li
M a n i l l a
U L à NL 5.
W h e n
DISCOVERED.
Z e b u .
I s l a n d o f
L u c o n i á .
to have been done by the inftigation o f the Dutch or Spaniards,
jealous o f their commercial interefts in that neighborhood.
A t a fmall diftance to the north, about Lat. 7°, begins the
V a ft group o f the Philippine iilands ; thefe are much more probably
the Manióla o f Ptolemy, than the leifer Andaman, which
D'Anville fuppofes it to have been. Theíé iilands were known
to the antients by the Indian name, which is ftill retained in
Manilla ; Ptolemy fpeaks o f them as ten iilands immediately beyond
the tres Ínfula Satyrorum, or Borneo, 8cc. They were firft
difcovered by the great Magellan, who came in fight of them on
April 17th 1521, and named them the Archipelago of St. Lazarus.
He landed on one o f them called MaSlan, near to Zebu, where, ac-
ording to Pigafetta, a companion and eye witnefs, he, with
eight or nine o f his men, was ilain in an encounter with the
natives.
T h e difcovery o f thefe iilands was completed in 1541, by a
Spaniard o f the name o f Ruy Lopez de Villalobos, who named
them the Philippine, in honor o f Philip prince o f Spain, afterwards
Philip II. We chufe to retain the antient name the Manillas.
T h e firft fettlement made by the Spaniards in thefe iilands
was not till the year 1565, when Michael Lopez de Lagaspi built a
town in the ifle of Zébu. He fecured it by a fmall garrifon, and
then proceeded to the conqueft of other iilands more worthy of
his arms. He failed into a fine bay in the ifland o f Manilla or
Luconid, and was, in 1571, the founder o f the city o f Manilla, fo
celebrated for its opulence, and for being the common repofi-
tory and place o f exchange o f the productions of both the Indies’,
one may alfo fay, thofe o f the old and the new world ; of Europe,
of India, and of China ; and in return it receives the filver o f
Potoji. The indolence o f the Spaniards will not fuffer thefe
iilands to produce any one article of commerce, a little gold ex- Gotn.
cepted, brought down the floods into the channels of the rivers.
The group certainly contains rich mines of the pretious
metal, but as wealth flows in fuch abundance with very little
trouble to the colonifts, they will not be at the pains o f exploring
the veins. Luconia alfo produces abundance o f excellent iron
and copper.
T h e fruitfulnefs o f foil is a perpetual reproach to the floth-
fulnefs of its lords. A very few exceptions are to be foutid ; one
friend to the ifland introduced the Coco tree, Theobronia cacao,
Catejby, Suppl. tab. 6, which is cultivated with fuch fuccefs, as to
become almoft the fupport o f the inhabitants,'by giving them
the favorite food o f the Spaniards, chocolaté ; indigo, which I n d ig o .
grows fpontaneoufly, owes o f late years its ufe in their manufactories
to the fagacity of an individual. It was not till the
year 1744, that the fluggifh Spaniards ever knew the culture of
European grains or efculents. As to the native productions,J it
poflelfes every tree or fruit common to the torrid zone, and numbers
probably peculiar to itfelf, few only o f which are brought
to view, and that by the induftry o f a Sonnerat.
T h e unwife expulfion o f the Jefuits will long retard, pof-
fibly for ever prevent, the improvement o f the Manilla iilands.
The domains of that intelligent order were covered with cattle
innumerable ; their meadows ftretched numbers of miles, watered
and fertilized by the rivers of the country.
Manilla,.