A n i m a i s .
merits o f the Spaniards are Ho-Ho and Antigüe., in the ifland of
Pan ay; but off Antigüe is the foie anchorage, and that only in
the months o f November, December, and 'January. The inhabitants
o f this ifland are infinitely more induftrious than thofe
o f Luconia; they have a manufactory of handkerchiefs, and a
fort o f linen compofedof cotton, and the fibres of a certain plant
o f the country ; they clothe themfelves with the coarfer kinds,
and difpofe o f the reft among the neighboring files. This ifland
is moft exuberantly fertile, and very populous; fome authors
make the numbers of inhabitants to exceed fixteen thoufand,
and aftert that there are fourteen parifhes belonging to the rnonks-
o f St. Augujline, three benefices o f feculars, and formerly a college
o f Jefuits. Notwithftanding the happy foil of Panay, the inhabitants
are'difcouraged from taking advantage o f that blefling,
by reafon of the neglecft of thegovernment, which leaves them unprotected
againft the depredations o f the piratical Malayes, who
land, plunder, and carry away prifoners all thofe who cannot.
efcape into the woods, Tbefe pirates are Mahometans of Borneo,
Mindanao, and other iflands between the Manillas and the Moluccas.
They infeft the coafts to a high degree, and will carry
away people almoft from under the walls o f the capital, and
fell them for llaves in Borneo, and.even in Batavia, They not
only feize the fmaller fiihing velfels, but even flfips richly
laden.
T he country abounds with deer, wild hogs, buffaloes, oxen,
and horfes ; the two laft run at liberty, and are common to the
whole ifland.
Z ebu is a fmall ifland, but remarkable for having been the
3 f i r f t
firft which the Spaniards colonized. It is pretended that there
were, at the time the Europeans arrived, three thoufand families
of warlike Indians. The Spaniards have had, wherever they came,
a happy talent in reducing the redundancy o f people.
Here, in 1.598, Philip erected the town, built by Logafpi, into
a city, and dignified it with: an epifcopal foundation ; an Auguf-
tine, Pietro de Agurto, firft filled the fee. This ifland was indulged
with fending ihips to Calao in Peru, but after the Spaniards
had made the conqueft of Luconia, and given to its capital
the privilege o f the Manilla ihips, the trade o f Zebu declined fa ll;
infomuch that its city is now funk into a village. The pafiage
from hence to the new world was far more expeditious than that
from Manilla, having been performed in two months, and the
return in three, and feldom without the difcovery o f fome iflands
in the vaft Pacific.
W e have before faid, that on Matta or MaBan, or poflibly
the Majbate of modern maps, a fmall adjacent ifland, Magellan,
like his illuftrious compeer Cool, met with a premature death
from the hands o f favages.
T he ifland of Mindanao, or Magindanao, is the laft and moft
fouthern o f the great group. Many writers feparate Mindanao
from the Manilla or Philippine iflands, among others our judicious
countryman Mr. Dalrymple. Though fo very near as evidently
to form one o f that vaft archipelago, the inhabitants may
differ in manners, but the productions o f all are nearly fimilar.
The Spaniards have on it fome. unprofitable fettlements, the
chief is at Sambouange, in Lat. 6° 54' N. on the fouth fide o f the
ifland. They have fortified it with a citadel o f ftone and bricks,
V o l. IV. L and
M a c t a n ,
I s l e o f
M in d a n a o