....the coast of Bohol on March 25 (March 16 in the Julian Calendar), 1565.
The tenth largest island of the Philippines, Bohol has a land area of 4,117.26 square kilometers (1,589.68 square miles) and a coastline two hundred and sixty-one kilometers (one hundred and sixty-two miles) long.
The island was first settled by Australoid people, like the rest of the Philippines, as evidenced by the artifacts dug at Mansasa, Tagbilaran, and in Dauis and Panglao.
Today known as the Eskaya tribe, they still inhabit the island; their population also was absorbed into the Austronesian or Malayo-Polynesian peoples who later settled the islands and form the majority of the population.
They are said to be the descendants of a group called pintados, “tattooed ones.”
The Austronesian people living on Bohol trade with other islands in the Philippines and as far as China and Borneo.
The earliest significant contact of the island with Spain occurs on when Miguel López de Legazpi arrives in Bohol seeking spices and gold.
After persuading the native chieftains that they are not Portuguese (who had raided the islands of Mactan in 1521), he makes a treaty with the ruler Datu Sikatuna, involving a blood compact between the two men. (This event, called the Sandugo ("one blood"), is today celebrated in Bohol every year during the Sandugo Festival. The Sandugo or blood compact is also depicted on Bohol's provincial flag and the Bohol provincial seal.)
