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. [91] Finally they were pacified in the year
1571 by the adelantado Miguel Lopez de Legaspi. It is a cause for
surprise that the Portuguese, who had discovered 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 Espana,
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 the king of Espana 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 Espana 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 Espana, 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 violence and
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; [92] for 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, or vice 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 Tagals call that god Bathala mei
Capal, which signifies "God the Creator." The Bisayans call him Laon,
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 called humalagar, 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 as a
sort of divinity. The Tagals worshiped a totally blue bird, of the
size of a thrush, which they called bathala, which was a name of
the divinity. They worshiped the raven, which they called meilupa,
meaning "the master of the earth." They had a great veneration for
the crocodile. [When] they saw it in the water, they called it nono,
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 called nonog, [93] in 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,
[94] he 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 called
corocoro [95] sneeze 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 the
humalagar or divata (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 called catolonan
by some and babailan by 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 say and 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. In the upper row, they
make a little covering which they fill with gold, which shows off to
advantage on the black or red background of that polish.
The women as well as the men are continually in the water, and they
also swim like fish. They need no bridge to get over rivers. They bathe
at all times of the day, as much for pleasure as for cleanliness. Women
who have but recently given birth cannot be prevented from bathing,
and bathe in the waters of the coldest springs. As soon as the child
has issued from its mother's womb, it is placed in the water; and
on taking it from the bath its head is rubbed with ajonjoli [i.e.,
sesame] oil mixed with civet. They do that also on other occasions,
and to show politeness, especially the women and little boys. They
bathe also during their sicknesses, and have for that purpose springs
of hot water, especially at the shore of Laguna de Bay, which is in
the island of Manila. [96]
There is no one language that is general for all the islands,
but each district has a special one. True, they have some relation
between one another, such as exists between the Lombard, Sicilian,
and Tuscan. There are six dialects in the island of Manila, and
two in the island of Oton; while there are some languages which
are spoken in several islands. The most general are the Tagal and
Bisayan. The latter is very rude, but the former is very polished,
and most remarkable. Thus a religious, who was well versed in those
islands, was in the habit of saying that the Tagal language had
the advantages of the four chief languages of the world: that it
was mysterious, like Hebrew; that it had the articles of the Greek,
both for appellatives and for proper names; that it had elegance and
abundance, like the Latin; and that it was not less suitable than
the Italian for compliments and business. [97] They have only three
vowels, but these serve as five. They have only a dozen consonants,
which they express differently by placing a little dot above or below,
as can be seen in the following figure.
Marginal note: "The consonants not marked with any point are
pronounced with 'a;' if they have a point above, they are
pronounced with 'e,' or 'i;' if the point is below, they
are pronounced with 'o' or 'u.'"
They have learned to write from us [98] by making their lines from
left to right, instead of their former way of writing from top to
bottom. Reeds or palm-leaves serve them as paper, and the point of
an iron style is used instead of a pen. They use their writing only
to letters from one to another, for they have no histories or books
of any learning. Our religious have printed books in the languages of
the islands, concerning the matters of our religion. In the Malucas,
they have a very pretty method of writing to their friends. They
collect flowers of various colors, and make a bouquet of them; and
he who receives the bouquet understands, on beholding the varieties
of flowers and their colors, as if they were so many different
characters, the thoughts of his friend. They have not sufficient
capacity to apply themselves to learning, and they content themselves
with being good carpenters, and with working gold and iron well. They
have been employed during these last few years in making silk and
cotton stockings; in writing and reading our characters; in singing
and dancing; and in playing the flute, the guitar, and the harp. The
strings used for those last instruments are made from twisted silk,
and produce as agreeable a sound as ours, although quite different in
quality. They formerly had an instrument called cutiape, which some
of them still use. It bears a close resemblance to a hurdy-gurdy,
and has four copper cords. They play it so cleverly, that they make
it express whatever they wish; and it is asserted as a truth that
they speak, and tell one another whatever they wish, by means of that
instrument, a special skill in those of that nation.
