Of Slaves And Toddy

TWO INTERESTING READS on Memorial Day weekend (in Lake Hopatcong) for something being worked on. The first came out of Cambridge University Press a few years back. I never thought of the Manila galleons as slave ships, given that there were only two trips made each year--one eastbound and one westbound--and the Acapulco-bound vessels were so crammed full of Oriental goods that space was limited for human cargo. But Vince Rafael of the University of Washington gives the book a nod, so I must read. The other is the collaborative work of El Colegio de Michoacán (especially Paulina Machuca who has done extensive work on Filipino contributions to Colima culture) and the Ateneo de Manila University, in Spanish. Such informative diversion, when I only originally intended to do a sea story about the fate of a galleon built in Mindoro, typhoons, tuba and coral reefs.