Their Canoes Were Very Artificially Made,
Considering That They Use No Edge-Tools In Their Construction; And Are
About Seven
Or eight yards in length, by half a yard only in breadth,
their heads and stems being both alike, and
Having rafts made of canes
or reeds on their starboard sides, being also supplied both with masts
and sails. These latter are made of sedges, and are either square or
triangular. These canoes have this property, that they will sail almost
as well against the wind as before it.
On the 19th January, at day-break, Candish fell in with a head-land of
the Philippine islands, called Cabo del Espiritu Santo. The island
itself [Samar] is of considerable size, consisting of high land in the
middle, and depressed in its east and west extremities; the latter of
which runs a great way out to sea. It is in lat. 30 deg. N. being distant
110 leagues from Guam and about 60 leagues from Manilla, the chief of
the Philippines.[55] Samar is a woody island, and its inhabitants are
mostly heathens. Candish spent eleven days in sailing from Guam to this
place, having had some foul weather, and scarcely carrying any sail for
two or three nights. Manilla, at this time, was an unwalled town of no
great strength, yet containing vast riches in gold and valuable
commodities, and inhabited by six or seven hundred Spaniards. It has a
constant annual correspondence with Accapulco in New Spain; besides
which twenty or thirty vessels come thither yearly from China, for
conducting its trade with the Sangueloes:
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