The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 12 of 55: 1601-1604; 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, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century
History
The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 12 of 55: 1601-1604; 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, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century
Demarcation line of Alexander VI; Missions -- Philippines; Philippines -- Discovery and exploration; Philippines -- History -- Sources
it with the rest of the expedition, began to cry aloud in his own
absurd language, "Bear witness to God, thou hast found His Son." The
religious at once took possession of the image, regarding it as
a good omen; and out of respect and devotion to it named the city
that they founded Santissimo Nombre de Jesus, and placed the image
in a church of their order erected in the city. There it remains
in highest veneration, and has wrought many miracles, particularly
in childbirths, whence it is both facetiously and piously called El
Partero ["man-midwife"]. Each year it is borne in solemn procession
from the church of St. Augustine to the spot in which it was found,
where a chapel has since been erected. The procession takes place upon
the same day when the discovery was made--namely, on the twenty-ninth
of April, the feast of the glorious martyr St. Vital, who is patron
of the city, and as such that day is kept as a solemn feast in his
honor. One of the regidors, appointed each year for this purpose,
brings out the banner of the city; he is on that day clad in livery,
and invites the public to the festivals. [41] There are bull-fights and
other public festivities and rejoicings, with many novel fireworks,
such as wheels and sky-rockets, which the Sangleys make the night
before; on this occasion they construct things well worth seeing, and
which appear well-nigh supernatural. The city of Manila holds similar
festivities on the feast-day of the glorious apostle St. Andrew,
who was chosen as its patron because, on his feast-day, the city was
delivered from the blockade of the pirate Limahon. At that time the
city had no fortress or walls, or any stone buildings; and in all
the islands there were no more than five hundred Spaniards, as I
learned from one of them. These few men alone compelled the enemy,
who numbered more than a thousand fighting men, to withdraw from the
city; and they even pursued and harried the pirates in such wise, by
blocking the mouth of the river Pangasinan (where they had retired
with their ships), that to escape the fury of our men they were
obliged to construct some light craft within their fort. They are
said to have calked these, for want of pitch, with their own blood;
and to have carried them on their shoulders for several leguas over
land, until they succeeded in launching them into the sea, and fled
under full sail. They left their ships in the river and dismantled
the forts and camps, where our men found some spoils, of which I saw
a part. But satisfaction over the booty was outweighed by chagrin at
losing the enemy whom they had practically in their hands. The enemy,
however, had received such a lesson that they never returned.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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