G o l d .
B o a t s .
A rm s .
M a n i l l a s
A G A IN .
prefence o f a great multitude aflemhled on the occafion. Their
manners were innoffenfive, friendly, and honeft, not only among
themfelves, but to the new vifitants, who poflibly were the firft
Europeans they had feen.
In general the men went naked, excepting the ufual wrapper
about their loins; fome had jackets o f plantain leaves; the rudeft,
fays Dampier, o f all clothing. The women had a ftrong thick
ihort petticoat o f cotton, made o f the lefler cotton plant, the product
o f their own ifles. Both fexes wore large ear-rings o f a
yellow, metal, which was found in their mountains; it was heavy,
and, like the paler gold, it faded with time, but the natives re-
ftored it to its original hrightnefs, by fmearing it over with a
red earth, and flinging it into a fire till it was red hot. Our navigator
had no means o f proving whether it was gold.
To the women was left the care of the plantations. The
men were engaged in fiihing; they built with much ikill their
fmall boats, which refembled the Deal yawls, formed of very
narrow planks, faftened with pins and nails. They had alfo
larger boats, which carried forty or fifty men, and were rowed by
twelve or fourteen oars on a fide. It feems as i f they went to
the ifland of Manilla for their iron ; which they manufactured
at home. From,thence they get their other'only import, pieces
o f buffaloes hides, with which they make their defenlive armor,
or buff coats: their foie offenfive weapops are lances headed
with iron; all this implies the fear o f enemies,and makes it probable
that they are fubjecft to the attacks of the piratical Indians.
A f t e r th i s d ig r e f f i o n , l e t m e r e t u r n to t h e g r e a t g r o u p o f t h e
Manillas. T h e i f la n d o f Minder a lie s f o u t h o f th a t o f Manilla ; a n d
is very lofty and mountanous; many o f the natives pay tribute to
the Spaniards. Sonnerat * fays, that moil voyagers aflert, that
there is a race o f men in this ifland which have tails: the
fame is feigned o f certain people in Borneo, but the fa£t turns
out that they happen to have the Os Coccygis a little more elongated
than is ufual in the human fpecies.
South of Mindora is the elufter of fmall ifles called the Ca- Calamianes.
lamianes, with others ftill fmaller to the eaft o f them. The ifland
o f Paragtea ftretches from the Calamianes near feventy leagues
in length; and at the fouthern end approaches the ifles o f Ba-
lambangan off the eoaft o f Borneo. The Spaniards have here
fome tributary Indians; part of the ifland is faid to be fubjeCt to
a fultan in Borneo.
A l l . thefe iflands form the weftern boundary o f a great gulph t G r e a t c e n t r a c ^' c . , , . . . , , _ , B a y i n t h e The reft of the Manillas y and the Soolo Archipelago, are . on the m i d s t o f t h e
north and eaft fides; the end of Borneo is on the fouth.' A few Man11las'
fmall ifles are flattered over the middle. To go on with the farther
account o f the ifland; Manduque, Majbate, and numbers o f
fmall ifles, fill the part next to Luconia or Manilla. Samal, a
large ifland, faces the ocean on their outfide to the eaft. Its promontory,
El Spirit 0 fanto,\s remarkable by the capture o f the rich
Manilla ihip by lord Anfon, it being the firft o f the iflands which
thofe veflels make'in their courfe from Acapulco, to their port o f
Manilla:..
P a n a t - B u g l a s , or ifle o f Negros, Zebu and Leyte, with the P a n a y ..
lefler ifle o f Bohol, range nearly eaft and weft, parallel to each
ether, a little to the fouth p f the preceding. The principal fettle-
* Voyage auxJndeSj.u. il^.
ments