sent to Mexico and to the Malucas, and of those which are kept in those seas to resist the Dutch. A considerable sum is spent on the maintenance of alliance with the kings of those districts—especially with the king of one ofthe Malucas, called Tidore. Consequently, the king of España rather holds those islands for the conservation there of the faith, as was stated by Felipe the Second in a certain council-meeting, than for the profit that is derived from them to this hour. The Dutch have been unable to get a footing on those islands, although they have attacked them many times. They have a considerable city [i.e., Batavia] on the island of Java Major, whence they send what their garrisons at the island of Hermosa, Amboina, and Terrenate need. They have made an alliance with the inhabitants of that island, and they secure the greater part of the cloves of the Malucas. They trade in Japon, in a port called Firando. The Chinese have refused to have trade with them, because of a tradition current in China, that blue-eyed men will some day conquer them.The voyage from Manila to Mexico lasts four, five, six, or seven months. Manila, which lies in thirteen and one-half degrees, is left in the month of July, during the vendavals. The course is taken to the north, until the ship reaches thirty-eight or forty degrees. The pilots take that course because they are more certain of finding winds; for otherwise they would run the risk of encountering calms, which are more to be dreaded in long voyages than are the most furious gales. From the time that the Filipinas are left until almost the coast of Nueva España is reached, no land is seen, except a chain of islands called the Ladrones, or La Sapana,25which lie three hundred leguas from the Embocadero of the Filipinas. The people whoinhabit those islands are barbarians, who go quite naked. When our vessels pass there, those people carry to them fish, rice, and fresh water, which they exchange for neither gold nor silver, but only for iron, which they value much more, because of the use to which they put it in the manufacture of their tools, and for the building of their little boats. The first land sighted after that is the island of Cedros, quite near the Mexican coast. The open expanse between that island and those of the Ladrones is subject to great storms, which are to be feared especially near the Japanese Islands—which are passed, however, without being sighted. During the whole course of so long a voyage, scarcely a day passes without seeing a bird. There are usually some birds that live in the sea, and many large whales and porpoises are seen.As the [American] coast is neared, at a distance of sixty, eighty, or one hundred leguas signs are to be seen in the sea by which it is recognized that the ship is within that distance. Those signs consist of long reeds, brought down by the rivers of Nueva España, which being massed together resemble a kind of raft; and on those reeds are to be seen monkeys—another sign that they are approaching the coast. When the pilot discovers those signs, he immediately changes his course, and instead of continuing east he puts the nose of the ship south, in order to avoid getting caught in the land, or in some gulf whence he would have a hard time to get out; but, when he has sighted the coast of Nueva España, he follows it to the port of Acapulco, which lies in eighteen degrees.Acapulco is a fine port, well sheltered from all the winds, and defended by a celebrated redoubt. There the passengers and goods are disembarked,and are afterward carried by mules to the City of Mexico, which is eighty leguas distant thence. The way is desert and bestrewn with mountains; and the pest of mosquitoes is suffered, as well as the extreme heat. In order to go to España from Mexico one goes to the port of Vera Cruz, a journey of eighty-five leguas; en route is passed the city of Los Angeles, which has about six thousand inhabitants, and whose bishop gets a salary of sixty thousand escudos. The reefs and rocks at the mouth of the port of Vera Cruz defend the entrance better than the fortress that commands it, although that fort is an excellent one. At that port anchor the trading fleets that come from España, laden with wine, olive-oil, cloths, wax, cinnamon, paper, and other European merchandise. Those trading fleets formerly passed the winter there, as they arrived [formerly] in the month of June, and remained there until the same month of the following year. Now they reach that port in the month of May, and leave about the month of August. They take as a rule three months to go to España. For my part, I took one hundred days in making that voyage. The port of Havana in Cuba, which is the best port of the Western Indias—and which is very safe, and defended by three redoubts—is touched at. There the two trading fleets—that of Mexico and that of Tierrafirme—are united with the galleons. Thence, after having coasted along the shores of Florida, and of Nueva Francia, they make the cape of Fineterre [Finisterre] or San Vincent, in order to lay their course toward Cadiz, which is the end of their voyage. That will also be the end of this relation, which I have written in order to be obedient to a person to whom I earnestly desire that it may prove agreeable.1Marginal note: “This relation has been translated from a Spanish manuscript existing in the library of Don Carlo del Pezzo.”This relation is unsigned, and undated, but Rev. Pablo Pastells, S.J., said during the course of a conversation with one of the Editors, in 1903, that the author was undoubtedly Father Diego de Bobadilla; and in his edition of Colin’sLabor evangélica(Barcelona, 1904), he says (iii, p. 798, note): “This father [i.e., Father Bobadilla] was the author in 1640 of the famous relation which was translated by Melquisedec Thévenot.”2See ourVOLS. IandIIfor the history of these early expeditions. It will be noticed that the author of the present relation is inaccurate in regard to the date of the voyage of Villalobos, and that he omits mention of some of the early voyages.3That is “Birth follows the womb.”4SeeVOL. XXII, p. 300, note 61.5For this expedition to Mindanao by Hurtado de Corcuera, see previous documents. This reference proves the present relation to have been written in 1640, as the expedition above mentioned occurred in 1637.6Visayan name (alsocolocolo, elsewhere) of the fishing gannet (Sula piscatrix). Delgado says (Historia, p. 820) that he had a tame one in his house, which would bring home fish that it had caught, and carry them to the kitchen.7French,Estang du Roy(“the King’s Pool”); evidently referring to the hot springs near Laguna de Bay (seeVOL. XIV, p. 211), and the wordRoyis probably a misprint forBay.8It is Chirino who is here (although inexactly) cited; seeVOL. XII, p. 236.9See Chirino’s account, inVOL. XII, p. 241; he says that the art of writing was imparted to the Visayans by the Tagals.10Marginal note: “Prudish” (melindrosa).11That is, “star-thistles”—the common name of a genus (Tribulus) of plants, which bears prickly fruits, very injurious to the feet of animals or men. The military instrument called “caltrop” resembles that fruit, from which it may have been evolved; and the appellationtribolois one of the etymological elements in “caltrop.”12See the Cleveland reissue of theJesuit Relations, lxv, p. 131, for a description of head-compression by the North American Indians.13Mt. Bulusan, near the center of the province of Sorsogón, Luzón; at present “almost extinct, but at times emits an abundance of watery vapor and sulphurous fumes” (Reportof U. S. Philippine Commission, 1900, iii, p. 149).14Also calledbalimbín; the fruit ofAverrhoa carambola; used for food and sweetmeats, and also has medicinal qualities. See Blanco’s description,Flora, p. 274; and Delgado’sHistoria, pp. 505, 506. For note on santor, seeVOL. XVI, p. 87; on banana (Musa),VOL. V, p. 169.15Thecorot(Dioscorea triphylla) is very common, with leaves one palmo long, and very small flowers. Its sap is yellow and very poisonous, and has cleansing power which is utilized to whiten abacá. The root is very large and is eaten cooked by the Indians, after having soaked it in the water for three or four days.Theubiis theDioscorea alata, and the plant grows rather high and is widely disseminated. The root is violet in color, and often attains a great size; it is eaten cooked. The best variety is that known as the Cebú ubi or ube, which comes from Bohol, and which makes a delicious jelly. The ubi and analogous roots must be carefully prepared, or else they prove poisonous. See Blanco’sFlora, andU. S. Gazetteer of the Philippine Islands. Delgado (p. 763) enumerates eight varieties of this root.Theapariis perhaps theapaliaorparia(Montordica balsamina), a climbing plant, which bears a fruit which is rather bitter to the taste, and eaten in salads. The juice of its leaves is used instead of soap. The ripe fruit soaked in olive, cocoa, or beneseed oil makes an excellent balsam that is used for medicinal purposes.16French,patanes, apparently a misprint forpatatas. The camote or sweet potato (Convolvulus batatas, Linn.; now namedBatatas edulis) is extensively cultivated in the islands. Blanco (Flora, p. 69) cites Mozo as saying that this plant was carried to the islands from Nueva España; but Blanco regards it as indigenous in the Philippines. Delgado (pp. 766–768) enumerates twenty-nine varieties of camote.17TheBatelanis perhaps thebalete; seeVOL. XII, p. 214, note 56. For note on dabdab, seeibid., p. 215, note 57.18Apparently a reference to the variety of orange known at the present day as navel oranges.19For a treatise on the snakes and poisonous animals of the Philippines, see Delgado’sHistoria, pp. 889–907. He describes theomodroas theodto(Hemibungarus collaris)—from the word meaning “half-day” or “noon,” and given to it because the bite proves fatal if given at noon, but at no other time. It is of various colors and very furious at the hour of noon. The saua (Python reticulatus) is the largest snake of the islands and is often domesticated, and is not poisonous to man.20The dugong (a word corrupted from the Malay nameduyong); not a fish, but a marine mammal (Helicore australis). Crawfurd says (Dict. Indian Islands, p. 125) that it is found in the shallow seas of the Malayan archipelago, but is not often captured; and that its flesh is greatly superior to that of the green turtle. This creature is one of those from which originated the fable of the mermaids.21Thevenot has translated the Spanish term for Franciscans (padres de San Franciscoorpadres franciscanos) into the popular French termcordeliers, so called because of their girdle. Similarly he has translated the term for Dominicans (padres de San Domingoorpadres dominicanos) asJacobins, also the popular French appellation, so called from the name of the church of St. Jacques, which was given them in Paris. See Addis and Arnold’sCath. Dict., article “Franciscans,” p. 356; and Chevin’sDict. Latin-Français, p. 353.Either Thevenot the translator, or the author, omits mention of the convent of the Society of Jesus, only the four above mentioned being given.22The persimmon; seeVOL. XVI, p. 180.23A misprint for sibucao (VOL. III, p. 196;XV, p. 256).24There is evidently a play of words in this passage. The French readsMais il se trouua bie loing de ses esperances, & auec vn pied de nez.Pied de nez(literally “a foot of nose”) is an exact equivalent of the Spanish phrasepalmo de narices, and the French expressiondemeurer avec un pied de nezis equivalent to the Spanish idiomquedar con un palmo de narices, which signifies “the frustration of one’s hopes,” or “to be left out in the cold.”25Apparently a corruption of Zarpana, the name given by its inhabitants to the island of Rota, one of the Mariannes or Ladrones Islands.

