The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 (Vol. 40, 1690-1691)

The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 is a monumental 55-volume archival project undertaken by American historians Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander Robertson in the early 20th century. This exhaustive compilation translates thousands of primary source documents—including letters, reports, and religious records—originally written in Spanish and other languages, thereby illuminating nearly four centuries of Spanish colonial rule in the Philippines. Volume XL specifically covers the brief period of 1690–1691. The single chronological document details the political unrest and ecclesiastical feuding in Manila following the death of Archbishop Pardo, illustrating the contentious relationship between the Spanish secular government (the Audiencia and Governor-General) and the Church hierarchy. The majority of the volume, however, is dedicated to an invaluable ethnological appendix. It brings together translated observations from 17th and 18th-century Jesuit, Augustinian, and Franciscan missionaries such as Francisco Colin, Francisco Combés, and Gaspar de San Agustín. These accounts are foundational to the study of Philippine history, providing detailed, albeit colonially-filtered, insights into the pre-colonial and early colonial customs, languages, social structures (like the barangay), religious beliefs, and tribal variations of the native Filipino peoples across the archipelago, from the Tagálogs and Pampangos of Luzon to the Lutaos and Moros of the southern islands. As a whole, the Blair and Robertson series serves as a cornerstone reference for scholars seeking to understand the political, economic, commercial, and religious fabric of the Philippines under Spain.

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.). (1903–1907). 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. 40). The Arthur H. Clark Company.