Most of those islanders have only one wife, but it is not true that
there are not some places in the country where they have several,
especially in the island of Mindanao. It may be said that the husbands
buy their wives there, since they generally make some present to
their parents according to their rank: that of dato, for instance,
which signifies "a man of rank;" of tinaua, which signifies "free;"
or oripuen, which signifies "a slave." The women in the islands
of the Pintados are called binocot, or "woman who is in the room;"
for bocot signifies "a room," and the women go outside but rarely,
and even are carried then on the shoulders of their slaves. I have
seen one woman of Dapitan, a settlement of the island of Mindanao, so
delicate and so fine, that she always had herself carried to church
on the shoulders of her slaves whom she best liked. It is a mark of
politeness among those women always to keep the right hand in front
of the mouth when they talk to a man. [99]
Those people live in houses thatched with straw, with the leaves of
trees, or with large reeds which, divided into two, serve them as a
tiling. There is but little furniture to be seen in their houses. But
rarely are chairs seen there, for they always sit on the ground, or
on carpets made from reeds. They have neither beds nor mattresses, as
their reed mats serve as both. They eat on the ground or on very small
low tables, but the tables are used only among the chiefs. Banana
leaves, which are one braza long and one-half braza wide, serve
them as napkins. Their employment consists of agriculture, the very
abundant fishing along their coasts and in their rivers, and hunting
wild boars and deer with dog and spear--an employment to which their
agility and their skill renders them very suitable. They also go to
gather honey and wax in the mountains or in the trees, where nature
has taught the bees to make both those substances.
The arms of some are spears, of others arrows; the campilan, which is a
large cutlass; the kris, or poniard; the zompites or blow-guns, through
which they blow little poisoned arrows; and bacacaies, or little reeds
hardened by fire at the end. To defend their grain from animals and
from men who could harm it, they scatter caltrops, which the old men
call tribulos, [100] made so that one of the four points of which they
are composed is always up, and those who pass there get caught without
perceiving the traps. But now the Spaniards have taught them how to
use firearms, and they get along very well--especially a nation called
the Pampangos, many of whom are enrolled in the Spanish troops. These
men serve with great fidelity, and well second the courage of which
the Spaniards set them an example in their combats by sea and land.
They are very fertile, and I have seen but few married people without
children. When these are born, they name them according to the
incidents that happen at the time of their birth. One will be called
Maglente, because of the thunder that sounded at the time of his birth;
for lente signifies a clap of thunder. Another will be named Gubaton,
because the foes appeared on the coast at that same time; for gubat
signifies enemy. They esteem nobility; and I have known a woman
called Vray--that is to say, "fine gold"--who had been given that
name because of the nobility of her lineage. In some of the islands
they were accustomed to put the head of a new-born child between two
boards, and thus pressed it so that it would not be round, but long;
and they also flattened the forehead, in their belief that it was a
mark of beauty to have it thus. [101] At the birth of a child to one
among them who is of the highest rank, they hold a festival of a week,
during which very joyful songs are sung by the women.
They lose courage when they are sick. They do not use either bleeding
or other remedies, except certain medicinal herbs, of which there is
abundance in these islands. They use the cupping-glass; but it is not
made of glass, for there is no glass in that country, but of small
shells or the small horns of deer. They drink the liquor of cocoanuts
after it has been kept some time in the evening damp; and that liquor
is so healthful that their continual use of it keeps them from gravel,
a disease of which the name is unknown among those peoples.
