Philippines. The Spanish arrive in Manila. They find a trading port owned by the Moorish Rajah named Soliman. The Moors, seafaring traders of Islamic origin, had arrived here a few decades earlier. According to a later Chinese report, the first Spaniard asks the Rajah for a territory no larger than an oxhide. The Rajah grants it, and the Spaniard cuts the hide into thousands of thin strips, joins them together for a length of 12 kilometers, and thus surrounds a coastal area, over which he claims control. What is certain is that Soliman is assassinated, and the Spanish establish control of Manila.
