The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 07 of 55 1588-1591 Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of the Catholic Missions, as Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century

From this time I began to be undeceived, and to understand that the kingdom of China was not so inaccessible as the Portuguese had represented it. Then I wrote to your Majesty t...

Among the benefits which this city receives from the intercourse with the Sangleys, by no means the least important is that, while in España stone-masonry is so expensive and di...

It is very evident, and can be denied by no one, that the loss of that particular ship was ordained by God; for, three days before it reached the coast [of California], another...

They condemned no one to slavery, unless he merited the death-penalty. As for the witches, they killed them, and their children and accomplices became slaves of the chief, after...

In fulfilment of the command and decree of Doctor Santiago de Vera, governor and captain-general of these islands, and president of the royal Audiencia, I, Estevan de Marquina,...

He who informed your Majesty of the disorderly manner in which have been collected the tributes of the encomiendas which are not fully pacified, and how poorly the ordinances of...

Your Majesty seems to hold me guilty for having encouraged the slaves to leave the Spaniards. I do not know how blame can be placed on me therefor, since the Indians held as sla...

19. In regard to the trade of the said islands, on which their growth likewise depends, the said Father Alonso Sanchez relates that the large consignments of money sent there by...

Twenty-third conclusion: The religious who are in the Indias are not under obligation to go to Spain to obtain other religious; and if they could avoid it they would do wrong in...

There were also ghosts, which they called _vibit_; and phantoms, which they called _Tigbalaang_. They had another deception--namely, that if any woman died in childbirth, she an...

Third: In the encomiendas of the king, and in those of the encomenderos who, for the aforesaid reasons, ought not reside in their encomiendas, such persons shall be appointed, w...

44. Upon your arrival at those islands, and when the situation is actually before you, you shall investigate the new method and circumstances with which the new entrances and pa...

We, the corporation and magistrates of the city of Manila, for ourselves, and in the name of all these Filipinas Islands, and of their encomenderos, settlers, and discoverers, d...

Bishop Salazar writes to the king (June 24) a special communication regarding the Chinese (or Sangleys) at Manila. He apologizes for having formerly given, under a mistake as to...

The past year we were informed that the Indian chiefs of this district had met together at different times to discuss rebellion against your royal service, and the death of all...

Don Luis Balaya, chief of Bangos, was sentenced to exile from his village for two years, one prescribed and the other unconditioned. He was also condemned to pay ten taes of ore...

The King: To Gomez Perez Dasmariñas, [19] knight of the order of Santiago, and appointed by me governor and captain-general of the Phelipinas Islands. As soon as Father Alonso S...

The province of Pangassinan has five thousand tributarios, pacified, but without instruction. It is forty leagues' distance from this city, by either land or sea. His Majesty po...

[The Franciscans base their opinion upon the right of the king of Spain to impose tribute, as derived from the commission given to that country by the Holy See for the evangeliz...

This past year of eighty-eight I gave an account to your Majesty of the condition of this land. As the voyage is so full of sea-perils and danger from corsairs, and it is diffic...

On the twenty-seventh of February of this year, I had news from the Pintados Islands that, on the seventh of the said month, at one of the islands about eighty leagues south of...

explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manu...