Part 23
[11] This word is written Tono in the Ventura del Arco transcript. The ruler of Firando (the local form of Hirado, as it is more correctly written) was then Takanobu, who became daimio--"king," in the English and Spanish writers; but equivalent to "baron"--of that island. The name Tono Sama, applied to the daimio, is not a personal name, but a polite form, equivalent to "your Lordship." See Satow's notes on _Voyage of Saris_ (Hakluyt Society's publications, London, 1900), p. 79. Cocks speaks of this ruler as Figen Sama.
The "history of Hirado as a commercial port" up to 1611 is recounted by Satow (_ut supra_, pp. xliv-li).
[12] This commander is mentioned by Cocks as John Derickson Lamb. The ship called "Galeaça" in our text is "Gallias" in that of Cocks.
[13] Evidently Ilocos, as is shown by another mention near the end of this paragraph.
[14] Name of the Moro pirates who inhabit the little islands of the Sulu group east of Tawi-tawi, and the islands between these and Borneo; but on the last the name Tirones is also conferred--derived from the province of Tiron in Borneo, to which these islands are adjacent. See Blumentritt's list of Philippine tribes and languages (Mason's translation), in _Smithsonian Report_, 1899. pp. 527-547.
[15] "In 1611, Iyéyasu obtained documentary proof of what he had long suspected, viz., the existence of a plot on the part of the native converts and the foreign emissaries to reduce Japan to the position of a subject state... Iyéyasu now put forth strenuous measures to root out utterly what he believed to be a pestilent breeder of sedition and war. Fresh edicts were issued, and in 1614 twenty-two Franciscan, Dominican, and Augustinian friars, one hundred and seventeen Jesuits, and hundreds of native priests and catechists, were embarked by force on board junks, and sent out of the country." (Griffis's _Mikado's Empire_, p. 256.)
The priests mentioned in our text were put to death in June, 1617, at Omura (Cocks's _Diary_, i, pp. 256, 258).
[16] Vicente Sepúlveda was a native of Castilla, and entered the Augustinian order in that province; he was a religious of great attainments in knowledge and virtue. He arrived in the Philippines in 1606, became very proficient in the language of the Pampangos, and was a missionary among them for five years. In 1614 he was elected provincial of his order in the islands. "Thoroughly inflexible in character, he undertook to secure the most rigorous observance of the decrees and mandates of the latest father-visitor, on which account he incurred the great displeasure and resentment of many. By the death of Father Jerónimo de Salas, Father Sepúlveda became a second time the ruler of the province, as rector provincial; but he did not change in the least his harsh and rigid mode of government. A lamentable and unexpected event put an end to his already harassed life, on August 21, 1617." (Pérez's _Catálogo_, p. 76.)
[17] Jerónimo de Salas made his profession in the Augustinian convent at Madrid, in 1590, and reached the Philippines in 1595. He was a missionary to the Indians for some fifteen years, and was afterward elected to high positions in his order. "So exceptional was the executive ability of which he gave proof in the discharge of these offices that in the provincial chapter held in 1617 he was unanimously elected prior provincial. Most unfortunately, when so much was hoped from the eminent abilities of this very judicious and learned religious, an acute illness ended his valuable life; he died at Manila on May 17 of the same year." (Perez's _Catálogo_, p. 49.)
[18] Alonso Rincon was one of the Augustinians arriving in the Philippines in 1606. He was minister in various Indian villages until 1617, when he was appointed prior of the Manila convent. He was sent as procurator to Spain and Rome in 1618, and returned to Manila four years afterward. He died there in 1631.
[19] The Ventura del Arco transcript ends here; but it is followed by a note, thus:
_Note by the transcriber_: "The court of Rome was greatly offended at the just and proper procedure of the definitorio of the Order, giving them to understand that they should have concealed the crime and the criminals; but that, besides being against all morality and the necessity of making a public example of offenders, would have been impossible in this case, so notorious in Manila from the hour when the crime and the delinquents were discovered."
[20] Cf. the brief account of this tragic occurrence given by the Augustinian chronicler Juan de Medina, in his _Historia_ (1630), which will be presented in a later volume of this series.
[21] A fleet of five caravels arrived at Manila in 1612, which had come from Cadiz via the Cape of Good Hope; they were commanded by Ruy Gonzalez Sequeira, and brought reënforcements of nearly six hundred men.
[22] This was Alonso Fajardó y Tenza; for sketch of his career as governor, see appendix at end of _Vol_. XVII.
[23] These italic sidebeads represent marginal notes in the MS. from which this document is translated.