When anyone dies, the music of the mourning and lamentation begins
immediately. Some weep because they are truly touched by their loss;
others are hired by the day to weep. Women are usually chosen, as they
are most apt for that music. They wash the body of the deceased to that
sad cadence, and perfume it with storax, and other perfumes which are
used among them. After bewailing the body for three days, they bury
it. They do not place it in the earth, but in coffins of very hard
and incorruptible wood, which they kept in their houses. The boards of
the coffins are so well joined that the air cannot enter. They placed
a piece of gold in the mouths of some, and adorned their coffins with
precious gems. Moreover they were careful to carry all sorts of food
to their grave, and to leave it there as if it were to be used by the
deceased. Some they would not allow to go alone, and it was necessary
to give them some male and female slaves to keep them company. They
killed the latter after having given them a fine repast, so that they
might go with the deceased. With one of their chiefs of the country
they once encased a galley equipped with rowers, so that they could
serve him in the other world. The most usual place of burial was the
house of the deceased, in the lowest story, where they dug a hole to
place the coffin. Sometimes the burial was in the open field; and in
such case great fires were made below the house, and sentinels were
posted there, for fear lest the deceased should come to take away
those who were yet alive. The tears and lamentations were finished
with the burial; but the feasts and orgies lasted a greater or less
time, according to the station of the deceased. The Tagals wore black
as a sign of mourning; the Bisayans wore white, and shaved the head
and eyebrows. When a person of rank happened to die, silence was
observed throughout the village, until that the interdict should have
been removed--which lasted a greater or less time, according to the
quality of the deceased. During that time not the least noise could
be made. But the mourning of those who had been killed in war or by
treachery lasted a longer time, and did not end until their children
and relations had killed many others--not only those who were known
as enemies, but even strangers or unknown men; for their fury having
thus been assuaged, they thought that they could put an end to their
mourning, and solemnize it by great festivities and prolonged feasting.
They are for the most part good sailors--I mean for the navigation
among the islands; for, as they do not use the compass, they do not
get along so well on the open sea. They use various kinds of craft,
which are propelled by sail and oar. The largest craft of the second
class are called caracoas. Although these are not very large, they do
not hesitate to put one hundred Indians in them; for there are three
banks of rowers on each side. They make use of those craft for trading
among those islands; and they lade them with dried fish, wine, salt,
wax, cotton, cocoanuts, and other like merchandise.
They are cowards naturally, and more apt to make an ambuscade than
to face their enemies. Upon that is chiefly founded their submission
to the Spaniards, for they do not serve them out of affection.
They readily received our religion. Their meager intelligence does
not permit them to sound the depths of its mysteries. They also have
little care in the fulfilment of their duties to the Christianity which
they have adopted; and it is necessary to constrain them by fear of
punishment, and to govern them like schoolchildren. Intoxication and
usury are the two vices to which they are most addicted. The piety
and care of our religious have not as yet been able to make them lose
those habits altogether.
The climate of Manila and most of the other Filipinas Islands is very
warm. The difference between the seasons is not perceived, for the heat
is equally great all the year. The rains commence at the end of the
month of May and last for three or four months without interruption;
but beyond that time it rains but rarely. In the months of October,
November, and December, the country is subject to hurricanes, which
the natives of the country call vaguios. They are furious winds which
make the entire round of the compass in twenty-four hours, commencing
at the north. They break the palm-trees, uproot the largest trees,
overthrow the houses, and sometimes carry persons into the air;
and some have been seen which have hurled vessels a musket-shot inland.
At the extremity of the island of Manila, near the Embocadero, where
the vessels en route from Nueva Espana enter, there is a volcano or
mountain whence often issue flames, and always smoke. [102] In those
islands there is neither grain, wine, nor olive-oil, nor one of the
fruits which we have in Europa, except the oranges, of which I shall
speak later. Rice grows there in great abundance, and serves instead
of bread. They have two kinds of it. One kind is sown in places always
under water, and the other on the mountains, where it is moistened
only by the water from the sky. Their drink also is made from rice,
by soaking it in water; or it is taken from palm-trees, or cocoanuts,
or from another variety of small palm called nipa. They keep those
liquors in large crocks, and draw from them only on holidays and
days of rejoicing. Those liquors mount to the head and intoxicate,
as much as does the wine of Europa.
