Laguna de Bay

In this island of Luzon, especially in the provinces of Manila, Panpanga, Pangasinan, and Ylocos, certain earthenware jars [tibores] are found among the natives.

They are very old, of a brownish color, and not handsome.

Some are of medium size, and others are smaller, and they have certain marks and stamps.

The natives are unable to give any explanation of where or when they got them, for now they are not brought to the islands or made there.

The Japanese seek them and esteem them, for they have found that the root of a plant called cha [tea]—which is drunk hot, as a great refreshment and medicine, among the kings and lords of Japon—is preserved and keeps only in these tibors.

These are so highly valued throughout Japon, that they are regarded as the most precious jewels of their closets and household furniture.

A tibor is worth a great sum. The Japanese adorn them outside with fine gold beautifully chased, and keep them in brocade cases.

Some tibors are valued and sold for 2,000 taes of 11 reals to the tae, or for less, according to the quality of the tibor.

It makes no difference if they are cracked or chipped, for that does not hinder them from holding the tea.

The natives of these islands sell them to the Japanese for the best price possible, and seek them carefully for this profit.

However, few are found now, because of the assiduity with which the natives have applied themselves to that search. [287]

At times the natives have found large pieces of ambergris on the coasts.

When they discovered that the Spaniards value it, they gathered it, and have made profit from it.

The past year of 1602, some natives found in the island of Cebu a good-sized piece of ambergris.

Their encomendero took it and traded with them secretly for it, on the account of their tribute.

It weighed a good number of libras. Afterward he brought it out and sold it by the ounce at a higher rate. [288]

In the province and river of Butuan in Mindanao there are many civet cats, although smaller than those of Guinea, they make use of the civet and trade it.

This they do easily, for, when the moon is in the crescent, they hunt the cats with nets, and capture many of them.

Then when they have obtained the civet, they loose the cats. They also capture and cage some of them, which are sold in the islands at very low prices. [289]

Cotton is raised abundantly throughout the islands. It is spun and sold in the skein to the Chinese and other nations, who come to get it.

Cloth of different patterns is also woven from it, and the natives also trade that. Other cloths, called medriñaques, are woven from the banana leaf. [290]

The islands of Babuytanes [291] consist of many small islands lying off the upper coast of the province of Cagayan.

They are inhabited by natives, whose chief industry consists in going to Cagayan, in their tapaques, with swine, fowls, and other food, and ebony spears, for exchange. The islands are not assigned as encomiendas, nor is any tribute collected from them.

There are no Spaniards among them, as those natives are of less understanding and less civilized [than the others]. Accordingly no Christians have been made among them, and they have no justices.

Other islands, called the Catenduanes, lie off the other head of the island of Luzon, opposite the province of Camarines, in fourteen degrees of north latitude, near the strait of Espiritu Santo.

They are islands densely populated with natives of good disposition, who are all assigned to Spaniards.

They possess instruction and churches, and have an alcalde-mayor who administers justice to them. Most of them cultivate the soil, but some are engaged in gold-washing, and in trading between various islands, and with the mainland of Luzon, very near those islands. [292]

Manila Bay

Manila Bay is 30 leguas in circumference on its southern coast, situated about one hundred leguas from the cape of Espiritu Santo, which is the entrance to the Capul channel.

Its entrance is narrow, and midway contains an island called Miraveles [i.e., Corregidor] lying obliquely across it, which makes the entrance narrow. This island is about two leguas long and one-half legua wide. It is high land and well shaded by its many trees. It contains a native settlement of fifty persons, and there the watchman of the bay has his fixed abode and residence. There are channels at both ends of the island, where one may enter the bay.

The one at the south is one-half legua wide, and has a rock in its middle called El Fraile [“the friar”]. The one on the north is much narrower, but any ships of any draft whatever can enter and go out by both channels.

The entire bay is of good depth, and clean, and has good anchorages in all parts. It is eight leguas from these entrances to the colony of Manila and the bar of the river. A large harbor is formed two leguas south of Manila, with a point of land that shelters it. That point has a native settlement called Cabit, [293] and it gives name to the harbor, which is used as a port for the vessels.

It is very capacious and well sheltered from the vendavals—whether the southeast, and southwest, the west, and west-southwest, or the north-northeast and north winds. It has a good anchorage, with a clean and good bottom. There is a good entrance quite near the land, more than one and one-half leguas wide, for the ingress and egress of vessels. All the shores of this bay are well provided with abundant fisheries, of all kinds.

They are densely inhabited by natives. Above Manila there is a province of more than twenty leguas in extent called La Pampanga. This province possesses many rivers and creeks that irrigate it. They all flow and empty into the bay. This province contains many settlements of natives, and considerable quantities of rice, fruits, fish, meat, and other foods. [294]

The bar of the river of Manila, which is in the same bay, near the colony of Manila on one side and Tondo on the other, is not very deep because of certain sand shoals on it, which change their position at the time of the freshets and obstruct it.

Consequently, although the water is deep enough for any vessel past the bar, still, unless they are fragatas, vireys, or other small vessels, they cannot pass the bar to enter the river.

In respect to galleys, galliots, and the vessels from China, which draw but little water, they must enter empty, and at high tide, and by towing. Such vessels anchor in the bay outside the bar, and, for greater security enter the port of Cabit.

There is another good port called Ybalon, [295] 20 leguas from the channel of Luzon, which is sheltered from the vendavals, and has a good entrance and anchorage.

There the vessels that enter to escape the vendaval find shelter, and wait until the brisa returns, by which to go to Manila, eighty leguas away.

On the coasts of Pangasinan, Ylocos, and Cagayan, there are some ports and bars, where ships can enter and remain, such as the harbor of Marihuma, [296] the port E1 Frayle [“the friar”], [297] that of Bolinao, the bar of Pangasinan, that of Bigan, the bar of Camalayuga, at the mouth of the Tajo River (which goes up two leguas to the chief settlement of Cagayan)—besides other rivers, bars, harbors, and shelters of less account for smaller vessels throughout the coasts of this island.