The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 52, 1841-1898 / 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

VOLUME XVI

P. 30, note 3: Mazamune sent one of his nobles as ambassador, Felipe Francisco Taxicura, in company with Sotelo; see relations printed at Sevilla (1614) and Roma (1615). (Vindel, Catálogo, iii, p. 205.)

P. 112, note 129, middle: Worcester says (“Non-Christian Tribes of N. Luzon,” in Phil. Journal of Science, October, 1906, p. 807): “The Negritos do not tattoo themselves, but do ornament themselves with scar-patterns, produced by making cuts through the skin with slivers of bamboo (Plate xxiii, fig. 1). Into these cuts, which are arranged with more or less geometric symmetry, dirt is rubbed to cause them to become infected and to produce large scars.”

P. 160, note, line 7 from end: For “in regard to” read “by.”

P. 178, note 233: This explanation is erroneously applied by Stanley, as the piña is a Philippine fabric, and not Chinese. The reference in the text is to the cloth made from “China-grass” (Bohmeria nivea), on which see VOLS. XXII, p. 279, and XLIV, p. 267.

P. 180, note 235: Jagor (Reisen, p. 315) thinks that the chiquey is the same as the lei-tschi or lechía (on which see VOL. XXXVIII, p. 21); the latter was called Euphoria by Blanco, but is now known as Nephelium litchi.

Signatures of Diego Luis San Vitores, S.J., and others

[From MS. in Archivo general de Indias, Sevilla]

P. 201: The name of the Ladrones Islands was in 1668 changed by the missionary San Vítores to Marianas, in honor of Mariana, queen of Felipe IV. The group contains 17 islands, which—excepting Guam, the largest—belong to Germany, or, as it is called, “the German New Guinea Protectorate,” having been transferred to that power by Spain in 1899, together with the Carolinas and Palaos, for 25,000,000 pesetas. The original inhabitants (a Polynesian people) are known as Chamorros; but in later years a large Filipino element (soldiers and others) has mingled with them, and the people show a preponderance of the Filipino type. In 1898 the population of the group, exclusive of Guam (which contained about 9,000 people), was 1,938. Little was done for them by the Spaniards until 1668, when a Jesuit mission went to the Marianas under the direction of Diego Luis San Vítores. The attempts of the privileged class of natives to keep the new faith from the common people resulted in the loss of prestige by the former, conflict between the two classes, and martyrdom for some of the Jesuits—San Vítores meeting death thus on April 2, 1672. Nevertheless the missions made progress, and a few years later the Jesuits counted eight churches, three colleges, and over 50,000 converts (Crétineau-Joly, v, pp. 30–22). The military conquest of the islands by Spain was accomplished during the years 1676–98; and they were occupied from that time by a governor and a small force of troops. In 1828 a new plan for the government of these islands was formed at Madrid, by which the royal estates were suppressed, and the lands divided among the natives, who were also provided with cattle and tools at low rates; the governors were forbidden to trade, industries and commerce were declared open to the natives, and free ports were named. In 1855 Felipe de la Corte y Ruano Calderon went to the Marianas as governor, with orders to make certain needed reforms, and to make a full report on the condition of the islands, which he did. During the Spanish-American war of 1898, Guam was occupied by the United States before the governor had even heard of the outbreak of hostilities. For information regarding these islands, their people, and history, consult Montero y Vidal’s Historia de Filipinas—which contains (i, pp. 350–352) a list of authorities, both MS. and printed—and Archipiélago filipino, pp. 438–442; 2nd bibliographies of the Philippines, especially those of Retana, Griffin, and Vindel, already cited, and Griffin’s List of Books on Samoa and Guam (Washington, 1901). As for the missions there, see Francisco García’s Vida y martyrio de Sanvitores (Madrid, 1683); Gobien’s Histoire des Isles Marianes (Paris, 1700), largely a translation from the preceding; Murillo Velarde’s Hist. de Philipinas, which contains several chapters on this subject; Concepción’s Hist. de Philipinas, vols. vii, viii; and especially Stöcklein’s Neue Welt-Bott (Augsburg, Gratz, and Wien, 1728–58), vols. i, iv, and v, which contain matter on missions in Filipinas, Marianas, and Palaos, most of which is not to be found in Lettres édifiantes.