Dr. von Moellendorf, a sinologist, formerly German consul in Manila, states that the Philippines were once called “Gold” in China, because of their considerable export thither of the precious yellow metal. This parallels the Malay province named “Silver” (Perak or Pilak). Further he refers to Becker’s Geology of the Philippines where (on page 90 of the reprint) F. Karusch gives a former German Consul in Manila as authority for gold having been exported to China during the third century. If the Chinese authority for this can be found it will destroy the value of Dr. Groeneveldt’s observation (Notes on the Malay Archipelago and Malacca compiled from Chinese sources; Batavia, 1876, p. 4) on his quotation from the history of the Liang dynasty (Book 54, p. 1):
“In the time of Sun Ch’uean of the house of Wu (A. D. 222–251) two functionaries, called Chu-ying and K’antai, were ordered to go to the south; they went to or heard from a hundred or more countries and made an account of them.”
The commentator admits that “what these countries were is not stated,” but believes the “Malay islands were not amongst them, otherwise their name would have appeared at that time already in the annals of China.”
Since only a beginning has as yet been made in studying the voluminous records of China, a little further investigation may easily result in establishing this early date.
The last of the early three possible references to the Philippines, classed only as introductory because of their uncertain character, is from the narrative of Fahien, the details of whose home voyage seem to suggest that he passed in the vicinity of, if not through, this group of islands. This Buddhist priest in A. D. 400 went overland to India (Groeneveldt, Notes, p. 6) in search of Buddhist books and fifteen years later came back by sea in Indian vessels via Ceylon and Java. Shortly after his death a book was published, written from his narratives, giving “an account of Buddhist countries” (Fo Kuo Chi). After staying five months in Java where “heretics and Brahmans flourished but the law of Buddha hardly deserved mention,” Fahien embarked in May, 414, on a large merchant vessel with a crew of over two hundred and provisioned for fifty days. Steering a north east course for Canton, when over a month out they struck a typhoon, “a sudden dark squall accompanied by pelting rain.” The Brahmans felt that the priest of the rival religion was a Jonah and wanted to land him on one of the neighboring islands but were dissuaded by a trader representing the danger that would be to all on coming to China. The weather continued very dark and the pilots did not know their situation. Finally on the 78th day, with water almost gone and provisions short, they determined to change their course since they had already exceeded the usual fifty days for the run. So on a northwest route in twelve days more they reached not Canton but Shantung, nearly thirteen degrees farther north. Now this voyage on a map works out that they passed the Philippines about the time that marooning the priest on an island was under discussion, and, as St. John notes (The Indian Archipelago, London 1853, Vol. I, p. 103), “The Philippines * * * occupy the only part of the Archipelago liable to hurricanes.” Apparently the land was then unfamiliar to these early navigators.
No voyages of discovery were attempted by the Chinese but, creeping along the coast, they finally came to the Malay Peninsula and they worked from one island to another in the Indian Archipelago. (Groeneveldt, p. 1.) By this roundabout course in connection with the great island of Borneo, then called Polo and noted to have sent envoys to China in 518, 523 and 616, we find the Sulu islands suggested. The reference reads “at the east of this country is situated the land of the Rakshas (or lawless persons, or pirates.)” These were stated to have the same customs as the Poli people, unerring in throwing a saw-edged (wooden) discus knife, but using other weapons like those in China, in ways resembling Cambodia and with products like Siam’s. Murder and theft were punished by cutting off the hands and adultery by chaining together the legs for a year. In the dark of the moon came the sacrifices, bowls of wine and eatables set adrift on the surface of the water, as Bornean tribes supposed to be akin to the Bisayans and Tagalogs now are doing. The Polans collected coral and trained parrots to talk, and so probably did the men of Sulu. In their ears were the teeth of wild beasts and a piece of home-made cotton cloth was wrapped about their waists, sarong fashion. Their markets they held at night and they were accustomed to keep their faces covered.
Next in point of time is a reference through Southern Formosa, called by the Chinese P’i-sho-ye, which the author of “China before the Chinese” (De Lacouperie) believes is only a miscalling of Bisaya, and former Consul Davidson of Formosa corroborates this both on Chinese authority (Ma Touan-lin) and from local traditions. (Davidson: The Island of Formosa Past and Present, New York, 1903).
“Bands of uncivilized Malays” from the south drove into the interior the Formosans with whom the Chinese earlier had been familiar. So on the next expedition from the mainland, in 605, the Chinese leader was surprised to find on the coast strange inhabitants with whom he could not communicate. His surmise that the newcomers were Malays led the next expedition to take with it interpreters from different southern Malayan islands, of whom at least one made himself understood. The immigrants kept up communication with Luzon and on their rafts raided coast towns of China, as will be later seen.
Pangasinan once extended much farther north in Luzon and Mr. Servillano de la Cruz, a University of the Philippines student specializing in the history of that province, describes rafts of bamboo bound together with vines, of a size which two men can lift, yet used on rivers and by people venturing as far as four miles from the coast upon them.