I.AUFER] RELATIONS OF CHINESE TO THE PHILIPPINES 257 



head of which was a high official called Ko-ch'a-lao. He brought 

 with him the products of his country, particularly gold. The natives 

 therefore must be credited with the exploitation of gold before the 

 advent of the Spaniards. 1 This becomes evident also from a pas- 

 sage in the "Wu hsio pien," a history of the Ming dynasty published 

 in 1575. It is quoted in the "Tung hsi yang k'ao" (chap. 5, p. 1) 

 as follows : "Luzon produces gold, which is the reason of its wealth ; 

 the people are simple-minded, and do not like to go to law." 



As to how far the political influence of the Chinese extended over 

 the Philippines in prehispanic times, we have only scanty informa- 

 tion. The "Ming shih" (chap. 323, p. 11 a) relates on this point that 

 in 1405 the Emperor Yung-lo sent a high officer to Luzon, who was 

 to govern the country. The result of his visit was the embassy 

 from Luzon under Ko-ch'a-lao in the same year. How long 

 Yung-lo's delegate remained on the island and of what character his 

 jurisdiction was are not narrated, but it is not at all incredible that 

 the ambitious Yung-lo exercised a kind of supremacy, or at least 

 claimed a prerogative of protection, over the Philippine Islands ; for 

 since its establishment the rule of the Ming dynasty has been char- 

 acterized by a tendency toward expansion, from a desire to extend 

 its fame over land and sea to the farthest extremities of the world. 



In Yung-lo's time the Chinese started an extensive exploration of 

 the Indian Ocean. In 1407 the eunuch Cheng-ho undertook a 

 memorable expedition, accompanied by a fleet of sixty-two large 

 ships, carrying 27,800 soldiers ; and on his crusades, repeated several 

 times in a space of about thirty years, he visited a number of coun- 

 tries in the Indian Ocean as far as the Arabian Gulf, and obtained 

 the nominal allegiance of their rulers. For this reason the "Ming 

 shih" abounds in geographical and ethnological descriptions of all 

 Asiatic countries and peoples from Central Asia to Asia Minor. 



Then Vasco da Gama had not yet navigated around the Cape of 

 Good Hope ; no European sail had yet been visible on the Pacific 

 and Indian oceans, of which the Chinese and the Arabs were the 

 unrestricted masters and the only representatives of an immense 

 trade. It therefore seems not impossible that in that great age of 

 maritime discoveries the enterprising Emperor had cast his eyes 

 Philippineward and had won a temporary nominal suzerainty over 

 the native tribes of Luzon. 



Compare M. Sonnerat, Voyage aux Indes Orientales et a la Chine (Paris, 

 1782), vol. 11, p. 114. Also De Morga mentions native gold-mines. 



