passes around the other side of the world, through the
city of Malacca." This is conformable with the law of February 22,
1632 (_Recop. leyes Indias_, lib. i, tit. xiv, ley xxxiii), which
locates Japan and the Philippine Islands in the West Indies; it also
corresponds with the Constitution (_Onerosa_) of Clement VIII, issued
December 12, 1600, to be found in section 4, wherein the Philippines
are located, it seems, in the West Indies, or what are considered
as such. However, what really is the dividing line has not yet been
decided.--_Rev. T.C. Middleton_, O.S.A.

[21] The missionaries who effected the conversion [of the Malaysian
tribes] were not, for the most part, genuine Arabs, but the mixed
descendants of Arab and Persian traders from the Persian and Arabian
gulfs--parties who, by their intimate acquaintance with the manners and
languages of the islanders, were far more effectual instruments. The
earliest recorded conversion was that of the people of Achin in
Sumatra (A.D. 1206). The Malays of Malacca adopted Mahometanism in
1276; the Javanese, in 1478; the inhabitants of the Moluccas, about
the middle of the fifteenth century. This doctrine has been received
by all the more civilized peoples of the Indian archipelago. See
Crawfurd's _Dictionary_, pp. 236, 237, 284.

[22] Throughout this document, the attestations and other legal
procedures of notaries are enclosed within parentheses.

[23] The name _fragata_ (from which is derived the English word
"frigate") is here used to designate merely a light sailing-vessel
which could navigate among the islands.

[24] Evidently one of the so-called "hand cannon," which were often
used at this period, both by cavalry and by infantry--portable
fire-arms, loaded sometimes at the breech and sometimes by a movable
chamber. See illustrations and descriptions of these weapons in
Demmin's _Arms and Armor_ (Black's trans.), pp. 59-74, 485, 511-517.

[25] The arms of Portugal, consisting of five scutcheons, in memory
of the five wounds of Christ.

[26] One of the numerous appellations of small cannon.

[27] The _banca_ was a sort of canoe made from a hollowed tree-trunk
(like the American "dug-out"), sometimes provided with outriggers,
to prevent it from upsetting, and sometimes with a roof of bamboo. The
_barangay_ is the most primitive and most characteristic boat in the
Philippines; it is described as a sharp and slender craft, pointed
at both ends, and put together with w