Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 2.djvu/497

 OF THE ARCHIPELAGO. 45S pretext was the treachery of the people ^to the com- panions of Magellan, forty- five years before. The inhabitants resisted the invaders ineffec- tually, and finally were reconciled to them. Such was the poverty of the people of this island, and the little progress they had made in agricultural industry, that the arrival of the few Spaniards who accompanied Legaspi brought on a famine, which was scarcely relieved by the inadequate supplies brought by traffic, but oftener by plunder, from the neighbouring islands. For four years they strug- gled with scarcity, and the attempts of the Portu- guese to drive them from their acquisitions. In 1^69, the establishment was removed to the island of Panay, and in 1571 the conquest of Manila was made. The people of this portion of the Philip- pines were more improved than the rest, and had some knowledge of fire-arms, but the feebleness of their resistance is sufficiently declared, when we understand that two hundred and eighty Spaniards effected their subjugation. The people fled on the appearance of the Europeans, but by the discreet conduct of Legaspi, they were brought back, and a reconciliation effected. Legaspi was a man of conduct and talents, well fitted to the important duties he had to perform, and to his dexterous and prudent management, as well as the weakiicss of the opposition he met with, is to be attributed the success of the enterprise. The induence of reli^