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. 2]

I521-I569]

LETTER FROM SEUILLA

227

Jesus, such as comes from Flanders, with his veil
and the globe in his hand, and in as good condition
as if just made. They wished to settle in that island,
because of the abundance of all kinds of food. They
began the construction of a fort, outside of which
they erected a church, wherein the child Jesus was
placed, and they called the church Nombre de Jesuts
[" Name of Jesus"]. They named the island Sant
Miguel, because of landing there on the day of his
apparition. From here to the Malucos, where the
spice is found, there is a distance of one hundred
and twenty leagues; to China, two hundred; and to
Malach [Malacca], five hundred. They found in
this island the finest cinnamon, which its people
acquire through trade with the Malucos; besides
ginger and articles of fine silk. Of the three vessels,
the flagship was despatched from that island to Mexico, where it arrived later than the patache, and
where two other vessels were being prepared as a
relief. There are many other very large islands in
that region, in appearance quite like the abovenamed island. Among others is a region so rich
in gold, that the amount is beyond estimation. And
there is so great abundance of cinnamon that it is
burned instead of wood by those people, who are as
luxurious as those of Spain. They have a king there
who has a constant body-guard of one thousand men,
and who is esteemed so highly that none of his subjects see his face oftener than once a year. If they
find it necessary to converse with him on any matter,
they speak to him through a long wooden tube. And
when he annually permits himself to be gazed upon,
his subjects give him many valuable things. These
people are quite advanced. They possess brocaded