[41] Navarrete says (Bibl.  Marit., tomo ii, p. 492), that Legazpi was fifty-nine years old when the fleet set sail in 1564, which makes him six years older than the age given above.  See Col. doc. ined.  Ultramar, tomo ii, p. 116, note.

[42] The Ladrones or Marianas number in all sixteen islands, and are divided into two groups of five and eleven islands respectively.  They extend north and south about nine hundred and fifty kilometers, lying between thirteen degrees and twenty-one degrees north latitude, and one hundred and forty-eight degrees and one hundred and forty-nine degrees forty minutes longitude east of Madrid.  They are but thinly populated; their flora resembles that of the Philippines.  The largest and most important of these islands, Guam, is now the property of the United States.

[43] Although this allusion cannot well be identified, it indicates some episode of the great eagerness and readiness for western discovery then prevalent in France.  Cartier’s explorations (1534-36, and 1540-43), and later those of Jean Allefonsce, had already been published to the world; and maps of the eastern coast of North America showed, as early as 1544, the great St. Lawrence River, which afforded an easy entrance to the interior, and might readily be supposed to form a waterway for passage to the “Western Sea”—­especially as New France was then generally imagined to be a part of Asia; Japan and China being not very far west of the newly-discovered coast.

[44] These two vessels were rechristened “San Pedro” and “San Pablo” before actually sailing.  The admiral of the fleet was to have been Juan de Carrion; but he was left behind because of his dissensions with Urdaneta, and Mateo del Saz fulfilled his duties.

[45] The Theatins were a religious congregation founded in Italy (1524) by Gaetano de Tiene and Giovanni Pietro Caraffa, archbishop of Theato (the modern Chieti)—­who afterward became pontiff of Rome, under the title of Paul IV.  Their object was to reform the disorders that had crept into the Roman church, and restore the zeal, self-sacrifice, and charity of apostolic days.  They would neither own property nor ask alms, but worked at various trades and were thus maintained, with voluntary offerings from the faithful.  During the next century they spread into other European countries (where they still have many houses), and undertook missions in Asia.

[46] The total cost of the preparation of Legazpi’s fleet was 382,468 pesos, 7 tomines, 5 grains of common gold; and 27,400 pesos, 3 tomines, 1 grain of gold dust.  These expenses cover the period from December 13, 1557, until March 2, 1565.  See Col. doc. ined.  Ultramar, iii, no. 36, pp. 461-463.

The gold dust here mentioned (Spanish oro de minas) means gold in the form of “gravel” or small nuggets, obtained usually from placers, or the washings of river-sands.  The “common” gold (oro comun) is refined gold, or bullion, ready for coinage.