The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 22 of 55 / 1625-29 / 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

[12] Many of these exiles went to Formosa and other neighboring islands.

[13] Thus in original (la mucha Plata q^e tomaron a los dichos Religiosos, q^e dicen serian dos mil sacos de hazienda); but one would hardly expert that so large an amount of silver could have been borrowed, as the context would indicate, from the merchants of Manila (apparently for an investment in Japanese goods, from the proceeds of which the friars in charge of it might aid their persecuted brethren in Japan) for conveyance by two friars on so dangerous and uncertain a voyage—doubly so, since the Japanese authorities had strictly forbidden all trade between their ports and Manila.

[14] i.e., on the bar at the mouth of the river of Siam (the Chow Payah, commonly called Meinam). For account of the capture of the Japanese vessel, see “Relation of 1627–28,” ante.

In a letter of August 4, 1630, the governor says, regarding the question that arose on account of the capture of the Japanese junk: “For the preservation of the commerce of the Japanese with Macan, which is interrupted by the capture of one of their junks by our galleons in the port of Sian in May of 628, the investigations which I have written during the last two years have been made by my efforts. The Japanese have become somewhat more softened, because they have understood that it was not the intention of this government to damage them. What I wrote last year to the king of Japon was of considerable aid in that understanding, and that king made it known in Japon. The city of Macan lately begged me to write new letters to Japon, and I have done it very willingly, with the advice of the Audiencia and other experienced persons. Our Lord grant that it will have a good result.” See Pastells’s Colin, i, p. 242. The original of this letter rests in the Sevilla archives; its pressmark, “est. 67, caj. 6, leg. 8.”

Bibliographical Data

Most of the documents in this volume are obtained from MSS. in the Archivo general de Indias, Sevilla; their pressmarks are indicated thus:

1. Report of Spanish Council.—“Simancas—Secular; Audiencia de Filipinas; consultas originales correspondientes a dicha Audiencia; años 1586 á 1636; est 67, caj. 6, leg. 1.”

2. Letter from Serrano, 1625.—“Simancas—Eclesiastico; Audiencia de Filipinas; cartas y expedientes dei arzobispo de Manila vistos en el Consejo; años 1579 á 1679; est. 68, caj. 1, leg. 32.”