[252] This excellent custom has entirely perished.—Rizal.

"The president of our royal Audiencia of Filipinas and one auditor of that body, shall, at the beginning of each year, examine the accounts of our royal officials, and shall finish their examination within the two months of January and February. On finishing their examination they shall send a copy of them to our council for the reason contained in the following law. Should the examination not be finished in the said time, our officials shall receive no salary. The auditor who shall assist in examining the accounts shall receive as a compensation the twenty-five thousand maravedis that are ordained; but he shall receive that amount only in that year that he shall send the said accounts concluded to our council." Ordinance 97, Toledo, May 15, 1596. (Ley ix.)

"For the accounts of our royal treasury, which must be furnished in the usual form by our officials of the Filipinas Islands annually, during the administration of their duties, the officials shall deliver for inventory all the books and orders pertaining to those accounts, and all that shall be requested from them and that shall be necessary. They shall continue the course of their administration [of their duties] with new and similar books. These accounts shall be concluded before the governor of those islands, and the auditor whom the Audiencia and the fiscal of that body may appoint. In case of the finding of any doubts and remarks it is our will that the auditor and governor resolve and determine them, so that they may be concluded and finished. And inasmuch as the factor and overseer must give account of certain things in kind and products of great weight and tediousness, we order that that account be examined every three years, and that the concluding and settling of the doubts and remarks shall be made in the form declared. And we order that when the said accounts of the said islands are completed and the net balances struck, they shall be sent to our Council of the Indias, so that the accountants of its accounts may revise and make additions to them according to the manner of the accountancy." Valladolid, January 25, 1605. (Ley x.)

The above two laws are taken from Recopilacion de leyes, lib. viii, tit. xxix.

[253] The Chinese engaged in agriculture and fishing now [1890] are very few.—Rizal.

[254] The Rizal edition misprints fuerca e premio as fuerza a premio.

[255] The custom of shaving the head, now prevalent among the Chinese, was imposed upon them by their Tartar conquerors.

[256] A kind of stocking called tabi.—Rizal.

[257] The following law was issued at Segovia July 4, 1609, and appears in Recopilacion de leyes, lib. iii, tit. iv, ley xviii: "The governor and captain-general of the Filipinas Islands shall ever strive to maintain friendly relations, peace, and quiet, with the emperor of Japon. He shall avail himself, for that purpose, of the most prudent and advisable means, as long as conditions permit; and he shall not risk the reputation of our arms and state in those seas and among oriental nations."

[258] This port (established before 1540) was in Colima, Mexico, near the present Manzanillo. It was plundered and burned by the English adventurer Thomas Candish, on August 24-25, 1587.

[259] Thus named because seamen and voyagers noticed especially the lateen sails of the light vessels used by the natives of the Marianas.—Rizal.

[260] A marine fish (Sparus auratus), thus named because it has spots of golden-yellow color.

[261] A chart of the Indian Ocean, by L. S. de la Rochette (pub. London, 1803, by W. Faden, geographer to the king) shows three volcanoes in about 25 deg. north latitude, and but a few degrees north of the Ladrones. One of them is called "La Desconocida, or Third Volcano," and the following is added: "The Manilla ships always try to make this Volcano."

[262] A group of islands called Shidsi To, lying in 34 deg. 20'.—Rizal.

[263] "Thirty-eight degrees" is probably an error for "twenty-eight degrees," and these islands [the first ones mentioned in the above sentence] would be the Mounin-Sima Islands, lying between 26 deg. 35' and 27 deg. 45'; and Lot's Wife in 29 deg. 51', and Crespo, in 32 deg. 46', which [latter] are supposed by the Univers Pittoresque to be the Roca de Oro [rock of gold] and the Roca de Plata of the ancient maps.—Stanley.

For these latter islands, see Vol. XIV, p. 272, note 45.

[264] A fungous substance that grows in the sea, and contains signs of life.

[265] Probably the dogfish, a species of shark.

