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The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 22 of 55: 1625-29; 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 22 of 55: 1625-29; 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

_I The King_
By order of the king, our sovereign:
_Don Fernando Ruiz De Contreras_






INADVISABILITY OF A SPANISH POST ON THE ISLAND OF FORMOSA


I would consider it a very important fact that the Spaniards of
Filipinas have seized and fortified a site on the island of Hermosa,
if that would be the efficacious means of driving out the Dutch from
their fort and from that island by force of arms, but otherwise not.

In order to discuss this proposition reasonably, it will be necessary
first to investigate the objects that the Dutch may have had in order
to have fortified, as they have done for the last three or four years,
the island of Hermosa.

Some have thought that the purpose of the Dutch must be to destroy
commerce between China and Filipinas, by plundering more at their
ease the Chinese ships, because they are there near China, and in a
place where the fleets from Manila which have sometimes defeated them,
cannot attack them. But in my judgment, this is not their purpose,
although it is a fact that they are very near the coasts of China in
the island of Hermosa. For that reason, even the Chinese, before they
set sail, ascertain by means of oared craft whether Dutch vessels are
waiting in that place. Consequently, they either do not leave their
ports, or if they leave, accomplish their voyage, since they can do so
easily by sailing so as not to go within sight of the island. But it
is impossible to escape the Dutch ships when they await the Chinese
on the coasts of Filipinas, as they have done since the year 609,
when they began that practice, until that of 625. During that time
scarcely any ship escaped them; for the Dutch generally go to the
coasts of Filipinas when there is no time to advise the Chinese not
to leave their country. The latter, having sailed, necessarily fall
into the hands of the Dutch. However, it is true that when the Dutch
await the Chinese on the coasts of Manila, they need a larger fleet;
and that they risk its loss by fighting with that of Manila. Here
the capture of the Chinese is assured, while for the above reasons
(of which the Dutch are not ignorant) that is almost impossible in
the island of Hermosa.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

History

The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 22 of 55: 1625-29; 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

_I The King_
By order of the king, our sovereign:
_Don Fernando Ruiz De Contreras_






INADVISABILITY OF A SPANISH POST ON THE ISLAND OF FORMOSA


I would consider it a very important fact that the Spaniards of
Filipinas have seized and fortified a site on the island of Hermosa,
if that would be the efficacious means of driving out the Dutch from
their fort and from that island by force of arms, but otherwise not.

In order to discuss this proposition reasonably, it will be necessary
first to investigate the objects that the Dutch may have had in order
to have fortified, as they have done for the last three or four years,
the island of Hermosa.

Some have thought that the purpose of the Dutch must be to destroy
commerce between China and Filipinas, by plundering more at their
ease the Chinese ships, because they are there near China, and in a
place where the fleets from Manila which have sometimes defeated them,
cannot attack them. But in my judgment, this is not their purpose,
although it is a fact that they are very near the coasts of China in
the island of Hermosa. For that reason, even the Chinese, before they
set sail, ascertain by means of oared craft whether Dutch vessels are
waiting in that place. Consequently, they either do not leave their
ports, or if they leave, accomplish their voyage, since they can do so
easily by sailing so as not to go within sight of the island. But it
is impossible to escape the Dutch ships when they await the Chinese
on the coasts of Filipinas, as they have done since the year 609,
when they began that practice, until that of 625. During that time
scarcely any ship escaped them; for the Dutch generally go to the
coasts of Filipinas when there is no time to advise the Chinese not
to leave their country. The latter, having sailed, necessarily fall
into the hands of the Dutch. However, it is true that when the Dutch
await the Chinese on the coasts of Manila, they need a larger fleet;
and that they risk its loss by fighting with that of Manila. Here
the capture of the Chinese is assured, while for the above reasons
(of which the Dutch are not ignorant) that is almost impossible in
the island of Hermosa.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

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