Manila Bay is one of the finest bays in the world and by far the best in the Far East.  It will accommodate all the fleets of the world.  Its greatest dimensions are from Tubutubu Island in the estuary of Orani, bay of Pampanga, in the northwest angle of the shore of the greater bay, to Las Pinas, thirty-five miles, near the boundary between Cavite and Rizal; and from the delta of the river Grande Pampanga, on the shores of Bulacan in the northeast, to Corregidor Island, southwest, thirty-one miles.  It is one hundred and twenty miles in circumference.  Five of the important rivers of the archipelago empty into it.  See U.S.  Gazetteer of the Philippine Islands, p. 186.

[43] Tondo now contains 39,043 civilized inhabitants.  It is the most northerly and populous district along the bay shore above the Pasig.  Its inhabitants are largely engaged in the tobacco and cigar industries, and in fishing, weaving, and gardening for the Manila market.  See Bulletin No. 1 of the Census Bureau, and U.S.  Gazetteer of the Philippine Islands, p. 188.

[44] Psalms cxxi, 7.—­Coco.

[45] Matthew xvii, 20.—­Coco.

[46] See Vol.  VI, p. 115, note 27.

[47] See Vol.  VI, p. 88, note 22.

[48] See Vol.  IX, p. 95, note 18.

[49] Fray Agustin de Alburquerque was a native of Castilla, and professed at the convent of Salamanca.  Batangas became the theater of his missionary labors in the islands.  He was definitor in 1572, prior of Tondo in 1575, and prior provincial in 1578, renouncing to the Franciscans during his term the omnimoda ecclesiastical jurisdiction.  He tried to sell himself as a slave, in order that he might introduce Christianity into China.  He is the author of the first or second Tagal grammar, the Franciscans claiming that the first was written by Fray Juan de Plasencia.  He died in 1580.  See Perez’s Catalogo, pp. 13, 14.

[50] Fray Francisco Merino took his vows in the Augustinian province of Castilla.  After his arrival in the islands he labored in the province of Iloilo until his death.  Although he was proposed as one of the associates of Father Rada on the latter’s memorable journey to China in 1576, Jeronimo Marin went in his stead; while he himself accompanied Juan de Salcedo and Pedro Chaves on the Camarines expedition.  He died in 1581.  See Perez’s Catalogo, p. 14.

[51] Fray Juan de Orta, born in Moguer, in the province of Huelva, professed in the convent of Mexico in 1558.  He was a novice under Urdaneta.  Shortly after his arrival at the islands, he learned the Bicol language, in which he evangelized with great success.  A number of villages founded by him were later handed over to the care of the Franciscans.  In 1575 he returned to Manila to help the prior there, where he worked zealously, having in charge also until his death (in Manila on Palm Sunday, 1577) the village of Paranaque.  See Perez’s Catalogo, p. 12.