Biblioteca Filipina (Washington, 1903), p. 276.  Stanley says:  “The inhabitants of the Philippines previous to the Spanish settlement were not like the inhabitants of the great Indian Peninsula, people with a civilization as that of their conquerors.  Excepting that they possessed the art of writing, and an alphabet of their own, they do not appear to have differed in any way from the Dayaks of Borneo as described by Mr. Boyle in his recent book of adventures amongst that people.  Indeed there is almost a coincidence of verbal expressions in the descriptions he and De Morga give of the social customs, habits, and superstitions of the two peoples they are describing; though many of these coincidences are such as are incidental to life in similar circumstances, there are enough to lead one to suppose a community of origin of the inhabitants of Borneo and Luzon.”  Pardo de Tavera says after quoting the first part of the above:  “Lord Stanley’s opinion is dispassionate and not at all at variance with historical truth.”  The same author says also that Blumentritt’s prologue and Rizal’s notes in the latter’s edition of Morga have so aroused the indignation of the Spaniards that several have even attacked Morga.]

[40] More exactly from 25 deg. 40’ north latitude to 12 deg. south latitude, if we are to include Formosa in the group, which is inhabited likewise by the same race.—­Rizal.

[41] We confess our ignorance with respect to the origin of this belief of Morga, which, as one can observe, was not his belief in the beginning of the first chapter.  Already from the time of Diodorus Siculus (first century B. C.), Europe received information of these islands by one Iamboule, a Greek, who went to them (to Sumatra at least), and who wrote afterward the relation of his voyage.  He gave therein detailed information of the number of the islands, of their inhabitants, of their writing, navigation, etc.  Ptolemy mentions three islands in his geography, which are called Sindae in the Latin text.  They are inhabited by the aginnatai.  Mercator interprets those islands as Celebes, Gilolo, and Amboina.  Ptolemy also mentions the island agajou daimonoc (Borneo), five baroussai (Mindanao, Leite, Sebu, etc.), three sabade’ibai (the Java group—­iabadiou) and ten masniolai where a large loadstone was found.  Colin surmises that these are the Manilas.—­Rizal.

Colin (Labor Evangelica, Madrid, 1663) discusses the discovery and naming of the Philippines.  He quotes Ptolemy’s passage that speaks of islands called the Maniolas, whence many suppose came the name Manilas, sometimes given to the islands.  But as pointed out in a letter dated March 14, 1904, by James A. LeRoy, Spanish writers have wasted more time on the question than it merits.  Mr. LeRoy probably conjectures rightly that many old Chinese and Japanese documents will be found to contain matter relating to the Philippines prior to the Spanish conquest.