Luzon is more densely populated than
any of the many islands--which are called Filipinas in honor of King
Filipo II, and which, as is affirmed, number eleven thousand. Luzon has
a circumference of three hundred and fifty leguas. Beyond the bay it
runs one hundred leguas to the north, as far as Nueva Segovia; from
the beginning of that province (namely, Cape Bojador), it runs for
thirty leguas east to the promontory of El Engano. Thence the coast
runs south for eighty leguas, and then with another changed direction
for forty leguas to what they call Embocadero ["the channel"], that is,
the strait opposite the island Tandaya, which is distant eighty more
leguas from the bay. Consequently the island has the shape of a square;
it has many harbors, but few capacious ports. Manila is in slightly
more than fourteen degrees of northern latitude, and in longitude
(reckoning from the Canarias) one hundred and sixty. The most northern
part of Luzon lies in nineteen degrees [of latitude]. With the sea
between them, the great kingdom of China lies on that side of it,
seventy leguas away; while the islands of Japon lie to the northeast,
at a distance of two hundred and fifty leguas.
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