Relation of the Filipinas IslandsBy a religious who lived there for eighteen years1Archipelagus orientalis, sive Asiaticus (Eastern or Asiatic archipelago); photographic facsimile of map by Joannis Blaeu (Amsterdam, 1659)Archipelagus orientalis, sive Asiaticus(Eastern or Asiatic archipelago); photographic facsimile of map by Joannis Blaeu (Amsterdam, 1659)[From original map inBibliothèque Nationale, Paris]The islands called Filipinas, because of having been conquered during the reign of Felipe II, were discovered in the year 1521, by Hernando Magallanes, a famous Portuguese, who gave his name to the strait. That great pilot, after having forever perpetuated his name by a navigation so new and so difficult, landed on one of the Filipinas Islands—a very small one, named Matan—where he was treacherously killed by the Indians. Ruy Lopez de Villalobos sighted the islands again after him in the year 1539.2Finally they were pacified in the year 1571 by the adelantado Miguel Lopez de Legaspi. It is a cause for surprise that the Portuguese, who haddiscovered the Malucas, China, and Japon, some years before, and had made their homes there, did not know anything about those islands until long afterward, although they are, as it were, the very center and middle part of their other discoveries. They knew well the island of Borneo, which is the last of those islands toward the south, but they had never stopped there while en route to the Malucas—urged, perhaps, by their too great greed for the spices and drugs which are produced so abundantly in those islands.The geographies say that there are eleven thousand islands in that great archipelago of which the Filipinas are a part, and that they are adjacent to Asia as are the Canaries and the Terceras to Africa. They cross into the torrid zone and extend along the coasts of China and India. South of them lie the Malucas, and on their northern coast, Japon. More than forty of them are subject to the king of España, the largest and most important being Manila and Mindanao. Manila is the capital of all the others, the residence of the governor and the archbishop, and the seat of the royal Audiencia. Those two islands are each six hundred miles in circuit; they are full of mountains, have rivers and dense forests, and lie in thirteen and one-half degrees north latitude. The other islands are not so large, some being one hundred miles in circuit, some fifty, and some even less. Almost all of them are inhabited by Indians, and those which are not are used by the Indians for their crops, and for the chase of deer and wild boars, and for the gathering of wax, with which the islands most abound.The islands not yet under the dominion of theking of España have their own kings, who are Mahometans. The island of Borneo, three times greater than the whole of Italia, is the largest of all the islands. Those subject to the king of España are Manila, Zebu, Oton, Mindanao, Bohol, Leite, Samar, Mindoro, Marinduque, the island of Negros, the island of Fuegos, Calamianes, Masbat, Jolo, Taquima, Capul, La Paragua, the island of Tablas, Verde Island, Burias, Tiago, Maripipe, Panama, Panaon, Sibuian, Luban, Bantajan, Panglao, Siquior, Catanduan, Imaras, Tagapolo, Banton, Romblon, Similara, Cuio, Cagaianes, Marivelez, Poro, Babuianes, the island of Cabras (which is distant from the others), and other smaller ones.In the islands subject to the king of España, every married man pays ten reals of tribute, and he who is unmarried five. Nearly all of them have received the gospel, and hence there are few heathen. However, in the islands of Mindanao, Taquima, and Jolo, conquered but recently, most of the people are Moros or heathen; but it is hoped that the zeal of the missionaries will convert them very soon to Jesus Christ.Before the conquest of those islands by the Spaniards, the natives of the country were subject to the chiefs among them, who were recognized as nobles, and all the others obeyed them. Those chiefs possessed a great amount of gold, and slaves in proportion to their nobility. I knew two chiefs, one in Bohol, and the other at Dapitan, a village of Mindanao, who had more than one hundred slaves apiece. They are not foreign slaves, as those of Angola who are in Europa, but of the same nation. It was a lamentable thing to see with what violenceand for how little a thing, these chiefs made slaves. For, however small a sum one owed to another, the interest, for lack of payment, amounted to so great a sum that it was impossible to pay it; and consequently, the person of the debtor being pledged for the debt, he became the slave of his creditor, together with all his posterity. They also made slaves, with unusual tyranny and cruelty, for crimes of slight importance, such as not keeping silent at the graves of the dead, and for passing in front of the chief’s wife when she was in her bath. Those captured in war were also all made slaves. Now with baptism, all those acts of violence and tyranny have been suppressed—although there still remains one very peculiar custom among them, which does not follow that general rule, namely,Partus sequitur ventrem;3for there are some who are wholly slaves, and others who are only half slaves. The former are those born of a slave father and mother; the others who are born of a slave father and a free mother, orvice versa. In some villages it is the custom that, if the father is slave and the mother free, one of the children is free and the other slave. The privilege of those half slaves is that if they pay a certain sum of money to their master, they may oblige him to grant them their liberty—an advantage that is not possessed by those who are wholly slaves.All the religion of those Indians is founded on tradition, and on a custom introduced by the devil himself, who formerly spoke to them by the mouth of their idols and of their priests. That tradition is preserved by the songs that they learn by heart in their childhood, by hearing them sung in their sailing,in their work, in their amusements, and in their festivals, and, better yet, when they bewail their dead. In those barbarous songs, they recount the fabulous genealogies and deeds of their gods, of whom they have one who is chief and head of all the others. The Tagáls call that godBathala mei Capal, which signifies “God the Creator.” The Bisayans call himLaon, which signifies “Time.” They are not far from our belief on the point of the creation of the world. They believe in a first man, the flood, and paradise, and the punishments of the future life.They say that the first man and the first woman came out of a reed stalk which burst in Sumatra, and that there were some quarrels between them at their marriage. They believed that when the soul left the body, it went to an island, where the trees, birds, waters, and all other things were black; that it passed thence to another island, where all things were of different colors; and finally that it arrived at one, where everything was white. They recognized invisible spirits, another life, and devils hostile to men, of whom they had great fear. Their chief idolatry was in adoring and regarding as gods those of their ancestors who were most remarkable for their courage, or for their intelligence. Such they calledhumalagar, or, as is said in Latin,manes. Each one, as far as possible, ascribed divinity to his father at death. The old men even died with that conceit, and that is why they chose a remarkable place—as did one in the island of Leite, who had himself placed on the seashore, so that those who went sailing should recognize him as a god, and commend themselves to him. They also worshiped animals and birds. They regarded the rainbow asa sort of divinity. The Tagáls worshiped a totally blue bird, of the size of a thrush, which they calledbathala, which was a name of the divinity. They worshiped the raven, which they calledmeilupa, meaning “the master of the earth.” They had a great veneration for the crocodile. [When] they saw it in the water, they called itnono, or “grandfather.” They offered to it prayers regularly, with great devotion, and offerings of what they carried in their boats, in order that it might not harm them. There was no old tree of which they did not make a god, and it was a sacrilege to cut it. I have seen a very large one callednonog,4in the island of Samar, which a religious ordered to be felled, in order to destroy all those superstitions. He was unable to find an Indian who would undertake it for him; and it was necessary for some Spaniards to go to fell it. They also worshiped the stones, rocks, reefs, and promontories of land which jut into the sea; and made offerings to these of rice, fish, and other like things, or fired their arrows at them in passing.Between La Caldera and the river in the island of Mindanao, a great point of land runs into the sea, which makes the coast dangerous and very high. The sea beats violently against that cape, which is very difficult to double. The Indians in passing offered it their arrows as a sacrifice, praying it to allow them to pass. They shot them with so great force that they made them enter the rock, and hence it is called the Punta de Flechas. One day the Spaniards burned a number of those arrows to show their hatred of so vain a superstition; and in less than one year more than four thousand were found there.When Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera conquered the island of Mindanao three years ago,5he ordered that that point be called no more Punta de Flechas, but San Sebastian. They had innumerable other superstitions. If they saw a snake or a lizard, or if they heard a bird that they calledcorocoro6sneeze or sing, they took it as a bad sign, and did not go farther. They had no remarkable temples, and no festivals of days of public sacrifices; but each one made his offerings to thehumalagarordivata(which was the name of their god) in private, according to their purpose or need. Although they had no temples, they had men and women who acted as priests, who were calledcatolonanby some andbabailanby others. Those priests were most inclined to allow themselves to be deceived by the devil, and to deceive the people afterward by a thousand tricks and inventions—chiefly at the time of their sicknesses, when they are depressed, lose courage, and crave a prompt remedy; and give all their possessions to him who promises it to them.There are some priests who have special communication with the devil. He speaks to them through the mouths of their little idols, and makes them believe that these are the voices of their ancestors, whom they worship. Sometimes the devil passes into the bodies of their sacrificers, and, during the short time of the sacrifice, he makes them sayand do things that fill the bystanders with fear. They take that order of sacrificers from among their friends or their relatives, who wish to learn the mystery of it from them. Their blindness causes them to esteem that rank greatly, for besides the reputation and respect that that employment brings them, they also receive large offerings. All who have been present at the sacrifice make them gifts, one cotton, one gold, and one a fowl. The sacrifice takes place in their houses. The victim is now a hog, now a fowl, now some fish or rice; and the sacrifice is differently named according to the various victims. It is performed by the sacrificer stabbing the victim amid certain ceremonies, which he performs to a cadence marked by a drum or a bell. That is the time in which the devil takes possession of them. He causes them to make innumerable contortions and grimaces, after the end of which they tell what they believe they have seen or heard.As for their persons, those people are well built, have handsome features, and are light-complexioned. They are clad in a garment that falls to the ankles, which is made of striped cotton of various colors. When in mourning, they wear white; however, that mode of dress is not so general. Those called Pintados, and those of the island of Mindanao, wear short white, yellow, or red tunics, which hang to the knees, bound in by a girdle one vara wide and two and one-half brazas long; this is, as a general rule, white or red, and always falls to the knees. They wear neither stockings nor shoes; and instead of a hat they use a bit of cloth, which they wind twice or thrice around the head. Their whole adornment consists in having very rich and beautiful necklaces,earrings, and gold rings or bracelets. They wear those bracelets above the ankle; some wear these of ivory, and others of brass. They also have little round plates three fingers in diameter, which they pass through a hole that they make in the ear. In some of those islands, the men formerly marked all the body with figures, whence comes the Spanish name “Pintados” [“pictured,”i.e., tattooed]. That operation was performed in the flower of their age, and at the period when they had most strength to suffer that torture. They had themselves adorned in that way after they had performed some illustrious deed. The masters of that art first trace on their bodies the design of the picture, which they next follow up with pricks from very sharp points, and throw on the blood which comes out a powder which never fades away. The whole of the body is not pricked at once, but bit by bit; and formerly, in order that one might have the right of making it for each part, it was necessary to perform an illustrious deed, and to show new prowess. Those pictures are pretty, and well proportioned to the portions of the body on which they are made; and, although they are of an ashen color, they are nevertheless agreeable to the sight. The children are not tattooed at all. The women do not bear the marks of that adornment except on one hand and on some part of the other. In regard to their teeth, they imitate the men in everything. They file them from their earliest childhood; some making them even in this way, others filing them into points, thus giving them the appearance of a saw. They cover the teeth with a black, glossy polish, or one that is flame-colored; and thus their teeth become black, or as red as vermilion. Inthe upper row, they make a little covering which they fill with gold, which shows off to advantage on the black or red background of that polish.The women as well as the men are continually in the water, and they also swim like fish. They need no bridge to get over rivers. They bathe at all times of the day, as much for pleasure as for cleanliness. Women who have but recently given birth cannot be prevented from bathing, and bathe in the waters of the coldest springs. As soon as the child has issued from its mother’s womb, it is placed in the water; and on taking it from the bath its head is rubbed with ajonjoli [i.e., sesame] oil mixed with civet. They do that also on other occasions, and to show politeness, especially the women and little boys. They bathe also during their sicknesses, and have for that purpose springs of hot water, especially at the shore of Laguna de Bay, which is in the island of Manila.7There is no one language that is general for all the islands, but each district has a special one. True, they have some relation between one another, such as exists between the Lombard, Sicilian, and Tuscan. There are six dialects in the island of Manila, and two in the island of Oton; while there are some languages which are spoken in several islands. The most general are the Tagál and Bisayan. The latter is very rude, but the former is very polished, and most remarkable. Thus a religious, who was well versed in those islands, was in the habit of saying that the Tagál language had the advantages of thefour chief languages of the world: that it was mysterious, like Hebrew; that it had the articles of the Greek, both for appellatives and for proper names; that it had elegance and abundance, like the Latin; and that it was not less suitable than the Italian for compliments and business.8They have only three vowels, but these serve as five. They have only a dozen consonants, which they express differently by placing a little dot above or below, as can be seen in the following figure.Marginal note: “The consonants not marked with any point are pronounced with ‘a;’ if they have a point above, they are pronounced with ‘e,’ or ‘i;’ if the point is below, they are pronounced with ‘o’ or ‘u.’”They have learned to write from us9by making their lines from left to right, instead of their former way of writing from top to bottom. Reeds or palm-leaves serve them as paper, and the point of an iron style is used instead of a pen. They use their writing only to letters from one to another, for they have no histories or books of any learning. Our religious have printed books in the languages of the islands, concerning the matters of our religion. In the Malucas, they have a very pretty method of writingto their friends. They collect flowers of various colors, and make a bouquet of them; and he who receives the bouquet understands, on beholding the varieties of flowers and their colors, as if they were so many different characters, the thoughts of his friend. They have not sufficient capacity to apply themselves to learning, and they content themselves with being good carpenters, and with working gold and iron well. They have been employed during these last few years in making silk and cotton stockings; in writing and reading our characters; in singing and dancing; and in playing the flute, the guitar, and the harp. The strings used for those last instruments are made from twisted silk, and produce as agreeable a sound as ours, although quite different in quality. They formerly had an instrument calledcutiape, which some of them still use. It bears a close resemblance to a hurdy-gurdy, and has four copper cords. They play it so cleverly, that they make it express whatever they wish; and it is asserted as a truth that they speak, and tell one another whatever they wish, by means of that instrument, a special skill in those of that nation.Most of those islanders have only one wife, but it is not true that there are not some places in the country where they have several, especially in the island of Mindanao. It may be said that the husbands buy their wives there, since they generally make some present to their parents according to their rank: that ofdato, for instance, which signifies “a man of rank;” oftinaua, which signifies “free;” ororipuen, which signifies “a slave.” The women in the islands of the Pintados are calledbinocot, or “woman who is in the room;” forbocotsignifies“a room,” and the women go outside but rarely, and even are carried then on the shoulders of their slaves. I have seen one woman of Dapitan, a settlement of the island of Mindanao, so delicate and so fine, that she always had herself carried to church on the shoulders of her slaves whom she best liked. It is a mark of politeness among those women always to keep the right hand in front of the mouth when they talk to a man.10Those people live in houses thatched with straw, with the leaves of trees, or with large reeds which, divided into two, serve them as a tiling. There is but little furniture to be seen in their houses. But rarely are chairs seen there, for they always sit on the ground, or on carpets made from reeds. They have neither beds nor mattresses, as their reed mats serve as both. They eat on the ground or on very small low tables, but the tables are used only among the chiefs. Banana leaves, which are one braza long and one-half braza wide, serve them as napkins. Their employment consists of agriculture, the very abundant fishing along their coasts and in their rivers, and hunting wild boars and deer with dog and spear—an employment to which their agility and their skill renders them very suitable. They also go to gather honey and wax in the mountains or in the trees, where nature has taught the bees to make both those substances.The arms of some are spears, of others arrows; the campilan, which is a large cutlass; the kris, or poniard; thezompitesor blow-guns, through which they blow little poisoned arrows; andbacacaies, or little reeds hardened by fire at the end. To defendtheir grain from animals and from men who could harm it, they scatter caltrops, which the old men calltribulos,11made so that one of the four points of which they are composed is always up, and those who pass there get caught without perceiving the traps. But now the Spaniards have taught them how to use firearms, and they get along very well—especially a nation called the Pampangos, many of whom are enrolled in the Spanish troops. These men serve with great fidelity, and well second the courage of which the Spaniards set them an example in their combats by sea and land.They are very fertile, and I have seen but few married people without children. When these are born, they name them according to the incidents that happen at the time of their birth. One will be called Maglente, because of the thunder that sounded at the time of his birth; forlentesignifies a clap of thunder. Another will be named Gubaton, because the foes appeared on the coast at that same time; forgubatsignifies enemy. They esteem nobility; and I have known a woman called Vray—that is to say, “fine gold”—who had been given that name because of the nobility of her lineage. In some of the islands they were accustomed to put the head of a new-born child between two boards, and thus pressed it so that it would not be round, but long; and they also flattened the forehead, in their belief that it was a markof beauty to have it thus.12At the birth of a child to one among them who is of the highest rank, they hold a festival of a week, during which very joyful songs are sung by the women.They lose courage when they are sick. They do not use either bleeding or other remedies, except certain medicinal herbs, of which there is abundance in these islands. They use the cupping-glass; but it is not made of glass, for there is no glass in that country, but of small shells or the small horns of deer. They drink the liquor of cocoanuts after it has been kept some time in the evening damp; and that liquor is so healthful that their continual use of it keeps them from gravel, a disease of which the name is unknown among those peoples.When anyone dies, the music of the mourning and lamentation begins immediately. Some weep because they are truly touched by their loss; others are hired by the day to weep. Women are usually chosen, as they are most apt for that music. They wash the body of the deceased to that sad cadence, and perfume it with storax, and other perfumes which are used among them. After bewailing the body for three days, they bury it. They do not place it in the earth, but in coffins of very hard and incorruptible wood, which they kept in their houses. The boards of the coffins are so well joined that the air cannot enter. They placed a piece of gold in the mouths of some, and adorned their coffins with precious gems. Moreover they were careful to carryall sorts of food to their grave, and to leave it there as if it were to be used by the deceased. Some they would not allow to go alone, and it was necessary to give them some male and female slaves to keep them company. They killed the latter after having given them a fine repast, so that they might go with the deceased. With one of their chiefs of the country they once encased a galley equipped with rowers, so that they could serve him in the other world. The most usual place of burial was the house of the deceased, in the lowest story, where they dug a hole to place the coffin. Sometimes the burial was in the open field; and in such case great fires were made below the house, and sentinels were posted there, for fear lest the deceased should come to take away those who were yet alive. The tears and lamentations were finished with the burial; but the feasts and orgies lasted a greater or less time, according to the station of the deceased. The Tagáls wore black as a sign of mourning; the Bisayans wore white, and shaved the head and eyebrows. When a person of rank happened to die, silence was observed throughout the village, until that the interdict should have been removed—which lasted a greater or less time, according to the quality of the deceased. During that time not the least noise could be made. But the mourning of those who had been killed in war or by treachery lasted a longer time, and did not end until their children and relations had killed many others—not only those who were known as enemies, but even strangers or unknown men; for their fury having thus been assuaged, they thought that they could put an end to their mourning,and solemnize it by great festivities and prolonged feasting.They are for the most part good sailors—I mean for the navigation among the islands; for, as they do not use the compass, they do not get along so well on the open sea. They use various kinds of craft, which are propelled by sail and oar. The largest craft of the second class are called caracoas. Although these are not very large, they do not hesitate to put one hundred Indians in them; for there are three banks of rowers on each side. They make use of those craft for trading among those islands; and they lade them with dried fish, wine, salt, wax, cotton, cocoanuts, and other like merchandise.They are cowards naturally, and more apt to make an ambuscade than to face their enemies. Upon that is chiefly founded their submission to the Spaniards, for they do not serve them out of affection.They readily received our religion. Their meager intelligence does not permit them to sound the depths of its mysteries. They also have little care in the fulfilment of their duties to the Christianity which they have adopted; and it is necessary to constrain them by fear of punishment, and to govern them like schoolchildren. Intoxication and usury are the two vices to which they are most addicted. The piety and care of our religious have not as yet been able to make them lose those habits altogether.The climate of Manila and most of the other Filipinas Islands is very warm. The difference between the seasons is not perceived, for the heat is equally great all the year. The rains commence at the end of the month of May and last for three or fourmonths without interruption; but beyond that time it rains but rarely. In the months of October, November, and December, the country is subject to hurricanes, which the natives of the country callvaguios. They are furious winds which make the entire round of the compass in twenty-four hours, commencing at the north. They break the palm-trees, uproot the largest trees, overthrow the houses, and sometimes carry persons into the air; and some have been seen which have hurled vessels a musket-shot inland.At the extremity of the island of Manila, near the Embocadero, where the vessels en route from Nueva España enter, there is a volcano or mountain whence often issue flames, and always smoke.13In those islands there is neither grain, wine, nor olive-oil, nor one of the fruits which we have in Europa, except the oranges, of which I shall speak later. Rice grows there in great abundance, and serves instead of bread. They have two kinds of it. One kind is sown in places always under water, and the other on the mountains, where it is moistened only by the water from the sky. Their drink also is made from rice, by soaking it in water; or it is taken from palm-trees, or cocoanuts, or from another variety of small palm called nipa. They keep those liquors in large crocks, and draw from them only on holidays and days of rejoicing. Those liquors mount to the head and intoxicate, as much as does the wine of Europa.The horses and cows in those islands have been carried thither from Mexico and China, for therewere none there formerly. The flesh of swine is their most usual food, and there is a great abundance of it; it is very healthful and savory. There are also innumerable fowl, deer, wild boars, goats, and civet-cats; also plenty of beans, cotton, strawberries, and even cinnamon—which is found only in the island of Mindanao, and which does not begin to be as good as that of Ceilan. They have no silver mines in those islands, and the little silver seen there has been carried from Mexico, in return for the merchandise exported there annually. There are gold mines in the island of Manila, and on the river of Butuan in the island of Mindanao. There is truly not sufficient to