The horses and cows in those islands have been carried thither from
Mexico and China, for there were none there formerly. The flesh of
swine is their most usual food, and there is a great abundance of it;
it is very healthful and savory. There are also innumerable fowl,
deer, wild boars, goats, and civet-cats; also plenty of beans,
cotton, strawberries, and even cinnamon--which is found only in
the island of Mindanao, and which does not begin to be as good as
that of Ceilan. They have no silver mines in those islands, and the
little silver seen there has been carried from Mexico, in return
for the merchandise exported there annually. There are gold mines
in the island of Manila, and on the river of Butuan in the island of
Mindanao. There is truly not sufficient to satisfy the desires of the
Spaniards; but the little that there is of it sufficed the Indians,
who value it only for the little use that they make of it, since it
does not enter at all into trade. There is a quantity of honey and
wax in their mountains; and since the Spanish have lived there they
have built many sugar mills; and sugar is so common there that one may
buy twenty-five libras of sixteen onzas apiece for one teston. They
have three varieties of fruit that are most common: bananas, santors,
and birinbines. [103] There are fifteen or sixteen kinds of bananas,
some of them are sweet, but that sweetness has an admixture of bitter
in others. Some of them smell good, but all of those varieties are
very agreeable to the taste. I know of no fruit in Europa to which
to compare them, unless it be the musas which grow in Sicilia. The
birinbines and santors are eaten preserved more often than in any
other way, because of their tartness; when prepared in preserves,
they taste like plums. If they are allowed to ripen on the tree,
they smell like quinces, although they have no other resemblance
to quinces at all. Those islands have many other trees which grow
wild. Their mountains furnish them with roots, from which they draw
their most usual nourishment; these are called pugaian and corot. [104]
They have other roots which they cultivate, such as the apari, the
ubi, the laquei, and others which they call camotes, which are the
potatoes [105] of Espana. The Spaniards use the last named, as also
do the Indians.
But the most useful tree of all is the palm--not that which bears
the date, for they do not have that species, but those which bear
cocoanuts, of the size of an orange. Those nuts are filled with a very
sweet liquor, which is very good to drink. They make wine, vinegar,
and honey of it; and when that fruit becomes dry as it ripens, that
liquor changes into white meat harder than an almond. It is from
that meat that oil is extracted and a milk resembling that extracted
from almonds. The cocoanut has two coverings. The first, which is
less hard, is used for tinder when dried; also for the rigging and
smaller cordage of the ships, or as tow for calking them. The other
covering is harder, and is used for drinking vessels, or as dishes
in which to prepare their food. The palm-leaves are the tiles with
which their houses are thatched. The trunks of the same trees are
used to support the houses, and in making the pillars. They have one
other tree which is no less useful to them, for it serves them as a
perpetual spring, and furnishes water to an entire village--which,
being located on a very high and dry site, has no other water than
what they get from that tree by making incisions in its trunk, and
in its largest branches; for a clear sweet water flows out of it. The
trees of those islands are always green, and there are only two species
that shed their leaves, one called batelan, [106] and the other dabdas.
The reeds [i.e., bamboos] of those islands have the following
peculiarity, namely, that they are as much as three palmos
in circumference and eight brazas in length. They are used as
the materials out of which to build a whole house. The pillars,
the lintels, the stairs, the floors, and the walls are made from
them. They are used as rafters for the roof, and split into several
parts, as tiles for covering the roof. They have no other saucepans in
which to cook their food than those reeds, and no other wood to burn;
for the trees serve them as material with which to build their little
boats--or rather, rafts--with which they carry for traffic their rice,
cocoanuts, and abaca, the hemp of that country.
