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]

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THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS

[Vol. 36

ciety of Jesus (who is at present in the City of
Mexico, and about to go to the kingdoms of Castilla
as procurator-general of the province of Philipinas),
in order that the said itinerary might be arranged
with greater despatch, and so that in the interim
until the coming of the person who shall settle things
in those islands, there may be such relation as we
are able to have in this book (which must be sent at
the first opportunity to the most illustrious and most
reverend inquisitor-general and the members of the
Council of the general Holy Inquisition), his Lordship ordered me, Ygnaqio de Paz, that, continuing
the work, I should set down the information given
by the said Father Maxino Sola. And, in obedience
to that order, that relation which I have been able
to procure with the exercise of all care and minuteness, is as follows.
Archbishopric of Manila
The city of Manila, from which the said archbishopric (as well as all the island) takes its name,
occupies the same site as did the largest settlement
of the natives of this island when they were heathen,
who called it by the same name. It was conquered
and happily united to the Spanish crown on May
nineteen, one thousand five hundred and seventy-one
(the same year of the establishment of the tribunal
of the Holy Office of the Inquisition in Mexico) by
the valiant Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, native [of
Guipuizcoa: blank space in MS.], and a former citizen of the said City of Mexico, whom his Majesty
honored with the title of adelantado of the said
islands. The city lies in fourteen degrees of north
latitude. The governor lives there, who is the cap