TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE

Summary

The original work of De Morga was printed in Mexico in 1609, and has become extremely rare; there is no copy of it in the Bibliothèque Impériale of Paris. This translation is from a transcription made for the Hakluyt Society from the copy in the Grenville Library of the British Museum; the catalogue of which states that “this book, printed at Mexico, is for that reason probably unknown to bibliographers, though a book of great rarity.” However, it is mentioned in the Bibliotheca Scriptorum Hispaniœ, Matriti, 1783, which says, “Antonius de Morga, juris doctor, in Philipinas, extremæ Asiæ insulas non dudum inventas & armis occupatas, perductus ut gubematoris vices gereret anno 1598, institutse ibidem Eegiæ curise senator sive triumvir fuit cooptatus, quo munere functus dicitur non sine laude alacris cujusdam prudentiæ, virtutisque etiam bellicis expeditionibus compertæ. Jam vero ad prgetorium urbis Mexicanæ inter quatuor viros rerum criminalium vindices fuerat translatus quando edidit: Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas. Mexici 1609 in 4 ex officina Hieronymi Balli.” It is also quoted in some histories of the Philippines, and in the Dialogo Cortesano Philipino of P. Fr. Joseph Torrubia, of which there were two editions, Madrid, 1736, 4to., and Madrid, 1753, 8vo. In this book the inhabitant of the court of Madrid says that he has not heard of such a book nor of the author: the Philippine Spaniard answers him that the book was printed in Mexico in 1609 and is now scarcely to be found, but that he possessed a copy; and he describes de Morga as a man in whom arms and science were united in a most friendly manner, and says that he composed his book from from original documents since he was the first auditor of the Audiencia of Manila.