Learning from one of the friars that the island of _Mindanao_, inhabited by Mahometans, abounded in provisions, we set sail from Guam on the 2d June with a strong E. wind, and arrived on the 21st at the Isle of St John, one of the _Philippines_. These are a range of large islands reaching from about the latitude of 5° to about 19° N. and from long. 120° to 126° 30' E. The principal island of the group is _Luzon_, or Luçonia, in which Magellan was slain by a poisoned arrow, and which is now entirely subject to the Spaniards. Their capital city of Manilla is in this island, being a large town and sea-port, seated at the south-west end, opposite to the island of Mindora, and is a place of great strength and much trade, especially occasioned by the Acapulco ships, which procure here vast quantities of India commodities, brought hither by the Chinese and Portuguese, and sometimes also by stealth by the English from fort St George or Madras; for the Spaniards allow of no regular trade here to the English and Dutch, lest they should discover their weakness, and the riches of these islands, which abound in gold. To the south of Luzon there are twelve or fourteen large islands, besides a great number of small isles, all inhabited by, or subject to, the Spaniards. But the two most southerly, Mindanao and St John, are not subjected by the Spaniards. The Island of St John, or _San Juan_, is about the lat. of 9° N. on the east side of Mindanao, and about four leagues from that island, being about thirty-eight leagues in length from N.N.W. to S.S.E. and about twenty-four leagues broad in the middle, having a very rich and fertile soil. _Mindanao_, next to Luzon, is the largest of the Philippines, being sixty leagues long by forty or fifty leagues broad. Its southern end is in lat. 5° 30' N. the N.W. extremity reaching to 9° 40' N. The soil is generally fertile, and its stony hills produce many kinds of trees, most of which are unknown to Europeans. The vallies are supplied with brooks and rivulets, and stored with various sorts of ever-green trees, and with rice, water-melons, plantains, bananas, guavas, nutmegs, cloves, betel-nuts, _durians, jacks_, or _jackas_, cocoa-nuts, oranges, &c.; but, above all, by a species of tree called _libby_ by the natives, which produces sago, and grows in groves several miles in length. The poorer people feed on sago instead of bread for several months of the year. This tree resembles the cabbage-tree, having a strong bark and hard wood, the heart of which is full of a white pith, like that of the elder. They cut down the tree and split it open, taking out the pith, which they stamp or beat well in a mortar, after which, putting it into a cloth, and pouring in water, they stir it well, till the water carries all the farinaceous substance through the cloth into a trough. After the farinaceous matter has settled to the bottom, the water is poured off, and the sago is baked into cakes, which they use as bread. The sago,