[24] So in the transcription, but apparently a copyist's error of _sesenta_ ("sixty") for _setenta_ ("seventy "). See _Vol_. III, p. 153.
[25] Evidently referring to the statement above (under the heading "Camarines") as to the use of gold by the Indians for their ornaments.
[26] Achen is at the northwest extremity of Sumatra, and Jambi is a state in the northeast part of the same island. Sumatra is the principal source of the black pepper of commerce. See articles "Sumatra," "Jambi," and "Pepper," in Crawfurd's _Dictionary of Indian Islands_. Negapatan is on the eastern coast of Hindustan, not far from Cape Comorin.
[27] Better known by its modern name of Johor; it is the Malay state at the southern end of the Malayan peninsula, and the British territory of Malacca and the Malay state of Pahang lie north of it. The town of Johor was founded in 1511, by the Malays who were then expelled from Malacca by the Portuguese. Johor was not an island, but part of the mainland: the text probably refers to one of the islands off its coast on which a Dutch post may have been located; some of these islands are still possessed by the Dutch.
[28] Apparently a corruption of the name Masulipatam, a city on the Coromandel coast of India--not, as Heredia calls it, an island.
[29] This last paragraph decides the authorship of this document, plainly indicating that of Pedro de Heredia, who filled the post he mentions in the last sentence, and captured the Dutch commander van Caerden.
[30] Evidently a reference to the hospital at Los Baños (see _Vol_. XIV, p. 211).
[31] _Achotes [hachotes] para los faroles_: A large wax candle, with more than one wick, or a union of three or four candles, which was used for the lanterns.
[32] The bahar (from _bahara_, a word of Sanscrit origin) has long been in quite general use in the East. The word is found variously spelled, "bahare," "bare," and "vare." Its value varies in different localities, there being two distinct weights--one, the great bahar, used for weighing cloves, other spices, etc.; and the small bahar, about 150 kilos or 400 pounds avoirdupois, used for weighing quicksilver, various metals, certain drugs, etc. John Saris, writing of the commerce of Bantam, says: "A sacke is called a Timbang, and two Timbanges is one Peecull, three Peeculls is a small bahar, and foure Peeculls and an halfe a great Bahar, which is foure hundred fortie fiue Cattees and an halfe."
At Malacca and Achen, the great bahar is said by an old Dutch voyageur to contain 200 cates, each cate containing 26 taïels or 38 1/2 Portuguese ounces, weak; the small bahar, also 200 cates, but each cate of only 22 taïels or 32 1/2 ounces, strong; while in China the bahar contained 300 cates, which were equivalent to the 200 cates of Malacca. Instructions to François Wittert, commissary at Bantam, gives the following table for weights: 1 picol = 2 Basouts or Basauts = 100 catis; 1 hare = 9 basauts = 4 1/2 picols--which should have amounted to 600 Dutch pounds, but in the equivalent then rendered was only 540 pounds. Dutch annals also give equivalents in Dutch pounds as 380, 525, 550, and 625. Modern English equivalents in pounds avoirdupois for various places are: Amboyna, 597.607; Arabia--(Bet-el-falsi), 815.625, (Jidda), 183.008, (Mocha), 450; Bantam--(ordinary) 396, (for pepper) 406.780; Batavia, 610.170. See Satow's notes on _Voyage of John Saris to Japan_ (Hakluyt Society's publications, London, 1900), pp. 212, 213; _Recueil des voyages_ (Amsterdam, 1725); and Clarke's _Weights, Measures, and Money_ (N.Y., 1888).
[33] Apparently referring to the hostilities in the preceding year between the Dutch and English at Pulovay, a small island near Banda (see _ante_, note 8). See list of Dutch forts in 1612-1613 in the Moluccas, in _Voyage of John Saris_.
[34] A court minute of the English East India Company, dated November 12, 1614, has the following in regard to Dutch opposition to the English in the East Indies: "Yett he [_i.e._, John Saris] found the Dutch very opposite to hinder the English in their proceedings all that ever they might, as well by vndersellinge, contrarye to their promyse, at [_sic_] by all other means of discouradgement, makeinge shewe of waunte without any occasion."
(See _Voyage of John Saris_, p. lxiv.) Regarding the competition and hostility between the Dutch and English in the trade of the Indies, which often led to open warfare (as at Banda in 1617-1618), see _Voyage of Sir Henry Middleton_ (Hakluyt Society's publications, London 1855), and Kerr's _Collection of Travels and Voyages_ (Edinburgh, 1824), viii and ix. The attempts of James I of England to win alliance with Spain lend some color to the proposed English-Spanish alliance in the Moluccas.
