to send a fleet with
troops and supplies, in which embarked Moraga with thirty friars of
his order. See La Concepcion's account, in _Hist. de Philipinas_, v,
pp. 474-479.

Another letter from Otaco, dated February 18, 1620, says: "There
has been a very heated discussion (which still continues) regarding
aid for the Philipinas, between the lords of the Council and all the
procurators and agents of those islands."

[3] Translated: "[This blow upon us], beyond measure, still we are
the Lord's and He is just, and His judgment is upright."

[4] So in the MS., but apparently a copyist's error for Leatum, the
form given in later pages; apparently a phonetic blunder for Liao-tung,
the name of the province where the contest between Russia and Japan
is now centered (May, 1904).

[5] W. Winterbotham gives, in his _View of the Chinese Empire_
(London, 1796), ii, pp. 6-8, an interesting account of the "mandarins
of letters," the chief nobility of the empire. He says: "There are
only two ranks in China, the nobility and the people, but the former
is not hereditary ... China contains about fifteen thousand mandarins
of letters, and a still greater number who aspire to that title
... To arrive at this degree, it is necessary to pass through several
others; such as that of Batchelor (_sie_, or _tsai_), of licentiate
(_kiu-gin_), and of doctor (_tsing-tssee_). The two first, however,
are only absolutely necessary; bur even those on whom the third is
conferred obtain for a time only the government of a city of the second
or third class. There are eight orders of [these] mandarins ... In
short, the whole administration of the Chinese empire is entrusted
to the mandarins of letters."

[6] Referring to the Manchu chief Noorhachu (see _Vol_. XVIII,
note 63). His grandfather was named Huen.

[7] Gabriel de Matos was born at Vidigueira, Portugal, in 1572, and
entered the Jesuit order at the age of sixteen. He spent twenty years
in the Japan missions, and later was provincial of Malabar; and he
filed in January, 1633, either at Cochin or at Macao (according to
differing authorities).

[8] Nicolas Trigault was born at Douai, France, in 1577, and became
a Jesuit novice when seventeen years old. As a student, he made
a specialty of Oriental languages, and in 1610 entered the China
mission, of which he was long in charge--meanwhile becoming versed
in Chinese history and literature, concerning which, as well as the
Jesuit missions there, T