History of the Philippine Islands Part 17

[42] See VOL. VIII of this series, pp. 260-267.

[43] San Agustin [as does Argensola] says there were two hundred and fifty Chinese.--Rizal.

[44] Marikaban.--Rizal.

[45] The original is ballesteras, defined in the old dictionaries as that part of the galley where the soldiers fought.

[46] A sort of knife or saber used in the Orient.

[47] This lack and defect are felt even now [1890] after three centuries.--Rizal.

[48] Cho-da-mukha, in Siamese the place of meeting of the chief mandarins, i.e., the capital.--Stanley.

[49] Phra-Unkar. Phra or Pra is the t.i.tle given to the kings of Siam and Camboja.--Rizal.

[50] Si-yuthia, or the seat of the kings.--Stanley.

[51] Id est, the supercargo, in Chinese.--Stanley.

[52] Father Alonso Ximenez or Jimenez took the Dominican habit in the Salamanca convent. His best years were pa.s.sed in the missions of Guatemala. He was one of the first Dominicans to respond to the call for missionaries for the Dominican province in the Philippines, leaving for that purpose the Salamanca convent, whither he had retired. His first mission was on the river of Bataan. A severe illness compelled him to go to the Manila convent, where he was later elected prior, and then provincial of the entire Dominican field of the islands, being the second to hold that office. He later engaged in the two disastrous expeditions as mentioned in our text, and died December 31, 1598. See Resena biografica.

[53] Lantchang or Lanxang is the name of an ancient city in the north of Cambodia. (Pallegoix's Dictionary).--Stanley.

[54] Rizal says: "There exists at this point a certain confusion in the order, easy, however, to note and correct. We believe that the author must have said 'Vencidas algunas dificultades, para la falida, por auer ydo a efte tiempo, de Camboja a Lanchan, en los Laos vn madarin llamado Ocuna de Chu, con diez paroes, etc.;'" whereas the book reads the same as the above to "Camboja," and then proceeds "a los Laos, vn madarin llamado Ocuna de Chu, Alanchan con diez paroes." We have accordingly translated in accordance with this correction. Stanley translates the pa.s.sage as follows: "Some difficulties as to setting out from Alanchan having been overcome, by the arrival at this time in Laos from Cambodia of a mandarin named Ocunia de Chu, with ten prahus, etc." In the above we follow the orthography of the original.

[55] The river Me-Kong.--Rizal.

[56] Laksamana, a general or admiral in Malay.--Stanley.

[57] Chow Phya is a t.i.tle in Siam and Cambodia.--Rizal.

[58] That is, his son or other heir was to inherit the t.i.tle.

[59] Rizal conjectures that this word is a transformation of the Tagal word, lampitaw, a small boat still used in the Philippines.

[60] We follow Stanley's translation. He derives the word cacatal [zacatal] from zacate, or sacate, signifying "reed," "hay," or other similar growths, zacatal thus being a "place of reeds" or a "thicket."

[61] From kalasag, a s.h.i.+eld.--Rizal.

[62] Argensola says that this native, named Ubal, had made a feast two days before, at which he had promised to kill the Spanish commander.--Rizal.

[63] Perhaps the arquebuses of the soldiers who had been killed in the combat with Figueroa, for although culverins and other styles of artillery were used in these islands, arquebuses were doubtless unknown.--Rizal.

[64] These considerations might apply to the present [1890] campaigns in Mindanao.--Rizal.

[65] Argensola says that Cachil is probably derived from the Arabic Katil, which signifies "valiant soldier." "In the Malucas they honor their n.o.bles with this t.i.tle as with Mosiur in Francia, which means a trifle more than Don in Espana." See also VOL. X, p. 61, note 6.

[66] The Solomon Islands (Islas de Salomon) were first discovered in 1568 by Alvaro de Mendana de Neyra while on an expedition to discover the supposed southern continent between Asia and America. Various reasons are alleged for the name of this group: one that Mendana called them thus because of their natural richness; another that King Solomon obtained wood and other materials there for his temple; and the third and most probable that they were called after one of the men of the fleet. As narrated in our text, the expedition of 1595 failed to rediscover the islands. They remained completely lost, and were even expunged from the maps until their rediscovery by Carteret in 1767. The discoverers and explorers Bougainville, Surville, Shortland, Manning, d'Entrecasteaux, Butler, and Williamson, made discoveries and explorations in the same century. In 1845, they were visited by d'Urville. H.B. Guppy made extensive geological studies there in 1882. The French Marist fathers went there first in 1845, but were forced, in 1848, to abandon that field until 1861. They were the least known of all the Pacific and South Sea islands. They extend a distance of over 600 miles, and lie approximately between 4 30'-12 south lat.i.tude and 154 40'-162 30' east longitude. They lie southeast of New Britain and northwest of New Hebrides. The larger islands are: Bougainville, Choiseul, Santa Isabel, Guadalconar, Malaita, and San Cristobal, and are generally mountainous, and volcanic in origin, containing indeed several active volcanoes. The smaller islands are generally volcanic and show traces of coral limestone. The climate is unhealthful, and one of the rainiest in the world. They are extremely fertile and contain excellent water. The inhabitants are of the Malay race and were formerly cannibals. They form parts of the British and German possessions. See Lord Amherst: Discovery of the Solomon Islands (London, Hakluyt Soc. ed., 1901); H. B. Guppy: The Solomon Islands (London, 1887); Justo Zaragoza: Historia del descubrimiento australes (Madrid, 1876).

[67] These places are all to be found on the old maps. Paita or Payta is shown just above or below five degrees south lat.i.tude. Callao was properly the port of Lima.