[35] Apparently referring to the importation of quicksilver (via Manila) from China to Nueva España. (Sec _Vol_. XVII, p. 237.)
[36] These islands were discovered in 1568 by Alvaro de Mendaña; but for various reasons nothing was done to make them available as a conquest, and their location became so doubtful that many geographers disbelieved their existence, and even removed them from the maps. These islands were not rediscovered until late in the eighteenth century. See the Hakluyt Society's publication of the narratives of Mendaña and others, _Discovery of the Solomon Islands_ (London, 1901), with editorial comments by Lord Amherst of Hackney and Basil Thomson.
[37] From internal evidence it is apparent that this relation is written from Nueva España, a thing which the reader must constantly keep in mind; also that it was written in 1619--probably in January or February, as it was considered by the Council in May of that year.
[38] Delgado (_Historia_, pp. 418, 419) and Blanco (_Flora_, pp. 428-429) describe a tree called _dangcalan_, or _palo maría_ (_calophyllum inophyllum_--Linn.), which is probably the tree referred to in the text. While generally a tree of ordinary size, it is said to grow to huge dimensions in Mindanao. Besides its use as above mentioned, an oil or balsam is distilled from the leaves, or obtained from the trunk, which has valuable medicinal uses, in both external and internal application. This oil sometimes serves to give light, but the light is dim, and to anoint the hoofs of horses. It blooms in November, the flowers growing in bunches of seven or nine each; and its leaf is oval and tapering. The wood is light, exceedingly tough, and reddish in color. It is very plentiful in the Visayas, and generally grows close to the water. It is known by a number of different names, among them being bitanhol or bitanjol, and dincalin.
[39] Perhaps the guijo (also spelt guiso or guisoc; _Dipterocarpus guiso_--Bl.), a wood of red color, which is strong, durable, tough, and elastic; it produces logs 75 feet long by 24 inches square, and is now used in Hongkong for wharf-decks and flooring, but in Manila for carriage shafts (_U.S. Gazetteer of Philippine Islands_). Blanco says that this tree is much esteemed for carriage-wheels, and is also used for topmasts and keels. The Indians call it guiso, but the Spaniards have corruptly called it guijo. It is common in Mindoro.
[40] Probably the lauan (also called lauaan and sándana; _Dipterocarpus thurifera_--Linn.), a reddish white or ashy wood with brown spots, used chiefly in the construction of canoes, and producing logs 75 feet long by 24 inches square (_U.S. Gazetteer_). Blanco says that this tree yields a fragrant, hard, white resin, which is used instead of incense in the churches. San Agustin, quoted by Blanco, says that the planks of the sides of the ancient galleys were of lauaan, for balls do not chip this wood. Delgado mentions two species: lauaan mulato, in color almost dark red; and lauaan blanco (white), which was used as planking for boats.
[41] That is, the cubit; a measure of length equal to the distance from the elbow to the end of the middle finger. The _codo real_, or royal cubit, is three fingers longer than the ordinary codo. The geometrical codo is equivalent to 418 mm., and the codo real to 574 mm. See Velásquez: _New Dictionary of Spanish language_ (New York, 1902).
[42] The banabá (_Lagerstroemia speciosa_--Pers.; _Munchausia speciosa; Lagerstroemia flos reginæ_--Retz.) grows to a height of thirty to fifty feet, and varies in color from reddish white to dull red. Its flowers are red and very beautiful, and bloom in March. The tree is very common and used for many things, especially for ship and house construction, particularly the red variety. It is strong and resists the elements well. See _U.S. Gazetteer_ and Blanco's _Flora_.
[43] Perhaps a colloquial name given by the Spaniards, or a corruption of the native name.
[44] See _ante_, note 39.
[45] Also called the dúngol and dungon (_Sterculia cimbriformis_; D.C.). It yields logs 50 feet by 20 inches square. It is pale reddish in color, and is used for roof-timbers and the keels of vessels. It is strong but does not resist the seaworms. It blooms in March and December. See _ut supra_.
