to be more than usually
necessary to engage the mind.

There are many imperfections in the execution of my task; but for these
the critical reader is requested to make some allowance, and entreated
not to forget the inconveniences all landsmen are subjected to at sea.

September, 1851.

RECOLLECTIONS

OF

MANILLA AND THE PHILIPPINES.

CHAPTER I.

About the time the Spanish arms under Hernan Cortez, Pizarro, and
Almagro, were meeting with their most splendid successes in America,
the thought occurred to Hernando Magallanes, a Portuguese gentleman
in the service of King Charles the Fifth of Spain, that if by sailing
south he could pass the new Western World, it would be possible to
reach the famous Spice Islands of the East, which he supposed to
contain untold-of wealth in their bosoms. This vast, and, in the
state of their knowledge at the time, apparently hardy and even rash
idea, met with approval by the King, who honoured Magallanes with
the distinguished military order of Santiago, and appointed him to
the command of a squadron which he immediately set about fitting out
to accomplish the project, with the view of conquering and annexing
these islands to his crown.

At length, when all the preparations were completed, on the 10th of
August, 1519, six ships, no one of which exceeded 130 tons, and some
of them being less than half that size, sailed from the port of San
Lucan de Barrameda on this bold and perilous enterprise.

In the prosecution of their voyage, many obstacles were encountered;
but everything disappeared before the ardour of their chief,
who, discovering, passed through the Straits of Magellan, which
alone immortalize his name, and spreading his sails to the gale,
stood boldly with his squadron, now reduced to three crazy vessels,
into the unknown and vast ocean which lay open before him, with all
the hardihood characteristic of his time, traversing in its utmost
breadth the Pacific, without, however, chancing to meet with any of
the numerous islands now scattered throughout its extent. At last,
the Mariana or Ladrone Islands were descried on the 16th of August,
1521, and a few days afterwards a cape on the east coast of Mindanao
was seen.

Coasting along the shores of Caraga, the ships anchored off Limasna,
where Magallanes was well received by