[6] This was Rodrigo Pacheco y Osorio, marques de Cerralvo, the successor of Gelves (Vol.  XX, p. 127).  He reached Mexico in October, 1624, vindicated his predecessor in the public estimation, and quieted the disturbances in the country.  He fortified Vera Cruz and Acapulco, to protect them against the Dutch, whose ships cruised in both oceans.  Cerralvo was an energetic and able ruler, who did much for the welfare of his people.  He held the viceroyalty until September, 1635, when he returned to Spain, and was given a place in the Council of the Indias.

[7] These festivities celebrated the accession to the throne of Felipe IV.  Although they occurred in 1623, this account is placed here because written August 1, 1625.

[8] A reference to the celebrated university of Salamanca, and used synonymously with learning or skill.

[9] El Gran Capitan:  an epithet applied to Gonsalvo de Cordova, commander-in-chief of the Spanish forces under Ferdinand of Castile, in recognition of his services in 1495-96 against the French armies in Calabria, Italy—­defeating them there and elsewhere, and compelling them to withdraw from Italy.  A treaty of peace between France and Spain was the result; it was signed at Marcoussis in August, 1498.  The Neapolitan kingdom was divided between France and Spain in November, 1500; but quarrels soon arose between them, and their armies fought for its possession.  Under the leadership of Cordova, Naples was conquered for Spain (1502-04).  Cordova was born in 1453, and died in December, 1515.

[10] Evidently an allusion to the procession made at Manila, on certain occasions, in which the banner of the city was carried before the cabildo—­to which allusions have been already made in various documents of this series.

[11] A kind of lance or spear, used by bull-fighters.

[12] The game of canas was an equestrian sport engaged in by the nobility on the occasion of any special celebration.  They formed various figures, which engaged in various contests.  One side charged against the other, hurling their spears, from which their opponents guarded themselves with their shields.

[13] In olden times, empirical healers or physicians cured with this stone the pain or sickness called colic—­hijada, as it was then written, now ijada.—­Rev. Eduardo Navarro, O.S.A.

Piedra de mal de hijada:  from the description, apparently made of some brilliant crystalline substance.

[14] In the Jesuit relation of 1619-20 (see Vol.  XIX, p. 61), mention is made of a bull-fight in terms that would indicate that they had already become established in the islands.  This fight of 1619 is evidently the one to which W. E. Retana refers in his Fiestas de toros en Filipinas (Madrid, 1896).  Huerta (Estado, p. 17), incorrectly states that the first bull-fight in the islands was on February 4, 1630.  But Chirino mentions these spectacles (Vol.  XII of this series, p. 182) as customary in both Manila and Cebu at least as early as 1602, which was the year in which he left the islands.