ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author seeks to assess the relative importance and peculiar conditions of the early Spanish historiography of Asia, and in particular its ethnographic and ethnological value. Any assessment of the Spanish contribution to the ethnography and ethnology of Asia must consider the strength and constraints of Counter-Reformation culture. There were other Spanish contributions to knowledge of China in the seventeenth century, for example the manuscript treatise by the Manilabased Jesuit Adriano de las Cortes, but on the whole the Spanish were less expert than the Jesuits from other national origins entering China from Macao under Portuguese patronage. Thus, in determining the Spanish contribution to the early ethnography of Asia it is crucial to distinguish the Spanish as individuals, who could operate within the Portuguesejesuit system, from the Spanish imperial system as such, based in the Philippines.
