Note 13 — The Printing of the Books

Juan de Cuellar was mentioned in the Letter of Instruction given by Philip II to Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas on August 9, 1589, as among those “who are men of worth and account” in the Philippines and who should be provided for and rewarded accordingly, B. & R., VII, p. 151, translated from the original MS. in the A. of I. (105–2–11), Torres, III, no. 3567, p. 17. Cuellar received a commission from Dasmariñas and signed various documents during his administration as secretary and notary. Antonio de Morga, Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas, Mexico, 1609, f. 13v, reports that Cuellar was one of two survivors of the ship on which Dasmariñas sailed in October 1593 as part of an expedition to conquer the fort of Terrenate in Maluco. On the second day out, while the ship was weather-bound at Punta del Acufre, the Chinese rowers mutinied, and only Cuellar, there described as the governor’s secretary, and the Franciscan father, Francisco de Montilla, survived the ensuing massacre. They were set ashore on the coast of Ylocos, and made their way back to Manila. A similar account appears in Chapter XVI of Leonardo de Argensola’s, Conqvista delas Islas Malvcas, Madrid, 1609. We have been able to find no subsequent record of Cuellar.