The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 — Volume 03 of 55 / 1569-1576 / 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 Beginning of the Nineteenth Century

by Unknown

[1] Internal evidence indicates that this list was prepared in New Spain. In the MS., in the right-hand column are enumerated the articles demanded for the Philippines; on the left is a statement of articles sent—various memoranda being made on each side. As here presented, the items in the left-hand column follow (within parentheses) the corresponding items on the right hand.

[2] The Spanish quintal (100 libras), varied in different provinces; that of Castilla was equivalent to 101.6097 United States pounds. Other denominations: 25 libras = 1 arroba; 4 arrobas = 1 quintal; 20 quintals = 1 tonelada.

[3] Of these measures of capacity, the first set are for liquid measure: 4 copas = 1 cuartillo; 4 cuartillos = 1 azumbre; 8 Page 119nazumbres = 1 arroba mayor or cantara. This arroba equals 4.26304 gallons, and is supposed to contain the weight of 35 libras of pure (i.e., distilled) water. The arroba for oil, however, is only 3.31853 gallons.

The other measures are for dry substances. Hanega is only another form of fanega (= 1.599 bushels), which is described in Vol. II, note 72; the celemín is the same as the almude (note 20, ante). Table: 4 ochavillos = 1 racion; 4 raciones = 1 cuartillo; 2 cuartillos = 1 medio; 2 medios = 1 almude; 12 almudes = 1 fanega; 12 fanegas = 1 cahíz.

[4] References to the shares, in goods discovered or produced, which were to be set aside for the king and the church.

Relation of the Conquest of the Island of Luzon

An account of the discovery and conquest of the islands of Luzón and Mindoro, together with the most important events which took place therein, being a brief and summarized relation of the conquest and reduction of all that has been conquered and subdued in these islands up to the present time. Likewise is contained herein a description of the civilization of the people and their mode of living; the weapons which they possess and use; and the forts which they build to defend themselves against their enemies. I have ventured to write this relation because I have been informed that many things concerning events in this land have been written, and sent to Nueva España, which are the merest fable and conjecture. For instance, they say that there are in this country Moors like those of Barberia [Barbary], and that their strength in arms is quite equal to that of those people; and that they fight and defend themselves like the Turks. Those who have so written are in error. Much to the contrary, it is quite certain that the natives of this island of Luzón, whom we Spaniards commonly call Moros, are not so; for the truth is that they do not know or understand the law of Mahoma—only in some of the villages on the Page 121seacoast they do not eat pork, and this for the reason that they have had dealings with the Moros of Burney, who have preached to them a little of the teaching of Mahoma. As I shall farther on treat more in detail of the rites and ceremonies of these natives, I shall in the first place describe the wars between them and the Spaniards, without useless amplification or omission; for thus have I been instructed to do by a certain person who has ordered me to write, and thus whatever I may say in defense of these natives will be read without any mistrust whatever, for whosoever reads this will know the truth with regard to what occurs here.

