islands there is abundance of salt, fowls, and cattle, besides swine,
deer, and buffaloes; there are also several kinds of beans, and other
vegetables. With these foods not only do the people support themselves,
but the fleets and garrisons, and the ships that make long sea-voyages
are furnished with provisions. On all the coasts, and in all the
rivers and lakes, excellent fish are caught in abundance; and in the
mountains the people gather much honey and wax. In the gardens, they
raise a great deal of delicious fruit, and much garden-stuff. Oranges
and bananas not only grow in abundance, but are of the best quality in
the world. In some of the islands nutmeg, pepper, cloves, and cinnamon
are found. The country is everywhere fertile, and green and pleasant
all the year round; and in some places wheat is sown and harvested.

31. In these islands grows much cotton, from which the people make
Ylocan blankets, lampotes, white cloth, medrinaques, material for hose,
and other useful fabrics. In many (indeed in most) islands are found
amber and civet, and gold mines--these especially in the mountain
ranges of Pangasinam and Paracali, and in Pampanga; consequently;
there is hardly an Indian who does not possess chains and other
articles of gold. Besides these products (which are peculiar to
the country), others are brought to Manila from Great China, Xapon,
and numberless other kingdoms and islands of this archipelago--wheat,
iron, copper, some quicksilver, tin, and lead; cinnamon (from Zeilan),
pepper, cloves, nutmeg, musk, and incense; silks (both raw and woven),
and linens; Chinese earthenware, ivory, and ebony; diamonds, rubies,
and other precious stones; valuable woods; and many uncommon and
delicious fruits. In Manila, gunpowder is manufactured, and excellent
artillery and bells are cast; and various articles are exquisitely
wrought in filigree of gold and silver. All things necessary to human
life [are found there] and even articles of superfluity, ostentation,
pomp, and luxury.

The city of Manila

32. This city was conquered and founded by its first governor on May
19, the day of St. Potenciana the virgin, in the year 1571. It was
built on a site naturally strong on the shore of the sea, and at the
mouth of a great river--which flows four leguas from the lake of Bay,
and here loses itself [in the sea]--on a strip of land formed between
the sea and the river. Thus half of the city, that on the north and
west,