[277] This probably refers to Giovanni Pietro Maffei, a noted Jesuit scholar and writer, and the book mentioned is his Historiarum Indicarum Libri xvi (Fiorenze, 1588).  Maffei was born at Bergame about 1536, according to Moreri, but in 1533 according to Sommervogel.  In 1563 he accepted the chair of rhetoric at Genoa, where he also acted as secretary of the republic of Genoa.  August 26, 1565 (Sommervogel) he entered the Jesuit novitiate.  He occupied a high place in the order until his death at Tivoli, October 20, 1603.  Besides the book mentioned above, he wrote also a life of St. Ignatius Loyola, and a history of the pontificate of Gregory XIII, the latter of which was never published.  His temper was irascible and his personality not very pleasing.  He strove always to maintain a pure Latin style in his Latin writings.

[278] Argensola, like Morga, confuses the naming of the Philippine archipelago.

[279] The aquatic plant commonly known as “cat-tail flag” or reed (Typha latifolia).

[280] A measure, one-third vara in length.

[281] Small armed vessels like rafts.

[282] This was Father Antonio Marta, a Neapolitan, and superior of the Jesuit missions in the Malucas; with him was associated Antonio Pereira, so prominent in the expedition of Hurtado de Mendoza.  See La Concepcion’s account of Marta’s services at this time (Hist. de Philipinas, ii, pp. 197-204).  Marta is not mentioned by Sommervogel.

[283] See Dasmarinas’s version of this proceeding, in Vol.  VIII, pp. 239, 294; he there states that the Indians thus taken were to be freed at the end of three years’ service.  Cf. Vol.  X, p. 214.

[284] See letters sent by Dasmarinas and his son Luis to the king of Camboja, as a result of this embassy, in Vol.  IX, pp. 76-78 and 86, 87; and accounts of the Spanish expeditions to that country under Luis Dasmarinas, in Vol.  IX, pp. 161-180, and X, pp. 216, 217, 226-240—­also in Morga’s Sucesos, chaps.  V, VI (in Vol.  XV of this series).

[285] Punta Azufre is on the southern coast of Batangas, Luzon; at a little distance is Punta Cazador—­at the extreme southern point of Calumpan peninsula—­probably the Caca of the text.

[286] Bastardo:  the large sail which is hoisted on> a galley when there is little wind.

[287] Cf.  La Concepcion’s account of Dasmarinas’s expedition, in Hist. de Philipinas, ii, pp. 194-212.

[288] See accounts of this and later expeditions to conquer Mindanao, in Vol.  IX, pp. 181-188, 281-298; and X, pp. 53-75, 214, 215, 219-226.

[289] A small piece of ordnance.

[290] One of the early appellations of the strait between the northwest point of Samar and the southeast point of Luzon, now known as San Bernardino Strait.  As it was the regular outlet for the vessels plying between the Philippines and Nueva Espana, this strait was also called Paso de Acapulco ("the Acapulco passage").  By some authorities the meridian of San Bernardino was used as the standard, or “meridian of departure.”  See San Antonio’s Chronicas, part i, 55 (cited by Retana in Zuniga’s Estadismo, ii, p. 156*; see also p. 409*).