[46] _U.S. Gazetteer_ mentions the various woods used for shipbuilding as follows: Yacal or saplungan (_Dipterocarpus plagatus_--Bl.), betis (_Azaola betis_--Bl.), dúngon, and ípil or ypil (_Eperua decandra_--Bl.), for keels and stern-posts; antipolo (_Artocarpus incisa_--Linn.), for keels and outside planking; molave (_Vitex geniculata_--Bl.), for futtock-timbers and stem-crooks for frame-work; banabá, for outside planking and beams; _guijo_, for beams, masts, and yards; batitinan (_Lagerstroemia batitinan_), for keelsons and clamps; mangachapuy or mangachapoi (_Dipterocarpus mangachapoi_--Bl.), for water-ways and decktimbers; amuguis (_Cyrtocarpa quinquestila_--Bl.), for upper works and partitions; palo-maria, for futtock-timbers, masts and yards.
[47] The offices of those in charge of the building of ships would seem, from the following law, to have been a sinecure in the islands. This law is taken from _Recopilación de leyes_, lib. v, tit. xv, ley viii. "The governors of Filipinas appoint persons to build the galleons or boats, who are wont to cause great thefts and injuries to our royal treasury, and on the Indians. For their occupation they are given ten or more toneladas of cargo in the trading ships, on account of being relatives or followers of the governors. Some have had as many as forty toneladas, and have filled them with gold at forty reals per tae, or seven and one-half castellanos--forcibly seizing it from the Indians at an unjust price, in order afterward to sell it at ninety-six reals per tae. Inasmuch as they are persons of influence, their residencia is never taken. We order that the residencias of such builders, and of the others who shall have received and had money from the royal treasury for shipbuilding or any other sea or land expense, shall be taken, at the same time as those of the presidents and ministers who are obliged to give them. In respect to the governors not employing their relatives and kinsmen, servants, or followers, or those of the auditors, in these matters or in any others, they shall keep the rules and ordinances." Felipe IV, August 19, 1621.
[48] Short, round-headed tarpauling nails.
[49] Apparently another name for the palm-tree called by the Tagáls _cauong_ (_Arenga saccharifera_--Labill.; _Caryota onusta_--Bl.), also known as _negro cabo_ ("black head"). The leaf yields fibers that are long, black, and very strong; the cordage made from them is very durable, resisting even salt water. This is evidently the product elsewhere mentioned as "black cordage." See _U.S. Gazetteer_, p. 72; Blanco's _Flora_, p. 511. Concerning the abacá, see _Vol_. III, p. 263.
[50] That is, the natives were drafted from their respective villages for public works--nominally for wages paid them, but in reality, as this document alone would show, kept in a condition of practical slavery. Cf. the royal decree of May 26, 1609 (_Vol_. XVII, p. 79), regulating the services of the Indians.
[51] _Habas_: a species of bean. _Garbanzos_: see _Vol_. XII, p. 88, note 17.
[52] _Gerguetas_, for _jerguetas_: a coarse frieze or other coarse cloth.
[53] Our transcript reads at this point: "_quedaron en la ciudad de manila y puerto de cabite siete galeones los seis el uno de los quales._" We omit translation of the words "_los seis_," "the six," as being apparently a _lapsus calami_.
[54] See description of this naval contest _ante_, p. 37.
[55] See _Vol_. XVI, p. 272, _note_.
[56] The prebends of Spanish cathedrals directly above the prebends of canonries; or, the incumbents thereof.
[57] The racionero and medio racionero are prebendaries of Spanish cathedrals, ranking in the order named.
[58] The fourth vow of the Jesuits binds to implicit obedience in going wherever the pope orders them to go for the salvation of souls. The other three vows are the same as those professed by other religious.
[59] The original is "_todos alçaran luego de eras_," literally "all will immediately finish their harvesting of grain."
[60] Pyrard de Laval says--in his _Voyage_ (Hakluyt Society's publications, London, 1887-88), ii, pp. 256, 257: "When one is making a voyage from Goa, one says to which quarter one is going, whether to the south or the north coast. 'The north' is from Goa to Cambaye, 'the south' from Goa to the Cape of Comori.... From Bassains [Baçani of our text; the modern Bassein] comes all the timber for building houses and vessels; indeed, most of the ships are built there. It also supplies a very fine and hard free stone, like granite; ... All the magnificent churches and palaces at Goa and the other towns are built of this stone." The editors of the _Voyage_ add: "Bassein, twenty-six miles north of Bombay, was ceded to the Portuguese in 1536. It became the favorite resort of the wealthier Portuguese, the place being noted for handsome villas and pretty gardens. It was taken by the Mahrattas in 1739, after a siege of three months, in which the Portuguese, for the last time in India, fought with stubborn courage." Bassein was captured by the British in 1780. The term "Mogors" in the text refers to some of the kings who were vassals of the Great Mogul (_Vol_. XVII, p. 252).
