SYNOPSIS:
In his Preface, Alcina writes: “…I began putting down on paper—for a span of more than thirty-four years during which I have dealt with, lived in and visited the greater part of the Bisayan Islands—communicating a great deal with the natives and inhabitants, about whom I am writing here and from whom I have received not a little of this information. In order to aid my memory, I kept jotting down and retaining all this with the aid of a more than an average knowledge of their language (which is the key that best opens all secrets) … taking advantage of some spare time and motivated by the opportunity of being away for some time from the ministerial tasks, I began to rewrite in an orderly manner what I had a rough draft. Therefore, from the labyrinth of loose and disorderly papers, which were like a ball of yarn, I began unraveling the threads. I succeeded (like the Deadfalls) in pulling apart and untangling that ball and thereby preparing a neat copy within a space of some nine or ten months. For so many years, I had all that in heap or a rough draft.”