Opening the text

The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 36, 1649-1666: 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 36, 1649-1666: 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

36. On the eastern side of the city, but outside of it and in front
of its walls, at the distance of a musket-shot is a silk-market which
they call Parian. Usually 15,000 Chinese live there; they are Sangleys,
natives of Great China, and all merchants or artisans. They possess,
allotted among themselves by streets and squares, shops containing
all the kinds of merchandise and all the trades that are necessary in
a community. The place is very orderly and well arranged, and a great
convenience to the citizens. It is [an indication of] their greatness
that although they are so few, they have so many workmen and servants
assigned to their service. The Sangleys live in wooden houses; they
have a governor of their own nation, and a Spanish alcalde-mayor and
the other officers of justice, with a notary; also a jail. They have
a parish church, where the sacraments, the divine word, and burial
are administered to the 4,000 Christians among these Sangleys; the
rest of them are heathen.

37. Accordingly the commerce of this city is extensive, rich, and
unusually profitable; for it is carried on by all these Chinese
and their ships, with those of all the islands above mentioned and
of Tunquin, Cochinchina, Camboja, and Sian--four separate kingdoms,
which lie opposite these islands on the continent of Great China--and
of the gulfs and the numberless kingdoms of Eastern India, Persia,
Bengala, and Ceilan, when there are no wars; and of the empire and
kingdoms of Xapon. The diversity of the peoples, therefore, who are
seen in Manila and its environs is the greatest in the world; for
these include men from all kingdoms and nations--España, Francia,
Ingalaterra, Italia, Flandes, Alemania, Dinamarca, Sueçia, Polonia,
Moscobia; people from all the Indias, both eastern and western; and
Turks, Greeks, Moros, Persians, Tartars, Chinese, Japanese, Africans,
and Asiatics. And hardly is there in the four quarters of the world
a kingdom, province, or nation which has not representatives here, on
account of the voyages that are made hither from all directions--east,
west, north, and south.

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

Opening the text

History

The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 36, 1649-1666: 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

36. On the eastern side of the city, but outside of it and in front
of its walls, at the distance of a musket-shot is a silk-market which
they call Parian. Usually 15,000 Chinese live there; they are Sangleys,
natives of Great China, and all merchants or artisans. They possess,
allotted among themselves by streets and squares, shops containing
all the kinds of merchandise and all the trades that are necessary in
a community. The place is very orderly and well arranged, and a great
convenience to the citizens. It is [an indication of] their greatness
that although they are so few, they have so many workmen and servants
assigned to their service. The Sangleys live in wooden houses; they
have a governor of their own nation, and a Spanish alcalde-mayor and
the other officers of justice, with a notary; also a jail. They have
a parish church, where the sacraments, the divine word, and burial
are administered to the 4,000 Christians among these Sangleys; the
rest of them are heathen.

37. Accordingly the commerce of this city is extensive, rich, and
unusually profitable; for it is carried on by all these Chinese
and their ships, with those of all the islands above mentioned and
of Tunquin, Cochinchina, Camboja, and Sian--four separate kingdoms,
which lie opposite these islands on the continent of Great China--and
of the gulfs and the numberless kingdoms of Eastern India, Persia,
Bengala, and Ceilan, when there are no wars; and of the empire and
kingdoms of Xapon. The diversity of the peoples, therefore, who are
seen in Manila and its environs is the greatest in the world; for
these include men from all kingdoms and nations--España, Francia,
Ingalaterra, Italia, Flandes, Alemania, Dinamarca, Sueçia, Polonia,
Moscobia; people from all the Indias, both eastern and western; and
Turks, Greeks, Moros, Persians, Tartars, Chinese, Japanese, Africans,
and Asiatics. And hardly is there in the four quarters of the world
a kingdom, province, or nation which has not representatives here, on
account of the voyages that are made hither from all directions--east,
west, north, and south.

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

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