h are in great number; as is affirmed in his manuscript history
by Father Pedro Chirino, [14] to whom the provisor and vicar-general
of this archbishopric entrusted the visit and examination of those
books in the year one thousand six hundred and nine, for the purpose
of preventing errors. That was a holy proceeding, and one that was
very proper among so new Christians.

The Filipinos easily accustom themselves to the Spanish letters and
method of writing. They are greatly benefited thereby, for many of
them write now just like us, because of their cleverness and quickness
in imitating any letter or design, and in the doing of anything with
the hands. There are some of them who commonly serve as clerks in
the public accountancies and secretaryships of the kingdom. We have
known some so capable that they have deserved to become officials in
those posts, and perhaps to supply those offices ad interim. They
also are a great help to students in making clean copies of their
rough drafts, not only in Romance but also in Latin, for there are
already some of them who have learned that language. Finally, they
are the printers in the two printing-houses in this city of Manila;
and they are entirely competent in that work, in which their skill
and ability are very evident.

94. Coming now to the other point, that of their languages, there are
many of these. For in this island of Manila alone there are six of
them, which correspond to the number of the provinces or civilized
nations; the Tagalog, Pampanga, Camarines (or Visayan), Cagayan,
and those of the Ilocans and Pangasinans. These are the civilized
nations. We do not yet know the number of the nations of the Negrillos,
Zambals, and other mountain nations. Although the civilized languages
are, strictly speaking, dissimilar, they resemble one another, so that
in a short time those people can understand one another, and those of
the one nation can converse with those of another--in the same way
as the Tuscan, Lombard, and Sicilian in Italia; and the Castilian,
Portuguese, and language of Valencia in Espana. The reason why these
languages resemble one another so closely is the same as in Italia
and Espana. For as the latter languages originated from the Roman,
just so do these originate from the Malay. For proof of that it is
necessary to do nothing else than to compare the words and idioms,
or the modes of speech, of each one of these languages with the
Malay, as will be seen i