The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 (Vol.39, 1683-1690)

This volume provides a detailed view of the political and religious turmoil within the Spanish colony of the Philippines during the late 17th century, specifically the years 1683–1690. The central focus is the bitter and protracted conflict known as the Pardo controversy, which pitted the powerful secular government, led by the Audiencia, against the ecclesiastical authority of Archbishop Pardo and his allies within the Dominican Order. This dispute, which involved acts of excommunication, banishments, and widespread unrest in Manila, illustrates the intense, recurring struggle for supremacy between the Church and the colonial state. The compilation also includes the concluding part of the eyewitness account of English buccaneer William Dampier's ventures in the islands. Dampier's narrative offers a rare, non-Spanish, and commercial-piratical perspective on the native peoples of Mindanao and the remote Batanes Islands. It details the local customs, trades, and the strategic presence of English, Dutch, and Spanish forces in the region. The volume, through these translated primary sources, is a critical resource for understanding the complexities of the colony’s administration, commerce, and cultural landscape during this turbulent period.

The book is considered valuable. It is advised that researchers use digital copy rather than physical books for preservation purposes. APA Citation: Blair, E. H., & Robertson, J. A. (Eds.). (1906). The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the Nineteenth Century (Vol. 39: 1683–1690). The Arthur H. Clark Company.