Cubu produces a small
quantity of rice, borona, and millet and little or no cotton; for the
cloth which the natives use for their garments is made from a kind of
banana. From this they make a sort of cloth resembling colored calico,
which the natives call _medrinaque_. In these islands great value is
set upon the land which can produce rice and cotton, because cotton
and cloth find a good market in Nueva Espana. The condition of the
people will be described when I shall speak of all the Pintados in
general, for they all are very similar. All are provided with fowls,
swine, a few goats, beans, and a kind of root resembling the potatoes
of Sancto Domingo, called by the natives _camotes_. After rice, fish
is the main article of maintenance in this and other islands, for it
abounds in all of them, and is of excellent quality in this island
of Cubu. Although deer have been found in all the islands discovered
hereabout, there are none here; and if any should be brought hither
from elsewhere they would immediately die.

_Island of Matan_. To the south of the settlement of Cubu, about two
arquebus-shots from it, lies the island of Matan where Magallanes was
killed; it forms the port of Cubu. The island is about four leagues
in circumference, and half a league wide; it has a population of about
three hundred Indians, scattered through four or five small villages,
all of which are under the jurisdiction of the town of Cubu.

_Island of Vohol_. On the other side of the island of Matan, and
farther south, about eight leagues from the settlement of Cubu,
lies the island of Vohol, which is an encomienda with two thousand
Indians. The natives of this island are closely related to the people
of Cebu and are almost one and the same people. Those inhabiting
the coast regions are mainly fishermen. They are excellent oarsmen;
and, before the arrival of the Spaniards, they were accustomed to
cruise about in their vessels on marauding expeditions. They are
also traders. There was once a large town in this island [Bohol],
which, shortly before the Spaniards came hither, was plundered by the
people of Maluco, and the majority of its inhabitants were dispersed
throughout the other islands, where they now dwell. The settlements
inland among the mountains are small and poor, and are not yet wholly
under subjection. In this island, as well as in the many nearby
uninhabited islets--these latter abounding also in fish--there is
great abundance of