The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 30 of 55, 1640 / 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

The volume gathers two retrospective seventeenth-century documents: a legal and commercial survey tracing royal ordinances, Council of the Indies debates, and memorials arguing for the maintenance and expansion of trade between the Philippine archipelago and Nueva España up to 1640; and the opening sections of a comprehensive Dominican account of missionary activity in the islands, summarizing the foundation, organization, and religious work of the Dominican province with notes on local conditions. It includes translations, bibliographical data, and facsimile plates such as contemporary maps and title-pages to illustrate sources.