satisfy the desires of the Spaniards; but the little that there is of it sufficed the Indians, who value it only for the little use that they make of it, since it does not enter at all into trade. There is a quantity of honey and wax in their mountains; and since the Spanish have lived there they have built many sugar mills; and sugar is so common there that one may buy twenty-five libras of sixteen onzas apiece for one teston. They have three varieties of fruit that are most common: bananas, santors, andbirinbines.14There are fifteen or sixteen kinds of bananas, some of them are sweet, but that sweetness has an admixture of bitter in others. Some of them smell good, but all of those varieties are very agreeable to the taste. I know of no fruit in Europa to which to compare them, unless it be themusaswhich grow in Sicilia. The birinbines and santors areeaten preserved more often than in any other way, because of their tartness; when prepared in preserves, they taste like plums. If they are allowed to ripen on the tree, they smell like quinces, although they have no other resemblance to quinces at all. Those islands have many other trees which grow wild. Their mountains furnish them with roots, from which they draw their most usual nourishment; these are calledpugaianandcorot.15They have other roots which they cultivate, such as theapari, theubi, thelaquei, and others which they callcamotes, which are the potatoes16of España. The Spaniards use the last named, as also do the Indians.But the most useful tree of all is the palm—not that which bears the date, for they do not have thatspecies, but those which bear cocoanuts, of the size of an orange. Those nuts are filled with a very sweet liquor, which is very good to drink. They make wine, vinegar, and honey of it; and when that fruit becomes dry as it ripens, that liquor changes into white meat harder than an almond. It is from that meat that oil is extracted and a milk resembling that extracted from almonds. The cocoanut has two coverings. The first, which is less hard, is used for tinder when dried; also for the rigging and smaller cordage of the ships, or as tow for calking them. The other covering is harder, and is used for drinking vessels, or as dishes in which to prepare their food. The palm-leaves are the tiles with which their houses are thatched. The trunks of the same trees are used to support the houses, and in making the pillars. They have one other tree which is no less useful to them, for it serves them as a perpetual spring, and furnishes water to an entire village—which, being located on a very high and dry site, has no other water than what they get from that tree by making incisions in its trunk, and in its largest branches; for a clear sweet water flows out of it. The trees of those islands are always green, and there are only two species that shed their leaves, one calledbatelan,17and the otherdabdas.The reeds [i.e., bamboos] of those islands have the following peculiarity, namely, that they are as much as three palmos in circumference and eight brazas in length. They are used as the materials out of which to build a whole house. The pillars, the lintels, the stairs, the floors, and the walls aremade from them. They are used as rafters for the roof, and split into several parts, as tiles for covering the roof. They have no other saucepans in which to cook their food than those reeds, and no other wood to burn; for the trees serve them as material with which to build their little boats—or rather, rafts—with which they carry for traffic their rice, cocoanuts, and abacá, the hemp of that country.Those islands have a great abundance of various kinds of oranges, peculiar to those countries for their good taste. I have seen them so large that they were four palmos in circumference. Some were red as scarlet inside, and very sweet. There are some which contain another little orange in the place of the seeds; and these are called on that account “oranges which have children.”18I will place in the list of vegetables a sort of leaf which serves them for nourishment, or rather for refreshment. It is used very commonly among the Indians, both Christians and Mahometans, and even among the Spaniards. A mixture is made of it which is calledmamuen, into which three things enter: one is this leaf, which is calledbuio, which is smooth, and resembles in color and size a large ivy leaf, but it is not so thick. It smells very good, and is aromatic. It is planted under some dry tree, on which it climbs. The other fruit that enters into that mixture is calledbonga, and it is as large as an olive. Lastly, they mix in a small quantity of quicklime. A little cornucopia is made of the leaf, the bonga and lime are placed inside, and it is all chewed together. That mixture colors the saliva as red asblood, and the lips the most beautiful vermilion ever seen. It preserves the teeth, strengthens the stomach, and produces a very good breath. Eighty of those leaves can be bought at Manila for one real. Nevertheless, so great a quantity is consumed that it has been ascertained that it was sold in one year to the amount of ninety thousand reals, of seven and one-half sols apiece.There are many snakes in those islands, which are very dangerous; some of them, when they have young, attack people.19The bite of those calledomodrois very dangerous, and those who are bitten by it do not live one-half day. It is from that effect that it derives its name, forodrosignifies one-half day. There is another very large snake calledsaua. I have killed one of that species which was two and one-half brazas long. The skin of another, which measured thirty-two [Spanish] feet in length, was brought to our residence at Manila. The sauas hang to the branches of trees along the roads, whence they dart down upon people, or deer, or on any other prey. They wind themselves three or four times around the body, and after having broken the creature’s bones devour it. But God has provided a number of herbs in those islands which are used as antidotes to all kinds of poisons. Roots and herbs are found in the mountains, which are so many specific remedies against snake-bites; the chief onesaremanongal, manambo, logab, boroctongon, maglingab, ordag, balucas, bonas, bahay, igluhat, dalogdogan, mantala.There are also animals in those islands of which I ought to give a description. The civet-cat is found in the mountains. Its skin resembles that of a tiger, and it is no less savage than the tiger, although much smaller. It is captured and bound, and, after its civet is obtained, which is contained in a little pouch under its tail, it is set at liberty to be caught once more. The crocodiles, of which their rivers are full, are so huge that when their jaws are open, a man of the largest size could stand upright between the two jaws. The crocodile is quite covered with scales; has scarcely any tongue; and its teeth are set closely together, and are very sharp, and arranged in several rows. The teeth of the middle lower row fit into holes or breaks in the others which correspond to them in the upper jaw; and consequently, when it seizes its prey, there is no force that can make it let go. It lays a great number of eggs. In the water it is furious, and attacks boats. It is not so greatly feared when ashore—where it goes sometimes to seize some prey, or to sun itself.The woman-fish20is so called because its face and breast are quite like those of women, whom it also resembles in its manner of copulation with the male. That fish is as large as a calf, and its flesh, of whichI have eaten, tastes like beef. It is caught with lines as thick around as the finger, and when the line becomes fast within [its mouth] it is killed by javelin-thrusts. Its bones and teeth have great virtue against all sorts of dysentery, especially against bloody discharges. Some have tried to assert that those fish were the sirens of the sea, so celebrated among the poets; but they have nothing of the beauty of face and of the voice that is attributed to sirens.I will end [this account], finally by a description of thetabon, an ashen-colored bird as large as a hen, which lays eggs three times as large as those of hens, but which lays them in a peculiar manner. It chooses desert islands and those full of sand, where it first makes a hole one or one and one-half brazas deep; and after having laid its eggs, it covers them over with sand. The chicks break the shell, and gradually turn up the sand that covers them with their feet. If any of those chicks is so unfortunate as to break the egg at the lower end, it does not succeed so well, and dies for lack of strength to overturn the sand. Sometimes one hundred and fifty of the eggs are found in the same hole. I have eaten those eggs often when I have had occasion to stop at those islands during my voyages.There is cinnamon in the island of Mindanao; and pepper at Patani, and at Champan, a country lying on the mainland of China.The political government of those islands is the same as that of other provinces subject to the crown of Castilla. The governor resides at Manila, and is president of the Audiencia; while, as captain-general, he has charge of all the posts of peace and war, as well as of the encomiendas of one or twothousand Indians [each], who pay their encomendero the tribute that the other Indians pay to the king. But the encomendero who has been appointed by the captain-general is obliged to get the confirmation of his grant from Madrid within three years.The governor establishes the corregidors and alcaldes-mayor, or governors of the provinces into which these islands are divided. He appoints the captains and the admirals of the fleets which sail to Acapulco and Terrenate annually. He takes cognizance of civil affairs, on which the royal Audiencia pronounces the decisions or decrees. That Audiencia is composed of a president (who is always the governor), four oidores or auditors, and one procurator-fiscal. There are four cities in the Filipinas—Manila, Zebu, [Nueva] Caçares, and Nueba Segovia; and one town, called Arevalo. There is a garrison at Manila and at Cabite, which is the port where the warships enter, six miles from Manila. There are also garrisons at Zebu, Otong, Carouga, Lanbuangang [sc.Zamboanga], Jolo, Nueva Segobia, the island of Hermosa, and the Malucas. All those ports are fortified, and have their redoubts mounted with artillery. Whatever is necessary for those garrisons is sent from Manila. It would be a very difficult task to mention the names of all the different peoples among the Indians, and in those islands, who are subject to the king of España. There are fully three hundred thousand families, who might count one million souls.The archbishop of Manila has three suffragans, those of Zebu, [Nueva] Caçares, and Nueva Segovia. They have no other income than what the king gives them; that of the archbishop is threethousand ducados, while each of his suffragans receives one thousand five hundred. The city of Manila is small, but it is beautiful and well fortified. Its houses are all built of stone, and are spacious, and very airy. Its streets are long and straight, and one may walk in the shade all hours of the day. The churches are beautiful. There are five convents: that of the Augustinians (which is the oldest); that of the Franciscans, that of the Dominicans,21and that of the discalced Augustinians. There are two universities, one in charge of the fathers of St. Dominic, and the other in that of the Society. Those religious are also distributed among the islands, where they have charge of the instruction of the Indians. The city is enclosed by a fine wall and moat; and its redoubt and its ramparts are well garrisoned with artillery. At the foot of its wall flows a river, which is navigable; over this is a wooden bridge, with stone pillars. There are two thousand Spaniards in Manila (counting soldiers and inhabitants), and twice as many Indians. There are also twenty thousand Sangleys or Chinese, who practice all the arts needed in a community; and every year they pay nine escudos and six reals of tribute. Galleons much larger than those which sail the Mediterraneanare built at Manila; for there is a great abundance of wood, pitch, and abacá—which resembles European hemp, and of which good rigging is made for the ships. The anchors are imported from Goa; and the iron for the nails comes from China in little bars, and is very serviceable.The Spaniards of the Manilas trade throughout the islands of that archipelago, at Borney and Camboa, whence they carry wax, butter,camanguienor storax, ivory, and bezoar. They formerly traded in Japon, before the persecution of the Christians was begun. Thence were carried iron, flour, all sorts of fruit, and little boxes, and cabinets, varnished [i.e., lacquered] and very well made. Nangoza [sc.Nagasaki], which was the port where that trading took place—and for which it was very suitable, because it is not distant from Manila—is now closed to us; for the emperor of Japon believes that people are entering his country, under pretext of that trade, to preach the gospel, the thing that he fears most of all. We trade also with the Portuguese of Macao, who come to the Manilas every year with two or three ships, and bring here silks, musk, precious stones, and eagle and calambac wood—which is a sweet-scented wood that is very valuable. The inhabitants of the Manilas also go to Macao sometimes, to carry their merchandise there; but their chief trade is with the Chinese, who come annually, at the end of the month of December and the beginning of January, with twenty or thirty vessels, laden with products and valuable merchandise. They sail usually from Ocho and Chincheo, ports of Anay, a province of China which faces the Filipinas. They carry small oranges, nuts, chestnuts, plums, raisins,andchicuei—a fruit resembling an apple, very round, transparent, and, when it is ripe, having the color of yellow amber; its peel is very loose, and its flesh very sweet and very pleasant to the taste.22They also bring all sorts of cloth stuffs, and some of these are as fine as those which come from France and the Low Countries; and many black stuffs of which the Indians make their clothes. They bring silk, plain and twisted, of all colors; damasks, velvets, tabbies, and double taffetas; cloths of gold and silver, galoons, and laces; coverlets, and cushions; and porcelain—although not the finest variety, as the trade in that is prohibited. They bring pearls and gold; iron, in little bars; thread, musk, and fine parasols; paste gems, but very beautiful to look at; saltpetre, and flour; white and various-colored paper; and many little fancy articles, covered with varnish, and gold in relief, made in an inimitable manner. Among all the silk stuffs brought by the Chinese, none is more esteemed than the white—the snow is not whiter; and there is no silk stuff in Europa that can approach it.The Chinese return in the month of March, and carry to China silver in return for their merchandise. They also take a wood called sibueno23—that is, brazil-wood, which is used in making their ink. Those Chinese merchants are so keen after gain that if one sort of merchandise has succeeded well one year, they take a great deal of it the following year. A Spaniard who had lost his nose through a certain illness, sent for a Chinese to make him one of wood, in order to hide the deformity. The workman madehim so good a nose that the Spaniard, in great delight, paid him munificently, giving him twenty escudos. The Chinese, attracted by the ease with which he had made that gain, laded a fine boatload of wooden noses the following year, and returned to Manila. But he found himself very far from his hopes, and quite left out in the cold;24for in order to have a sale for that new merchandise, he found that he would have to cut off the noses of all the Spaniards in the country.Besides the Chinese merchandise that is brought into the islands, there is wax, cinnamon, civet, and a sort of very strong cotton cloth which is calledcampotes[misprint forlampotes]. All those goods are exported to Mexico, where they are sold at great profit, and on the spot. I do not believe there is a richer traffic in the world than that. The duties that the king gets out of it are large, and, with what he gets from the islands, amount to fully five hundred thousand escudos. But he spends eight hundred thousand in the maintenance of his governor, the counselors, the archbishop, the bishops, the canons, those who possess the prebends, and the other ecclesiastics. The greater part of that sum is employed in the equipment of the galleons that are sent to Mexico and to the Malucas, and of those which are kept in those seas to resist the Dutch. A considerable sum is spent on the maintenance of alliance with the kings of those districts—especially with the king of one ofthe Malucas, called Tidore. Consequently, the king of España rather holds those islands for the conservation there of the faith, as was stated by Felipe the Second in a certain council-meeting, than for the profit that is derived from them to this hour. The Dutch have been unable to get a footing on those islands, although they have attacked them many times. They have a considerable city [i.e., Batavia] on the island of Java Major, whence they send what their garrisons at the island of Hermosa, Amboina, and Terrenate need. They have made an alliance with the inhabitants of that island, and they secure the greater part of the cloves of the Malucas. They trade in Japon, in a port called Firando. The Chinese have refused to have trade with them, because of a tradition current in China, that blue-eyed men will some day conquer them.The voyage from Manila to Mexico lasts four, five, six, or seven months. Manila, which lies in thirteen and one-half degrees, is left in the month of July, during the vendavals. The course is taken to the north, until the ship reaches thirty-eight or forty degrees. The pilots take that course because they are more certain of finding winds; for otherwise they would run the risk of encountering calms, which are more to be dreaded in long voyages than are the most furious gales. From the time that the Filipinas are left until almost the coast of Nueva España is reached, no land is seen, except a chain of islands called the Ladrones, or La Sapana,25which lie three hundred leguas from the Embocadero of the Filipinas. The people whoinhabit those islands are barbarians, who go quite naked. When our vessels pass there, those people carry to them fish, rice, and fresh water, which they exchange for neither gold nor silver, but only for iron, which they value much more, because of the use to which they put it in the manufacture of their tools, and for the building of their little boats. The first land sighted after that is the island of Cedros, quite near the Mexican coast. The open expanse between that island and those of the Ladrones is subject to great storms, which are to be feared especially near the Japanese Islands—which are passed, however, without being sighted. During the whole course of so long a voyage, scarcely a day passes without seeing a bird. There are usually some birds that live in the sea, and many large whales and porpoises are seen.As the [American] coast is neared, at a distance of sixty, eighty, or one hundred leguas signs are to be seen in the sea by which it is recognized that the ship is within that distance. Those signs consist of long reeds, brought down by the rivers of Nueva España, which being massed together resemble a kind of raft; and on those reeds are to be seen monkeys—another sign that they are approaching the coast. When the pilot discovers those signs, he immediately changes his course, and instead of continuing east he puts the nose of the ship south, in order to avoid getting caught in the land, or in some gulf whence he would have a hard time to get out; but, when he has sighted the coast of Nueva España, he follows it to the port of Acapulco, which lies in eighteen degrees.Acapulco is a fine port, well sheltered from all the winds, and defended by a celebrated redoubt. There the passengers and goods are disembarked,and are afterward carried by mules to the City of Mexico, which is eighty leguas distant thence. The way is desert and bestrewn with mountains; and the pest of mosquitoes is suffered, as well as the extreme heat. In order to go to España from Mexico one goes to the port of Vera Cruz, a journey of eighty-five leguas; en route is passed the city of Los Angeles, which has about six thousand inhabitants, and whose bishop gets a salary of sixty thousand escudos. The reefs and rocks at the mouth of the port of Vera Cruz defend the entrance better than the fortress that commands it, although that fort is an excellent one. At that port anchor the trading fleets that come from España, laden with wine, olive-oil, cloths, wax, cinnamon, paper, and other European merchandise. Those trading fleets formerly passed the winter there, as they arrived [formerly] in the month of June, and remained there until the same month of the following year. Now they reach that port in the month of May, and leave about the month of August. They take as a rule three months to go to España. For my part, I took one hundred days in making that voyage. The port of Havana in Cuba, which is the best port of the Western Indias—and which is very safe, and defended by three redoubts—is touched at. There the two trading fleets—that of Mexico and that of Tierrafirme—are united with the galleons. Thence, after having coasted along the shores of Florida, and of Nueva Francia, they make the cape of Fineterre [Finisterre] or San Vincent, in order to lay their course toward Cadiz, which is the end of their voyage. That will also be the end of this relation, which I have written in order to be obedient to a person to whom I earnestly desire that it may prove agreeable.1Marginal note: “This relation has been translated from a Spanish manuscript existing in the library of Don Carlo del Pezzo.”This relation is unsigned, and undated, but Rev. Pablo Pastells, S.J., said during the course of a conversation with one of the Editors, in 1903, that the author was undoubtedly Father Diego de Bobadilla; and in his edition of Colin’sLabor evangélica(Barcelona, 1904), he says (iii, p. 798, note): “This father [i.e., Father Bobadilla] was the author in 1640 of the famous relation which was translated by Melquisedec Thévenot.”2See ourVOLS. IandIIfor the history of these early expeditions. It will be noticed that the author of the present relation is inaccurate in regard to the date of the voyage of Villalobos, and that he omits mention of some of the early voyages.3That is “Birth follows the womb.”4SeeVOL. XXII, p. 300, note 61.5For this expedition to Mindanao by Hurtado de Corcuera, see previous documents. This reference proves the present relation to have been written in 1640, as the expedition above mentioned occurred in 1637.6Visayan name (alsocolocolo, elsewhere) of the fishing gannet (Sula piscatrix). Delgado says (Historia, p. 820) that he had a tame one in his house, which would bring home fish that it had caught, and carry them to the kitchen.7French,Estang du Roy(“the King’s Pool”); evidently referring to the hot springs near Laguna de Bay (seeVOL. XIV, p. 211), and the wordRoyis probably a misprint forBay.8It is Chirino who is here (although inexactly) cited; seeVOL. XII, p. 236.9See Chirino’s account, inVOL. XII, p. 241; he says that the art of writing was imparted to the Visayans by the Tagals.10Marginal note: “Prudish” (melindrosa).11That is, “star-thistles”—the common name of a genus (Tribulus) of plants, which bears prickly fruits, very injurious to the feet of animals or men. The military instrument called “caltrop” resembles that fruit, from which it may have been evolved; and the appellationtribolois one of the etymological elements in “caltrop.”12See the Cleveland reissue of theJesuit Relations, lxv, p. 131, for a description of head-compression by the North American Indians.13Mt. Bulusan, near the center of the province of Sorsogón, Luzón; at present “almost extinct, but at times emits an abundance of watery vapor and sulphurous fumes” (Reportof U. S. Philippine Commission, 1900, iii, p. 149).14Also calledbalimbín; the fruit ofAverrhoa carambola; used for food and sweetmeats, and also has medicinal qualities. See Blanco’s description,Flora, p. 274; and Delgado’sHistoria, pp. 505, 506. For note on santor, seeVOL. XVI, p. 87; on banana (Musa),VOL. V, p. 169.15Thecorot(Dioscorea triphylla) is very common, with leaves one palmo long, and very small flowers. Its sap is yellow and very poisonous, and has cleansing power which is utilized to whiten abacá. The root is very large and is eaten cooked by the Indians, after having soaked it in the water for three or four days.Theubiis theDioscorea alata, and the plant grows rather high and is widely disseminated. The root is violet in color, and often attains a great size; it is eaten cooked. The best variety is that known as the Cebú ubi or ube, which comes from Bohol, and which makes a delicious jelly. The ubi and analogous roots must be carefully prepared, or else they prove poisonous. See Blanco’sFlora, andU. S. Gazetteer of the Philippine Islands. Delgado (p. 763) enumerates eight varieties of this root.Theapariis perhaps theapaliaorparia(Montordica balsamina), a climbing plant, which bears a fruit which is rather bitter to the taste, and eaten in salads. The juice of its leaves is used instead of soap. The ripe fruit soaked in olive, cocoa, or beneseed oil makes an excellent balsam that is used for medicinal purposes.16French,patanes, apparently a misprint forpatatas. The camote or sweet potato (Convolvulus batatas, Linn.; now namedBatatas edulis) is extensively cultivated in the islands. Blanco (Flora, p. 69) cites Mozo as saying that this plant was carried to the islands from Nueva España; but Blanco regards it as indigenous in the Philippines. Delgado (pp. 766–768) enumerates twenty-nine varieties of camote.17TheBatelanis perhaps thebalete; seeVOL. XII, p. 214, note 56. For note on dabdab, seeibid., p. 215, note 57.18Apparently a reference to the variety of orange known at the present day as navel oranges.19For a treatise on the snakes and poisonous animals of the Philippines, see Delgado’sHistoria, pp. 889–907. He describes theomodroas theodto(Hemibungarus collaris)—from the word meaning “half-day” or “noon,” and given to it because the bite proves fatal if given at noon, but at no other time. It is of various colors and very furious at the hour of noon. The saua (Python reticulatus) is the largest snake of the islands and is often domesticated, and is not poisonous to man.20The dugong (a word corrupted from the Malay nameduyong); not a fish, but a marine mammal (Helicore australis). Crawfurd says (Dict. Indian Islands, p. 125) that it is found in the shallow seas of the Malayan archipelago, but is not often captured; and that its flesh is greatly superior to that of the green turtle. This creature is one of those from which originated the fable of the mermaids.21Thevenot has translated the Spanish term for Franciscans (padres de San Franciscoorpadres franciscanos) into the popular French termcordeliers, so called because of their girdle. Similarly he has translated the term for Dominicans (padres de San Domingoorpadres dominicanos) asJacobins, also the popular French appellation, so called from the name of the church of St. Jacques, which was given them in Paris. See Addis and Arnold’sCath. Dict., article “Franciscans,” p. 356; and Chevin’sDict. Latin-Français, p. 353.Either Thevenot the translator, or the author, omits mention of the convent of the Society of Jesus, only the four above mentioned being given.22The persimmon; seeVOL. XVI, p. 180.23A misprint for sibucao (VOL. III, p. 196;XV, p. 256).24There is evidently a play of words in this passage. The French readsMais il se trouua bie loing de ses esperances, & auec vn pied de nez.Pied de nez(literally “a foot of nose”) is an exact equivalent of the Spanish phrasepalmo de narices, and the French expressiondemeurer avec un pied de nezis equivalent to the Spanish idiomquedar con un palmo de narices, which signifies “the frustration of one’s hopes,” or “to be left out in the cold.”25Apparently a corruption of Zarpana, the name given by its inhabitants to the island of Rota, one of the Mariannes or Ladrones Islands.