[266] Most of these places can be identified on the old maps of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and most of the names are retained today. The island of Cedros is shown on a map of 1556 (Ramusio: Vniversale della parte del mondo nvovamente ritrovata). The island of Cenizas is shown, on the old maps, in about 32 deg., and Cedros in about 29 deg.. The Marias or Tres Marias Islands are Maria Madre, Maria Magdalena, and Maria Cleofas. Cape Corrientes is south of La Valle de Banderas and Chametla. Socatul is called Socatula and Zocatula. An English map of 1626, engraved by Abraham Goos, shows the town of Ciguatlan, north of Aquapulco, which may be the same as Morga's Ciguatanejo. Los Motines cannot be identified.

[267] Acosta in his History of the Indies (Hakluyt Soc. edition, London, 1880) says of the courses between the Philippines and New Spain: "The like discourse is of the Navigation made into the South sea, going from New Spaine or Peru to the Philippines or China, and returning from the Philippines or China to New Spaine, the which is easie, for that they saile alwaies from East to West neere the line, where they finde the Easterly windes to blow in their poope. In the yeere 1584, there went a shippe from Callao in Lima to the Philippines, which sailed 2000 and 700 leagues without sight of land, and the first it discovered was the Iland of Lusson, where they tooke port, having performed their voiage in two moneths, without want of winde or any torment, and their course was almost continually vnder the line; ... The returne is like vnto the voiage from the Indies vnto Spaine, for those which returne from the Philippines or China to Mexico, to the end they may recover the Westerne windes, they mount a great height, vntill they come right against the Ilands of Iappon, and, discovering the Caliphornes, they returne by the coast of New Spaine to the port of Acapulco."

[268] Bartolome Leonardo de Argensola was born in 1566 of a family of Italian origin, being the second son. Taking orders, he became rector of Villahermosa in 1588, and chaplain to Maria of Austria, the queen, in 1598. After the latter's death he was commissioned by the Conde de Lemos, president of the Council of the Indias, to write a history of the conquest of the Moluccas. He later spent some time in the kingdom of Naples, and about 1618 was made historian of Aragon. He died at Zaragoza in 1631. In addition to the present history, which is noted for its excellent literary style, he wrote Primera parte de los anales de Aragon (Zaragoza, 1630) the continuation of the Anales of Zurita. He was also a poet, whose poems are remarkable for their purity of style and loftiness of sentiment; they are published, with those of his elder brother, under the title Rimas de Lupercio i del doctor Bartolome Leonardo de Argensola (Zaragoza, 1634). One of the chief poems is an ode in honor of the church after the battle of Lepanto.

[269] The original book contains numerous side notes indicative of the subject matter of the text. We omit such notes in our translated extracts.

[270] The above places are identified as follows: Cafa is the modern Kaffa or Theodosia, a Russian seaport on the Black Sea; Trapisonda is either the city or district of Trebizond or Tarabozan (called by the Turks Tarabesoon, and formerly Traplezus); Barcito (misprint for Bareito?), Lepo, and Damasco, are Beirut, Aleppo, and Damascus respectively.

[271] Argensola defines this title, which he also spells sangaje, as equivalent to "count" or "duke," and says that it may be derived from senchaq, a Turkish word meaning "captain."

[272] Argensola gives a description of the clove in book ii, pp. 52-54 of his work.

[273] The Dutch.

[274] Canafistulo: referring to the drug known as senna, which is obtained from the leaves of several species of Cassia. According to Retana (Zuniga's Estadismo, ii, p. 454*) the Bisayan name for this plant is ibabao (the ancient name of Samar Island).

[275] "Eagle" (Latin, aguila) is here a corruption of the Malay name agila, referring to the fragrant, resinous wood of a tree (Aguilaria agallocha) used for many centuries by Asiatic peoples, especially the Chinese, for incense; it is also called "Kalambak" and "aloes-wood." Calambuco is another species of this genus, its wood little fragrant, but used in cabinet work (Century Dictionary).

[276] True wealth and prosperity of the republic of Venice were largely due to its preeminence in the Oriental trade, carried on by the overland route through Asia, in caravans. By the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope the Portuguese opened the sea-route to India, by which the products of the East were carried to Europe more cheaply and in greater abundance; and the decline of Venetian prestige and wealth rapidly followed (in the sixteenth century).

