Note 1 — Relation of the Filipinas Islands and of the Character and Conditions of their Inhabitants.

At this point may be presented some additional matter, obtained from a document (also in the Sevilla Archivo general) which purports to be a letter from Mirandaola to the king, but dated June 8, 1574. He has apparently incorporated therein the greater part of the Legazpi relation of 1569 which is presented in our text—adding thereto some interesting details. At this point, he enumerates the kinds of food used by the natives—“namely rice, millet, borona [a grain, also called mijo, resembling Indian corn], Castilian fowls, buffaloes, swine, and goats. They Page 41nhave wines of many kinds: brandy, made from palm-wine (which is obtained from the cocoa-nut palm, and from the wild nipa palm); pitarrillos, which are the wines made from rice, millet, and borona; and other wines, made from sugar-cane. There are fragrant fruits—large and small bananas, and nancas. These nancas are as large as a winter melon, and contain a yellow fruit of the size of a friar's plum, within which is a kernel that, when roasted, has the flavor of a chestnut. It has a delicious taste, and there is no fruit in Spain that will compare with it. There is abundance of fish, and much game—deer, mountain boars, and excellent waterfowl.” For enumeration and brief description of the leading vegetable products of the archipelago, see Philippine Gazetteer, pp. 70–95. Fuller descriptions are given in various documents which will be reproduced in the present series.