Those islands have a great abundance of various kinds of oranges,
peculiar to those countries for their good taste. I have seen them so
large that they were four palmos in circumference. Some were red as
scarlet inside, and very sweet. There are some which contain another
little orange in the place of the seeds; and these are called on that
account "oranges which have children." [107]
I will place in the list of vegetables a sort of leaf which serves
them for nourishment, or rather for refreshment. It is used very
commonly among the Indians, both Christians and Mahometans, and even
among the Spaniards. A mixture is made of it which is called mamuen,
into which three things enter: one is this leaf, which is called buio,
which is smooth, and resembles in color and size a large ivy leaf,
but it is not so thick. It smells very good, and is aromatic. It is
planted under some dry tree, on which it climbs. The other fruit that
enters into that mixture is called bonga, and it is as large as an
olive. Lastly, they mix in a small quantity of quicklime. A little
cornucopia is made of the leaf, the bonga and lime are placed inside,
and it is all chewed together. That mixture colors the saliva as red
as blood, and the lips the most beautiful vermilion ever seen. It
preserves the teeth, strengthens the stomach, and produces a very
good breath. Eighty of those leaves can be bought at Manila for one
real. Nevertheless, so great a quantity is consumed that it has been
ascertained that it was sold in one year to the amount of ninety
thousand reals, of seven and one-half sols apiece.
There are many snakes in those islands, which are very dangerous;
some of them, when they have young, attack people. [108] The bite of
those called omodro is very dangerous, and those who are bitten by
it do not live one-half day. It is from that effect that it derives
its name, for odro signifies one-half day. There is another very
large snake called saua. I have killed one of that species which was
two and one-half brazas long. The skin of another, which measured
thirty-two [Spanish] feet in length, was brought to our residence
at Manila. The sauas hang to the branches of trees along the roads,
whence they dart down upon people, or deer, or on any other prey. They
wind themselves three or four times around the body, and after having
broken the creature's bones devour it. But God has provided a number
of herbs in those islands which are used as antidotes to all kinds of
poisons. Roots and herbs are found in the mountains, which are so many
specific remedies against snake-bites; the chief ones are manongal,
manambo, logab, boroctongon, maglingab, ordag, balucas, bonas, bahay,
igluhat, dalogdogan, mantala.
There are also animals in those islands of which I ought to give
a description. The civet-cat is found in the mountains. Its skin
resembles that of a tiger, and it is no less savage than the tiger,
although much smaller. It is captured and bound, and, after its civet
is obtained, which is contained in a little pouch under its tail,
it is set at liberty to be caught once more. The crocodiles, of which
their rivers are full, are so huge that when their jaws are open, a
man of the largest size could stand upright between the two jaws. The
crocodile is quite covered with scales; has scarcely any tongue; and
its teeth are set closely together, and are very sharp, and arranged
in several rows. The teeth of the middle lower row fit into holes
or breaks in the others which correspond to them in the upper jaw;
and consequently, when it seizes its prey, there is no force that
can make it let go. It lays a great number of eggs. In the water
it is furious, and attacks boats. It is not so greatly feared when
ashore--where it goes sometimes to seize some prey, or to sun itself.
The woman-fish [109] is so called because its face and breast are
quite like those of women, whom it also resembles in its manner of
copulation with the male. That fish is as large as a calf, and its
flesh, of which I have eaten, tastes like beef. It is caught with lines
as thick around as the finger, and when the line becomes fast within
[its mouth] it is killed by javelin-thrusts. Its bones and teeth have
great virtue against all sorts of dysentery, especially against bloody
discharges. Some have tried to assert that those fish were the sirens
of the sea, so celebrated among the poets; but they have nothing of
the beauty of face and of the voice that is attributed to sirens.
I will end [this account], finally by a description of the tabon, an
ashen-colored bird as large as a hen, which lays eggs three times as
large as those of hens, but which lays them in a peculiar manner. It
chooses desert islands and those full of sand, where it first makes
a hole one or one and one-half brazas deep; and after having laid its
eggs, it covers them over with sand. The chicks break the shell, and
gradually turn up the sand that covers them with their feet. If any
of those chicks is so unfortunate as to break the egg at the lower
end, it does not succeed so well, and dies for lack of strength to
overturn the sand. Sometimes one hundred and fifty of the eggs are
found in the same hole. I have eaten those eggs often when I have
had occasion to stop at those islands during my voyages.
