iven in Passi, July three, one thousand six hundred and nine.

_Doctor Juan Manuel de la Vega_

_Relation of how Gomez Perez Dasmarinas, governor of the Philipinas,
heard that the province of Tuy was unexplored, which induced him to
undertake its exploration; and his authorization to his son, Don Luis
Perez, to make the said exploration._

Governor Gomez Perez Dasmarinas learned from certain religious of the
Order of St. Augustine that this island of Luzon, where is located
the capital of all the islands--namely, the city of Manila--was not
yet completely explored or conquered, as it was suspected that the
interior contained hostile and very valiant Indians; that the country
was exceedingly productive, temperate, and fertile, and contained many
cattle; that it was called the province of Tuy, and was contiguous on
one side, as was imagined, to the farthest territory of the Sanvales
[_i.e._, Zambales], and on the other to the source of the river flowing
to Cagayan. This last was one of the reasons why Cagayan had always
been hostile, and the Indians never weary of continuing the war; for
they went inland by way of the river--where, the Spaniards did not
know, beyond the fact that they were supplied from that region with
provisions and other things, which the Spaniards took from them, in
order to reduce them. When the governor asked the Spaniards the reason
for so much neglect--why, for twenty years, they had made no attempt
to go inland, since that was so important for the pacification of what
was discovered--they did not know what to answer, except that a certain
number of Spaniards had once ascended the Cagayan River, seven of whom
were captured by the Indians. Since then, they said, the ascent had
not been again attempted. The governor, having found that, although
he tried to obtain from the Spaniards more definite information of
the nature and characteristics of the said new land of Tuy, they were
unable to give him any account of the said province, tried to gain
information of that land by means of some of the natives. This he did
by sending two Indians thither with all secrecy. One of them only,
the more clever of the two, reported that beyond the farthest village
of the Sanbales toward the north, he had learned with certainty that
there were three or four villages of very well-disposed Indians,
and that the country was excellent. He recounted some details of it,
adding that he believed that the river of t