12. Reforms needed.—­“Simancas—­Secular; Audiencia de Filipinas; cartas y expedientes del cabildo secular de Manila vistos en el Consejo; anos 1570 a 1640; est. 67, caj. 6, leg. 27.”  Three documents are combined in this one; of these the first is in the original a printed pamphlet with MS. additions.

The following are obtained from MSS. in the Real Academia de la
Historia, Madrid; all are in the collection “Papeles de los Jesuitas:” 

13. Trade with the Far East.—­“Tomo 15, no. 19.”

14. Relation of 1617-18.—­“Tomo 84, no. 7.”

15. Description of islands.—­“Tomo 84, no. 22.”

16. Dutch factories.—­“Tomo 135, no. 34.”

17. Relation of 1618-19.—­“Tomo 112, no. 55.”

NOTES

[1] Spanish, se hierra; an allusion to the branding of convicts with a hot iron; that is, a defeat on the part of the Spaniards would be an irremediable damage to their reputation.

[2] See Vol.  XIV, p. 314, note 53.

[3] The property of deceased persons was carefully guarded by law, as numerous decrees show; see Recopilacion de leyes, lib. ix, tit. xiv, which contains twenty-five ordinances, devoted to “the property of persons who have died in the Indias, and its administration and accounts in the House of Trade at Sevilla;” and lib. ii, tit. xxxii, with seventy ordinances regarding “the courts in charge of such property, and its administration and accounts in the Indias, and on vessels of war or trade.”  Two of these laws (ley xxii in the former group, and ley lix in the latter) give definite and unqualified command that the funds in the probate treasury shall not be used for any purpose whatsoever, even for the needs of the royal service; and another (ley lx, second group), dated December 13, 1620, commands that the proceeds of estates left by persons dying in the Philippines shall be accounted for and paid (to the heirs) at the royal treasury in the city of Mexico.

[4] Juan Ronquillo was a relative of Gonzalo Ronquillo de Penalosa.  After the death of Rodriguez de Figueroa, he conducted an expedition to Mindanao in 1597 at Governor Tello’s order (see description of that expedition, Vol.  XV).  In 1617 he defeated the Dutch at Playa Honda, as above described.

[5] Playa Honda (signifying “a low beach”) is the name of an extensive plain in Batalan or Botolan mountain, 1,847 feet high, on the coast of Zambales province, Luzon, to the northwest of Manila.  In the text, this name is applied to a road or anchorage on that coast; its early name was Paynauen.

[6] This was Miguel Garcia Serrano; he made his profession as an Augustinian friar in 1592, at Agreda, Spain.  Three years later, he arrived in the Philippines, where he was minister in several native villages, and held various important offices in his order, being provincial in 1611.  Then he went to Spain and Rome; and, when the see of Nueva Segovia became vacant, Serrano was appointed to it.  After ruling this bishopric for two years (June, 1617-August, 1619) he became archbishop of Manila.  His death occurred in June, 1629.