There is cinnamon in the island of Mindanao; and pepper at Patani,
and at Champan, a country lying on the mainland of China.
The political government of those islands is the same as that of other
provinces subject to the crown of Castilla. The governor resides at
Manila, and is president of the Audiencia; while, as captain-general,
he has charge of all the posts of peace and war, as well as of the
encomiendas of one or two thousand Indians [each], who pay their
encomendero the tribute that the other Indians pay to the king. But the
encomendero who has been appointed by the captain-general is obliged
to get the confirmation of his grant from Madrid within three years.
The governor establishes the corregidors and alcaldes-mayor, or
governors of the provinces into which these islands are divided. He
appoints the captains and the admirals of the fleets which sail to
Acapulco and Terrenate annually. He takes cognizance of civil affairs,
on which the royal Audiencia pronounces the decisions or decrees. That
Audiencia is composed of a president (who is always the governor), four
oidores or auditors, and one procurator-fiscal. There are four cities
in the Filipinas--Manila, Zebu, [Nueva] Cacares, and Nueba Segovia;
and one town, called Arevalo. There is a garrison at Manila and at
Cabite, which is the port where the warships enter, six miles from
Manila. There are also garrisons at Zebu, Otong, Carouga, Lanbuangang
[sc. Zamboanga], Jolo, Nueva Segobia, the island of Hermosa, and
the Malucas. All those ports are fortified, and have their redoubts
mounted with artillery. Whatever is necessary for those garrisons is
sent from Manila. It would be a very difficult task to mention the
names of all the different peoples among the Indians, and in those
islands, who are subject to the king of Espana. There are fully three
hundred thousand families, who might count one million souls.
The archbishop of Manila has three suffragans, those of Zebu,
[Nueva] Cacares, and Nueva Segovia. They have no other income than
what the king gives them; that of the archbishop is three thousand
ducados, while each of his suffragans receives one thousand five
hundred. The city of Manila is small, but it is beautiful and well
fortified. Its houses are all built of stone, and are spacious,
and very airy. Its streets are long and straight, and one may walk
in the shade all hours of the day. The churches are beautiful. There
are five convents: that of the Augustinians (which is the oldest);
that of the Franciscans, that of the Dominicans, [110] and that
of the discalced Augustinians. There are two universities, one in
charge of the fathers of St. Dominic, and the other in that of the
Society. Those religious are also distributed among the islands,
where they have charge of the instruction of the Indians. The city is
enclosed by a fine wall and moat; and its redoubt and its ramparts
are well garrisoned with artillery. At the foot of its wall flows a
river, which is navigable; over this is a wooden bridge, with stone
pillars. There are two thousand Spaniards in Manila (counting soldiers
and inhabitants), and twice as many Indians. There are also twenty
thousand Sangleys or Chinese, who practice all the arts needed in
a community; and every year they pay nine escudos and six reals of
tribute. Galleons much larger than those which sail the Mediterranean
are built at Manila; for there is a great abundance of wood, pitch,
and abaca--which resembles European hemp, and of which good rigging
is made for the ships. The anchors are imported from Goa; and the iron
for the nails comes from China in little bars, and is very serviceable.
