THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 
31 
honour of Philip II., the son of Charles V. Meanwhile 
they became known to the Portuguese as the Eastern 
Islands, while the Spaniards called them the Islas del 
Poniente, for while the latter nation sailed westwards round 
the world, the Portuguese carried on their explorations in a 
contrary direction. This curious circumstance involved 
another. To the first circumnavigators the necessity of 
altering their day on passing the meridian of 180° was 
unknown, and so it came about that Hongkong and Manila 
called the same day Monday and Sunday, and it was not 
until the 31st December, 1844, that the matter was 
rectified by the omission of that day from the Manilan 
calendar. The more civilised people of the archipelago, 
when first seen by the Spaniards, were very far from being- 
savages. They cultivated corn, wore textile fabrics, and 
worked iron and gold, had domestic animals for food and 
labour, and used a phonetic written character. 
The Spaniards owe their possession of the Philippines 
to Miguel Lopez de Legaspi, who with a force of little 
more than 400 men reached Zebu in 1565. In six years 
he had subdued the greater part of the archipelago. This 
facile conquest was effected without much bloodshed, and 
was not a little due to the efforts of a band of Augustine 
monks under Andrea de Urdaheta, who had commanded 
a ship in Loyasa’s ill-fated expedition. The gradual 
settlement and civilisation of the islands, indeed, have 
been to a very considerable extent the work of ecclesias¬ 
tics, who dominate the superstitious and festa - loving 
“ Indian ” without difficulty. In 1571 Manila was taken, 
the present city founded, and the greater part of Luzon 
brought under Spanish rule. Legaspi died the same year. 
Although at this period the Moors, as they were 
termed, were well known and numerous in many of the 
larger ports as traders, the inhabitants of all the northern 
