[Speedy return voyage.] The return voyage to the Philippines was an easy one, and only occupied from forty to sixty days. [36] The galleon left Acapulco in February or March, sailed southwards till it fell in with the trade wind (generally in from 10 deg. to 11 deg. of north latitude), which carried it easily to the Ladrone Islands, and thence reached Manila by way of Samar. [37]

[Galleon’s size and armament.] A galleon was usually of from twelve hundred to fifteen hundred tons burden, and carried fifty or sixty guns.  The latter, however, were pretty generally banished to the hold during the eastward voyage.  When the ship’s bows were turned towards home, and there was no longer any press of space, the guns were remounted.

[Capture of “Santa Anna".] San Augustin says of the Santa Anna, which Thomas Candish captured and burnt in 1586 off the Californian coast:  “Our people sailed so carelessly that they used their guns for ballast; .... the pirate’s venture was such a fortunate one that he returned to London with sails of Chinese damask and silken rigging.”  The cargo was sold in Acapulco at a profit of 100 per cent., and was paid for in silver, cochineal, quicksilver, etc. [Value of return freight] The total value of the return freight amounted perhaps to between two and three million dollars, [38] of which a quarter of a million, at least, fell to the king.

[Gambling rather than commerce] The return of a galleon to Manila, laden with silver dollars and new arrivals, was a great holiday for the colony.  A considerable portion of the riches they had won as easily as at the gaming table, was soon spent by the crew; when matters again returned to their usual lethargic state.  It was no unfrequent event, however, for vessels to be lost.  They were too often laden with a total disregard to seaworthiness, and wretchedly handled.  It was favor, not capacity, that determined the patronage of these lucrative appointments. [39] Many galleons fell into the hands of English and Dutch cruisers. [40] ["Philippine Company” and smugglers cause change.] But these tremendous profits gradually decreased as the Compania obtained the right to import Indian cottons, one of the principal articles of trade, into New Spain by way of Vera Cruz, subject to a customs duty of 6 per cent; and when English and American adventurers began to smuggle these and other goods into the country. [41] [Spanish coins in circulation on China coast.] Finally, it may be mentioned that Spanish dollars found their way in the galleons to China and the further Indies, where they are in circulation to this day.

CHAPTER III