By a religious who lived there for eighteen
years1
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 1539.2 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
[278]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
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 the [281]king
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 violence
[282]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;3 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, [283]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 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
[284]a sort of divinity. The Tagáls 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,4 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. [285]When
Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera conquered the island of Mindanao
three years ago,5 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 corocoro6 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 [286]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,
[287]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
[288]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.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
the [289]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.8 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.
They have learned to write from us9 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 [290]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 [291]“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; 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 [292]their grain from animals and from men who could
harm it, they scatter caltrops, which the old men call
tribulos,11 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 [293]of
beauty to have it thus.12 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 [294]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 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, [295]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 [296]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 España enter, there is a volcano
or mountain whence often issue flames, and always smoke.13 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 [297]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.14 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 [298]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.15 They have other roots which they cultivate, such
as the apari, the ubi, the laquei, and others
which they call camotes, which are the potatoes16 of 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 that [299]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,17 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 [300]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 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 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 [301]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.19 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
[302]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-fish20 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 [303]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 [304]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] 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 three
[305]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,21 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 [306]are 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,
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,
[307]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.22 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
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 made [308]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;24 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
[309]the 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,25 which lie three hundred
leguas from the Embocadero of the Filipinas. The people who
[310]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 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, [311]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. [313]
