and was ordered to sail by way of
Nueva Espana. This Villalobos reached the Malucos Islands, those of
Terrenate, and others near by, which had been sold by the above-named
emperor to the crown of Portugal.

In these islands they had many wars, because of the Portuguese;
and seeing their feeble means of resistance, and how ill-prepared
they were to prosecute the conquest, they gave it up. Most of them
accompanied the above-mentioned Portuguese to Portuguese India,
whence they were sent, half prisoners, to the king of Portugal
himself, as men who had committed crimes, and had entered his islands
without his permission. He not only did them no harm, but gave them
excellent treatment, sending them to their native country, Castilla,
besides providing them fully with the things necessary for their
journey. Some years after that, King Don Felipe, our sovereign,
with the desire to prosecute this discovery, attempted so earnestly
by the emperor his father, sent an order to Don Luys de Velasco,
his viceroy in Nueva Espana, to prepare a fleet and crew for the
rediscovery of the above-named islands. He was ordered to despatch
in this fleet, as governor of everything discovered, Miguel Lopez de
Legaspi. All was carried out in obedience to his Majesty's orders,
and the discovery was made in the manner recounted at length in the
first relation of the entrance of the Augustinian fathers into China.

These islands were formerly subject to the king of China, until he
relinquished them all voluntarily, for the reasons expressed above in
the first part of this history. The Spaniards, therefore, at their
arrival found them without ruler or seignior to whom they might
render obedience. In each one of the islands, he who had most power
and followers acted as ruler. And because there were many equally
powerful, there was occasion for continual civil wars, without any
heed to nature, or to kindred, or to any other obligation, just as
if they were unreasoning animals--destroying, killing, and capturing
one another. This aided and favored our Spaniards to conquer the land
so easily for his Majesty.

_The reason for calling the islands Western Filipinas._ The name
Filipinas Islands was given them in honor of his name. The natives
were wont to make captives and slaves with great readiness in illegal
warfare, and for very slight causes. This God remedied with the
coming of our Spaniards. It was usual for a man, with forty or fifty
associates, or