cos Notre and Sur, acknowledged the Spanish
rule. The exhaustion of his soldiers obliged Salcedo to return. In
Vigan, the present capital of Ilocos Sur, he constructed a fort, and
left therein for its protection his lieutenant and twenty-five men,
while he himself returned, accompanied only by seventeen soldiers, in
three small vessels. In this manner he reached the Cagayan River, and
proceeded up it until forced by the great number of hostile natives to
retreat to the sea. Pursuing the voyage to the east coast, he came down
in course of time to Paracale, where he embarked in a boat for Manila,
was capsized, and rescued from drowning by some passing natives.

["The Cortes of the Philippines."] In the meantime Legaspi had died,
and Lavezares was provisionally carrying on the government. Salcedo
heard of this with vexation at being passed over; but, when he
recovered from his jealousy, he was entrusted with the subjugation of
Camarines, which he accomplished in a short time. In 1574 he returned
to Ilocos, in order to distribute annuities among his soldiers, and to
receive his own share. While still employed upon the building of Vigan,
he discovered the fleet of the notorious Chinese pirate, Limahong, who,
bent upon taking possession of the colony, was then passing that part
of the coast with sixty-two ships and a large number of soldiers. He
hastened at once, with all the help which he could summon together in
the neighborhood, to Manila, where he was nominated to the command of
the troops, in the place of the already deposed master of the forces;
and he drove the Chinese from the town, which they had destroyed. They
then withdrew to Pangasinan, and Salcedo burnt their fleet; which
exploit was achieved with very great difficulty. In 1576 this Cortes
of the Philippines died. [261]

[Commercial importance of early Manila.] Apart from the priests, the
first-comers consisted only of officials, soldiers, and sailors; and to
them, naturally, fell all the high profits of the China trade. Manila
was their chief market, and it also attracted a great portion of the
external Indian trade, which the Portuguese had frightened away from
Malacca by their excessive cruelty. The Portuguese, it is true, still
remained in Macao and the Moluccas: but they wanted those remittances
which were almost exclusively sought after by the Chinese, viz.,
the silver which Manila received from New Spain.

[Spain and Portugal united.] In 1580 Portugal,