ILLUSTRATIONS

Plan of the city of Goa and its environs; photographic facsimile of engraving in Bellin’s Petit atlas maritime ([Paris], 1764), no. 29, from copy in library of Wisconsin Historical Society. 199 View of the city of Manila; photographic facsimile of engraving in Spilbergen and Le Maire’s Speculum orientalis occidentalisque Indiae navigationum (French edition, 1621), no. 18, facing p. 86, from copy in Library of Congress. 225 Autograph signature of Fernando de Los Rios; photographic facsimile from original Ms. in Archivo general de Indias, Sevilla. 343

PREFACE

The scope of the present volume extends from 1617 to 1620.  The islands are still ravaged at intervals by the Moro pirates from the southern part of the archipelago.  Even worse are the losses to the commerce of the islands inflicted by the Dutch; their ships infest the seas about Luzon, and those of the Moluccas, in which region they are steadily and even rapidly gaining foothold, and securing the best commerce of those lands.  Corruption in the management of the Spanish interests in the Spice Islands renders them an expensive and embarrassing possession; and the new governor, Fajardo, finds the same influence at work in the Spanish colony itself, especially among the auditors and other high officials.  The colonial treasury is, as usual, short of funds, and can do little to defend the islands from the Dutch; the Madrid government is unwilling to spend much more on the Philippines, although beset with importunities to save that colony, and Spanish commerce generally, from the insolent Dutch.  The usual building of ships in the islands has so harrassed and exhausted the unfortunate natives that it is necessary to have ships built for the Philippines in India and other countries where timber and labor are more abundant.  The trade of the colony with China is the object of much discussion, and proposals are again made to restrict it, as well as that with Nueva Espana, in order to protect the commercial interests of the mother-country.  In the final document is a detailed statement, in vigorous language, of the abuses current in the administration of the islands—­arbitrary and oppressive conduct of the auditors, corruption among officials, extravagant expenditure of public funds, lax enforcement of laws, burdensome exactions imposed upon the Indians, and Chinese, etc.; for these the citizens demand redress, prevention, and relief.

Andres de Alcaraz, the auditor in charge of military affairs after Silva’s death, writes to the king (August 10, 1617).  The ships could not go to Nueva Espana in 1616, because the Dutch were lying in wait for them; but the Acapulco galleon arrives safely at Manila, and brings money to relieve the general distress.  Alcaraz makes ready, although in the midst of great difficulties, a fleet to drive