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]

DESCRIPTION OF FILIPINAS ISLANDS

[After a prolonged address to Fray Diego Zapata,
a high official of the Franciscan order and of the
Inquisition, Fray Letona proceeds with a description
of the Philippines in numbered sections. No. I
states that it is written for Zapata's information;
no. 2, that the voyage from Acapulco to Manila is
more than 2,500 leguas in length. The course of the
ships in that voyage is given in no. 3. Such parts of
this description as are useful for our purpose are here
presented in full; other parts are omitted, in each
case stating the nature of such matter.]
3. Acapulco, in Mexico, which is the eastern
port for the South Sea and for navigations from
Nueva Espafia to Filipinas, is in sixteen and one-half
degrees of latitude. If in voyaging from Acapulco
to Filipinas the ships sail in a straight line from the
rising toward the setting sun, from east to west, without change of latitude, they will arrive at Baler,37 a
village in the northern part of the further coast of
Manila Island, which is in the same latitude as
Acapulco. But usually, as soon as they set sail from
Acapulco, they descend to the eleventh or the tenth
parallel in order to find the winds with which they
37 Baler is capital of the subprovince of Principe, in Luz6n; its
latitude is 15~ 40' 6" North.