July, 191 2. Chinese Pottery. 7 



ing, near Butuan, a junk whose crew were Borneo Moors. They had 

 with them silk, cotton, porcelain and the like. They also traded in 

 bells, copper and other Chinese goods. 1 



Inter-island trade among the Filipino seems to have reached con- 

 siderable proportions prior to the arrival of the white man. Some of 

 their trips carried them to the ports of Borneo, and one account credits 

 the Tagalog and Pampango with sailing "for purposes of trade to 

 Maluco, Malaca, Hanzian (Achen?), Parani, Brunei, and other king- 

 doms." 2 Pigafetta tells of their party seizing a junk in the port of 

 Borneo in which "was a son of the king of Luzon, a very large island." 3 

 In 1565, Legaspi learned that two Moro junks from Luzon were in 

 Butuan trading gold, wax, and slaves. 



These Moro from Luzon also came to Cebu to arrange with Legaspi 

 for the right to trade, and when they met with success, two junks from 

 Mindoro were induced to go there also. "They carried iron, tin, porce- 

 lain, shawls, light woolen cloth and the like from China." * 



It will thus be seen that pottery and other articles of Chinese origin 

 might have had a rapid spread along the coasts of the Archipelago, 

 from whence they slowly penetrated into the interior by means of 

 trade. 5 It seems, however, that even upon the arrival of the Spaniards, 

 some of this ware had assumed great value in the eyes of the natives, 

 and in 1574 we find the native chiefs sending "jewels, gold, silks, porce- 

 lains, rich and large earthen jars, and other very excellent things" in 

 token of their allegiance to the King of Spain. 6 It was also the custom 

 at that time for the family of the deceased to bury with the body "their 

 finest clothes, porcelain ware, and gold jewels," 7 and when this became 

 known to the Spaniards they began to rifle the graves in order to secure 

 these valuable objects. This continued until it became necessary for 

 Legaspi to order that "henceforth no grave or burial place be opened 

 without the permission of his Excellency." 8 



There is some evidence that burial in jars was early practiced in the 

 Philippines. Aduarte, writing in 1640, describes the finding, by a 

 crew shipwrecked on the Batannes islands, of "some jars of moderate 

 size covered with others of similar size. Inside they found some dead 



1 Blair and Robertson, Vol. II, p. 207; Vol. Ill, p. 57, note; Vol. XXXIV, 

 p. 224; Barrows, History of the Philippines, pp. 99-101. 

 1 Blair and Robertson, Vol. XXXIV, p. 377. 



3 Ibid., Vol. I, p. 265. 



4 Ibid., Vol. II, pp. 117, 142. 



6 Ibid., Vol. V, 121; Barrows, History of the Philippines, p. 182. 

 8 Blair and Robertson, Vol. Ill, p. 249; Vol. IV, p. 290. 



7 Ibid., Vol. II, p. 139. 



8 Ibid*, Vol. II, p. 173. 



