_Of the Philipinas Islands_
On the eleventh of November, 1618, at three o'clock in the morning,
a comet was seen from this city of Manila. It had a tail, was
silver-colored, with a slightly ashen tinge, and had an extraordinary
form. At first it was like a trumpet, and then like a catan (which is a
weapon peculiar to Japon, resembling the cutlass), with the edge toward
the southwest; and at the end it appeared palm-shaped. The declination
[78] of the southwestern end was twenty degrees south. At first its
length was equal to the whole of the sign of Libra, with which it
rose. Eight days afterward, the declination of the southwestern end
was twenty-four degrees and thirty minutes south. At this time the head
was thirty-one degrees south, and the lower point, or end of the tail,
eight degrees from the star called Spica Virginia. No star exhalation
[79] was seen, although some say that they saw a very small one. On
the twenty-fourth of November another tailed comet appeared, even
more beautiful and resplendent than the first. At its head [_al pie_]
was a burning star. It appeared in the east. It had a declination
of eight degrees, and it pointed southwestward to the sign of the
Scorpion, which is the sign of Manila. These two comets lasted some
three months. They write from Japon, Maluco, and India that they were
seen in those places.
The devotion of the Immaculate Conception of the Holy Virgin has
been notable in this city.
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