the water and swam to where he was, quite unconscious of anything of the sort, and without his seeing it, snatched the sword from his hand and swam back with it.  At the cry of the sailor, proclaiming the trick practiced on him by the islander, several soldiers with their arquebuses were stationed to shoot the native when he should emerge from the water.  The islander on seeing this emerged from the water, holding up his hands, and making signs that he had nothing in them.  For this reason those who were on the point of shooting him refrained.  After a few moments of rest, the native dived once more, and swam under water, until out of range of the arquebuses—­where, assured of safety, he took the sword from between his legs where he had hidden it, and commenced to make passes with it, jeering the while at our men whom he had deceived so easily.  This theft, as well as many very adroit ones that they committed, has given these people the name of Ladrones, and is the reason for calling all the islands inhabited by them by the same name.  This appellation is easily pardoned as long as they find opportunity to exercise their evil inclinations.

Departure from the Ladrones Islands and arrival at those of Luzon, or, as they are called also, Filipinas; and the relation of some peculiarities of those islands.  Chapter XII.

Island of Luzon, and city of Manila. Navigating almost two hundred leagues west of the Ladrones Islands, to the channel called Espiritu Santo, one enters the archipelago, which consists of innumerable islands, [36] almost all inhabited by natives, and many of them conquered by the Spaniards, through either war or friendship.  After sailing for eighty leagues, one reaches the city of Manila, located on the island of Luzon.  Here the governor of all the said islands, and his Majesty’s officials, reside generally; and here is the bishop and the cathedral church.  This city lies in fourteen and one-fourth degrees.  About it lie many islands, which no one has yet succeeded in numbering.  They all extend northwest and southwest [sic] and north and south, so that in one direction they reach to the strait of Sincapura [Singapore], twenty-five leagues’ distance from Malaca, and at the other almost to the Malucos and other islands, where a fabulous amount of cloves, pepper, and ginger is gathered, for there are whole mountains of these spices.  The first to discover these islands were Spaniards, who went thither with the famous Magallanes, but did not conquer them, for they were more experienced in navigation than in conquest.  Therefore after passing the strait (which to this day bears his [Magallanes’s] surname), they arrived at the island of Zubu, where they baptized a number of the natives.  Afterward at a banquet, those same islanders killed Magallanes and forty of his companions.  On account of this Sebastian de Guetaria [Elcano], a native of Vizcaya, in order to escape with his life, embarked in one of the vessels remaining from the voyage—­afterward