Relation of the Filipinas Islands

By a religious who lived there for eighteen years1Archipelagus orientalis, sive Asiaticus (Eastern or Asiatic archipelago); photographic facsimile of map by Joannis Blaeu (Amsterdam, 1659)Archipelagus orientalis, sive Asiaticus(Eastern or Asiatic archipelago); photographic facsimile of map by Joannis Blaeu (Amsterdam, 1659)[From original map inBibliothèque Nationale, Paris]The islands called Filipinas, because of having been conquered during the reign of Felipe II, were discovered in the year 1521, by Hernando Magallanes, a famous Portuguese, who gave his name to the strait. That great pilot, after having forever perpetuated his name by a navigation so new and so difficult, landed on one of the Filipinas Islands—a very small one, named Matan—where he was treacherously killed by the Indians. Ruy Lopez de Villalobos sighted the islands again after him in the year 1539.2Finally they were pacified in the year 1571 by the adelantado Miguel Lopez de Legaspi. It is a cause for surprise that the Portuguese, who haddiscovered the Malucas, China, and Japon, some years before, and had made their homes there, did not know anything about those islands until long afterward, although they are, as it were, the very center and middle part of their other discoveries. They knew well the island of Borneo, which is the last of those islands toward the south, but they had never stopped there while en route to the Malucas—urged, perhaps, by their too great greed for the spices and drugs which are produced so abundantly in those islands.The geographies say that there are eleven thousand islands in that great archipelago of which the Filipinas are a part, and that they are adjacent to Asia as are the Canaries and the Terceras to Africa. They cross into the torrid zone and extend along the coasts of China and India. South of them lie the Malucas, and on their northern coast, Japon. More than forty of them are subject to the king of España, the largest and most important being Manila and Mindanao. Manila is the capital of all the others, the residence of the governor and the archbishop, and the seat of the royal Audiencia. Those two islands are each six hundred miles in circuit; they are full of mountains, have rivers and dense forests, and lie in thirteen and one-half degrees north latitude. The other islands are not so large, some being one hundred miles in circuit, some fifty, and some even less. Almost all of them are inhabited by Indians, and those which are not are used by the Indians for their crops, and for the chase of deer and wild boars, and for the gathering of wax, with which the islands most abound.The islands not yet under the dominion of theking of España have their own kings, who are Mahometans. The island of Borneo, three times greater than the whole of Italia, is the largest of all the islands. Those subject to the king of España are Manila, Zebu, Oton, Mindanao, Bohol, Leite, Samar, Mindoro, Marinduque, the island of Negros, the island of Fuegos, Calamianes, Masbat, Jolo, Taquima, Capul, La Paragua, the island of Tablas, Verde Island, Burias, Tiago, Maripipe, Panama, Panaon, Sibuian, Luban, Bantajan, Panglao, Siquior, Catanduan, Imaras, Tagapolo, Banton, Romblon, Similara, Cuio, Cagaianes, Marivelez, Poro, Babuianes, the island of Cabras (which is distant from the others), and other smaller ones.In the islands subject to the king of España, every married man pays ten reals of tribute, and he who is unmarried five. Nearly all of them have received the gospel, and hence there are few heathen. However, in the islands of Mindanao, Taquima, and Jolo, conquered but recently, most of the people are Moros or heathen; but it is hoped that the zeal of the missionaries will convert them very soon to Jesus Christ.Before the conquest of those islands by the Spaniards, the natives of the country were subject to the chiefs among them, who were recognized as nobles, and all the others obeyed them. Those chiefs possessed a great amount of gold, and slaves in proportion to their nobility. I knew two chiefs, one in Bohol, and the other at Dapitan, a village of Mindanao, who had more than one hundred slaves apiece. They are not foreign slaves, as those of Angola who are in Europa, but of the same nation. It was a lamentable thing to see with what violenceand for how little a thing, these chiefs made slaves. For, however small a sum one owed to another, the interest, for lack of payment, amounted to so great a sum that it was impossible to pay it; and consequently, the person of the debtor being pledged for the debt, he became the slave of his creditor, together with all his posterity. They also made slaves, with unusual tyranny and cruelty, for crimes of slight importance, such as not keeping silent at the graves of the dead, and for passing in front of the chief’s wife when she was in her bath. Those captured in war were also all made slaves. Now with baptism, all those acts of violence and tyranny have been suppressed—although there still remains one very peculiar custom among them, which does not follow that general rule, namely,Partus sequitur ventrem;3for there are some who are wholly slaves, and others who are only half slaves. The former are those born of a slave father and mother; the others who are born of a slave father and a free mother, orvice versa. In some villages it is the custom that, if the father is slave and the mother free, one of the children is free and the other slave. The privilege of those half slaves is that if they pay a certain sum of money to their master, they may oblige him to grant them their liberty—an advantage that is not possessed by those who are wholly slaves.All the religion of those Indians is founded on tradition, and on a custom introduced by the devil himself, who formerly spoke to them by the mouth of their idols and of their priests. That tradition is preserved by the songs that they learn by heart in their childhood, by hearing them sung in their sailing,in their work, in their amusements, and in their festivals, and, better yet, when they bewail their dead. In those barbarous songs, they recount the fabulous genealogies and deeds of their gods, of whom they have one who is chief and head of all the others. The Tagáls call that godBathala mei Capal, which signifies “God the Creator.” The Bisayans call himLaon, which signifies “Time.” They are not far from our belief on the point of the creation of the world. They believe in a first man, the flood, and paradise, and the punishments of the future life.They say that the first man and the first woman came out of a reed stalk which burst in Sumatra, and that there were some quarrels between them at their marriage. They believed that when the soul left the body, it went to an island, where the trees, birds, waters, and all other things were black; that it passed thence to another island, where all things were of different colors; and finally that it arrived at one, where everything was white. They recognized invisible spirits, another life, and devils hostile to men, of whom they had great fear. Their chief idolatry was in adoring and regarding as gods those of their ancestors who were most remarkable for their courage, or for their intelligence. Such they calledhumalagar, or, as is said in Latin,manes. Each one, as far as possible, ascribed divinity to his father at death. The old men even died with that conceit, and that is why they chose a remarkable place—as did one in the island of Leite, who had himself placed on the seashore, so that those who went sailing should recognize him as a god, and commend themselves to him. They also worshiped animals and birds. They regarded the rainbow asa sort of divinity. The Tagáls worshiped a totally blue bird, of the size of a thrush, which they calledbathala, which was a name of the divinity. They worshiped the raven, which they calledmeilupa, meaning “the master of the earth.” They had a great veneration for the crocodile. [When] they saw it in the water, they called itnono, or “grandfather.” They offered to it prayers regularly, with great devotion, and offerings of what they carried in their boats, in order that it might not harm them. There was no old tree of which they did not make a god, and it was a sacrilege to cut it. I have seen a very large one callednonog,4in the island of Samar, which a religious ordered to be felled, in order to destroy all those superstitions. He was unable to find an Indian who would undertake it for him; and it was necessary for some Spaniards to go to fell it. They also worshiped the stones, rocks, reefs, and promontories of land which jut into the sea; and made offerings to these of rice, fish, and other like things, or fired their arrows at them in passing.Between La Caldera and the river in the island of Mindanao, a great point of land runs into the sea, which makes the coast dangerous and very high. The sea beats violently against that cape, which is very difficult to double. The Indians in passing offered it their arrows as a sacrifice, praying it to allow them to pass. They shot them with so great force that they made them enter the rock, and hence it is called the Punta de Flechas. One day the Spaniards burned a number of those arrows to show their hatred of so vain a superstition; and in less than one year more than four thousand were found there.When Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera conquered the island of Mindanao three years ago,5he ordered that that point be called no more Punta de Flechas, but San Sebastian. They had innumerable other superstitions. If they saw a snake or a lizard, or if they heard a bird that they calledcorocoro6sneeze or sing, they took it as a bad sign, and did not go farther. They had no remarkable temples, and no festivals of days of public sacrifices; but each one made his offerings to thehumalagarordivata(which was the name of their god) in private, according to their purpose or need. Although they had no temples, they had men and women who acted as priests, who were calledcatolonanby some andbabailanby others. Those priests were most inclined to allow themselves to be deceived by the devil, and to deceive the people afterward by a thousand tricks and inventions—chiefly at the time of their sicknesses, when they are depressed, lose courage, and crave a prompt remedy; and give all their possessions to him who promises it to them.There are some priests who have special communication with the devil. He speaks to them through the mouths of their little idols, and makes them believe that these are the voices of their ancestors, whom they worship. Sometimes the devil passes into the bodies of their sacrificers, and, during the short time of the sacrifice, he makes them sayand do things that fill the bystanders with fear. They take that order of sacrificers from among their friends or their relatives, who wish to learn the mystery of it from them. Their blindness causes them to esteem that rank greatly, for besides the reputation and respect that that employment brings them, they also receive large offerings. All who have been present at the sacrifice make them gifts, one cotton, one gold, and one a fowl. The sacrifice takes place in their houses. The victim is now a hog, now a fowl, now some fish or rice; and the sacrifice is differently named according to the various victims. It is performed by the sacrificer stabbing the victim amid certain ceremonies, which he performs to a cadence marked by a drum or a bell. That is the time in which the devil takes possession of them. He causes them to make innumerable contortions and grimaces, after the end of which they tell what they believe they have seen or heard.As for their persons, those people are well built, have handsome features, and are light-complexioned. They are clad in a garment that falls to the ankles, which is made of striped cotton of various colors. When in mourning, they wear white; however, that mode of dress is not so general. Those called Pintados, and those of the island of Mindanao, wear short white, yellow, or red tunics, which hang to the knees, bound in by a girdle one vara wide and two and one-half brazas long; this is, as a general rule, white or red, and always falls to the knees. They wear neither stockings nor shoes; and instead of a hat they use a bit of cloth, which they wind twice or thrice around the head. Their whole adornment consists in having very rich and beautiful necklaces,earrings, and gold rings or bracelets. They wear those bracelets above the ankle; some wear these of ivory, and others of brass. They also have little round plates three fingers in diameter, which they pass through a hole that they make in the ear. In some of those islands, the men formerly marked all the body with figures, whence comes the Spanish name “Pintados” [“pictured,”i.e., tattooed]. That operation was performed in the flower of their age, and at the period when they had most strength to suffer that torture. They had themselves adorned in that way after they had performed some illustrious deed. The masters of that art first trace on their bodies the design of the picture, which they next follow up with pricks from very sharp points, and throw on the blood which comes out a powder which never fades away. The whole of the body is not pricked at once, but bit by bit; and formerly, in order that one might have the right of making it for each part, it was necessary to perform an illustrious deed, and to show new prowess. Those pictures are pretty, and well proportioned to the portions of the body on which they are made; and, although they are of an ashen color, they are nevertheless agreeable to the sight. The children are not tattooed at all. The women do not bear the marks of that adornment except on one hand and on some part of the other. In regard to their teeth, they imitate the men in everything. They file them from their earliest childhood; some making them even in this way, others filing them into points, thus giving them the appearance of a saw. They cover the teeth with a black, glossy polish, or one that is flame-colored; and thus their teeth become black, or as red as vermilion. Inthe upper row, they make a little covering which they fill with gold, which shows off to advantage on the black or red background of that polish.The women as well as the men are continually in the water, and they also swim like fish. They need no bridge to get over rivers. They bathe at all times of the day, as much for pleasure as for cleanliness. Women who have but recently given birth cannot be prevented from bathing, and bathe in the waters of the coldest springs. As soon as the child has issued from its mother’s womb, it is placed in the water; and on taking it from the bath its head is rubbed with ajonjoli [i.e., sesame] oil mixed with civet. They do that also on other occasions, and to show politeness, especially the women and little boys. They bathe also during their sicknesses, and have for that purpose springs of hot water, especially at the shore of Laguna de Bay, which is in the island of Manila.7There is no one language that is general for all the islands, but each district has a special one. True, they have some relation between one another, such as exists between the Lombard, Sicilian, and Tuscan. There are six dialects in the island of Manila, and two in the island of Oton; while there are some languages which are spoken in several islands. The most general are the Tagál and Bisayan. The latter is very rude, but the former is very polished, and most remarkable. Thus a religious, who was well versed in those islands, was in the habit of saying that the Tagál language had the advantages of thefour chief languages of the world: that it was mysterious, like Hebrew; that it had the articles of the Greek, both for appellatives and for proper names; that it had elegance and abundance, like the Latin; and that it was not less suitable than the Italian for compliments and business.8They have only three vowels, but these serve as five. They have only a dozen consonants, which they express differently by placing a little dot above or below, as can be seen in the following figure.Marginal note: “The consonants not marked with any point are pronounced with ‘a;’ if they have a point above, they are pronounced with ‘e,’ or ‘i;’ if the point is below, they are pronounced with ‘o’ or ‘u.’”They have learned to write from us9by making their lines from left to right, instead of their former way of writing from top to bottom. Reeds or palm-leaves serve them as paper, and the point of an iron style is used instead of a pen. They use their writing only to letters from one to another, for they have no histories or books of any learning. Our religious have printed books in the languages of the islands, concerning the matters of our religion. In the Malucas, they have a very pretty method of writingto their friends. They collect flowers of various colors, and make a bouquet of them; and he who receives the bouquet understands, on beholding the varieties of flowers and their colors, as if they were so many different characters, the thoughts of his friend. They have not sufficient capacity to apply themselves to learning, and they content themselves with being good carpenters, and with working gold and iron well. They have been employed during these last few years in making silk and cotton stockings; in writing and reading our characters; in singing and dancing; and in playing the flute, the guitar, and the harp. The strings used for those last instruments are made from twisted silk, and produce as agreeable a sound as ours, although quite different in quality. They formerly had an instrument calledcutiape, which some of them still use. It bears a close resemblance to a hurdy-gurdy, and has four copper cords. They play it so cleverly, that they make it express whatever they wish; and it is asserted as a truth that they speak, and tell one another whatever they wish, by means of that instrument, a special skill in those of that nation.Most of those islanders have only one wife, but it is not true that there are not some places in the country where they have several, especially in the island of Mindanao. It may be said that the husbands buy their wives there, since they generally make some present to their parents according to their rank: that ofdato, for instance, which signifies “a man of rank;” oftinaua, which signifies “free;” ororipuen, which signifies “a slave.” The women in the islands of the Pintados are calledbinocot, or “woman who is in the room;” forbocotsignifies“a room,” and the women go outside but rarely, and even are carried then on the shoulders of their slaves. I have seen one woman of Dapitan, a settlement of the island of Mindanao, so delicate and so fine, that she always had herself carried to church on the shoulders of her slaves whom she best liked. It is a mark of politeness among those women always to keep the right hand in front of the mouth when they talk to a man.10Those people live in houses thatched with straw, with the leaves of trees, or with large reeds which, divided into two, serve them as a tiling. There is but little furniture to be seen in their houses. But rarely are chairs seen there, for they always sit on the ground, or on carpets made from reeds. They have neither beds nor mattresses, as their reed mats serve as both. They eat on the ground or on very small low tables, but the tables are used only among the chiefs. Banana leaves, which are one braza long and one-half braza wide, serve them as napkins. Their employment consists of agriculture, the very abundant fishing along their coasts and in their rivers, and hunting wild boars and deer with dog and spear—an employment to which their agility and their skill renders them very suitable. They also go to gather honey and wax in the mountains or in the trees, where nature has taught the bees to make both those substances.The arms of some are spears, of others arrows; the campilan, which is a large cutlass; the kris, or poniard; thezompitesor blow-guns, through which they blow little poisoned arrows; andbacacaies, or little reeds hardened by fire at the end. To defendtheir grain from animals and from men who could harm it, they scatter caltrops, which the old men calltribulos,11made so that one of the four points of which they are composed is always up, and those who pass there get caught without perceiving the traps. But now the Spaniards have taught them how to use firearms, and they get along very well—especially a nation called the Pampangos, many of whom are enrolled in the Spanish troops. These men serve with great fidelity, and well second the courage of which the Spaniards set them an example in their combats by sea and land.They are very fertile, and I have seen but few married people without children. When these are born, they name them according to the incidents that happen at the time of their birth. One will be called Maglente, because of the thunder that sounded at the time of his birth; forlentesignifies a clap of thunder. Another will be named Gubaton, because the foes appeared on the coast at that same time; forgubatsignifies enemy. They esteem nobility; and I have known a woman called Vray—that is to say, “fine gold”—who had been given that name because of the nobility of her lineage. In some of the islands they were accustomed to put the head of a new-born child between two boards, and thus pressed it so that it would not be round, but long; and they also flattened the forehead, in their belief that it was a markof beauty to have it thus.12At the birth of a child to one among them who is of the highest rank, they hold a festival of a week, during which very joyful songs are sung by the women.They lose courage when they are sick. They do not use either bleeding or other remedies, except certain medicinal herbs, of which there is abundance in these islands. They use the cupping-glass; but it is not made of glass, for there is no glass in that country, but of small shells or the small horns of deer. They drink the liquor of cocoanuts after it has been kept some time in the evening damp; and that liquor is so healthful that their continual use of it keeps them from gravel, a disease of which the name is unknown among those peoples.When anyone dies, the music of the mourning and lamentation begins immediately. Some weep because they are truly touched by their loss; others are hired by the day to weep. Women are usually chosen, as they are most apt for that music. They wash the body of the deceased to that sad cadence, and perfume it with storax, and other perfumes which are used among them. After bewailing the body for three days, they bury it. They do not place it in the earth, but in coffins of very hard and incorruptible wood, which they kept in their houses. The boards of the coffins are so well joined that the air cannot enter. They placed a piece of gold in the mouths of some, and adorned their coffins with precious gems. Moreover they were careful to carryall sorts of food to their grave, and to leave it there as if it were to be used by the deceased. Some they would not allow to go alone, and it was necessary to give them some male and female slaves to keep them company. They killed the latter after having given them a fine repast, so that they might go with the deceased. With one of their chiefs of the country they once encased a galley equipped with rowers, so that they could serve him in the other world. The most usual place of burial was the house of the deceased, in the lowest story, where they dug a hole to place the coffin. Sometimes the burial was in the open field; and in such case great fires were made below the house, and sentinels were posted there, for fear lest the deceased should come to take away those who were yet alive. The tears and lamentations were finished with the burial; but the feasts and orgies lasted a greater or less time, according to the station of the deceased. The Tagáls wore black as a sign of mourning; the Bisayans wore white, and shaved the head and eyebrows. When a person of rank happened to die, silence was observed throughout the village, until that the interdict should have been removed—which lasted a greater or less time, according to the quality of the deceased. During that time not the least noise could be made. But the mourning of those who had been killed in war or by treachery lasted a longer time, and did not end until their children and relations had killed many others—not only those who were known as enemies, but even strangers or unknown men; for their fury having thus been assuaged, they thought that they could put an end to their mourning,and solemnize it by great festivities and prolonged feasting.They are for the most part good sailors—I mean for the navigation among the islands; for, as they do not use the compass, they do not get along so well on the open sea. They use various kinds of craft, which are propelled by sail and oar. The largest craft of the second class are called caracoas. Although these are not very large, they do not hesitate to put one hundred Indians in them; for there are three banks of rowers on each side. They make use of