sailors.  After all had embarked and had stowed away what could be collected in the short time at their disposal, for sustenance while on the way, they set sail on that very day, the twelfth of the same month of June, after saying mass and beseeching God to direct their voyage for His holy service.  They set sail Friday morning, and, although they attempted to leave the port, this was impossible, for the sea was running high and pounding so furiously upon the shoals, that they, persisting in the effort to offset it, were in danger of being wrecked.  Therefore they returned, very sad at heart, to the harbor, and there they remained that day.

[The remainder of the second book (chaps. ii-xv) treats of the voyage of the Franciscans to China, their stay in that country, and their return to Manila.  They are forced to return to the harbor for the second time on account of contrary weather, which so affects one of the priests, Estevan Ortiz, “that no entreaties availed to persuade him to finish the voyage they had undertaken.  On the contrary he answers that he will tempt God no further, since these signs that they have seen are sufficient to prove that it is His holy will that they shall not make the journey at that time.”  On the fifteenth of June, however, the little band of three priests, three soldiers, and a Chinese lad (as interpreter) taken in the siege of Limahon, set sail from llocos, fearful of pursuit by the governor.  Reaching the Chinese coast, they go ashore near Canton, kneel down, and “with great devotion, chanted the Te Deum laudamus, giving thanks to God who had brought them so miraculously to the kingdom of China.”  They receive the freedom of the city after various investigations, the Chinese officials believing the false stories of shipwreck that the interpreters tell for their own benefit.  The Portuguese at Macao fail in their attempt to turn the Chinese against the Spaniards.  Hunger forces them to beg their food in the streets of Canton; but the officials, on hearing this, order that provision be made for them from the royal revenues.  By order of the viceroy, they journey to Aucheo, but are speedily ordered to return to Canton, to await a Portuguese vessel, that they may be sent from the kingdom.  On leaving China the little party separate into two divisions, the father custodian and one other going to Macao, that they may there learn the Chinese language thoroughly, while the other two return to Manila, which is reached February 2, 1580 “where they were received by the governor and the rest with great joy, and their fault in having departed without leave was pardoned.”  The father custodian reports from Macao a rich harvest field in Cochin China.]