One of the most enigmatic plate books on the Philippines, to-date unknown as per its place of publication and author, it is a comic illustrated tour of the Philippines, detailing remarkable and unanticipated adventures awaiting the unwary foreign traveller.
Each amusing illustration is captioned in both English and Spanish, and all depict white adventurers suffering a variety of mishaps, intermixed often with inhabitants of the Philippines, Filipinos, in local costumes. These mishaps run a wide gamut, from attacks by wild carabao (a bull- like animal) and monkeys, to squalid accommodations and swindling natives. Though intended as a humorous work, the perilous and often life-threatening situations depicted illuminate the resentment the Filipino people (sometimes illustrated outright, but often represented by the landscape and native animals) felt towards their foreign visitors.
The work is divided into three sections: “Aventures de los Cazadores” (Hunting Adventures), “Aventures y Diferentes Modos de Viajar” (Adventures and Different Modes of Travel), and “Aventuras Diferentes” (Different Adventures).
The imprint, “San Galo”, is curious. An exhaustive search of place names reveals no San Galo in the Philippines, Mexico, or South America. There is a Saint Gallen bishopric in Switzerland, though this is an unlikely place of publication. It seems likely the imprint is a ruse, which is consistent with the satirical nature of the work. The same is possibly true of the author's name. In all, an amusing and rare illustrated view of the Philippines near the end of Spanish colonial rule.
Rarity: OCLC locates copies in the United States at NYPL and the Claremont Colleges only. Three other copies located in Germany and Switzerland.
Palau 332822; Pardo de Tavera 2705; Vindel 1926.
