The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 09 of 55 / 1593-1597 / 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

[1] A title given among Mahometans to certain persons of religious profession.

[2] This and other italic headings to paragraphs in this document are, in the original MS., marginal notes in another handwriting—probably made by a clerk, for convenience of reference.

[3] When Figueroa began the conquest of Mindanao (1596) he was accompanied thither by two Jesuits—Juan del Campo, a priest; and Gaspar Gómez, a lay brother. The former was carried off by a fever, dying on August 10, 1596, at the age of thirty years, after little more than a year's stay in the islands. In his place, Juan de Sanlúcar and Pedro de Chirino accompanied Ronquillo's expedition in the following year. Sanlúcar entered the Jesuit order in 1570, and came to the Philippines in time to join the Mindanao expedition; he died at Palápag, April 26, 1612.

Pedro de Chirino entered the Jesuit order in 1580, and arrived at Manila ten years later. He died there on September 16, 1635, at the age of seventy-eight. His noted work, Relacion de las Islas Filipinas (Roma, 1604), will be presented in subsequent volumes of this series. La Concepcion says of him (Hist. de Philipinas, v, p. 198): “A man of great industry and of studious habits, Page 278nwho devoted to study and books all the time which was not occupied by his ministry to souls.”

[4] La Caldera, “the Caldron”—a port in the extreme south of Mindanao, not far from Zamboanga; its primitive name, Cauite.

Memorial on Navigation and Conquest

[This memorial, addressed to Felipe II by Hernando de los Ríos, is prefaced by a letter from Luis Perez Dasmariñas, as follows:]

Sire: In these islands resides a person named Hernando de los Ryos, a colonel, a man of much information concerning important matters, and particularly learned in mathematics and astrology, and possessed of such virtue and such uprightness of life, and so zealous and desirous of the service of God and your Majesty, and of the common welfare, that I know not if there be a man in these parts to exceed him in this; and may it please our Lord to give us many who shall succeed in being so disinterested in worldly things and earthly claims. At any rate, in the secular estate, in my opinion and perhaps that of many good men, I know not if you will find in this country, or even for the most part in others, a man of more learning, respectability, and virtue, accompanied by other good qualities and gifts with which God has graced him, and which are so well employed and profited by, as in himself. For his sole object is to serve God and desire his service and that of your Majesty, and the great good which can be accomplished in these regions; and he is not interested in Page 284the occupations and advantages of office, although it would be well indeed if all those who hold them had the qualifications that he has for them. At any rate, he has refused and rejected some of the best offices of this country, particularly an offer to be a royal official of the royal exchequer of your Majesty, when I desired him to be so during my government, as I understood that he was a fit man for the service of God and of your Majesty. It was impossible, however, to persuade him. His intention, as I have understood, is to become a priest. He has made a very peculiar instrument of general usefulness in many curious and important ways, particularly in navigation, for getting bearings and taking measurements, which are rendered very easy. I do not send one to your Majesty, because he has not finished a book of description and explanation of this instrument. I have persuaded him to send one to your Majesty, as I also shall do, as I consider it well that your Majesty should have information of the learning, virtue, and parts which are found in him, as it may be of use and importance for the service of God and your Majesty—whom may our Lord protect many years of life, according to His power and the desire and need of us all. Manyla, June 27, 1597.

Luys Perez Das Marinas