272 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 102 



779. Their usual bread, as has been remarked, is made out of rice, 

 and they make wine from it also, though ordinarily wine is made 

 from the palms whose fruit is the coconut. Since this is a mysterious 

 tree, indispensable for the natives' needs, and very surprising, I shall 

 give this remarkable illustration of its great qualities : It happened 

 that a ship came into Manila in which both the ship itself and all the 

 commodities for sale in it, its cables, rigging, sails, masts or uprights, 

 and the spikes, were all made from this tree ; the cargo was all rugs 

 very ingeniously made out of its bark with much nicety and skill ; 

 the food and water for the crew all came from this tree ; and it is 

 a fact that on the island of Maldivia (Maldives) there is nothing 

 available for their support except what this tree gives them ; they 

 make their houses out of it. Its fruit, the coconut, has a flavor which 

 is well known, like that of good filberts; each has inside it a pint 

 of very sweet and delicious liquid. If the nut is cut open and the 

 meat and juice removed, they set the shell on the trunk under an 

 auger hole ; it fills with sap, they put various things in it, and it 

 becomes excellent wine, the usual beverage of that kingdom ; they 

 make vinegar from it, and very good oil with medicinal qualities 

 from the meat, as well as something resembling milk of almonds, a 

 sort of honey syrup, and excellent sugar. It certainly is astounding 

 that from one single tree these natives can make so many different 

 things, and that it meets and fills all their needs. They also make very 

 good wine from the honey syrup. 



780. The Archbishopric of Manila comprises three suffragan Dio- 

 ceses ; two in the island itself, viz, that of Nueva Segovia or Cagayan, 

 and that of Caceres or Camarines ; and another on the island of 

 Cebu, known as the Diocese of Jesus and also by the name of the 

 island itself. In the district of the Archbishopric and the three 

 Dioceses there are more than 2,000,000 souls converted to the Faith 

 and baptized. The districts and chief cities of these Dioceses are 

 like the city of Manila in climate, fertility, and comfort of living ; 

 they raise abundance of rice and many kinds of delicious native fruit. 



781. The city of Manila, which is built on this island of Luzon 

 at 14° N., lies between the Kingdoms of Great China, Japan, East 

 India, and the Moluccas. Its distance from the Kingdom of Great 

 China and from Japan, which are both to the N., is 250 leagues ; 

 from the Moluccas, which lie to the S., 400 leagues ; and from East 

 India, to its E., 500 leagues. In the Archipelago there are more than 

 11,000 islands large and small, inhabited by those blind and heathen 

 tribes, and the Mohammedans ; here the Devil had spread his nets 

 and his power through the accursed instrumentality of Mohamme- 



