Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 05).djvu/69



Island of Panay. Twelve leagues from the nearest point of Çubu, and two and one-half leagues from Negros Island, lies the island of Panay, the most fertile and well-provisioned of all the islands discovered, except the island of Luçon; for it is exceedingly fertile, and abounds in rice, swine, fowls, wax, and honey; it produces also a great quantity of cotton and medriñaque. Its villages stand very close together, and the people are peaceful and open to conversion. The land is healthful and well-provisioned, so that the Spaniards who are stricken with sickness in other islands go thither to recover their health. The natives are healthy and clean; and although the island of Çubu is also healthful and has a good climate, most of its inhabitants are always afflicted with the itch and buboes. In the island of Panay the natives declare that no one of them had ever been afflicted with buboes until the people from Bohol—who, as we said above, abandoned Bohol on account of the people of Maluco—came to settle in Panay, and gave the disease to some of the natives. For these reasons the governor, Don Gonçalo Ronquillo, founded the town of Arevalo, on the south side of this island; for the island runs almost north and south, and on that side live the majority of the people, and the villages are near this town, and the land here is more fertile. In this town dwell fifteen encomenderos, who have