[100] Le Gentil, ii, p. 205.

[101] Le Gentil, ii, p. 207.

[102] Zuniga, i, p. 268.

[103] Churchill’s Voyages, iv, p. 491.  I am aware that grave doubts as to the reality of Gemelli Careri’s travels existed in the eighteenth century.  Robertson says “it seems now to be a received opinion (founded as far as I know, on no good evidence) that Careri was never out of Italy, and that his famous Giro del Mondo is an account of a fictitious voyage.”  Note 150, History of America.  The most specific charges against Careri relate to his account of his experiences in China.  See Prevost’s Histoire des Voyages, v, pp. 469-70.  His description of the Philippines and of the voyage to Acapulco is full of details that have every appearance of being the result of personal observation.  In fact, I do not see how it is possible that this part of his book is not authentic.  The only book of travels which contains a detailed account of the voyage from Manila to Acapulco written before Careri published that is described in Medina’s Bibliografia Espanola de Filipinas is the Peregrinacion del Mundo del Doctor D. Pedro Cubero Sebastian, of which an edition was published in 1682 in Naples, Careri’s own home; but Careri’s account is no more like Cubero’s than any two descriptions of the same voyage are bound to be; nor is it clear that Careri ever saw Cubero Sebastian’s narrative.

[104] Zuniga, i, p. 268.  Careri mentions the case of a Dominican who paid five hundred dollars for the eastern passage. Op. cit. p. 478; on page 423 he says the usual fare for cabin and diet was five hundred to six hundred dollars.

[105] Churchill’s Voyages, iv, p. 499.

[106] Op. cit. p. 491.  Yet Careri had no such experience as befell Cubero Sebastian in his voyage.  When they were nearing the end of the voyage a very fatal disease, “el berben, o mal de Loanda” (probably the same as beri-beri), broke out, as well as dysentery, from which few escaped who were attacked.  There were ninety-two deaths in fifteen days.  Out of four hundred persons on board, two hundred and eight died before Acapulco was reached. Peregrination del Mundo de D. Pedro Cubero Sebastian, Zaragoza, 1688, p. 268.

[107] Careri:  Op. cit. p. 503.

[108] Montero y Vidal:  Hist.  Gen. de Filipinas, i, pp. 458, 463.  On page 461 is a brief bibliography of the history of Philippine commerce.  According to Montero y Vidal, the best modern history of Philippine commerce is La Libertad de comercio en las islas Filipinas, by D. Manuel de Azcarraga y Palmero, Madrid, 1872.

[109] Montero y Vidal, ii, p. 122.

[110] Ibid., ii, p. 297.

[111] Comyn:  State of the Philippine Islands, pp. 83-97.

[112] Estadismo, i, p. 272.

[113] Zuniga, i, p. 274.

Le Gentil remarked that as the Spaniards in Manila had no landed estates to give them an assured and permanent income, they were dependent upon the Acapulco trade, and had no resources to fall back upon if the galleon were lost.  Money left in trust was often lost or embezzled by executors or guardians, and it was rare that wealth was retained three generations in the same family. Voyage, ii, pp. 110-112.