The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 29 of 55, 1638–40 / 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

by Unknown

Value of Corcuera’s Seizures in Jolo

[Under date of Manila, August 2, 1638, the city cabildo of Manila write the king a detailed account of Corcuera’s campaign in Joló, which was begun in December, 1637. Inasmuch as this letter covers ground sufficiently treated in documents already presented in this series, it is not here given. The original is conserved in the Archivo general de Indias with pressmark, “est. 68, caj. 1, leg. 32;” and it is presented by Pastells in his edition of Colin (iii, pp. 528–532). Pastells (iii, pp. 532, 533) follows this letter by a document showing the value of the artillery and other things seized from the Joloans, and the money value of the captives who were sold as slaves. This document is conserved in the same archives and has the same pressmark as the above. It is as follows:]

The relation of the expense incurred on his Majesty’s account during the expedition made to the kingdom of Joló by Don Sebastián Hurtado de Corcuera, in December, 1637; also the value of what was seized and gained from the enemy; and the net gain. Subtracting the one from the other, the result is as follows:

	pesos	tomins	granos
Gained from the enemy,	28,345	7	0
Expenses of the expedition,	26,314	5	4
Net remainder of gain,	2,031	1	6

The value of what was gained from the enemy can be analyzed in the following form:

[A list, partially duplicate, of the artillery taken from the Joloans follows, of which we present only the final summary, in order to avoid such duplication. It appears that the artillery when taken to Manila was appraised by one Melchor Pérez, royal chief of artillery and artillery-founder.]