those craft for trading among those islands; and they lade them with dried fish, wine, salt, wax, cotton, cocoanuts, and other like merchandise.They are cowards naturally, and more apt to make an ambuscade than to face their enemies. Upon that is chiefly founded their submission to the Spaniards, for they do not serve them out of affection.They readily received our religion. Their meager intelligence does not permit them to sound the depths of its mysteries. They also have little care in the fulfilment of their duties to the Christianity which they have adopted; and it is necessary to constrain them by fear of punishment, and to govern them like schoolchildren. Intoxication and usury are the two vices to which they are most addicted. The piety and care of our religious have not as yet been able to make them lose those habits altogether.The climate of Manila and most of the other Filipinas Islands is very warm. The difference between the seasons is not perceived, for the heat is equally great all the year. The rains commence at the end of the month of May and last for three or fourmonths without interruption; but beyond that time it rains but rarely. In the months of October, November, and December, the country is subject to hurricanes, which the natives of the country callvaguios. They are furious winds which make the entire round of the compass in twenty-four hours, commencing at the north. They break the palm-trees, uproot the largest trees, overthrow the houses, and sometimes carry persons into the air; and some have been seen which have hurled vessels a musket-shot inland.At the extremity of the island of Manila, near the Embocadero, where the vessels en route from Nueva España enter, there is a volcano or mountain whence often issue flames, and always smoke.13In those islands there is neither grain, wine, nor olive-oil, nor one of the fruits which we have in Europa, except the oranges, of which I shall speak later. Rice grows there in great abundance, and serves instead of bread. They have two kinds of it. One kind is sown in places always under water, and the other on the mountains, where it is moistened only by the water from the sky. Their drink also is made from rice, by soaking it in water; or it is taken from palm-trees, or cocoanuts, or from another variety of small palm called nipa. They keep those liquors in large crocks, and draw from them only on holidays and days of rejoicing. Those liquors mount to the head and intoxicate, as much as does the wine of Europa.The horses and cows in those islands have been carried thither from Mexico and China, for therewere none there formerly. The flesh of swine is their most usual food, and there is a great abundance of it; it is very healthful and savory. There are also innumerable fowl, deer, wild boars, goats, and civet-cats; also plenty of beans, cotton, strawberries, and even cinnamon—which is found only in the island of Mindanao, and which does not begin to be as good as that of Ceilan. They have no silver mines in those islands, and the little silver seen there has been carried from Mexico, in return for the merchandise exported there annually. There are gold mines in the island of Manila, and on the river of Butuan in the island of Mindanao. There is truly not sufficient to satisfy the desires of the Spaniards; but the little that there is of it sufficed the Indians, who value it only for the little use that they make of it, since it does not enter at all into trade. There is a quantity of honey and wax in their mountains; and since the Spanish have lived there they have built many sugar mills; and sugar is so common there that one may buy twenty-five libras of sixteen onzas apiece for one teston. They have three varieties of fruit that are most common: bananas, santors, andbirinbines.14There are fifteen or sixteen kinds of bananas, some of them are sweet, but that sweetness has an admixture of bitter in others. Some of them smell good, but all of those varieties are very agreeable to the taste. I know of no fruit in Europa to which to compare them, unless it be themusaswhich grow in Sicilia. The birinbines and santors areeaten preserved more often than in any other way, because of their tartness; when prepared in preserves, they taste like plums. If they are allowed to ripen on the tree, they smell like quinces, although they have no other resemblance to quinces at all. Those islands have many other trees which grow wild. Their mountains furnish them with roots, from which they draw their most usual nourishment; these are calledpugaianandcorot.15They have other roots which they cultivate, such as theapari, theubi, thelaquei, and others which they callcamotes, which are the potatoes16of España. The Spaniards use the last named, as also do the Indians.But the most useful tree of all is the palm—not that which bears the date, for they do not have thatspecies, but those which bear cocoanuts, of the size of an orange. Those nuts are filled with a very sweet liquor, which is very good to drink. They make wine, vinegar, and honey of it; and when that fruit becomes dry as it ripens, that liquor changes into white meat harder than an almond. It is from that meat that oil is extracted and a milk resembling that extracted from almonds. The cocoanut has two coverings. The first, which is less hard, is used for tinder when dried; also for the rigging and smaller cordage of the ships, or as tow for calking them. The other covering is harder, and is used for drinking vessels, or as dishes in which to prepare their food. The palm-leaves are the tiles with which their houses are thatched. The trunks of the same trees are used to support the houses, and in making the pillars. They have one other tree which is no less useful to them, for it serves them as a perpetual spring, and furnishes water to an entire village—which, being located on a very high and dry site, has no other water than what they get from that tree by making incisions in its trunk, and in its largest branches; for a clear sweet water flows out of it. The trees of those islands are always green, and there are only two species that shed their leaves, one calledbatelan,17and the otherdabdas.The reeds [i.e., bamboos] of those islands have the following peculiarity, namely, that they are as much as three palmos in circumference and eight brazas in length. They are used as the materials out of which to build a whole house. The pillars, the lintels, the stairs, the floors, and the walls aremade from them. They are used as rafters for the roof, and split into several parts, as tiles for covering the roof. They have no other saucepans in which to cook their food than those reeds, and no other wood to burn; for the trees serve them as material with which to build their little boats—or rather, rafts—with which they carry for traffic their rice, cocoanuts, and abacá, the hemp of that country.Those islands have a great abundance of various kinds of oranges, peculiar to those countries for their good taste. I have seen them so large that they were four palmos in circumference. Some were red as scarlet inside, and very sweet. There are some which contain another little orange in the place of the seeds; and these are called on that account “oranges which have children.”18I will place in the list of vegetables a sort of leaf which serves them for nourishment, or rather for refreshment. It is used very commonly among the Indians, both Christians and Mahometans, and even among the Spaniards. A mixture is made of it which is calledmamuen, into which three things enter: one is this leaf, which is calledbuio, which is smooth, and resembles in color and size a large ivy leaf, but it is not so thick. It smells very good, and is aromatic. It is planted under some dry tree, on which it climbs. The other fruit that enters into that mixture is calledbonga, and it is as large as an olive. Lastly, they mix in a small quantity of quicklime. A little cornucopia is made of the leaf, the bonga and lime are placed inside, and it is all chewed together. That mixture colors the saliva as red asblood, and the lips the most beautiful vermilion ever seen. It preserves the teeth, strengthens the stomach, and produces a very good breath. Eighty of those leaves can be bought at Manila for one real. Nevertheless, so great a quantity is consumed that it has been ascertained that it was sold in one year to the amount of ninety thousand reals, of seven and one-half sols apiece.There are many snakes in those islands, which are very dangerous; some of them, when they have young, attack people.19The bite of those calledomodrois very dangerous, and those who are bitten by it do not live one-half day. It is from that effect that it derives its name, forodrosignifies one-half day. There is another very large snake calledsaua. I have killed one of that species which was two and one-half brazas long. The skin of another, which measured thirty-two [Spanish] feet in length, was brought to our residence at Manila. The sauas hang to the branches of trees along the roads, whence they dart down upon people, or deer, or on any other prey. They wind themselves three or four times around the body, and after having broken the creature’s bones devour it. But God has provided a number of herbs in those islands which are used as antidotes to all kinds of poisons. Roots and herbs are found in the mountains, which are so many specific remedies against snake-bites; the chief onesaremanongal, manambo, logab, boroctongon, maglingab, ordag, balucas, bonas, bahay, igluhat, dalogdogan, mantala.There are also animals in those islands of which I ought to give a description. The civet-cat is found in the mountains. Its skin resembles that of a tiger, and it is no less savage than the tiger, although much smaller. It is captured and bound, and, after its civet is obtained, which is contained in a little pouch under its tail, it is set at liberty to be caught once more. The crocodiles, of which their rivers are full, are so huge that when their jaws are open, a man of the largest size could stand upright between the two jaws. The crocodile is quite covered with scales; has scarcely any tongue; and its teeth are set closely together, and are very sharp, and arranged in several rows. The teeth of the middle lower row fit into holes or breaks in the others which correspond to them in the upper jaw; and consequently, when it seizes its prey, there is no force that can make it let go. It lays a great number of eggs. In the water it is furious, and attacks boats. It is not so greatly feared when ashore—where it goes sometimes to seize some prey, or to sun itself.The woman-fish20is so called because its face and breast are quite like those of women, whom it also resembles in its manner of copulation with the male. That fish is as large as a calf, and its flesh, of whichI have eaten, tastes like beef. It is caught with lines as thick around as the finger, and when the line becomes fast within [its mouth] it is killed by javelin-thrusts. Its bones and teeth have great virtue against all sorts of dysentery, especially against bloody discharges. Some have tried to assert that those fish were the sirens of the sea, so celebrated among the poets; but they have nothing of the beauty of face and of the voice that is attributed to sirens.I will end [this account], finally by a description of thetabon, an ashen-colored bird as large as a hen, which lays eggs three times as large as those of hens, but which lays them in a peculiar manner. It chooses desert islands and those full of sand, where it first makes a hole one or one and one-half brazas deep; and after having laid its eggs, it covers them over with sand. The chicks break the shell, and gradually turn up the sand that covers them with their feet. If any of those chicks is so unfortunate as to break the egg at the lower end, it does not succeed so well, and dies for lack of strength to overturn the sand. Sometimes one hundred and fifty of the eggs are found in the same hole. I have eaten those eggs often when I have had occasion to stop at those islands during my voyages.There is cinnamon in the island of Mindanao; and pepper at Patani, and at Champan, a country lying on the mainland of China.The political government of those islands is the same as that of other provinces subject to the crown of Castilla. The governor resides at Manila, and is president of the Audiencia; while, as captain-general, he has charge of all the posts of peace and war, as well as of the encomiendas of one or twothousand Indians [each], who pay their encomendero the tribute that the other Indians pay to the king. But the encomendero who has been appointed by the captain-general is obliged to get the confirmation of his grant from Madrid within three years.The governor establishes the corregidors and alcaldes-mayor, or governors of the provinces into which these islands are divided. He appoints the captains and the admirals of the fleets which sail to Acapulco and Terrenate annually. He takes cognizance of civil affairs, on which the royal Audiencia pronounces the decisions or decrees. That Audiencia is composed of a president (who is always the governor), four oidores or auditors, and one procurator-fiscal. There are four cities in the Filipinas—Manila, Zebu, [Nueva] Caçares, and Nueba Segovia; and one town, called Arevalo. There is a garrison at Manila and at Cabite, which is the port where the warships enter, six miles from Manila. There are also garrisons at Zebu, Otong, Carouga, Lanbuangang [sc.Zamboanga], Jolo, Nueva Segobia, the island of Hermosa, and the Malucas. All those ports are fortified, and have their redoubts mounted with artillery. Whatever is necessary for those garrisons is sent from Manila. It would be a very difficult task to mention the names of all the different peoples among the Indians, and in those islands, who are subject to the king of España. There are fully three hundred thousand families, who might count one million souls.The archbishop of Manila has three suffragans, those of Zebu, [Nueva] Caçares, and Nueva Segovia. They have no other income than what the king gives them; that of the archbishop is threethousand ducados, while each of his suffragans receives one thousand five hundred. The city of Manila is small, but it is beautiful and well fortified. Its houses are all built of stone, and are spacious, and very airy. Its streets are long and straight, and one may walk in the shade all hours of the day. The churches are beautiful. There are five convents: that of the Augustinians (which is the oldest); that of the Franciscans, that of the Dominicans,21and that of the discalced Augustinians. There are two universities, one in charge of the fathers of St. Dominic, and the other in that of the Society. Those religious are also distributed among the islands, where they have charge of the instruction of the Indians. The city is enclosed by a fine wall and moat; and its redoubt and its ramparts are well garrisoned with artillery. At the foot of its wall flows a river, which is navigable; over this is a wooden bridge, with stone pillars. There are two thousand Spaniards in Manila (counting soldiers and inhabitants), and twice as many Indians. There are also twenty thousand Sangleys or Chinese, who practice all the arts needed in a community; and every year they pay nine escudos and six reals of tribute. Galleons much larger than those which sail the Mediterraneanare built at Manila; for there is a great abundance of wood, pitch, and abacá—which resembles European hemp, and of which good rigging is made for the ships. The anchors are imported from Goa; and the iron for the nails comes from China in little bars, and is very serviceable.The Spaniards of the Manilas trade throughout the islands of that archipelago, at Borney and Camboa, whence they carry wax, butter,camanguienor storax, ivory, and bezoar. They formerly traded in Japon, before the persecution of the Christians was begun. Thence were carried iron, flour, all sorts of fruit, and little boxes, and cabinets, varnished [i.e., lacquered] and very well made. Nangoza [sc.Nagasaki], which was the port where that trading took place—and for which it was very suitable, because it is not distant from Manila—is now closed to us; for the emperor of Japon believes that people are entering his country, under pretext of that trade, to preach the gospel, the thing that he fears most of all. We trade also with the Portuguese of Macao, who come to the Manilas every year with two or three ships, and bring here silks, musk, precious stones, and eagle and calambac wood—which is a sweet-scented wood that is very valuable. The inhabitants of the Manilas also go to Macao sometimes, to carry their merchandise there; but their chief trade is with the Chinese, who come annually, at the end of the month of December and the beginning of January, with twenty or thirty vessels, laden with products and valuable merchandise. They sail usually from Ocho and Chincheo, ports of Anay, a province of China which faces the Filipinas. They carry small oranges, nuts, chestnuts, plums, raisins,andchicuei—a fruit resembling an apple, very round, transparent, and, when it is ripe, having the color of yellow amber; its peel is very loose, and its flesh very sweet and very pleasant to the taste.22They also bring all sorts of cloth stuffs, and some of these are as fine as those which come from France and the Low Countries; and many black stuffs of which the Indians make their clothes. They bring silk, plain and twisted, of all colors; damasks, velvets, tabbies, and double taffetas; cloths of gold and silver, galoons, and laces; coverlets, and cushions; and porcelain—although not the finest variety, as the trade in that is prohibited. They bring pearls and gold; iron, in little bars; thread, musk, and fine parasols; paste gems, but very beautiful to look at; saltpetre, and flour; white and various-colored paper; and many little fancy articles, covered with varnish, and gold in relief, made in an inimitable manner. Among all the silk stuffs brought by the Chinese, none is more esteemed than the white—the snow is not whiter; and there is no silk stuff in Europa that can approach it.The Chinese return in the month of March, and carry to China silver in return for their merchandise. They also take a wood called sibueno23—that is, brazil-wood, which is used in making their ink. Those Chinese merchants are so keen after gain that if one sort of merchandise has succeeded well one year, they take a great deal of it the following year. A Spaniard who had lost his nose through a certain illness, sent for a Chinese to make him one of wood, in order to hide the deformity. The workman madehim so good a nose that the Spaniard, in great delight, paid him munificently, giving him twenty escudos. The Chinese, attracted by the ease with which he had made that gain, laded a fine boatload of wooden noses the following year, and returned to Manila. But he found himself very far from his hopes, and quite left out in the cold;24for in order to have a sale for that new merchandise, he found that he would have to cut off the noses of all the Spaniards in the country.Besides the Chinese merchandise that is brought into the islands, there is wax, cinnamon, civet, and a sort of very strong cotton cloth which is calledcampotes[misprint forlampotes]. All those goods are exported to Mexico, where they are sold at great profit, and on the spot. I do not believe there is a richer traffic in the world than that. The duties that the king gets out of it are large, and, with what he gets from the islands, amount to fully five hundred thousand escudos. But he spends eight hundred thousand in the maintenance of his governor, the counselors, the archbishop, the bishops, the canons, those who possess the prebends, and the other ecclesiastics. The greater part of that sum is employed in the equipment of the galleons that are sent to Mexico and to the Malucas, and of those which are kept in those seas to resist the Dutch. A considerable sum is spent on the maintenance of alliance with the kings of those districts—especially with the king of one ofthe Malucas, called Tidore. Consequently, the king of España rather holds those islands for the conservation there of the faith, as was stated by Felipe the Second in a certain council-meeting, than for the profit that is derived from them to this hour. The Dutch have been unable to get a footing on those islands, although they have attacked them many times. They have a considerable city [i.e., Batavia] on the island of Java Major, whence they send what their garrisons at the island of Hermosa, Amboina, and Terrenate need. They have made an alliance with the inhabitants of that island, and they secure the greater part of the cloves of the Malucas. They trade in Japon, in a port called Firando. The Chinese have refused to have trade with them, because of a tradition current in China, that blue-eyed men will some day conquer them.The voyage from Manila to Mexico lasts four, five, six, or seven months. Manila, which lies in thirteen and one-half degrees, is left in the month of July, during the vendavals. The course is taken to the north, until the ship reaches thirty-eight or forty degrees. The pilots take that course because they are more certain of finding winds; for otherwise they would run the risk of encountering calms, which are more to be dreaded in long voyages than are the most furious gales. From the time that the Filipinas are left until almost the coast of Nueva España is reached, no land is seen, except a chain of islands called the Ladrones, or La Sapana,25which lie three hundred leguas from the Embocadero of the Filipinas. The people whoinhabit those islands are barbarians, who go quite naked. When our vessels pass there, those people carry to them fish, rice, and fresh water, which they exchange for neither gold nor silver, but only for iron, which they value much more, because of the use to which they put it in the manufacture of their tools, and for the building of their little boats. The first land sighted after that is the island of Cedros, quite near the Mexican coast. The open expanse between that island and those of the Ladrones is subject to great storms, which are to be feared especially near the Japanese Islands—which are passed, however, without being sighted. During the whole course of so long a voyage, scarcely a day passes without seeing a bird. There are usually some birds that live in the sea, and many large whales and porpoises are seen.As the [American] coast is neared, at a distance of sixty, eighty, or one hundred leguas signs are to be seen in the sea by which it is recognized that the ship is within that distance. Those signs consist of long reeds, brought down by the rivers of Nueva España, which being massed together resemble a kind of raft; and on those reeds are to be seen monkeys—another sign that they are approaching the coast. When the pilot discovers those signs, he immediately changes his course, and instead of continuing east he puts the nose of the ship south, in order to avoid getting caught in the land, or in some gulf whence he would have a hard time to get out; but, when he has sighted the coast of Nueva España, he follows it to the port of Acapulco, which lies in eighteen degrees.Acapulco is a fine port, well sheltered from all the winds, and defended by a celebrated redoubt. There the passengers and goods are disembarked,and are afterward carried by mules to the City of Mexico, which is eighty leguas distant thence. The way is desert and bestrewn with mountains; and the pest of mosquitoes is suffered, as well as the extreme heat. In order to go to España from Mexico one goes to the port of Vera Cruz, a journey of eighty-five leguas; en route is passed the city of Los Angeles, which has about six thousand inhabitants, and whose bishop gets a salary of sixty thousand escudos. The reefs and rocks at the mouth of the port of Vera Cruz defend the entrance better than the fortress that commands it, although that fort is an excellent one. At that port anchor the trading fleets that come from España, laden with wine, olive-oil, cloths, wax, cinnamon, paper, and other European merchandise. Those trading fleets formerly passed the winter there, as they arrived [formerly] in the month of June, and remained there until the same month of the following year. Now they reach that port in the month of May, and leave about the month of August. They take as a rule three months to go to España. For my part, I took one hundred days in making that voyage. The port of Havana in Cuba, which is the best port of the Western Indias—and which is very safe, and defended by three redoubts—is touched at. There the two trading fleets—that of Mexico and that of Tierrafirme—are united with the galleons. Thence, after having coasted along the shores of Florida, and of Nueva Francia, they make the cape of Fineterre [Finisterre] or San Vincent, in order to lay their course toward Cadiz, which is the end of their voyage. That will also be the end of this relation, which I have written in order to be obedient to a person to whom I earnestly desire that it may prove agreeable.

