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

and cathedral; an alcalde-mayor, and a garrison of
Spanish soldiers. This province yields the same
products [as the others], and has a distinct language.
Almost opposite this province, to the northeast (that
is, between north and east) is Xapon, a noted empire.
It is distant three hundred leguas, and this voyage is
made in sight of land, that of various islands.
9. This arm of land is almost a hundred leguas
long and fifty or sixty wide; on its eastern coast the
province of Baler is conquered and pacified. The
region midland of all these five provinces is called
Ytui, and is peopled by heathen Indians, not yet subdued. On the south lies Pampanga; northward,
Cagayan; to the east, Baler; to the west, Ylocos and
Pangasinan. All these provinces have their alcaldesmayor. The ports on the eastern coast are mentioned
below in section 91.
io. In the eastern arm of this island of Luzon
there are two provinces; both abound in rice and
other products, and are very populous; and each one
has its own distinct language. The first is Tagalos,
which begins at the city of Manila, and belongs
wholly to that archbishopric. It contains the environs of the city; and the lake of Bay (a freshwater
lake, of many leguas in circumference), and extends
along the coasts of this arm, both northern and southern, more than fifty leguas in a direct line, southeast
and northeast- that is, from Manila to Silangan,
which is an island very near to that of Luzon. There
ends the archbishopric [of Manila]; also the Tagal
province (which is divided into six or eight districts
of alcalde-mayor and corregidor) and the Tagal
language.
i i. The second and last province of this eastern