out of respect to the general, who with his goodness, bore it all, claiming in this wise to win the hearts of those islanders better than with arms. For if the natives were exasperated they would receive tardily the blessings that were intended for them. This island of the Ladrones where the Spaniards anchored is a lofty, mountainous land, with its coasts fringed with thick cocoa groves, and other cool and shady trees. The natives of the islands eat rice, which is the chief food of all the islands. At times, when I consider how many people use rice as bread, I think that three-fourths of the world are sustained on this kind of food. These Ladrones Islands number thirteen, [20] and extend north and south. As they were the first islands of which the general took possession, his Majesty granted them to Melchor Lopez de Legaspi, only son of the general, giving him the title of adelantado. These Indians go naked. Both men and women are fine sailors and swimmers, for they are accustomed to jump from their little boats after fish, and to catch and eat them raw. Their boats are very narrow, and have only a counterweight at the opposite end, where they carry their sail. The sail is lateen, and woven from palms, in these craft do they venture forth intrepidly through those seas, from island to island, so that one would think that they had a treaty with wind and water. The ships en route to the Filipinas pass through these islands, at different latitudes at various times. So many boats go out to meet them, that they quite surround the ships. The natives try to trade water and the products of their islands for iron, the substance that they esteem most; but, if they are able to steal the iron, without giving anything for it, they do so. It is necessary to aim an arquebus (which they fear greatly) at them in order to get the article returned. And to induce them to leave the ships free, there is no better method than to fire the arquebus in the air, the reverberations of which cause them to hide, fear, and vanish. While the ship in which I took passage was passing one of the islands, many small boats came out as usual. Among them came one belonging to a robust youth, who was coming to look for a Castilian, who had been his captive, as he desired to see him. This Spaniard, with others who escaped from the ship "Santa Margarita" (which was wrecked on those islands), lived among those barbarians, until, by good fortune, the ships with succor passed there, and they embarked in them. The Spaniard, who had been the slave of this Indian, was with us. As soon as the latter saw him, he boarded our vessel fearlessly. And still with no signs of fear, he went among our men and threw himself into the arms of the man whom he knew, and who had eaten his bread and lived in his house. He was quite covered with marks of teeth; and when the Spaniard, who knew something of their language and customs because of his stay among them, was asked the reason, he said that that native