By a religious who lived there for eighteen years1

Archipelagus orientalis, sive Asiaticus (Eastern or Asiatic archipelago); photographic facsimile of map by Joannis Blaeu (Amsterdam, 1659)Archipelagus orientalis, sive Asiaticus(Eastern or Asiatic archipelago); photographic facsimile of map by Joannis Blaeu (Amsterdam, 1659)[From original map inBibliothèque Nationale, Paris]

Archipelagus orientalis, sive Asiaticus(Eastern or Asiatic archipelago); photographic facsimile of map by Joannis Blaeu (Amsterdam, 1659)

[From original map inBibliothèque Nationale, Paris]

The islands called Filipinas, because of having been conquered during the reign of Felipe II, were discovered in the year 1521, by Hernando Magallanes, a famous Portuguese, who gave his name to the strait. That great pilot, after having forever perpetuated his name by a navigation so new and so difficult, landed on one of the Filipinas Islands—a very small one, named Matan—where he was treacherously killed by the Indians. Ruy Lopez de Villalobos sighted the islands again after him in the year 1539.2Finally they were pacified in the year 1571 by the adelantado Miguel Lopez de Legaspi. It is a cause for surprise that the Portuguese, who haddiscovered the Malucas, China, and Japon, some years before, and had made their homes there, did not know anything about those islands until long afterward, although they are, as it were, the very center and middle part of their other discoveries. They knew well the island of Borneo, which is the last of those islands toward the south, but they had never stopped there while en route to the Malucas—urged, perhaps, by their too great greed for the spices and drugs which are produced so abundantly in those islands.

The geographies say that there are eleven thousand islands in that great archipelago of which the Filipinas are a part, and that they are adjacent to Asia as are the Canaries and the Terceras to Africa. They cross into the torrid zone and extend along the coasts of China and India. South of them lie the Malucas, and on their northern coast, Japon. More than forty of them are subject to the king of España, the largest and most important being Manila and Mindanao. Manila is the capital of all the others, the residence of the governor and the archbishop, and the seat of the royal Audiencia. Those two islands are each six hundred miles in circuit; they are full of mountains, have rivers and dense forests, and lie in thirteen and one-half degrees north latitude. The other islands are not so large, some being one hundred miles in circuit, some fifty, and some even less. Almost all of them are inhabited by Indians, and those which are not are used by the Indians for their crops, and for the chase of deer and wild boars, and for the gathering of wax, with which the islands most abound.

The islands not yet under the dominion of theking of España have their own kings, who are Mahometans. The island of Borneo, three times greater than the whole of Italia, is the largest of all the islands. Those subject to the king of España are Manila, Zebu, Oton, Mindanao, Bohol, Leite, Samar, Mindoro, Marinduque, the island of Negros, the island of Fuegos, Calamianes, Masbat, Jolo, Taquima, Capul, La Paragua, the island of Tablas, Verde Island, Burias, Tiago, Maripipe, Panama, Panaon, Sibuian, Luban, Bantajan, Panglao, Siquior, Catanduan, Imaras, Tagapolo, Banton, Romblon, Similara, Cuio, Cagaianes, Marivelez, Poro, Babuianes, the island of Cabras (which is distant from the others), and other smaller ones.

In the islands subject to the king of España, every married man pays ten reals of tribute, and he who is unmarried five. Nearly all of them have received the gospel, and hence there are few heathen. However, in the islands of Mindanao, Taquima, and Jolo, conquered but recently, most of the people are Moros or heathen; but it is hoped that the zeal of the missionaries will convert them very soon to Jesus Christ.

Before the conquest of those islands by the Spaniards, the natives of the country were subject to the chiefs among them, who were recognized as nobles, and all the others obeyed them. Those chiefs possessed a great amount of gold, and slaves in proportion to their nobility. I knew two chiefs, one in Bohol, and the other at Dapitan, a village of Mindanao, who had more than one hundred slaves apiece. They are not foreign slaves, as those of Angola who are in Europa, but of the same nation. It was a lamentable thing to see with what violenceand for how little a thing, these chiefs made slaves. For, however small a sum one owed to another, the interest, for lack of payment, amounted to so great a sum that it was impossible to pay it; and consequently, the person of the debtor being pledged for the debt, he became the slave of his creditor, together with all his posterity. They also made slaves, with unusual tyranny and cruelty, for crimes of slight importance, such as not keeping silent at the graves of the dead, and for passing in front of the chief’s wife when she was in her bath. Those captured in war were also all made slaves. Now with baptism, all those acts of violence and tyranny have been suppressed—although there still remains one very peculiar custom among them, which does not follow that general rule, namely,Partus sequitur ventrem;3for there are some who are wholly slaves, and others who are only half slaves. The former are those born of a slave father and mother; the others who are born of a slave father and a free mother, orvice versa. In some villages it is the custom that, if the father is slave and the mother free, one of the children is free and the other slave. The privilege of those half slaves is that if they pay a certain sum of money to their master, they may oblige him to grant them their liberty—an advantage that is not possessed by those who are wholly slaves.

