Illustrations


Title-page of _Historia del gran reyno de China_, by Juan
Gonçalez de Mendoça (Madrid, M.D.LXXXVI); from copy (Madrigal
edition) in Library of Congress ... 83

Title-page of "Itinerario" at end of Gonçalez's _Historia_,
from copy in Library of Congress ... 135

Signature of Alonso Sanchez, S.J., from MS. in Archivo general
de Indias, Sevilla ... 228




Preface


The present volume covers the period of 1583 to 1588 inclusive. At
the close of two decades of Spanish occupation in the Philippines,
the native population is decimated, and the Spanish colonists are poor,
heavily burdened with taxation, and largely non-producing. The islands
are but nominally defended by a small, irregular, demoralized force of
unpaid soldiers, whose lawlessness and arrogance render them dangerous
to their own countrymen, and tyrants over the helpless natives. The
Audiencia is a costly institution, a burden of which all the people
complain. They have other grievances and many needs, which finally