[107] This is the Bucaygan of Loarca (see VOL. V, p. 99), and must be the point on the southeastern extremity of Sorsogón.
[108] See Pigafetta’s description of the city of Brunei, ante, VOL. XXXIII, p. 221; see also VOL. IV, p. 160 ff.
[109] Literally: “Notwithstanding that our men were four cats.”
[110] See the account of Candish’s expedition in VOL. XV, pp. 291–299.
[111] Pesos de Tipusque: Pedro Gutiérrez de Santa Clara says (i, p. 171) in his Historia de las guerras civiles del Perú—called also Quinquenarios—(Madrid, 1904; published for the first time from the original MS.): “and it was all gold de minas, ten pesos of which are worth sixteen and one-half pesos and four granos, of the money called common gold or gold of Tepuzque in Nueva España.” See also VOL. II, p. 221, and VOL. XII, p. 46, note 6.
[112] Fernando Alvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alva, the “hangman of the Netherlands” (1508–82 or 83) was specially trained by his grandfather for war and politics. He served under both Charles V and Felipe II; and will always be remembered by his cruelty and atrocities in the Netherlands. Motley’s estimate of him is interesting: “Such an amount of stealth and ferocity, of patient vindictiveness, and universal blood thirstiness has never been found in a savage beast of the forest, and but rarely in a human being.” See New International Encyclopedia.
[113] The following royal decree taken from a MS. book of decrees entitled “Cedulas reales dirigidas à estas Yslas Filipinas, Copiadas fielmente de las originales ò authenticas que se guardan en el archivo de la real Audiencia de Manila” (a copy of the seventeenth or eighteenth century) and kindly loaned by Mr. E. E. Ayer of Chicago, is interesting. “The King. Leonardo Furriano, my engineer. Inasmuch as it is desirable for my service that you go to the Philipinas Islands with Gomez Perez Dasmariñas, knight of the Order of Santiago, whom I have appointed as my governor and captain-general of them, so that forts may be built according to your advice and design, which, in accordance with the contents of the instructions of the said Gomez Perez are to be built in the said islands: I order you to go with him, and that you embark very speedily in order not to tarry an instant for the sake of our cause. For that purpose, Don Luis de la Cueva, my governor and captain-general of those islands of Canaria shall aid you. Thus have I ordered him; and the officials of my royal treasury of the said Philipinas Islands shall give and pay you at the rate of one thousand ducados per year from the date when you shall show by signed notarial testimony that you have set sail from any port of the said islands of Canaria, and for so long as you are busied and engaged in the construction of the said forts. When the forts are completed, you shall return to these kingdoms with the design and plan of said forts. Given at San Lorenzo, September twelve, one thousand five hundred and eighty-nine.