All the religion of those Indians is founded on tradition, and on a custom introduced by the devil himself, who formerly spoke to them by the mouth of their idols and of their priests. That tradition is preserved by the songs that they learn by heart in their childhood, by hearing them sung in their sailing,in their work, in their amusements, and in their festivals, and, better yet, when they bewail their dead. In those barbarous songs, they recount the fabulous genealogies and deeds of their gods, of whom they have one who is chief and head of all the others. The Tagáls call that godBathala mei Capal, which signifies “God the Creator.” The Bisayans call himLaon, which signifies “Time.” They are not far from our belief on the point of the creation of the world. They believe in a first man, the flood, and paradise, and the punishments of the future life.

They say that the first man and the first woman came out of a reed stalk which burst in Sumatra, and that there were some quarrels between them at their marriage. They believed that when the soul left the body, it went to an island, where the trees, birds, waters, and all other things were black; that it passed thence to another island, where all things were of different colors; and finally that it arrived at one, where everything was white. They recognized invisible spirits, another life, and devils hostile to men, of whom they had great fear. Their chief idolatry was in adoring and regarding as gods those of their ancestors who were most remarkable for their courage, or for their intelligence. Such they calledhumalagar, or, as is said in Latin,manes. Each one, as far as possible, ascribed divinity to his father at death. The old men even died with that conceit, and that is why they chose a remarkable place—as did one in the island of Leite, who had himself placed on the seashore, so that those who went sailing should recognize him as a god, and commend themselves to him. They also worshiped animals and birds. They regarded the rainbow asa sort of divinity. The Tagáls worshiped a totally blue bird, of the size of a thrush, which they calledbathala, which was a name of the divinity. They worshiped the raven, which they calledmeilupa, meaning “the master of the earth.” They had a great veneration for the crocodile. [When] they saw it in the water, they called itnono, or “grandfather.” They offered to it prayers regularly, with great devotion, and offerings of what they carried in their boats, in order that it might not harm them. There was no old tree of which they did not make a god, and it was a sacrilege to cut it. I have seen a very large one callednonog,4in the island of Samar, which a religious ordered to be felled, in order to destroy all those superstitions. He was unable to find an Indian who would undertake it for him; and it was necessary for some Spaniards to go to fell it. They also worshiped the stones, rocks, reefs, and promontories of land which jut into the sea; and made offerings to these of rice, fish, and other like things, or fired their arrows at them in passing.

Between La Caldera and the river in the island of Mindanao, a great point of land runs into the sea, which makes the coast dangerous and very high. The sea beats violently against that cape, which is very difficult to double. The Indians in passing offered it their arrows as a sacrifice, praying it to allow them to pass. They shot them with so great force that they made them enter the rock, and hence it is called the Punta de Flechas. One day the Spaniards burned a number of those arrows to show their hatred of so vain a superstition; and in less than one year more than four thousand were found there.When Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera conquered the island of Mindanao three years ago,5he ordered that that point be called no more Punta de Flechas, but San Sebastian. They had innumerable other superstitions. If they saw a snake or a lizard, or if they heard a bird that they calledcorocoro6sneeze or sing, they took it as a bad sign, and did not go farther. They had no remarkable temples, and no festivals of days of public sacrifices; but each one made his offerings to thehumalagarordivata(which was the name of their god) in private, according to their purpose or need. Although they had no temples, they had men and women who acted as priests, who were calledcatolonanby some andbabailanby others. Those priests were most inclined to allow themselves to be deceived by the devil, and to deceive the people afterward by a thousand tricks and inventions—chiefly at the time of their sicknesses, when they are depressed, lose courage, and crave a prompt remedy; and give all their possessions to him who promises it to them.

There are some priests who have special communication with the devil. He speaks to them through the mouths of their little idols, and makes them believe that these are the voices of their ancestors, whom they worship. Sometimes the devil passes into the bodies of their sacrificers, and, during the short time of the sacrifice, he makes them sayand do things that fill the bystanders with fear. They take that order of sacrificers from among their friends or their relatives, who wish to learn the mystery of it from them. Their blindness causes them to esteem that rank greatly, for besides the reputation and respect that that employment brings them, they also receive large offerings. All who have been present at the sacrifice make them gifts, one cotton, one gold, and one a fowl. The sacrifice takes place in their houses. The victim is now a hog, now a fowl, now some fish or rice; and the sacrifice is differently named according to the various victims. It is performed by the sacrificer stabbing the victim amid certain ceremonies, which he performs to a cadence marked by a drum or a bell. That is the time in which the devil takes possession of them. He causes them to make innumerable contortions and grimaces, after the end of which they tell what they believe they have seen or heard.

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

The women as well as the men are continually in the water, and they also swim like fish. They need no bridge to get over rivers. They bathe at all times of the day, as much for pleasure as for cleanliness. Women who have but recently given birth cannot be prevented from bathing, and bathe in the waters of the coldest springs. As soon as the child has issued from its mother’s womb, it is placed in the water; and on taking it from the bath its head is rubbed with ajonjoli [i.e., sesame] oil mixed with civet. They do that also on other occasions, and to show politeness, especially the women and little boys. They bathe also during their sicknesses, and have for that purpose springs of hot water, especially at the shore of Laguna de Bay, which is in the island of Manila.7

There is no one language that is general for all the islands, but each district has a special one. True, they have some relation between one another, such as exists between the Lombard, Sicilian, and Tuscan. There are six dialects in the island of Manila, and two in the island of Oton; while there are some languages which are spoken in several islands. The most general are the Tagál and Bisayan. The latter is very rude, but the former is very polished, and most remarkable. Thus a religious, who was well versed in those islands, was in the habit of saying that the Tagál language had the advantages of thefour chief languages of the world: that it was mysterious, like Hebrew; that it had the articles of the Greek, both for appellatives and for proper names; that it had elegance and abundance, like the Latin; and that it was not less suitable than the Italian for compliments and business.8They have only three vowels, but these serve as five. They have only a dozen consonants, which they express differently by placing a little dot above or below, as can be seen in the following figure.

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

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

They have learned to write from us9by making their lines from left to right, instead of their former way of writing from top to bottom. Reeds or palm-leaves serve them as paper, and the point of an iron style is used instead of a pen. They use their writing only to letters from one to another, for they have no histories or books of any learning. Our religious have printed books in the languages of the islands, concerning the matters of our religion. In the Malucas, they have a very pretty method of writingto their friends. They collect flowers of various colors, and make a bouquet of them; and he who receives the bouquet understands, on beholding the varieties of flowers and their colors, as if they were so many different characters, the thoughts of his friend. They have not sufficient capacity to apply themselves to learning, and they content themselves with being good carpenters, and with working gold and iron well. They have been employed during these last few years in making silk and cotton stockings; in writing and reading our characters; in singing and dancing; and in playing the flute, the guitar, and the harp. The strings used for those last instruments are made from twisted silk, and produce as agreeable a sound as ours, although quite different in quality. They formerly had an instrument calledcutiape, which some of them still use. It bears a close resemblance to a hurdy-gurdy, and has four copper cords. They play it so cleverly, that they make it express whatever they wish; and it is asserted as a truth that they speak, and tell one another whatever they wish, by means of that instrument, a special skill in those of that nation.

Most of those islanders have only one wife, but it is not true that there are not some places in the country where they have several, especially in the island of Mindanao. It may be said that the husbands buy their wives there, since they generally make some present to their parents according to their rank: that ofdato, for instance, which signifies “a man of rank;” oftinaua, which signifies “free;” ororipuen, which signifies “a slave.” The women in the islands of the Pintados are calledbinocot, or “woman who is in the room;” forbocotsignifies“a room,” and the women go outside but rarely, and even are carried then on the shoulders of their slaves. I have seen one woman of Dapitan, a settlement of the island of Mindanao, so delicate and so fine, that she always had herself carried to church on the shoulders of her slaves whom she best liked. It is a mark of politeness among those women always to keep the right hand in front of the mouth when they talk to a man.10

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

The arms of some are spears, of others arrows; the campilan, which is a large cutlass; the kris, or poniard; thezompitesor blow-guns, through which they blow little poisoned arrows; andbacacaies, or little reeds hardened by fire at the end. To defendtheir grain from animals and from men who could harm it, they scatter caltrops, which the old men calltribulos,11made so that one of the four points of which they are composed is always up, and those who pass there get caught without perceiving the traps. But now the Spaniards have taught them how to use firearms, and they get along very well—especially a nation called the Pampangos, many of whom are enrolled in the Spanish troops. These men serve with great fidelity, and well second the courage of which the Spaniards set them an example in their combats by sea and land.

They are very fertile, and I have seen but few married people without children. When these are born, they name them according to the incidents that happen at the time of their birth. One will be called Maglente, because of the thunder that sounded at the time of his birth; forlentesignifies a clap of thunder. Another will be named Gubaton, because the foes appeared on the coast at that same time; forgubatsignifies enemy. They esteem nobility; and I have known a woman called Vray—that is to say, “fine gold”—who had been given that name because of the nobility of her lineage. In some of the islands they were accustomed to put the head of a new-born child between two boards, and thus pressed it so that it would not be round, but long; and they also flattened the forehead, in their belief that it was a markof beauty to have it thus.12At the birth of a child to one among them who is of the highest rank, they hold a festival of a week, during which very joyful songs are sung by the women.

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

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

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

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

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

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

At the extremity of the island of Manila, near the Embocadero, where the vessels en route from Nueva España enter, there is a volcano or mountain whence often issue flames, and always smoke.13In those islands there is neither grain, wine, nor olive-oil, nor one of the fruits which we have in Europa, except the oranges, of which I shall speak later. Rice grows there in great abundance, and serves instead of bread. They have two kinds of it. One kind is sown in places always under water, and the other on the mountains, where it is moistened only by the water from the sky. Their drink also is made from rice, by soaking it in water; or it is taken from palm-trees, or cocoanuts, or from another variety of small palm called nipa. They keep those liquors in large crocks, and draw from them only on holidays and days of rejoicing. Those liquors mount to the head and intoxicate, as much as does the wine of Europa.

The horses and cows in those islands have been carried thither from Mexico and China, for therewere none there formerly. The flesh of swine is their most usual food, and there is a great abundance of it; it is very healthful and savory. There are also innumerable fowl, deer, wild boars, goats, and civet-cats; also plenty of beans, cotton, strawberries, and even cinnamon—which is found only in the island of Mindanao, and which does not begin to be as good as that of Ceilan. They have no silver mines in those islands, and the little silver seen there has been carried from Mexico, in return for the merchandise exported there annually. There are gold mines in the island of Manila, and on the river of Butuan in the island of Mindanao. There is truly not sufficient to satisfy the desires of the Spaniards; but the little that there is of it sufficed the Indians, who value it only for the little use that they make of it, since it does not enter at all into trade. There is a quantity of honey and wax in their mountains; and since the Spanish have lived there they have built many sugar mills; and sugar is so common there that one may buy twenty-five libras of sixteen onzas apiece for one teston. They have three varieties of fruit that are most common: bananas, santors, andbirinbines.14There are fifteen or sixteen kinds of bananas, some of them are sweet, but that sweetness has an admixture of bitter in others. Some of them smell good, but all of those varieties are very agreeable to the taste. I know of no fruit in Europa to which to compare them, unless it be themusaswhich grow in Sicilia. The birinbines and santors areeaten preserved more often than in any other way, because of their tartness; when prepared in preserves, they taste like plums. If they are allowed to ripen on the tree, they smell like quinces, although they have no other resemblance to quinces at all. Those islands have many other trees which grow wild. Their mountains furnish them with roots, from which they draw their most usual nourishment; these are calledpugaianandcorot.15They have other roots which they cultivate, such as theapari, theubi, thelaquei, and others which they callcamotes, which are the potatoes16of España. The Spaniards use the last named, as also do the Indians.

But the most useful tree of all is the palm—not that which bears the date, for they do not have thatspecies, but those which bear cocoanuts, of the size of an orange. Those nuts are filled with a very sweet liquor, which is very good to drink. They make wine, vinegar, and honey of it; and when that fruit becomes dry as it ripens, that liquor changes into white meat harder than an almond. It is from that meat that oil is extracted and a milk resembling that extracted from almonds. The cocoanut has two coverings. The first, which is less hard, is used for tinder when dried; also for the rigging and smaller cordage of the ships, or as tow for calking them. The other covering is harder, and is used for drinking vessels, or as dishes in which to prepare their food. The palm-leaves are the tiles with which their houses are thatched. The trunks of the same trees are used to support the houses, and in making the pillars. They have one other tree which is no less useful to them, for it serves them as a perpetual spring, and furnishes water to an entire village—which, being located on a very high and dry site, has no other water than what they get from that tree by making incisions in its trunk, and in its largest branches; for a clear sweet water flows out of it. The trees of those islands are always green, and there are only two species that shed their leaves, one calledbatelan,17and the otherdabdas.

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

Those islands have a great abundance of various kinds of oranges, peculiar to those countries for their good taste. I have seen them so large that they were four palmos in circumference. Some were red as scarlet inside, and very sweet. There are some which contain another little orange in the place of the seeds; and these are called on that account “oranges which have children.”18

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

There are many snakes in those islands, which are very dangerous; some of them, when they have young, attack people.19The bite of those calledomodrois very dangerous, and those who are bitten by it do not live one-half day. It is from that effect that it derives its name, forodrosignifies one-half day. There is another very large snake calledsaua. I have killed one of that species which was two and one-half brazas long. The skin of another, which measured thirty-two [Spanish] feet in length, was brought to our residence at Manila. The sauas hang to the branches of trees along the roads, whence they dart down upon people, or deer, or on any other prey. They wind themselves three or four times around the body, and after having broken the creature’s bones devour it. But God has provided a number of herbs in those islands which are used as antidotes to all kinds of poisons. Roots and herbs are found in the mountains, which are so many specific remedies against snake-bites; the chief onesaremanongal, manambo, logab, boroctongon, maglingab, ordag, balucas, bonas, bahay, igluhat, dalogdogan, mantala.

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

The woman-fish20is so called because its face and breast are quite like those of women, whom it also resembles in its manner of copulation with the male. That fish is as large as a calf, and its flesh, of whichI have eaten, tastes like beef. It is caught with lines as thick around as the finger, and when the line becomes fast within [its mouth] it is killed by javelin-thrusts. Its bones and teeth have great virtue against all sorts of dysentery, especially against bloody discharges. Some have tried to assert that those fish were the sirens of the sea, so celebrated among the poets; but they have nothing of the beauty of face and of the voice that is attributed to sirens.

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

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

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

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

The archbishop of Manila has three suffragans, those of Zebu, [Nueva] Caçares, and Nueva Segovia. They have no other income than what the king gives them; that of the archbishop is threethousand ducados, while each of his suffragans receives one thousand five hundred. The city of Manila is small, but it is beautiful and well fortified. Its houses are all built of stone, and are spacious, and very airy. Its streets are long and straight, and one may walk in the shade all hours of the day. The churches are beautiful. There are five convents: that of the Augustinians (which is the oldest); that of the Franciscans, that of the Dominicans,21and that of the discalced Augustinians. There are two universities, one in charge of the fathers of St. Dominic, and the other in that of the Society. Those religious are also distributed among the islands, where they have charge of the instruction of the Indians. The city is enclosed by a fine wall and moat; and its redoubt and its ramparts are well garrisoned with artillery. At the foot of its wall flows a river, which is navigable; over this is a wooden bridge, with stone pillars. There are two thousand Spaniards in Manila (counting soldiers and inhabitants), and twice as many Indians. There are also twenty thousand Sangleys or Chinese, who practice all the arts needed in a community; and every year they pay nine escudos and six reals of tribute. Galleons much larger than those which sail the Mediterraneanare built at Manila; for there is a great abundance of wood, pitch, and abacá—which resembles European hemp, and of which good rigging is made for the ships. The anchors are imported from Goa; and the iron for the nails comes from China in little bars, and is very serviceable.

