The Former Philippines thru Foreign Eyes | Page 9

formerly, the thirty-seventh.
The captain of the galleon was not permitted to sail immediately
northward, although to have done so would have procured him a much
quicker and safer passage, and would have enabled him to reach the
rainy zone more rapidly. To effect the last, indeed, was a matter of the
greatest importance to him, for his vessel, overladen [Water-supply
crowded out by cargo.] with merchandise, had but little room crowded
out for water; and although he had a crew of from four hundred to six
hundred hands to provide for, he was instructed to depend upon the rain
he caught on the voyage; for which purpose, the galleon was provided
with suitable mats and bamboo pails. [33]
[Length of voyage.] Voyages in these low latitudes were, owing to the
inconstancy of the winds, extremely troublesome, and often lasted five
months and upwards. The fear of exposing the costly, cumbrous vessel
to the powerful and sometimes stormy winds of the higher latitudes,
appears to have been the cause of these sailing orders.
[California landfall.] As soon as the galleon had passed the great
Sargasso shoal, it took a southerly course, and touched at the southern
point of the Californian peninsula (San Lucas), where news and
provisions awaited it. [34] In their earlier voyages, however, they must

have sailed much further to the north, somewhere in the neighborhood
of Cape Mendocino, and have been driven southward in sight of the
coast; for Vizcaino, in the voyage of discovery he undertook in 1603,
from Mexico to California, found the principal mountains and capes,
although no European had ever set his foot upon them, already
christened by the galleons, to which they had served as landmarks. [35]
[Speedy return voyage.] The return voyage to the Philippines was an
easy one, and only occupied from forty to sixty days. [36] The galleon
left Acapulco in February or March, sailed southwards till it fell in with
the trade wind (generally in from 10° to 11° of north latitude), which
carried it easily to the Ladrone Islands, and thence reached Manila by
way of Samar. [37]
[Galleon's size and armament.] A galleon was usually of from twelve
hundred to fifteen hundred tons burden, and carried fifty or sixty guns.
The latter, however, were pretty generally banished to the hold during
the eastward voyage. When the ship's bows were turned towards home,
and there was no longer any press of space, the guns were remounted.
[Capture of "Santa Anna".] San Augustin says of the Santa Anna,
which Thomas Candish captured and burnt in 1586 off the Californian
coast: "Our people sailed so carelessly that they used their guns for
ballast; .... the pirate's venture was such a fortunate one that he returned
to London with sails of Chinese damask and silken rigging." The cargo
was sold in Acapulco at a profit of 100 per cent., and was paid for in
silver, cochineal, quicksilver, etc. [Value of return freight] The total
value of the return freight amounted perhaps to between two and three
million dollars, [38] of which a quarter of a million, at least, fell to the
king.
[Gambling rather than commerce] The return of a galleon to Manila,
laden with silver dollars and new arrivals, was a great holiday for the
colony. A considerable portion of the riches they had won as easily as
at the gaming table, was soon spent by the crew; when matters again
returned to their usual lethargic state. It was no unfrequent event,
however, for vessels to be lost. They were too often laden with a total
disregard to seaworthiness, and wretchedly handled. It was favor, not

capacity, that determined the patronage of these lucrative appointments.
[39] Many galleons fell into the hands of English and Dutch cruisers.
[40] ["Philippine Company" and smugglers cause change.] But these
tremendous profits gradually decreased as the Compañía obtained the
right to import Indian cottons, one of the principal articles of trade, into
New Spain by way of Vera Cruz, subject to a customs duty of 6 per
cent; and when English and American adventurers began to smuggle
these and other goods into the country. [41] [Spanish coins in
circulation on China coast.] Finally, it may be mentioned that Spanish
dollars found their way in the galleons to China and the further Indies,
where they are in circulation to this day.

CHAPTER III
[The walled city of Manila.] The city proper of Manila, inhabited by
Spaniards, Creoles, the Filipinos directly connected with them, and
Chinese, lies, surrounded by walls and wide ditches, on the left or
southern bank of the Pasig, looking towards the sea. [42] It is a hot,
dried-up place, full of monasteries, convents, barracks, and government
buildings. Safety, not appearance, was the object of its builders. It
reminds the beholder of a