of the Spaniards. The master-of-camp, with all
his soldiers, leaped ashore in front of the village
on a little plain, and, approaching the village in
a zigzag course, thus attacked it. The gunners
who were in the ship were ordered to discharge a cannon
in the air when the attack was made, and this was
done. The Indians seeing that they intended to
enter the village by force, made peace with the master-of-camp,
and paid him tribute; and they have remained friends
and vassals of the royal Spanish administration up
to the present day. This is the port where enter
all the passengers who come from the islands of the
Pintados and from Espana to this island of Luzon, where
the governor resides. From here the master-of-camp
set sail for the island of Luzon, or rather the port
and village of Manilla, which was said to be large
and very strong. It is but just to say that it
is not more than one-tenth as large and as strong
as in Nueva Espana and in other places it is reported
to be; and yet, in comparison with the natives of
this land, the inhabitants of Manilla were powerful,
for they had twelve pieces of small and inferior artillery
and a few culverins, with such other weapons as I
have already mentioned. This village of Manilla
is situated on a tongue of land extending from east
to west between the river and the sea, and a fort had
been built on the extreme western end of this peninsula
at the entrance to the port. The sea makes a
very large harbor about thirty leagues in circumference;
and bordering upon this harbor are many villages,
among which is that of Manilla. [43] Manilla is now
a Spanish city, founded in the name of his Majesty
by the governor Miguel Lopez de Legazpi. The
captain-general and Captain Juan de Sauzedo having
arrived in view of this port of Manilla, entered in
peace, and under the safe-conduct of two native chiefs
of the said village. One of these was called
Laya, lately deceased, who died a Christian; the other
was called Raxa Soliman. With these two chiefs
were drawn up articles of peace, although Raxa Soliman
was suspected of lack of good-faith, while Laya was
always to be trusted, even until the day of his death.
While these peaceful negotiations were in progress
between the master-of-camp and the two chiefs above-mentioned,
there collected a large number of natives of various
classes; and yet there were not so many a” was
reported in Nueva Espana, where it was claimed that
there were in all eighty thousand Moros in this village
of Manilla, when this event took place. Indeed
one should subtract seventy-eight thousand from the
eighty thousand mentioned, in order to arrive at the
two thousand which there might have been from the said
village of Manilla and those in its environs, including
the women and children, who were present in great
numbers. Now, as I say, these negotiations being
in progress, some of the natives desired peace and
others war; for indeed the Indians had some pride,
and it seemed to them that the Spaniards were very