ABSTRACT
The history of the Spaniards on the Philippines is an endless chain of frictions and struggles with the Chinese immigrants and settlers, so that the history of the Philippines is very closely interwoven with an account of the relations between these two peoples. The Chinese have been acute observers of foreign nations and countries, and in their astoundingly vast amount of literature we find many valuable reports on the geography, history, and ethnology of the neighbouring peoples. The history of the Malayan Archipelago (particularly Java and Sumatra) during the precolonial age would be almost shrouded in mystery but for the material regarding these islands hoarded up by the Chinese. The important problem in connection with the history of Chinese-Spanish-American trade would be to determine what influence objects of Chinese culture may have had on the peoples of Mexico and Peru.
