The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 43, 1670-1700: 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 43, 1670-1700: 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
The Indians whom the Spaniards found here were of average stature,
olive color, or the color of boiled quinces, large eyes, flat noses,
and straight hair. All had some form of government more or less
civilized. They were distinguished by different names, but their
features and customs prove that the origin of all these people is
one and the same, and that they did not compose different races. They
had their own petty rulers, who were generally the most valiant, or
those who had inherited the kingdom from their fathers, if they could
conserve it. Their dominion extended over one or two rude settlements,
or at most was according to the valor of him who ruled. They were
continually at war with the neighboring settlements, and made one
another slaves. From those wars there resulted three classes of
people among them: namely, the chiefs who were the masters of the
settlement; the slaves; and the freemen, who consisted of slaves
or their descendants to whom their masters had given freedom. The
last class are called Timavas even yet, which properly signifies
"freed-man." In some districts Indians are found who are whiter than
others--descendants doubtless of some Chinese or Japanese, who were
shipwrecked on these coasts, and whom the Indians naturally hospitably
received and with whom they mingled. That is commonly believed in
regard to the Ygorrotes of Ylocos. [34] Their eyes, similar to those
of the Chinese, prove that they mingled with the companions of Limahon
who fled to those mountains when Juan de Salcedo had besieged them
in Pangasinan.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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