The first thing which I shall attempt to relate herein will be an expedition which was made by Captain Juan de Salzedo when he was governor in the island of Panai. As has been already related in other accounts, written in the year sixty-nine, the Portuguese raised the blockade established by them on the island of Çubú against the camp of his Majesty, because of certain difficulties which arose; and the governor determined to cross to the island of Panay with his captains in order to levy tribute upon the people of certain provinces. His nephew, recently made captain of the company which his brother Felipe de Sauzedo had brought to these islands, was sent with forty soldiers to certain islands. This captain embarked in fourteen or fifteen small native boats, and set out for an islet which is called Elem,[1] and when we had reached this island we did Page 122not find any resistance whatever, for all the natives came to us in peace. From there, led by a guide, he crossed to the island of Mindoro, and made an attack one night just about dawn upon a very rich native village called Mamburau, and plundered it. Many of the natives were captured, some of whom afterward bought their liberty, and others were allowed to go free. Thence he took a guide for a little islet, Loban by name, which is fifteen leagues farther. When the captain was departed, the natives, who had fled from the village, returned and saw the havoc and destruction caused by the Spaniards, and were unwilling to return to rebuild it; accordingly they themselves set fire to it, and totally destroyed it. The captain, having arrived at his destination at midnight, with all possible secrecy leaped ashore, and arranged his men and the Pintados[2] Indians whom he had with him in ambuscade near the villages, in order to make the attack upon them at daybreak. However, the natives of this island having been informed of the hostile incursion of the Spaniards, withdrew with their children and wives and all their belongings that they could take with them, to three forts which they had constructed. Now since these were the first natives whom we found with forts and means of defense, I shall describe here the forts and weapons which they possessed. The two principal forts were square in form, with ten or twelve culverins on each side, some of them moderately large and others very small. Each fort had a wall two Page 123estados high, and was surrounded by a ditch two and one-half brazas in depth, filled with water. The small weapons used by these natives are badly tempered iron lances, which become blunt upon striking a fairly good coat of mail, a kind of broad dagger, and arrows—which are weapons of little value. Other lances are also used which are made of fire-hardened palm-wood and are harder than the iron ones. There is an abundance of a certain very poisonous herb which they apply to their arrows. Such are the weapons which the natives of these islands possess and employ. Now as the captain approached the villages at daybreak, and found them empty, he proceeded through a grove to the place where the first fort was situated; and, having come in sight, negotiated with them, asking whether they desired to be friends of the Spaniards. The natives, confident of their strength, refused to listen, and began to discharge their culverins and a few arrows. The captain, seeing that they would not listen to reason, ordered them to be fired upon. The skirmish lasted in one place or the other about three hours, since the Spaniards could not assault or enter the fort because of the moat of water surrounding it. But, as fortune would have it, the natives had left on the other side, tied to the fort, a small boat capable of holding twenty men; and two of our soldiers threw themselves into the water and swam across, protected by our arquebusiers from the enemy, who tried to prevent them. This boat having been brought to the side where the Spaniards were, fifteen soldiers entered it and approached the rampart of the fort. As soon as these men began to mount the rampart, the Indians began to flee on the other side, by a Page 124passage-way which they had made for that very purpose. It is true that thirty or forty Moros fought and resisted the entrance of the Spaniards; but when they saw that half of our people were already on the wall, and the rest in the act of mounting, they all turned their backs and fled. A hundred or more of them were killed, while of our men five were wounded. In this way was the fort taken, together with fifty or sixty prisoners, ten or twelve culverins, and everything else in it. On the morning of the next day, which was the second of May, in the year one thousand five hundred and seventy, the captain set free one of the Moro prisoners, and sent him to the second fort, which was in the middle of the island very near the first one, and charged him to tell them that he summoned them to surrender peacefully. The Moro having performed his mission, and delivered the message of the captain to those in the fort, they sent back the reply that they did not desire to be friends with the Spaniards but were eager to fight with them; and with this reply the Indian aforesaid returned to the captain. On the following day we went with some four hundred friendly Indians to the fort; and the captain, advancing within sight of it, addressed them, asking that they should be friends with the Spaniards and not try to fight with them, as that would result badly for them. They again declared that they did not desire this friendship, and began to fire their culverins and discharge arrows; and in return the soldiers discharged, on all sides, their arquebuses. But during the whole day we were not able to enter the fort, for we Spaniards were very few in number; and the heat was intense, and we had not eaten, although it was near night. The captain, Page 125seeing that he had not accomplished anything, decided to return to the boats which he had left behind, and on the next morning again to besiege the fort, and hem them in as closely as possible; and thus he did. Having come in this manner and having grounded his boats upon a beach close to the enemy, when these latter saw the determination of the Spaniards, and that they would not depart under any circumstances until they had conquered them, they therefore determined to make peace and become friends. To this end the leaders came out of the fort and made peace and friendship with the captain, becoming good friends, which they are up to the present time. They gave him a hundred tall [taels] of gold, which he divided among his soldiers. From there the captain went to a rock belonging to another small islet very near to that of Loban, and lying in the sea at a very short distance from the said islet. The natives who lived in that island had retired to this rock to the number of about three hundred warriors. The captain, having arrived on the same day at about ten o'clock, went around the rock, and we captured a small boat containing thirty men. Many volleys from the arquebuses were fired at them during this day; and on the following morning the soldiers began to make ladders to scale the rock—whose occupants, when they saw the determination of the Spaniards, came to terms of peace and friendship, giving another hundred tall of gold, following the example of those of the other fort, who had been left good friends. The captain returned with all of us who were with him to the island of Panay, where the governor was with the master-of-camp, who had returned from another expedition made with his men Page 126to an island called Acuyo. Thereupon the question was discussed of sending men jto explore the island of Luzón; and it was agreed that the master-of-camp and captain Juan de Sauzedo should set out upon this expedition with a hundred soldiers.

