Excerpt from The Philippines and Round About: With Some Account of British Interests in These Waters During the next two centuries Spain gradually strengthened her hold on the islands, disturbed only from time to time by minor conflicts with the Portuguese and Dutch, and by such internal troubles as are inseparable from the establishment of a foreign sovereignty. It was reserved for the British, in 1762, under the leadership of Draper and Cornish, to make the first formidable descent on the islands. England was at this time at war with both France and Spain, and it was at the initiative of Colonel Draper that a blow was aimed at the Spanish Indies. This officer, whilst travelling for the sake of his health before the war broke out, had visited Manila, and afterwards proceeding to England pointed out to the Ministry the wealth and value of the Philippine Islands, putting forward proposals for their capture, in the event of war, bya combined naval and military force based on India. Colonel Draper's proposals, after some hesitation, were accepted, and it was arranged that the expedition should be timed to reach Manila before news of the declaration of war then pending could reach so distant a port. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.