NOT QUITE THERE YET, but I think I'm off to a start with this galleon story, wobbly though it may be. Putting a historical perspective to a piece of fiction is a challenge, and there are other sources to read, about how the early Mangyans of Mindoro and those who fled to Romblon were forced to conversion by the Jesuits through reducciones, the reasons for the mutiny on the Concepción, and the deceitful business of galleon trading during the 17th century. Posting this fragment to keep myself going.
The island of Maestro de Campo (Sibale to locals) is closer to Mindoro than to the rest of the province of Romblon that administers it, and its present residents have been clamoring for annexation to the province of Oriental Mindoro where they buy their basic goods and necessities (particularly in Pinamalayan, which is two hours by boat from Concepcion), go for education and hospitalization, and take the faster and more frequent and reliable transportation to Manila, but their petition remains stalled in the Congress.
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Detail of the Baldwin map from the June 1763 issue of The London Magazine, showing the horseshoe-shaped Maestro de Campo east of Mindoro along the galleon track from Manila to the Embocadero in San Bernardino
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| An early photograph of Mangyans taken by Dean Worcester in 1891 |
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