The Spaniards of the Manilas trade throughout the islands of that
archipelago, at Borney and Camboa, whence they carry wax, butter,
camanguien or storax, ivory, and bezoar. They formerly traded in Japon,
before the persecution of the Christians was begun. Thence were carried
iron, flour, all sorts of fruit, and little boxes, and cabinets,
varnished [i.e., lacquered] and very well made. Nangoza [sc. Nagasaki],
which was the port where that trading took place--and for which it was
very suitable, because it is not distant from Manila--is now closed
to us; for the emperor of Japon believes that people are entering his
country, under pretext of that trade, to preach the gospel, the thing
that he fears most of all. We trade also with the Portuguese of Macao,
who come to the Manilas every year with two or three ships, and bring
here silks, musk, precious stones, and eagle and calambac wood--which
is a sweet-scented wood that is very valuable. The inhabitants of the
Manilas also go to Macao sometimes, to carry their merchandise there;
but their chief trade is with the Chinese, who come annually, at the
end of the month of December and the beginning of January, with twenty
or thirty vessels, laden with products and valuable merchandise. They
sail usually from Ocho and Chincheo, ports of Anay, a province of China
which faces the Filipinas. They carry small oranges, nuts, chestnuts,
plums, raisins, and chicuei--a fruit resembling an apple, very round,
transparent, and, when it is ripe, having the color of yellow amber;
its peel is very loose, and its flesh very sweet and very pleasant
to the taste. [111] They also bring all sorts of cloth stuffs, and
some of these are as fine as those which come from France and the
Low Countries; and many black stuffs of which the Indians make their
clothes. They bring silk, plain and twisted, of all colors; damasks,
velvets, tabbies, and double taffetas; cloths of gold and silver,
galoons, and laces; coverlets, and cushions; and porcelain--although
not the finest variety, as the trade in that is prohibited. They bring
pearls and gold; iron, in little bars; thread, musk, and fine parasols;
paste gems, but very beautiful to look at; saltpetre, and flour;
white and various-colored paper; and many little fancy articles,
covered with varnish, and gold in relief, made in an inimitable
manner. Among all the silk stuffs brought by the Chinese, none is
more esteemed than the white--the snow is not whiter; and there is
no silk stuff in Europa that can approach it.
The Chinese return in the month of March, and carry to China silver
in return for their merchandise. They also take a wood called
sibueno [112]--that is, brazil-wood, which is used in making their
ink. Those Chinese merchants are so keen after gain that if one sort
of merchandise has succeeded well one year, they take a great deal
of it the following year. A Spaniard who had lost his nose through a
certain illness, sent for a Chinese to make him one of wood, in order
to hide the deformity. The workman made him so good a nose that the
Spaniard, in great delight, paid him munificently, giving him twenty
escudos. The Chinese, attracted by the ease with which he had made
that gain, laded a fine boatload of wooden noses the following year,
and returned to Manila. But he found himself very far from his hopes,
and quite left out in the cold; [113] for in order to have a sale
for that new merchandise, he found that he would have to cut off the
noses of all the Spaniards in the country.
Besides the Chinese merchandise that is brought into the islands,
there is wax, cinnamon, civet, and a sort of very strong cotton cloth
which is called campotes [misprint for lampotes]. All those goods are
exported to Mexico, where they are sold at great profit, and on the
spot. I do not believe there is a richer traffic in the world than
that. The duties that the king gets out of it are large, and, with
what he gets from the islands, amount to fully five hundred thousand
escudos. But he spends eight hundred thousand in the maintenance of
his governor, the counselors, the archbishop, the bishops, the canons,
those who possess the prebends, and the other ecclesiastics. The
greater part of that sum is employed in the equipment of the galleons
that are sent to Mexico and to the Malucas, and of those which are kept
in those seas to resist the Dutch. A considerable sum is spent on the
maintenance of alliance with the kings of those districts--especially
with the king of one of the Malucas, called Tidore. Consequently,
the king of Espana rather holds those islands for the conservation
there of the faith, as was stated by Felipe the Second in a certain
council-meeting, than for the profit that is derived from them to this
hour. The Dutch have been unable to get a footing on those islands,
although they have attacked them many times. They have a considerable
city [i.e., Batavia] on the island of Java Major, whence they send
what their garrisons at the island of Hermosa, Amboina, and Terrenate
need. They have made an alliance with the inhabitants of that island,
and they secure the greater part of the cloves of the Malucas. They
trade in Japon, in a port called Firando. The Chinese have refused
to have trade with them, because of a tradition current in China,
that blue-eyed men will some day conquer them.
