The Island of St John, or San Juan, is about the lat. of 9 deg.  N. on the east side of Mindanao, and about four leagues from that island, being about thirty-eight leagues in length from N.N.W. to S.S.E. and about twenty-four leagues broad in the middle, having a very rich and fertile soil. Mindanao, next to Luzon, is the largest of the Philippines, being sixty leagues long by forty or fifty leagues broad.  Its southern end is in lat. 5 deg. 30’ N. the N.W. extremity reaching to 9 deg. 40’ N. The soil is generally fertile, and its stony hills produce many kinds of trees, most of which are unknown to Europeans.  The vallies are supplied with brooks and rivulets, and stored with various sorts of ever-green trees, and with rice, water-melons, plantains, bananas, guavas, nutmegs, cloves, betel-nuts, durians, jacks, or jackas, cocoa-nuts, oranges, &c.; but, above all, by a species of tree called libby by the natives, which produces sago, and grows in groves several miles in length.  The poorer people feed on sago instead of bread for several months of the year.  This tree resembles the cabbage-tree, having a strong bark and hard wood, the heart of which is full of a white pith, like that of the elder.  They cut down the tree and split it open, taking out the pith, which they stamp or beat well in a mortar, after which, putting it into a cloth, and pouring in water, they stir it well, till the water carries all the farinaceous substance through the cloth into a trough.  After the farinaceous matter has settled to the bottom, the water is poured off, and the sago is baked into cakes, which they use as bread.  The sago, which is carried from hence to other parts of the East Indies, is dried into small grains, and is used with milk of almonds as a remedy against fluxes, being of an astringent quality.

The other fruits of this island, being well known or described by various authors, need not be here mentioned.  The nutmegs here are very large and good, but the natives do not care for propagating them, being afraid lest the Dutch, who monopolize the spice islands, should be induced to pay them a hostile visit.  This island also produces abundance of animals, both wild and tame, as horses, cows, buffaloes, goats, wild hogs, deer, monkeys, and others; also guanas, lizards, snakes, scorpions, and centipeds.  These last are not thicker than a goose-quill, but five inches long, and they sting fiercer even than scorpions.  Of tame fowl, they have only ducks and hens; but have plenty of wild birds, as pigeons, parrots, parrakeets, turtle-doves, bats as large as our kites, and an infinite number and variety of small birds.  Their wild hogs feed in the woods in prodigious herds, and have thick knobs growing over their eyes.  There are mountains in the interior of this island, which afford considerable quantities of gold.  Their chief fish are bonitos, snooks, cavallies, breams, and mullets; and they have abundance of sea-tortoises; and the island has many harbours, creeks, and rivers.