themselves they must join with us and harass them on all sides.

The Hollanders have seen that in their battles with us they have
received much damage from our galleys; therefore they built two
vessels of this class to bring with their fleet to these islands. But
our Lord was pleased so to order it that, when coming from Amb[o]ino
to Ternate, one galley sank with all the people, and the other ran
aground, although the people were saved.

_Of the Philipinas Islands_

On the eleventh of November, 1618, at three o'clock in the morning,
a comet was seen from this city of Manila. It had a tail, was
silver-colored, with a slightly ashen tinge, and had an extraordinary
form. At first it was like a trumpet, and then like a catan (which is a
weapon peculiar to Japon, resembling the cutlass), with the edge toward
the southwest; and at the end it appeared palm-shaped. The declination
[78] of the southwestern end was twenty degrees south. At first its
length was equal to the whole of the sign of Libra, with which it
rose. Eight days afterward, the declination of the southwestern end
was twenty-four degrees and thirty minutes south. At this time the head
was thirty-one degrees south, and the lower point, or end of the tail,
eight degrees from the star called Spica Virginia. No star exhalation
[79] was seen, although some say that they saw a very small one. On
the twenty-fourth of November another tailed comet appeared, even
more beautiful and resplendent than the first. At its head [_al pie_]
was a burning star. It appeared in the east. It had a declination
of eight degrees, and it pointed southwestward to the sign of the
Scorpion, which is the sign of Manila. These two comets lasted some
three months. They write from Japon, Maluco, and India that they were
seen in those places.

The devotion of the Immaculate Conception of the Holy Virgin has
been notable in this city. This year great eight-day fiestas, with
masks and illuminations, have been celebrated with much solemnity in
the cathedral church and in that of St. Francis. It is feared that
there will be much hunger in the islands during the present year,
because the locusts are so numerous that they cover the fields and
destroy the grain. May God help us!

In September, 1618, a ship was despatched from these islands for
Macan primarily to carry needed munitions, although it did not
neglect to take a quantity of money belonging to private persons,
to be invested in merch