[277] This probably refers to Giovanni Pietro Maffei, a noted Jesuit scholar and writer, and the book mentioned is his Historiarum Indicarum Libri xvi (Fiorenze, 1588). Maffei was born at Bergame about 1536, according to Moreri, but in 1533 according to Sommervogel. In 1563 he accepted the chair of rhetoric at Genoa, where he also acted as secretary of the republic of Genoa. August 26, 1565 (Sommervogel) he entered the Jesuit novitiate. He occupied a high place in the order until his death at Tivoli, October 20, 1603. Besides the book mentioned above, he wrote also a life of St. Ignatius Loyola, and a history of the pontificate of Gregory XIII, the latter of which was never published. His temper was irascible and his personality not very pleasing. He strove always to maintain a pure Latin style in his Latin writings.

[278] Argensola, like Morga, confuses the naming of the Philippine archipelago.

[279] The aquatic plant commonly known as "cat-tail flag" or reed (Typha latifolia).

[280] A measure, one-third vara in length.

[281] Small armed vessels like rafts.

[282] This was Father Antonio Marta, a Neapolitan, and superior of the Jesuit missions in the Malucas; with him was associated Antonio Pereira, so prominent in the expedition of Hurtado de Mendoza. See La Concepcion's account of Marta's services at this time (Hist. de Philipinas, ii, pp. 197-204). Marta is not mentioned by Sommervogel.

[283] See Dasmarinas's version of this proceeding, in Vol. VIII, pp. 239, 294; he there states that the Indians thus taken were to be freed at the end of three years' service. Cf. Vol. X, p. 214.

[284] See letters sent by Dasmarinas and his son Luis to the king of Camboja, as a result of this embassy, in Vol. IX, pp. 76-78 and 86, 87; and accounts of the Spanish expeditions to that country under Luis Dasmarinas, in Vol. IX, pp. 161-180, and X, pp. 216, 217, 226-240—also in Morga's Sucesos, chaps. V, VI (in Vol. XV of this series).

[285] Punta Azufre is on the southern coast of Batangas, Luzon; at a little distance is Punta Cazador—at the extreme southern point of Calumpan peninsula—probably the Caca of the text.

[286] Bastardo: the large sail which is hoisted on> a galley when there is little wind.

[287] Cf. La Concepcion's account of Dasmarinas's expedition, in Hist. de Philipinas, ii, pp. 194-212.

[288] See accounts of this and later expeditions to conquer Mindanao, in Vol. IX, pp. 181-188, 281-298; and X, pp. 53-75, 214, 215, 219-226.

[289] A small piece of ordnance.

[290] One of the early appellations of the strait between the northwest point of Samar and the southeast point of Luzon, now known as San Bernardino Strait. As it was the regular outlet for the vessels plying between the Philippines and Nueva Espana, this strait was also called Paso de Acapulco ("the Acapulco passage"). By some authorities the meridian of San Bernardino was used as the standard, or "meridian of departure." See San Antonio's Chronicas, part i, 55 (cited by Retana in Zuniga's Estadismo, ii, p. 156*; see also p. 409*).

[291] This is an error or misprint for "Morga."

[292] See Morga's account of this, where it appears that these were not English, but native Moro boats.

[293] The governor's letter is given by Argensola partly in synopsis, and partly in direct quotation. The latter we enclose in quotation marks. Sec in Vol. XIV (pp. 44-50) this letter, translated from the MS. preserved in the Sevilla archives; that is apparently at least a duplicate of the original letter to the Chinese official, and one of the despatches sent to Spain by Acuna.

[294] This Dutch commander, was Steven van der Hagen, and this his second voyage to East Indian waters. See Vol. XV, appendix B.

[295] A Portuguese pound, containing sixteen ounces.

[296] Anfion: a name given to opium in the East Indies.

[297] In the text, funcas; apparently a misprint for fustas or for juncos.

[298] A word derived from garra (of Old High German origin), signifying "the foot of a bird" or "the paw of a beast;" i.e., the anchor metaphorically "claws" the bottom of the water where it rests, struggling to retain its hold against the force of the wind. See Echegaray's Diccionario general etimologico (Madrid, 1887-89).

THE END