[44] A prebendary who enjoys the benefice called racion.

[45] The prebendary immediately subordinate to the racionero.

[46] Barrachel:  the alguacil-mayor.  This word is now obsolete.

[47] He had filled this post before, during 1590-95 (Vol.  VII, p. 230); he succeeded Montesclaros on July 2, 1607, and governed Nueva Espana until June 12, 1611, when he returned to Spain as president of the Council of the Indias.  Already aged, he did not long survive this promotion.  He established many reforms in Nueva Espana, and showed great humanity in his treatment of the Indians.

[48] That is, “rich in gold,” and “rich in silver;” two mythical islands, often mentioned in documents of that time; thus named, according to Gemelli Careri, because some earth taken from them, accidentally heated on a ship, was found to contain grains of precious metal.  There is an interesting mention of these islands on La Frechette’s “Chart of the Indian Ocean” (published by W. Faden, London, 1803).  They are placed thereon in 32 deg. and 34 deg., N. lat., and in 160 deg. and 164 deg.  E. long., respectively, with the following legend:  “Kin-sima, la Rica de Oro, or Gold Island.  Gin-sima, la Rica de Plata, or Silver Island.  These Two Islands, which are Known to the Japanese, are laid down according to the report of the former Spanish Navigators; they did imagine till the middle of the last century, that Gin-sima and Kin-sima were the Land of Ophir, since it could not be found in the Isles of Solomon.”

[49] Referring to the archbishop Benavides; he bequeathed his library and the sum of one thousand pesos for the foundation of the college of Santo Tomas at Manila.

[50] The route of this expedition was evidently up the Rio Grande de Pampanga, northward through the present provinces of Pampanga and Nueva Ecija; the headwaters of this stream are separated by the ridge of Caraballo Sur from those of the Rio Grande de Cagayan.  Crossing these mountains, the Spaniards found themselves, at the southern end of Nueva Viscaya, at the sources of one of the two great branches of the latter river, the Magat River—­the one which is named Tuy in our text.  It joins the main stream of the Rio Grande de Cagayan, a few miles above Ilagan, in the province of Isabela, and the united streams flow northward through the entire length of that province and of Cagayan, falling into the sea below Aparri, on the northern coast of Luzon.  See the short account of this expedition given in Vol.  VIII, pp. 250, 251.

[51] A species of orange-colored agate, of great beauty.

[52] This city is no longer in existence; it has been replaced by the town of Lallo, formerly only a district of that city.

[53] In the MS., cabra; but this may be only a copyist’s conjecture for an illegible word.