[68] Called by the natives Fatuhiwa, situated in 10 40' south lat.i.tude, and west longitude 138 15', one of the Marquesas group belonging to France.--Rizal.

[69] According to Captain Cook, cited by Wallace, these islanders surpa.s.sed all other nations in the harmony of their proportions and the regularity of their features. The stature of the men is from 175 to 183 cm.--Rizal.

[70] The three islands are identified as Motane (probably), Hiwaoa, Tahuata or Tanata; the channel as the strait of Bordelais; and the "good port" as Vaitahu (Madre de Dios) (?).--Rizal.

[71] The breadfruit, which grows on the tree artocarpus incisa. It is called rima in Spanish, the name by which it was perhaps known throughout Polynesia.--Rizal.

In the Bissayan Islands this tree was called colo. It reaches a height of about sixty feet. Its bark exudes a gummy sap, that is used for snaring birds. For want of areca, the bark is also used by the Indians as a subst.i.tute. The wood is yellow, and is used for making canoes, and in the construction of houses. See Delgado's Historia General, and Blanco's Flora de Filipinas.

[72] Probably the Pukapuka group or Union Islands.--Rizal.

[73] Perhaps Sophia Island, which is about this distance from Lima.--Rizal.

[74] Nitendi.--Rizal.

[75] The small islets may have been the Taumako Islands; the shoals, Matema, and the "island of no great size," Vanikoro.--Rizal.

[76] Called kilitis in the Philippines, but we are not aware that indigo is made of it.--Rizal.

Delgado (Historia, Manila, 1892) describes the wild amaranths which he calls quiletes (an American word, according to Blanco) doubtless the plant indicated in the text. The native generic name is haroma. There are numerous varieties, all edible.

[77] This word is untranslated by Stanley. Rizal conjectures that it may come from the Tagal word saga or jequiriti. But it may be a misprint for the Spanish sagu or sagui, "sago."

[78] Pingre's translation of the Descubrimiento de las Islas de Salomon says, p. 41: "On the 17th October there was a total eclipse of the moon: this luminary, on rising above the horizon, was already totally eclipsed. Mendana, by his will, which he signed with difficulty, named as lady governor of the fleet his wife Dona Isabella de Barreto." And in a note, he [i.e., Pingre] says that he calculated this eclipse by the tables of Halley: the immersion must have happened at Paris at 19 hours 6 minutes, and the moon had already been risen since 5 or 6 minutes; so that the isle of Sta. Cruz would be at least 13h. 2m. west of Paris, which would make it 184 degrees 30 minutes longitude, or at most 190 degrees, allowing for the Spaniards not having perceived the eclipse before sunset.--Stanley.

[79] Probably Ponape.--Rizal.

[80] The Descubrimiento de las Islas de Salomon says: "The frigate was found cast away on the coast with all the crew dead. The galliot touched at Mindanao, in 10 degrees, where the crew landed on the islet of Camaniguin; and while wandering on the sh.o.r.e, and dying of hunger, met with some Indians, who conducted them to a hospital of the Jesuits. The corregidor of the place sent five men of this s.h.i.+p prisoners to Manila, upon the complaint of their captain, whom they had wished to hang. He wrote to Don Antonio de Morga the following letter: 'A Spanish galliot has arrived here, commanded by a captain, who is as strange a man as the things which he relates. He pretends to have belonged to the expedition of General Don Alvaro de Mendana, who left Peru for the Solomon isles, and that the fleet consisted of four s.h.i.+ps. You will perhaps have the means of knowing what the fact is.' The soldiers who were prisoners declared that the galliot had separated from the general only because the captain had chosen to follow another route."--Stanley.

[81] Dr. T. H. Pardo de Tavera in his Historia del descubrimiento de las regiones australes (Madrid, 1876), identifies this bay with the present Harbor of Laguan.--Rizal.

[82] Lord Stanley translates the above pa.s.sage, which reads in the original "que por quede della razon (si acaso Dios dispusiese de mi persona, o aya otra qualquiera ocasion; que yo, o la que lleuo faltemos), aya luz della," etc., as "that an account may remain (if perchance G.o.d should dispose of my life, or anything else should arise, or I or she that I take with me should be missing), and that it may give light," etc. Rizal points out that the words "o la que lleuo faltemos" do not refer to Dona Isabel de Barreto, but to a similar relation of the voyage that Quiros carried with him. We have accordingly adopted the latter's rendering, which is by far more probable.

[83] On the island of s.h.i.+koku.--Rizal.

[84] From the j.a.panese fune, boat. This may be etymologically equivalent to the English word funny, a kind of small boat.

[85] Lord Stanley connects this word, which he translates "monks,"

with the Nembuds Koo. These, according to Engelbert Kaempfer, historian and physician at the Dutch emba.s.sy in j.a.pan, and who lived from 1651 to 1716, are devout fraternities who chant the Namanda, the abbreviation of "Nama Amida Budsu" ("Great Amida help us"). The Dai-Nembudzsui are persons especially devoted to Amida's wors.h.i.+p. Rizal however refutes this, and derives Nambaji from the j.a.panese word Nambanjin, signifying "dweller of the barbaric south," as the missionaries came from the south.

[86] See note 85, ante, p. 119.

[87] The Spanish word is dojicos, which is etymologically the same as the French dogiques. This latter term is defined in The Jesuit Relations (Cleveland, 1896-1901), xxvii, p. 311, note 1, as a name given, in foreign missions, to those natives who instruct their countrymen. They officiated in the absence of the priests.

[88] Fus.h.i.+mi, Osaka, and Sakai.--Rizal.