COLLECTION VOYAGES AND TRAVELS IN ALL PARTS OF THE WORLD; MANY OF WHICH ARE NOW FIRST TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH. PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN, PATERNOSTER-ROW ; AND CADELL AND DAVIES, IN THE STRAND. A GENERAL COLLECTION OF VOYAGES AND TRAVELS. THE ASIATIC ISLANDS, AUSTRALASIA, AND POLYNESIA. MITTING the more ancient accounts of the Afiatic Islands (namely the Philippines, Borneo, Celebez, the Sumatran Chain, and the Moluccas) from that of Pigafotta, who accompanied Magellan, the first circumnavigator, as being rather curious than interefting at the present period, our Accounts shall begin with that of our great countryman Dampier, the Cook of a former age. DAMPIER'S ACCOUNT OF THE PHILIPPINES.* CHAPTER I.-They refolve to go to Mindanao. - Their Departure from Guam.-Of WHILE - WHILE we lay at Guam, we took up a refolution of going to Mindanao, one of the Philippine Islands, being told by the friar and others that it was exceedingly well stored with provifions, that the natives were Mahometans, and that they had formerly a commerce with the Spaniards, but that now they were at war with them. *From his Voyages, vol. i. 7th edit. 1729, 4 vols. 8vo. The chapters are numbered in the order they are now printed. A new edition of this valuable work is wanted, arranged in the order of the countries defcribed. VOL. XI. This B 149142 This island was therefore thought to be a convenient place for us to go; for befides that it was in our way to the Eaft Indies, which we had refolved to vifit, and that the wefterly monfoon was at hand, which would oblige us to fhelter fomewhere in a fhort time, and that we could not expect good harbours in a better place than in fo large an ifland as Mindanao: befides all this, I fay, the inhabitants of Mindanao being then, as we were told (though falfely) at wars with the Spaniards, our men, who it fhould feem were very fqueamish of plundering without licence, derived hopes from thence of getting a commiffion there from the Prince of the ifland, to plunder the Spanish fhips about Manila, and fo to make Mindanao their common rendezvous. And if Captain Swan was minded to go to an English port, yet his men, who thought he intended to leave them, hoped to get veffels and pilots at Mindanao fit for their turn, to cruize on the coaft of Manila. As for Captain Swan, he was willing enough to go thither, as best suiting his own defign; and therefore this voyage was concluded on by general confent. Accordingly June 2d, 1686, we left Guam, bound for Mindanao. We had fair weather and a pretty fmart gale of wind at eaft for three or four days, and then it shifted to the south-weft, being rainy; but it foon came about again to the east and blew a gentle gale: yet it often fhuffled about to the fouth-eaft; for though in the Eaft Indies the winds fhift in April, yet we found this to be the fhifting feafon for the winds here; the other fhifting feafon being in October fooner or later all over India. As to our course from Guam to the Philippine islands, we found it, as I intimated before, agreeable enough with the account of our common drafts. The 21ft day of June we arrived at the island St. John, which is one of the Philippine islands. The Philippines are a great company of large islands, taking up about thirteen degrees of latitude in length, reaching near upon from the third degree of north latitude to the nineteenth degree, and in breadth about fix degrees of longitude. They derive this name from Philip II. King of Spain; and even now do they moft of them belong to that crown. The chiefest island in this range is Luconia, which lies on the north of them all. At this ifland Magellan died on the voyage that he was making round the world. For after he had paffed thofe ftraits between the fouth end of America and Terra del Fuego, which now bear his name, and had ranged down in the South Seas on the back of America; from thence ftretching over to the Eaft Indies, he fell in with the Ladrone Islands, and from thence fteering east still, he fell in with these Philippine Islands, and anchored at Luconia, where he warred with the native Indians, to bring them in obedience to his master the King of Spain, and was by them killed with a poisoned arrow. It is now wholly under the Spaniards, who have feveral towns there. The chief is Manilo, which is a large fea-port town near the south-eaft end, oppofite to the island Mindora. It is a place of great strength and trade: the two great Acapulco fhips before mentioned fetching from hence all forts of Eaft India commodities; which are brought hither by foreigners efpecially by the Chinese and the Portuguese. Sometimes the English merchants of Fort St. George fend their fhips hither as it were by ftealth, under the charge of Portuguese pilots and mariners; for as yet we cannot get the Spaniards there to a commerce with us or the Dutch, although they have but few fhips of their own. This seems to arise from a jealousy or fear of difcovering the riches of these islands; for moft, if not all, the Philippine iflands are rich in gold, and the Spaniards have no place of much strength in all these islands, that I could ever hear of, befides Manilo itself. Yet they have villages and towns on feveral of the Islands, and padres or priests to inftruct the native Indians, from whom they get their gold. The Spanish inhabitants, of the smaller islands especially, would willingly trade with us |