city, for they usually come in great numbers to carry on their trading.  His Majesty has a fortress here, with its governor, three royal officers, one major, and one royal standard-bearer—­all appointed by his Majesty.  There are also two alguacils-mayor—­one of court and one of the city, one government secretary, one notary for the cabildo, and four notaries-public.  Manila is also the seat of the bishop of all the islands; in this city he resides and has his cathedral church.  There are also seven regidors in this city; three of them are proprietary magistrates, and are appointed by his Majesty—­namely, Captain Juan de Moron, Don Luis Enrriquez, and Pedro de Herrera.  The other four are appointed by the governor—­namely, Captain Graviel de Ribera, Captain Joan Maldonado, Captain Bergara, and Captain Rodrigo Alvarez.  There is also a convent of Augustinian monks, one of descalced friars, and one house of the Company [of Jesus].

The city is situated midway on the shore of a large bay, about twenty leagues in circumference.  The region all about this bay is fertile, and well-provisioned.  The inhabitants are Moros, instructed in that faith by those of Burney.  The river has a fresh-water lake, about five leagues above this city; it is more than twenty leagues in circumference.  The district abounds in rice and cotton.  The people possess much gold in the way of trinkets, but there are no mines in this region.  This same race of Moros have made settlements as far as the villages of the Batangas; their number will be told later.  They have also peopled the island of Mindoro and that of Luban, but they are to be found in no other region of these islands.  The inhabitants of the province of Camarines at the eastern end of this island, through whose strait arrive the ships from Nueva Espana, resemble the Pintados; and even those at the other and southeastern [sc. northern] end of this island, toward the Japanese, also closely resemble the Pintados—­although they do not tattoo [pintan] themselves as the latter do, and bore their ears differently; for in these two provinces there is but little tattooing.  The Pintados tattoo the whole body very gorgeously; but the Moros do not tattoo themselves at all, nor do they bore their ears.  Unlike the men of Visaya, the Moros wear their hair short, although their women bore their ears, but in a very ugly manner.  The Moros inhabit only this district of the bay of Manilla. with a fifteen-league coast, the most fertile land of this island.  The following encomiendas are to be found in the neighborhood of this city: 

The encomienda of Vatan, eight hundred men.

The encomienda of Vitis, with about seven thousand men.

The encomienda of Macabebe, with two thousand six hundred men.

The encomienda of Calonpite, with about three thousand men.

The encomienda of Candava, with two thousand men.

Near this encomienda is a village which, on account of its antiquity, is called Little Castilla.  It belongs to his Majesty, and has a population of seventy.