[61] Diego de Pantoja, born in 1571, became a novice in the Jesuit order at the age of eighteen. Seven years later he embarked to join the mission in Japan; but on reaching Macao he was assigned as companion to the noted Jesuit missionary, Mateo Ricci, and the two founded the mission of Pekin. Being later expelled from the kingdom, Pantoja died at Macao in January, 1618 (Sommervogel). Ricci died at Pekin in May, 1610. In the archives not only of Spain, but of Italy, France, and England, are many and voluminous documents referring to the Catholic missions in China. The Jesuit missions there are very fully recounted in _Lettres édifiántes_.
[62] See Henry Yule's account of "Nestorian Christianity in China," in his _Cathay and the Way Thither_ (Hakluyt Society's publications, London, 1866), pp. lxxxviii-ci; cf. pp. clxxxi-iii, and 497. Regarding the Jews in China, see _ut supra_, pp. lxxx, 225, 341, 497, 533.
[63] In 1618 the Manchu leader Noorhachu invaded the province of Liaotung--now a division of the province of Sheng-King, and lying on the northern coast of the Korean Gulf; its southern extremity forms a long, narrow peninsula which terminates at the entrance of the Gulf of Pe-chili, and on it are the fortified posts of Dalny and Port Arthur, important strategic points commanding the entrance to that gulf, and prominent in the present war (May, 1904) between Russia and Japan. In Liaotung are also the important towns of Mukden and Niuchuang (Newchwang). In 1621 Noorhachu captured Mukden, and soon conquered the rest of the province; and, about twenty-five years later, his successors completed the conquest of China, expelling the Ming dynasty (which had begun in 1368), and establishing that of the Manchus, which still rules in China. For a detailed description of this conquest, see Boulger's _History of China_ (London and New York, 1900), pp. 97-125.
[64] There is an apparent hiatus here; perhaps it should read "before the last invasion."--_Trans_.
[65] Boulger says (_History of China_, p. 107): "During this campaign it was computed that the total losses of the Chinese amounted to 310 general officers and 45,000 private soldiers." Noorhachu defeated three Chinese armies, and captured the towns of Fooshun, Tsingho, and Kaiyuen.
[66] A phonetic rendering of Wanleh (_Vol_. III, p. 228). See account of his reign in Boulger's _History of China_, pp. 97-107.
[67] The Christian religion was first introduced into Cochinchina (a kingdom founded in 1570, by a Tonquin chief) by Spanish Franciscans, in 1583; but little was accomplished for the conversion of the heathen until 1615, when both Franciscans and Jesuits entered upon that work. See Crawfurd's account of the country, in his _Dictionary of Indian Islands_, pp. 105-112.
[68] See letter by Bishop Arce, _post_.
[69] This name is not to be found in Sommervogel.
[70] That is, Yedo; then, as now (but with the modern name Tokiô), the capital of the Japanese empire. The Castle of Yedo, first built in 1456-57, was the abode of the Tokugawa Shôguns from 1591--when it was assigned to Iyéyasu, who greatly enlarged it--until the close of that dynasty in 1868. See historical and descriptive account of this edifice, by T.R.H. McClatchie, in _Transactions_ of Asiatic Society of Japan, vol. vi (Tokyo, ed. 1888), pp. 119-154.
[71] The daimiôs constituted, under the old feudal organization of Japan, a class of territorial nobility, who numbered about two hundred and fifty. Under Iyemidzu (1623-51) the daimiôs were obliged to live in Yedo half the time with their families; and, before this, those nobles had been in the habit of visiting the reigning monarch at the capital. For account of the daimiôs and their vassals, the samurai, see Rein's _Japan_, pp. 318-328; and Griffis's _Mikado's Empire_, pp. 217, 321, 322.
[72] For a narrative of the persecutions of Christians in Japan and the suppression of that religion there, with the causes of that action on the part of Japan's rulers--Iyéyasu, Hidetada, and Iyemidzu, 1600-1650--see Rein's _Japan_, pp. 304-311; Griffis's _Mikado's Empire_, pp. 252-259; and J.H. Gubbins's "Introduction of Christianity into China and Japan," in _Transactions_ of Asiatic Society of Japan, vol. vi (Tokyo, ed. 1888); pp. 1-38--with supplementary information thereon by E.M. Satow (who reproduces Iyéyasu's celebrated proclamation of 1614), pp. 43-62.
[73] Cf. the account of these episodes (the maltreatment of Englishmen by the Dutch, and the loss of the Dutch ship) given by Richard Cocks in his _Diary_, pp. 51-76.