go to Borneo, Siam, Patan, or Malaca, where they could easily trade them, but "although we wandered about these islands for ten years, we could not dispose of so many silks, cloths, and linens." "This Moro told the general that two junks from Luzon were in Butuan, trading gold, wax, and slaves. … He said that the island of Luzon is farther north than Borney." The Castilians learn that the hostility and fear of the natives of these islands is the result of a maurauding expedition conducted by Portuguese, who had represented themselves to be Castilians.[1] With the aid of the Moro pilot peace and friendship were made with one of the chief men of the island of Bohol; and now for the first time food was received in any quantity, many sardines especially being brought by the natives. Legazpi despatched one of the small boats to Cebú in order to make friendship and peace with its inhabitants, and to gather all possible information for the relation he was to send back to New Spain. They were guided by the Moro, who acted in the capacity of interpreter, as he knew the language of the natives. A negro "who had been in India and Malaca, and knew the Malay tongue" acted as interpreter between this pilot and the Spaniards. "The Borneans said that the Indians had two Spaniards, and that sometime ago they had given one of them to Bornean merchants; they did not know whether they had the other yet, or what had been done with him. The Portuguese had ransomed the one taken by the Borneans and had taken him to Ma-
- ↑ The testimonies of the "wrongs inflicted on the natives in certain of the Philippines, under cover of friendship and under pretext of a desire to trade," by Portuguese from the Moluccas, and the injuries resulting therefrom to the Spaniards, are recounted in Col. doc. inéd. Ultramar, iii, pp. 284–305.
