The monarchy of the Kings of Spain has been aggrandised by the zeal and care with which they have defended within their own hereditary kingdoms, the Holy Catholic Faith, which the Roman Church teaches, against whatsoever adversaries oppose it, or seek to obscure the truth by various errors, which faith they have disseminated throughout the world. Thus by the mercy of God they preserve their realms and subjects in the purity of the Christian religion, deserving thereby the glorious title and renown which they possess of Defenders of the Faith. Moreover, by the valour of their indomitable hearts, and at the expense of their revenues and property, with Spanish fleets and men, they have furrowed the seas, and discovered and conquered vast kingdoms in the most remote and unknown parts of the world, leading their inhabitants to a knowledge of the true God, and to the fold of the Christian church, in which they now live, governed in civil and political matters with peace and justice, under the shelter and protection of the royal arm and power which was wanting to them: weighed down as they were by blind tyrannies and barbarous cruelties, with which the enemy of the human race had for so long afflicted them and brought them up for himself.

In the month of May of six hundred and two, four ships arrived at Manila from New Spain, with a new Governor and President of the High Court, named Don Pedro de Acuna, Knight of the Order of St. John, Commander of Salamanca, who had just been Governor of Cartagena, on the main land. He was received into the government with much satisfaction on the part of all the country, for the necessity which was felt of some one who should be as experienced in warlike matters as vigilant and careful in administration. Don Francisco Tello, his predecesor, who waited for his successor, had to remain in Manila until the following year of 1603, when, in the month of April, he died of a sudden illness. The new governor, seeing that affairs were in such extremities and required setting up, and so little substance in the royal exchequer for doing it, thought his lot was not so good as he had imagined when he was appointed; for the state of affairs obliged him to risk part of his reputation, without being able to remedy them in as short a time as was expedient. He took courage as far as was possible, and omitted no personal labour wherever it was required.

SUBSEQUENT HISTORY OF CALDERA AND MINDANAO.

After De Morga's time the Mindanao men, in 1616, burned the dockyard in Pantao, a port of the isle of Luzon, although it was defended by soldiers and cannon; they continued to infest the coasts of Macalilum, Camarines, Albay and other places till 1634, when they sacked and burned the town of Tayahas, eighteen leagues from Manila, and very nearly captured the Archbishop Fray Miguel Garcia Serrano. Various fleets were sent against them, and Juan Xuarez Gallinato, the master of the camp, went a second time to chastise them, and returned with little better success than the first time. In 1635 the fort of Samboangan was erected by Captain Juan de Chaves, two leagues from the old fort of Caldera in the isle of Mindanao. Shortly after the erection of this fort King Corralat had ravaged the Philippines, and on his return to Mindanao he was attacked by the Sergeant-major Nicolas Gonzalez, from Samboangan, who routed his fleet and recovered most of the plunder: in March 1636 the governor of the Philippines took King Corralat's town, burned a hundred vessels and sixteen villages, and ruined his kingdom: after that he returned to Samboangan, and subjected the Basilan men and town of Buhayen. Some of the Mindanao towns which had been subjected again rose, and Corralat gave more trouble: in 1657 he brought a fleet against Marinduque and Mindoro; and though the fleet from Manila did nothing against the Mindanao fleet, the Spaniards burned several towns of King Corralat.

According to ancient and modern cosmographers, that part of the world called Asia has adjacent to it an immense number of islands, large and small, inhabited by divers nations and peoples, as rich in precious stones, gold, silver, and other minerals, as abounding in fruit and grain, flocks and animals; in some of these all sorts of spices are produced, which are carried thence and distributed throughout the universe. They name them commonly in their books and descriptions, and charts of navigation, the great Archipelago of Saint Lazarus, which is in the Eastern Ocean; of these islands, amongst others more famous, are the isles of Maluco, Celebes, Tendaya, Luzon, Mindanao and Borneo, which are now called the Philippines.

The Pope Alexander the Sixth having divided the conquests of the New World between the Kings of Castille and Portugal, they agreed to make the division by means of a line which the cosmographers drew across the world, in order that, the one towards the west and the other towards the east, they might follow out their discoveries and conquests, and settle peacefully whatever each might win within his demarcation.

The President and Auditors having arrived at the Philippines in the month of May 1584, whilst Diego Ronquillo was governing, Dr. Santiago de Vera entered upon the government, and immediately founded the High Court, and the seal was received and placed with all solemnity and festivities that were possible. They then began to attend to business, both of justice and in matters of war and administration, with great profit to the country. During this time fresh succours continued to be sent to the Moluccas, and for the conquest of the island of Terrenate, which the captain-major of Tidore desired to make: Captain Pedro Sarmiento went from Manila for this purpose, and on another occasion the captain and sergeant-major Juan de Moron, but neither of these expeditions met with the desired result.

The President Santiago de Vera also continued to carry out the pacification of some provinces of the islands, and effected several matters that in all respects were most fitting. He discovered a rebellion and insurrection which the principal natives of Manila and Panpanga were proposing to carry into effect against the Spaniards, and justice was done upon the guilty. He built with stone the fortress of Our Lady of Guidance within the city of Manila on the land side, and he caused some artillery to be founded for arming it, by means of an old Indian named Pandapira, a native of Panpanga: he and his sons rendered this service for many years afterwards, until they died.

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.

The isles of the eastern ocean, adjacent to further Asia, belonging to the crown of Spain, by the demarcation of Castile, and her seas and countries of America, are commonly called by those who navigate to them the western isles; because from first leaving Spain, until reaching them, the navigation to them is by the path which the sun follows from east to west, and for the same reason, they are called eastern by those who navigate by way of Portuguese India, from west to east: both encircling the world by opposite voyages, until they come and meet in these islands, for they are many between great and small, which are properly called Philippines, and are subjected to the crown of Castile. They are within the tropic of Cancer, and extend from twenty-four degrees north latitude, as far as the equinoctial line, which passes through the islands of Maluco. There are many others on the side of the line, in the tropic of Capricorn, which extend as far as twelve degrees towards the south. The ancients affirmed, that one and all they were desolate and uninhabited; now experience has shown that they had been mistaken, there being found in them good climates, many peoples, provisions and other things convenient for human life: with many minerals, rich metals, gems and pearls, animals and plants, of which nature has not been sparing.