The necessary preparations having been made for this expedition, the master-of-camp and the said captain embarked in two of our small ships, with three large pieces of artillery, and accompanied by fourteen or, fifteen ships of the Pintados Indians, our friends, who in their own language are called Viseys. They sailed out of the river of Panay in the year of seventy, above mentioned, on the third of May, the day of Sancta Cruz. I did not take part in this expedition but shall describe literally everything which occurred in it. I have drawn my information from the others who participated in it, and more especially from two of my associates, both of whom went on this expedition, and who are men of great reliability—an advantage, as I have before mentioned. The master-of-camp arrived at the island of Mindoro, the village and port of which had the reputation of being very great and very strong, but which proved to be an exaggeration, for the village is small, containing only about three or four hundred inhabitants. The master-of-camp having arrived, as I have said, at that port, the Indians were drawn up on a declivity before the village, and made signs that they intended to prevent the entrance of the Spaniards. The master-of-camp, with all his soldiers, leaped ashore in front of the village on a little plain, and, approaching the village in a zigzag course, thus attacked it. The gunners who were in the ship were ordered to discharge a cannon in the air when the Page 127attack was made, and this was done. The Indians seeing that they intended to enter the village by force, made peace with the master-of-camp, and paid him tribute; and they have remained friends and vassals of the royal Spanish administration up to the present day. This is the port where enter all the passengers who come from the islands of the Pintados and from España to this island of Luzón, where the governor resides. From here the master-of-camp set sail for the island of Luzón, or rather the port and village of Manilla, which was said to be large and very strong. It is but just to say that it is not more than one-tenth as large and as strong as in Nueva España and in other places it is reported to be; and yet, in comparison with the natives of this land, the inhabitants of Manilla were powerful, for they had twelve pieces of small and inferior artillery and a few culverins, with such other weapons as I have already mentioned. This village of Manilla is situated on a tongue of land extending from east to west between the river and the sea, and a fort had been built on the extreme western end of this peninsula at the entrance to the port. The sea makes a very large harbor about thirty leagues in circumference; and bordering upon this harbor are many villages, among which is that of Manilla.[3] Manilla is now a Spanish city, founded in the name of his Majesty by the governor Miguel López de Legazpi. The captain-general Page 128and Captain Juan de Sauzedo having arrived in view of this port of Manilla, entered in peace, and under the safe-conduct of two native chiefs of the said village. One of these was called Laya, lately deceased, who died a Christian; the other was called Raxa Solimán. With these two chiefs were drawn up articles of peace, although Raxa Soliman was suspected of lack of good-faith, while Laya was always to be trusted, even until the day of his death. While these peaceful negotiations were in progress between the master-of-camp and the two chiefs above-mentioned, there collected a large number of natives of various classes; and yet there were not so many a» was reported in Nueva España, where it was claimed that there were in all eighty thousand Moros in this village of Manilla, when this event took place. Indeed one should subtract seventy-eight thousand from the eighty thousand mentioned, in order to arrive at the two thousand which there might have been from the said village of Manilla and those in its environs, including the women and children, who were present in great numbers. Now, as I say, these negotiations being in progress, some of the natives desired peace and others war; for indeed the Indians had some pride, and it seemed to them that the Spaniards were very few and could be easily slain, even if only with clubs. Thus it was that, at the end of three days during which these friendly negotiations continued (because it was impossible to come to an agreement, or conclude them), one day at ten o'clock, on the twenty-fourth day of the month of May of the year above mentioned, the Indians, who were in the fort, began to discharge their artillery at two of our ships, which were moored very near by. The master-of-camp Page 129was ashore with eighty soldiers, close to this same fort, on a small piece of level ground. The fort was made of palm-tree logs surmounting a very narrow mound, and the pieces of artillery protruded from immense gaps by which the soldiers could enter at will, as I have said above. Now when the Moros began to violate the articles of peace and friendship which the master-of-camp had made with them, the latter was deeply concerned; for he had great fear, because the enemy were in force. Yet, when he saw that the battle had broken out, he put on his helmet, and commenced to encourage his soldiers, telling them that they should acquit themselves as Spaniards, and as they had always done in critical times. Thereupon he ordered them to attack the fort through the openings made for the artillery, and it pleased God that not one of the gunners had the courage to fire his piece; and so great was the confusion, that they trembled upon seeing the Spaniards enter with so great spirit, and, turning their backs, abandoned themselves to flight, and slew one another in their mad rush for freedom. The master-of-camp, realizing that the village was large and rich, and that the victory was his by the grace of God, for the soldiers were few, feared lest our soldiers should, through greed, set to plundering the houses and become widely scattered; and that, if the enemy should see them thus scattered, they would return and attack them when unable to reunite. That he might avoid this danger he ordered the village to be set on fire, and the soldiers to collect upon the promontory, which order was obeyed. In this manner, as related, it befell the master-of-camp, and the victory was obtained over those of Manilla. The artillery which Page 130they possessed, and which I have mentioned above—namely, ten or twelve medium-sized pieces and a few culverins—was taken. On the other bank there was a village, whose chief was named Alcandora, with whom the master-of-camp did not wish to deal as yet, for he knew that the governor desired to establish a settlement in this island. Therefore, as he desired that this chief should stay where he was and do him no injury, he left him and returned to the island of Panay, making peace and friendship, on the way, with many villages on this same island of Luzón. Upon reaching the island of Mindoro, and being in a river which is called Vaco, news came to him that Juan de la Ysla had arrived from Nueva España with three ships sent by the viceroy, Don Martín Enrríquez, and with the letters which the said Juan de la Ysla was bringing from España from his Majesty. News was received likewise of the payments of money which were being made to the soldiers in the service of his Majesty in these regions. There also came on these ships the most reverend Father Diego de Herrera, a member of the order of St. Augustine, who had gone hence a year before to Nueva España, on business which pertained to the public welfare and to the service of God and his Majesty. The master-of-camp, having received the news as to these ships, made haste and arrived in the middle of the month of June at the river of Panay, where the governor was. He was well received by the governor and by all, although it grieved the governor much that they had burned Manilla, for he had planned to take up his residence in this village of Manilla, as he afterward did. According to the story told by those who were present, it does not seem that the master-of-camp Page 131was at fault in the burning of this village; for he did it in order to make sure of the victory, and so that the enemy might not return to attack him. This is my opinion, for I regard him as a good Christian. Laying aside this question, I shall relate the doings of the governor.