The Spaniards of the Manilas trade throughout the islands of that archipelago, at Borney and Camboa, whence they carry wax, butter,camanguienor storax, ivory, and bezoar. They formerly traded in Japon, before the persecution of the Christians was begun. Thence were carried iron, flour, all sorts of fruit, and little boxes, and cabinets, varnished [i.e., lacquered] and very well made. Nangoza [sc.Nagasaki], which was the port where that trading took place—and for which it was very suitable, because it is not distant from Manila—is now closed to us; for the emperor of Japon believes that people are entering his country, under pretext of that trade, to preach the gospel, the thing that he fears most of all. We trade also with the Portuguese of Macao, who come to the Manilas every year with two or three ships, and bring here silks, musk, precious stones, and eagle and calambac wood—which is a sweet-scented wood that is very valuable. The inhabitants of the Manilas also go to Macao sometimes, to carry their merchandise there; but their chief trade is with the Chinese, who come annually, at the end of the month of December and the beginning of January, with twenty or thirty vessels, laden with products and valuable merchandise. They sail usually from Ocho and Chincheo, ports of Anay, a province of China which faces the Filipinas. They carry small oranges, nuts, chestnuts, plums, raisins,andchicuei—a fruit resembling an apple, very round, transparent, and, when it is ripe, having the color of yellow amber; its peel is very loose, and its flesh very sweet and very pleasant to the taste.22They also bring all sorts of cloth stuffs, and some of these are as fine as those which come from France and the Low Countries; and many black stuffs of which the Indians make their clothes. They bring silk, plain and twisted, of all colors; damasks, velvets, tabbies, and double taffetas; cloths of gold and silver, galoons, and laces; coverlets, and cushions; and porcelain—although not the finest variety, as the trade in that is prohibited. They bring pearls and gold; iron, in little bars; thread, musk, and fine parasols; paste gems, but very beautiful to look at; saltpetre, and flour; white and various-colored paper; and many little fancy articles, covered with varnish, and gold in relief, made in an inimitable manner. Among all the silk stuffs brought by the Chinese, none is more esteemed than the white—the snow is not whiter; and there is no silk stuff in Europa that can approach it.

The Chinese return in the month of March, and carry to China silver in return for their merchandise. They also take a wood called sibueno23—that is, brazil-wood, which is used in making their ink. Those Chinese merchants are so keen after gain that if one sort of merchandise has succeeded well one year, they take a great deal of it the following year. A Spaniard who had lost his nose through a certain illness, sent for a Chinese to make him one of wood, in order to hide the deformity. The workman madehim so good a nose that the Spaniard, in great delight, paid him munificently, giving him twenty escudos. The Chinese, attracted by the ease with which he had made that gain, laded a fine boatload of wooden noses the following year, and returned to Manila. But he found himself very far from his hopes, and quite left out in the cold;24for in order to have a sale for that new merchandise, he found that he would have to cut off the noses of all the Spaniards in the country.

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

The voyage from Manila to Mexico lasts four, five, six, or seven months. Manila, which lies in thirteen and one-half degrees, is left in the month of July, during the vendavals. The course is taken to the north, until the ship reaches thirty-eight or forty degrees. The pilots take that course because they are more certain of finding winds; for otherwise they would run the risk of encountering calms, which are more to be dreaded in long voyages than are the most furious gales. From the time that the Filipinas are left until almost the coast of Nueva España is reached, no land is seen, except a chain of islands called the Ladrones, or La Sapana,25which lie three hundred leguas from the Embocadero of the Filipinas. The people whoinhabit those islands are barbarians, who go quite naked. When our vessels pass there, those people carry to them fish, rice, and fresh water, which they exchange for neither gold nor silver, but only for iron, which they value much more, because of the use to which they put it in the manufacture of their tools, and for the building of their little boats. The first land sighted after that is the island of Cedros, quite near the Mexican coast. The open expanse between that island and those of the Ladrones is subject to great storms, which are to be feared especially near the Japanese Islands—which are passed, however, without being sighted. During the whole course of so long a voyage, scarcely a day passes without seeing a bird. There are usually some birds that live in the sea, and many large whales and porpoises are seen.

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

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

1Marginal note: “This relation has been translated from a Spanish manuscript existing in the library of Don Carlo del Pezzo.”This relation is unsigned, and undated, but Rev. Pablo Pastells, S.J., said during the course of a conversation with one of the Editors, in 1903, that the author was undoubtedly Father Diego de Bobadilla; and in his edition of Colin’sLabor evangélica(Barcelona, 1904), he says (iii, p. 798, note): “This father [i.e., Father Bobadilla] was the author in 1640 of the famous relation which was translated by Melquisedec Thévenot.”2See ourVOLS. IandIIfor the history of these early expeditions. It will be noticed that the author of the present relation is inaccurate in regard to the date of the voyage of Villalobos, and that he omits mention of some of the early voyages.3That is “Birth follows the womb.”4SeeVOL. XXII, p. 300, note 61.5For this expedition to Mindanao by Hurtado de Corcuera, see previous documents. This reference proves the present relation to have been written in 1640, as the expedition above mentioned occurred in 1637.6Visayan name (alsocolocolo, elsewhere) of the fishing gannet (Sula piscatrix). Delgado says (Historia, p. 820) that he had a tame one in his house, which would bring home fish that it had caught, and carry them to the kitchen.7French,Estang du Roy(“the King’s Pool”); evidently referring to the hot springs near Laguna de Bay (seeVOL. XIV, p. 211), and the wordRoyis probably a misprint forBay.8It is Chirino who is here (although inexactly) cited; seeVOL. XII, p. 236.9See Chirino’s account, inVOL. XII, p. 241; he says that the art of writing was imparted to the Visayans by the Tagals.10Marginal note: “Prudish” (melindrosa).11That is, “star-thistles”—the common name of a genus (Tribulus) of plants, which bears prickly fruits, very injurious to the feet of animals or men. The military instrument called “caltrop” resembles that fruit, from which it may have been evolved; and the appellationtribolois one of the etymological elements in “caltrop.”12See the Cleveland reissue of theJesuit Relations, lxv, p. 131, for a description of head-compression by the North American Indians.13Mt. Bulusan, near the center of the province of Sorsogón, Luzón; at present “almost extinct, but at times emits an abundance of watery vapor and sulphurous fumes” (Reportof U. S. Philippine Commission, 1900, iii, p. 149).14Also calledbalimbín; the fruit ofAverrhoa carambola; used for food and sweetmeats, and also has medicinal qualities. See Blanco’s description,Flora, p. 274; and Delgado’sHistoria, pp. 505, 506. For note on santor, seeVOL. XVI, p. 87; on banana (Musa),VOL. V, p. 169.15Thecorot(Dioscorea triphylla) is very common, with leaves one palmo long, and very small flowers. Its sap is yellow and very poisonous, and has cleansing power which is utilized to whiten abacá. The root is very large and is eaten cooked by the Indians, after having soaked it in the water for three or four days.Theubiis theDioscorea alata, and the plant grows rather high and is widely disseminated. The root is violet in color, and often attains a great size; it is eaten cooked. The best variety is that known as the Cebú ubi or ube, which comes from Bohol, and which makes a delicious jelly. The ubi and analogous roots must be carefully prepared, or else they prove poisonous. See Blanco’sFlora, andU. S. Gazetteer of the Philippine Islands. Delgado (p. 763) enumerates eight varieties of this root.Theapariis perhaps theapaliaorparia(Montordica balsamina), a climbing plant, which bears a fruit which is rather bitter to the taste, and eaten in salads. The juice of its leaves is used instead of soap. The ripe fruit soaked in olive, cocoa, or beneseed oil makes an excellent balsam that is used for medicinal purposes.16French,patanes, apparently a misprint forpatatas. The camote or sweet potato (Convolvulus batatas, Linn.; now namedBatatas edulis) is extensively cultivated in the islands. Blanco (Flora, p. 69) cites Mozo as saying that this plant was carried to the islands from Nueva España; but Blanco regards it as indigenous in the Philippines. Delgado (pp. 766–768) enumerates twenty-nine varieties of camote.17TheBatelanis perhaps thebalete; seeVOL. XII, p. 214, note 56. For note on dabdab, seeibid., p. 215, note 57.18Apparently a reference to the variety of orange known at the present day as navel oranges.19For a treatise on the snakes and poisonous animals of the Philippines, see Delgado’sHistoria, pp. 889–907. He describes theomodroas theodto(Hemibungarus collaris)—from the word meaning “half-day” or “noon,” and given to it because the bite proves fatal if given at noon, but at no other time. It is of various colors and very furious at the hour of noon. The saua (Python reticulatus) is the largest snake of the islands and is often domesticated, and is not poisonous to man.20The dugong (a word corrupted from the Malay nameduyong); not a fish, but a marine mammal (Helicore australis). Crawfurd says (Dict. Indian Islands, p. 125) that it is found in the shallow seas of the Malayan archipelago, but is not often captured; and that its flesh is greatly superior to that of the green turtle. This creature is one of those from which originated the fable of the mermaids.21Thevenot has translated the Spanish term for Franciscans (padres de San Franciscoorpadres franciscanos) into the popular French termcordeliers, so called because of their girdle. Similarly he has translated the term for Dominicans (padres de San Domingoorpadres dominicanos) asJacobins, also the popular French appellation, so called from the name of the church of St. Jacques, which was given them in Paris. See Addis and Arnold’sCath. Dict., article “Franciscans,” p. 356; and Chevin’sDict. Latin-Français, p. 353.Either Thevenot the translator, or the author, omits mention of the convent of the Society of Jesus, only the four above mentioned being given.22The persimmon; seeVOL. XVI, p. 180.23A misprint for sibucao (VOL. III, p. 196;XV, p. 256).24There is evidently a play of words in this passage. The French readsMais il se trouua bie loing de ses esperances, & auec vn pied de nez.Pied de nez(literally “a foot of nose”) is an exact equivalent of the Spanish phrasepalmo de narices, and the French expressiondemeurer avec un pied de nezis equivalent to the Spanish idiomquedar con un palmo de narices, which signifies “the frustration of one’s hopes,” or “to be left out in the cold.”25Apparently a corruption of Zarpana, the name given by its inhabitants to the island of Rota, one of the Mariannes or Ladrones Islands.

1Marginal note: “This relation has been translated from a Spanish manuscript existing in the library of Don Carlo del Pezzo.”

This relation is unsigned, and undated, but Rev. Pablo Pastells, S.J., said during the course of a conversation with one of the Editors, in 1903, that the author was undoubtedly Father Diego de Bobadilla; and in his edition of Colin’sLabor evangélica(Barcelona, 1904), he says (iii, p. 798, note): “This father [i.e., Father Bobadilla] was the author in 1640 of the famous relation which was translated by Melquisedec Thévenot.”

2See ourVOLS. IandIIfor the history of these early expeditions. It will be noticed that the author of the present relation is inaccurate in regard to the date of the voyage of Villalobos, and that he omits mention of some of the early voyages.

3That is “Birth follows the womb.”

4SeeVOL. XXII, p. 300, note 61.

5For this expedition to Mindanao by Hurtado de Corcuera, see previous documents. This reference proves the present relation to have been written in 1640, as the expedition above mentioned occurred in 1637.

6Visayan name (alsocolocolo, elsewhere) of the fishing gannet (Sula piscatrix). Delgado says (Historia, p. 820) that he had a tame one in his house, which would bring home fish that it had caught, and carry them to the kitchen.

7French,Estang du Roy(“the King’s Pool”); evidently referring to the hot springs near Laguna de Bay (seeVOL. XIV, p. 211), and the wordRoyis probably a misprint forBay.

8It is Chirino who is here (although inexactly) cited; seeVOL. XII, p. 236.

9See Chirino’s account, inVOL. XII, p. 241; he says that the art of writing was imparted to the Visayans by the Tagals.

10Marginal note: “Prudish” (melindrosa).

11That is, “star-thistles”—the common name of a genus (Tribulus) of plants, which bears prickly fruits, very injurious to the feet of animals or men. The military instrument called “caltrop” resembles that fruit, from which it may have been evolved; and the appellationtribolois one of the etymological elements in “caltrop.”

12See the Cleveland reissue of theJesuit Relations, lxv, p. 131, for a description of head-compression by the North American Indians.

13Mt. Bulusan, near the center of the province of Sorsogón, Luzón; at present “almost extinct, but at times emits an abundance of watery vapor and sulphurous fumes” (Reportof U. S. Philippine Commission, 1900, iii, p. 149).

14Also calledbalimbín; the fruit ofAverrhoa carambola; used for food and sweetmeats, and also has medicinal qualities. See Blanco’s description,Flora, p. 274; and Delgado’sHistoria, pp. 505, 506. For note on santor, seeVOL. XVI, p. 87; on banana (Musa),VOL. V, p. 169.

15Thecorot(Dioscorea triphylla) is very common, with leaves one palmo long, and very small flowers. Its sap is yellow and very poisonous, and has cleansing power which is utilized to whiten abacá. The root is very large and is eaten cooked by the Indians, after having soaked it in the water for three or four days.

Theubiis theDioscorea alata, and the plant grows rather high and is widely disseminated. The root is violet in color, and often attains a great size; it is eaten cooked. The best variety is that known as the Cebú ubi or ube, which comes from Bohol, and which makes a delicious jelly. The ubi and analogous roots must be carefully prepared, or else they prove poisonous. See Blanco’sFlora, andU. S. Gazetteer of the Philippine Islands. Delgado (p. 763) enumerates eight varieties of this root.

Theapariis perhaps theapaliaorparia(Montordica balsamina), a climbing plant, which bears a fruit which is rather bitter to the taste, and eaten in salads. The juice of its leaves is used instead of soap. The ripe fruit soaked in olive, cocoa, or beneseed oil makes an excellent balsam that is used for medicinal purposes.

16French,patanes, apparently a misprint forpatatas. The camote or sweet potato (Convolvulus batatas, Linn.; now namedBatatas edulis) is extensively cultivated in the islands. Blanco (Flora, p. 69) cites Mozo as saying that this plant was carried to the islands from Nueva España; but Blanco regards it as indigenous in the Philippines. Delgado (pp. 766–768) enumerates twenty-nine varieties of camote.

17TheBatelanis perhaps thebalete; seeVOL. XII, p. 214, note 56. For note on dabdab, seeibid., p. 215, note 57.

18Apparently a reference to the variety of orange known at the present day as navel oranges.

19For a treatise on the snakes and poisonous animals of the Philippines, see Delgado’sHistoria, pp. 889–907. He describes theomodroas theodto(Hemibungarus collaris)—from the word meaning “half-day” or “noon,” and given to it because the bite proves fatal if given at noon, but at no other time. It is of various colors and very furious at the hour of noon. The saua (Python reticulatus) is the largest snake of the islands and is often domesticated, and is not poisonous to man.

20The dugong (a word corrupted from the Malay nameduyong); not a fish, but a marine mammal (Helicore australis). Crawfurd says (Dict. Indian Islands, p. 125) that it is found in the shallow seas of the Malayan archipelago, but is not often captured; and that its flesh is greatly superior to that of the green turtle. This creature is one of those from which originated the fable of the mermaids.

21Thevenot has translated the Spanish term for Franciscans (padres de San Franciscoorpadres franciscanos) into the popular French termcordeliers, so called because of their girdle. Similarly he has translated the term for Dominicans (padres de San Domingoorpadres dominicanos) asJacobins, also the popular French appellation, so called from the name of the church of St. Jacques, which was given them in Paris. See Addis and Arnold’sCath. Dict., article “Franciscans,” p. 356; and Chevin’sDict. Latin-Français, p. 353.

Either Thevenot the translator, or the author, omits mention of the convent of the Society of Jesus, only the four above mentioned being given.

22The persimmon; seeVOL. XVI, p. 180.

23A misprint for sibucao (VOL. III, p. 196;XV, p. 256).

24There is evidently a play of words in this passage. The French readsMais il se trouua bie loing de ses esperances, & auec vn pied de nez.Pied de nez(literally “a foot of nose”) is an exact equivalent of the Spanish phrasepalmo de narices, and the French expressiondemeurer avec un pied de nezis equivalent to the Spanish idiomquedar con un palmo de narices, which signifies “the frustration of one’s hopes,” or “to be left out in the cold.”

25Apparently a corruption of Zarpana, the name given by its inhabitants to the island of Rota, one of the Mariannes or Ladrones Islands.

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