[42] At the top of the sheet is written, on the original MS., “Guadalupe, March 26, 1580,” which apparently indicates that the decree was sent to New Spain, and promulgated by the viceroy there.

[43] “A fleet on which were some Franciscan missionaries being at Sevilla in 1576, ready to sail for the Solomon Islands, Felipe II obtained permission from Pope Gregory XIII that they should be sent to evangelize the Philippine Islands—­where they arrived on June 24, 1577.  They were received in Manila with enthusiastic demonstrations of joy, and soon founded a religious province, which they named San Gregorio Magno ["St. Gregory the Great”—­named in honor of Pope Gregory I (A.D. 590-604)].  The marshal, Don Gabriel de Rivera, built for them the convent of San Francisco in that same year, 1577.”—­Algue (Archipielago filipino, i, p. 250).

On June 24, 1577, fifteen religious of St. Francis arrived at Manila, under the orders of Fray Pedro de Alfaro, the father custodian of the province.  On June 15, 1579, Alfaro left Luzon (secretly, as our text declares, because Sande refused to permit him to go), to establish a mission in China; he was accompanied by the friars Juan Bautista, Sebastian de San Francisco, and Agustin de Tordesillas.  The last-named wrote a detailed account of their journey and their experiences in China up to November 15 of that year; this relation is published in Mendoca’s Hist.  China, part ii, book ii.

[44] Maluco, the Portuguese post on Ternate, was taken over by Spain with other colonial possessions of Portugal, when Felipe II seized the government of the latter country (September, 1580), after the death of its king, the cardinal Henrique.  This union lasted during sixty years.  The possession of the Moluccas of course gave to Spain the control of the spice trade.

[45] Apparently a reference to the visit of Sir Francis Drake to Ternate, in November, 1578.  A full account of this visit, the friendly reception of the English by the Malay ruler, and the expulsion of the Portuguese from the island, may be found in Francis Fletcher’s World Encompassed by Sir Francis Drake (Hakluyt Soc. pubs. no. xvii, London, 1854), pp. 137-148.

[46] Rada had died at sea, in June, 1578.

[47] Felipe II was crowned at Lisbon in April, 1581.

[48] The first bishop of Manila, and of the Philippines, Domingo de Salazar (a Dominican) arrived at Manila in March, 1581.  With him came Fray Christoval de Salvatierra, of his own order; twenty Augustinians, and eight Franciscans; and two Jesuit priests, Antonio Sedeno and Alonso Sanchez, with the lay brother Nicolas Gallardo.  See Juan de la Concepcion’s Hist.  Phil., ii, pp. 44, 45.