A galleon bound for Portugal sails and is despatched from the fort of Malaca, in certain years, by the open sea, without touching at India or on its coasts. It reaches Lisboa much more quickly than do the Goa vessels. It generally sails on the fifth of January, and does not leave later than that; nor does it usually anticipate that date. However, not any of these voyages are practiced by the Castilians--who are prohibited from making them--except the one made by way of Nueva España, both going and coming, as above described. And although the effort has been made, no better or shorter course has been found by way of the South Sea. [438] Laus Deo NOTES [1] Cea is a small town situated in the old kingdom of Léon, on a river of the same name. It was a seat of a chateau and a duchy. The name of the first duke of Lerma was Francisco Gomez de Sandoval y Rojas. Hume's Spain (Cambridge, 1898), mentions one of his sons as duke of Cea, who is probably the Cristoval Gomez de Sandoval y Rojas of Morga's dedication. [2] The facts of Doctor Antonio de Morga's life are meager. He must have been born in Sevilla, as his birth register is said to exist in the cathedral of that city. He sailed from Acapulco for the Philippines in 1595 in charge of the vessels sent with reënforcements that year. He remained there eight years, during which time he was continually in office. In 1598, upon the reëstablishment of the Manila Audiencia he was appointed senior auditor. In 1600 he took charge of the operations against the Dutch and commanded in the naval battle with them. He left the islands July 10, 1603, in charge of the ships sailing that year to Mexico. After that period he served in the Mexico Audiencia; and as late as 1616 was president of the Quito Audiencia, as appears from a manuscript in the British Museum. His book circulated, at least, in part, in manuscript before being published. Torrubía mentions a manuscript called Descubrimiento, conquista, pacificación y población de ias Islas Philipinas, which was dated 1607, and dedicated to "his Catholic Majesty, King Don Phelipe III, our sovereign." Morga combined the three functions of historian, politician, and soldier, and his character is many sided and complex. He is spoken of in high terms as an historian, and Rizal, as well as Blumentritt, exalts him above all other historians of the Philippines. [3] Throughout this work, all notes taken entire or condensed from José Rizal's edition of Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas por el Doctor Antonio de Morga (Paris, 1890), will be signed Rizal, unless Rizal is given as authority for the note or a portion of it in the body of the note. Similarly those notes taken or condensed from Lord Henry E. J. Stanley's translation of Morga, The Philippine Islands.... by Antonio de Morga (Hakluyt Soc. ed., London, 1868), will be signed Stanley, unless Stanley is elsewhere given as authority as above.