Madrid. ... _Frontispiece_
Signature of Fernão de Magalhães; photographic facsimile, from original
_Ms_. in Archivo General de Indias, Seville. ... 273
Title-page of _De Molvccis Insulis_; photographic facsimile, from
copy of the first edition, at Lenox Library. ... 303
General map of the Philippine Archipelago. ... _At end of volume_





General Preface


The entrance of the United States of America into the arena of
world-politics, the introduction of American influence into Oriental
affairs, and the establishment of American authority in the Philippine
archipelago, all render the history of those islands and their,
numerous peoples a topic of engrossing interest and importance
to the reading public, and especially to scholars, historians,
and statesmen. The present work--its material carefully selected
and arranged from a vast mass of printed works and unpublished
manuscripts--is offered to the public with the intention and hope
of casting light on the great problems which confront the American
people in the Philippines; and of furnishing authentic and trustworthy
material for a thorough and scholarly history of the islands. For
this purpose, the Editors reproduce (mainly in English translation)
contemporaneous documents which constitute the best original sources
of Philippine history. Beginning with Pope Alexander VI's line of
demarcation between the Spanish and the Portuguese dominions in the