to assent to so many kindnesses,
for their immediate passage to Manila was unavoidable, in order that
the governor might see the despatches and the decrees from Espana,
which it was necessary to present to him. After having given the
bishop the thanks due, they had to set out as soon as possible.

Before proceeding with our relation, it will not be out of place
to tell our readers, although in few words, something about the
island of Luzon and the city of Manila, as it is the metropolis of
the kingdoms that the crown of Castilla has there. It was given that
name, then, since the Spaniards have owned it, from a chief village
so named, distant two leguas from Manavilis, which is corruptly called
Marivelez. It was also called Nueva Castilla. It is the largest island
in the Philippinas, and extends farthest north of all those islands. It
is the most populous in nations and tribes, who exceed the others, both
in bravery and in the light of reason, with well-known advantages. Its
least altitude is scant thirteen degrees, and its greatest ten or nine
and one-half. Its circuit, without taking into account certain bays,
comprehends four hundred and twelve leguas. Those who make it three
hundred are in error, for they do not consider its position. It is
all very fertile, and has many large rivers, that of Cagayan or Nueva
Segovia being more swollen than the others. They are all navigable,
more or less. Ships enter that of Manila at full tide with one-half
their cargo, but the galleys enter it generally without any trouble. It
furnishes a location for the aforesaid city, on a certain very pleasant
and beautiful site on the shores of the sea. It is a point made by the
Pasig River in sight of the bay. That bay is affirmed to be one of the
largest and best that men can see in all the world, for it is thirty
leguas in circumference, and has an island of six miles at its mouth,
where a sentinel is always stationed. It sustains more than one hundred
thousand persons daily with fish, counting the Sangleys and Japanese,
and the villages that are settled on its shores. When Adelantado
Miguel Lopez de Legaspi took it by force of arms, May nineteen, one
thousand five hundred and seventy, ten thousand houses beautified it,
and it was the court of the king, Ladya [_sic_] Soliman, a follower
in part of the religion of Mahomet. The same general rebuilt the
city, and left it its former name of Manila--also the proper name
of the island--in the f