[24] Probably a reference to the rōnins, men who had left their masters, under the old feudal system in Japan, and spent their time in low company and in idleness and excesses; see Griffis’s Mikado’s Empire, p. 278.
[25] This brother’s proper name was Mangorochi. The term donado, like the French donné (in each case meaning, literally, “one who is given”) was applied to devout persons who voluntarily entered the service of the missions, giving themselves (often for life) to that cause, and sharing the lot of the missionaries. All the martyrs whose fate Aduarte describes were afterward beatified.
[26] Diego de Rivera came to Manila from Córdoba, in 1615. He ministered in Bataán at first, but was lecturer in Santo Tomás from 1619 to 1623—in which year he lost his life as described in our text.
[27] Francisco Galvez, a native of Utiel, made his profession in the Franciscan order in 1600, at the age of twenty-six. In 1609 he departed for the Philippines, where for some time he ministered to the Japanese Christians resident near Manila. He went to Japan in 1612, but was banished thence in 1614; after several vain efforts, he succeeded in returning to that country in 1618. He was arrested by the Japanese authorities, and after great sufferings in prison was burned alive at Yendo, December 4, 1623. (See Huerta’s Estado, pp. 391, 392.)
[28] Aparri is a port of entry on the northern coast of Luzón, at the mouth of the Rio Grande de Cagayán. It is the chief port of coast and ocean trade in that region, and the starting-point for inland river navigation.
[29] Alonso García came from Córdoba to Manila, in 1622; he was sent to the Cagayán missions, where he died as here related. Onofre Palau was a native of Valencia, but entered the Dominican order at Manila, in 1620. In the following year he made his profession, and was sent to Cagayán, where he died with García. (See Reseña biográfica, i, pp. 294, 373.)
[30] i.e., “Island of Fishermen,” indicating the occupation of nearly all the 50,000 inhabitants (of Chinese race) of the group known as Pescadores Islands, west of Formosa, and under the jurisdiction of that island (which has been, since 1895, a possession of Japan). The location of the Pescadores is such as to make them of strategic importance, and Japan is now (1905) fortifying them.
[31] The Chinese refused to allow the Dutch to trade with them unless the latter would depart from the Pescadores, but permitted them to occupy Formosa. The Dutch settled there in 1624, at Tainan (formerly Taiwan) near Anping, remains of old Dutch forts still existing at both places; and this island was their headquarters for trade with Japan and China. See Basil H. Chamberlain’s account of Formosa in Murray’s Handbook for Travelers in Japan (4th ed., New York and London, 1898), pp. 536–542; Davidson’s historical sketch in Transactions of Asiatic Society of Japan, vol. xxiv, pp. 112–136.
[32] One of the small islands in the bay of Kelung.
[33] Francisco Mola was born in Madrid, and there made his profession as a Dominican, in 1600. He came to the Philippines in 1611, and spent many years in the Cagayán missions; afterward having charge of the mission in Formosa. After 1643 his name is not mentioned in the provincial records, as he returned to Spain about that time. (Reseña biográfica, i, p. 339.)