The voyage from Manila to Mexico lasts four, five, six, or seven
months. Manila, which lies in thirteen and one-half degrees, is left
in the month of July, during the vendavals. The course is taken to
the north, until the ship reaches thirty-eight or forty degrees. The
pilots take that course because they are more certain of finding
winds; for otherwise they would run the risk of encountering calms,
which are more to be dreaded in long voyages than are the most furious
gales. From the time that the Filipinas are left until almost the coast
of Nueva Espana is reached, no land is seen, except a chain of islands
called the Ladrones, or La Sapana, [114] which lie three hundred
leguas from the Embocadero of the Filipinas. The people who inhabit
those islands are barbarians, who go quite naked. When our vessels
pass there, those people carry to them fish, rice, and fresh water,
which they exchange for neither gold nor silver, but only for iron,
which they value much more, because of the use to which they put it in
the manufacture of their tools, and for the building of their little
boats. The first land sighted after that is the island of Cedros,
quite near the Mexican coast. The open expanse between that island
and those of the Ladrones is subject to great storms, which are to
be feared especially near the Japanese Islands--which are passed,
however, without being sighted. During the whole course of so long
a voyage, scarcely a day passes without seeing a bird. There are
usually some birds that live in the sea, and many large whales and
porpoises are seen.
As the [American] coast is neared, at a distance of sixty, eighty,
or one hundred leguas signs are to be seen in the sea by which it is
recognized that the ship is within that distance. Those signs consist
of long reeds, brought down by the rivers of Nueva Espana, which being
massed together resemble a kind of raft; and on those reeds are to be
seen monkeys--another sign that they are approaching the coast. When
the pilot discovers those signs, he immediately changes his course,
and instead of continuing east he puts the nose of the ship south,
in order to avoid getting caught in the land, or in some gulf whence
he would have a hard time to get out; but, when he has sighted the
coast of Nueva Espana, he follows it to the port of Acapulco, which
lies in eighteen degrees.
Acapulco is a fine port, well sheltered from all the winds, and
defended by a celebrated redoubt. There the passengers and goods are
disembarked, and are afterward carried by mules to the City of Mexico,
which is eighty leguas distant thence. The way is desert and bestrewn
with mountains; and the pest of mosquitoes is suffered, as well as the
extreme heat. In order to go to Espana from Mexico one goes to the port
of Vera Cruz, a journey of eighty-five leguas; en route is passed the
city of Los Angeles, which has about six thousand inhabitants, and
whose bishop gets a salary of sixty thousand escudos. The reefs and
rocks at the mouth of the port of Vera Cruz defend the entrance better
than the fortress that commands it, although that fort is an excellent
one. At that port anchor the trading fleets that come from Espana,
laden with wine, olive-oil, cloths, wax, cinnamon, paper, and other
European merchandise. Those trading fleets formerly passed the winter
there, as they arrived [formerly] in the month of June, and remained
there until the same month of the following year. Now they reach that
port in the month of May, and leave about the month of August. They
take as a rule three months to go to Espana. For my part, I took
one hundred days in making that voyage. The port of Havana in Cuba,
which is the best port of the Western Indias--and which is very safe,
and defended by three redoubts--is touched at. There the two trading
fleets--that of Mexico and that of Tierrafirme--are united with the
galleons. Thence, after having coasted along the shores of Florida,
and of Nueva Francia, they make the cape of Fineterre [Finisterre]
or San Vincent, in order to lay their course toward Cadiz, which is
the end of their voyage. That will also be the end of this relation,
which I have written in order to be obedient to a person to whom I
earnestly desire that it may prove agreeable.