The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803; 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, commericial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the beginning of the nineteenth century; [Vol. 1, no. 36]

I649-I666] DESCRIPTION OF FILIPINAS

I95

arm is Camarines, which has a different language,
and belongs to another bishopric. It begins at the
village of Paracali, which is on the northern coast
and has some rich gold mines. It is distant from
Manila sixty leguas, and extends almost forty eastward, as far as the extremity of this island. Here is
the city of Nueva Caceres, where there is a bishopric
and a cathedral, and an alcalde-mayor; the Spanish
population is very small, but there are many Indians,
as also in the entire province. Inland from these
two provinces there are some (imarron Indians, who
are not yet conquered. This arm [of land] is almost
a hundred leguas long, and ten to twenty wide; its
northern ports are mentioned below in section 9I.
I2. At the center where these two arms of land
meet, in the middle and on the shores of a beautiful
bay- closed in from the sea; thirty leguas in circumference, and eight wide; and everywhere clear,
soundable, and safe - at the mouth and on the banks
of the great river of Bay [i.e., Pasig River] (which,
having flowed four leguas from its own lake, empties
into this sea) is built the distinguished city of Manila, the capital and court of Filipinas. It is, for its
size, the richest in the world; a special account of it
will soon be given. Entrance into this bay is furnished by a passage on its western side, four leguas in
width. In the middle of this passage, eight leguas
from Manila and opposite this city, is an islet called
Maribelez; it is inhabited, and is two leguas in
circuit in I4I2~ latitude. It serves as a watch-tower
to look for foreign ships, which can be seen fifteen
leguas at sea.
I3. The "Modern Geographer," which was
printed at Amsterdam in four large volumes in Latin