should be sent
to evangelize the Philippine Islands--where they arrived on June 24,
1577. They were received in Manila with enthusiastic demonstrations
of joy, and soon founded a religious province, which they named San
Gregorio Magno ["St. Gregory the Great"--named in honor of Pope Gregory
I (A.D. 590-604)]. The marshal, Don Gabriel de Rivera, built for
them the convent of San Francisco in that same year, 1577."--_Algue_
(_Archipielago filipino_, i, p. 250).

On June 24, 1577, fifteen religious of St. Francis arrived at Manila,
under the orders of Fray Pedro de Alfaro, the father custodian of the
province. On June 15, 1579, Alfaro left Luzon (secretly, as our text
declares, because Sande refused to permit him to go), to establish
a mission in China; he was accompanied by the friars Juan Bautista,
Sebastian de San Francisco, and Agustin de Tordesillas. The last-named
wrote a detailed account of their journey and their experiences in
China up to November 15 of that year; this relation is published in
Mendoca's _Hist. China,_ part ii, book ii.

[44] Maluco, the Portuguese post on Ternate, was taken over by Spain
with other colonial possessions of Portugal, when Felipe II seized
the government of the latter country (September, 1580), after the
death of its king, the cardinal Henrique. This union lasted during
sixty years. The possession of the Moluccas of course gave to Spain
the control of the spice trade.

[45] Apparently a reference to the visit of Sir Francis Drake to
Ternate, in November, 1578. A full account of this visit, the friendly
reception of the English by the Malay ruler, and the expulsion of
the Portuguese from the island, may be found in Francis Fletcher's
_World Encompassed by Sir Francis Drake_ (Hakluyt Soc. pubs. no. xvii,
London, 1854), pp. 137-148.

[46] Rada had died at sea, in June, 1578.

[47] Felipe II was crowned at Lisbon in April, 1581.

[48] The first bishop of Manila, and of the Philippines, Domingo de
Salazar (a Dominican) arrived at Manila in March, 1581. With him came
Fray Christoval de Salvatierra, of his own order; twenty Augustinians,
and eight Franciscans; and two Jesuit priests, Antonio Sedeno and
Alonso Sanchez, with the lay brother Nicolas Gallardo. See Juan de
la Concepcion's _Hist. Phil_., ii, pp. 44, 45.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Phillipine Islands 1493-1898, Vol.
4 of 55, by Edited by E. H. Blair and J. A. Robertson

*** END OF THIS PROJECT G