So we find, as the Dominicans undertook their mission, a large settlement of Chinese, including both a settled and a floating population, concentrated in the Parián, across the Pasig river from the main city of Manila.
The dominating figure of the Chinese mission from the time of his arrival in the Philippines was Juan Cobo. In a letter, written by him from the Parián of Manila, July 13, 1589, probably to ecclesiastical authorities in Mexico, he gives an account of the early days of the mission:
“The Order took a site next to this Parián, since there was not a single house between Santo Domingo and the Parián. And because of this opportunity the Order presently charged itself with the Chinese, both Christians and infidels. And upon P. Fr. Miguel de Benavides and P. Fr. Juan Maldonado was imposed the responsibility for the care of the Chinese and for learning their language. P. Fr. Miguel was less occupied with other matters than Fr. Juan Maldonado, so that he progressed in the language enough to begin to catechize in it. This was the first year the Order was in Manila.
“Presently in the second year when I came, the Order moved P. Fr. Miguel and myself into another separate house at the other edge of the Parián. So that there stood between Santo Domingo and San Gabriel, which is the name of this church of the Chinese, the whole of the Parián of the Sangleys. And there a poor little church was built under the protection of San Gabriel, to whom it fell by lot, and a poor house where we two lived. We entered into it at the beginning of September 1588. This was the first church for the Chinese built, and we believe that there is today not another parish church [for the Chinese] but that.... And P. Fr. Miguel catechized them and preached to them in their Chinese language, and taught the doctrine in it. I myself did not yet know the language, but the Lord has been served, so that in a short time I progressed in it.”[107]
The account of Aduarte is not so accurate in some details, but it supplies others not mentioned by Cobo. The first mission which Benavides and Maldonado (or de San Pedro Martyr as he was later known) built was near the village of Tondo, in a new settlement specially founded for Christian Chinese, called Baybay, and it was named for Our Lady of the Purification. The second mission which was established by Benavides and Cobo was at first a palm-leaf hut. The name of San Gabriel was decided upon by making lots with the names of various saints on them and then drawing. San Gabriel came out three times in a row, and “all were persuaded that the Lord was pleased to have the patronage belong to this holy archangel.” Soon, because of the good works of the fathers who established a hospital there for the care of the sick and poor, the demands upon the hut became so great that a larger building was planned. At first it was to have been erected on the site of the hut, but the inhabitants protested that a stone building so near native houses might do them great damage in the event of an earthquake, so the friars went to the other side of the river, and there built a temporary building of wood which was later completed in stone. It was here then that the Doctrina was printed, in the Church of San Gabriel, near the Parián of Manila, at the edge of the Chinese settlement.
Under the care of Benavides and Cobo the mission flourished, and the two fathers became increasingly proficient in the Chinese language. When the provincial Juan de Castro began making preparations for an inspection tour of his Chinese vicariate in 1590, he chose as his companion Miguel de Benavides. The account of the events leading up to this expedition is given in the already quoted letter of Salazar on the Chinese:
“Of the Dominican religious who came to these islands, four are engaged in ministering to the Sangleys. Two of these four officiate in the Church of San Gabriel, which, together with the house where the religious live, stands close to the Parián. Another church with its house is on the promontory of Baybay, near Tondo—which a river divides, separating it from Manila. Two of the four have learned the language of the Sangleys so well, and one of these two how to write also (which is the most difficult part of the language), that the Sangleys wonder at their knowledge.... After due consideration of the matter, the Dominican fathers and myself decided that it was necessary to go to China.... Thus we decided upon the departure, sending at present no more than two religious: Fray Miguel de Benavides, who was the first to learn the language of the Sangleys; and Father Juan de Castro, who came as vicar of the religious and who was made provincial here. We preferred these two, as one is well acquainted with the language, and the other is much loved and esteemed by the Sangleys on account of his venerable gray locks and blessed old age; and we know that in that land old people are much respected and revered.”[108]
They sailed on May 22, 1590, but Juan de Castro before he left appointed Cobo acting superior of the province with full authority during his absence, and in the latter’s place as head of the Chinese mission sent Juan de San Pedro Martyr.
There is no doubt but that at this time Benavides and Cobo were the two outstanding Chinese linguists among the Spaniards in the Philippines. To Benavides has been attributed[109] a Chinese dictionary, and Schilling[110] uses the already quoted letter of Cobo to prove that he also wrote a Doctrina in Chinese, but, granting that such works were written by him, there is no evidence that they were written in Chinese characters, and not in Chinese transliterated into roman letters. The available evidence points to the fact that Cobo was the only one who could then write in Chinese characters. Salazar in his above quoted letter had said that “one of these two [have learned] how to write also,” and in the same letter he continued, “Fray Juan Cobo, the Dominican religious—who, as I have said before, knows the language of the Sangleys and their writing, and who is most esteemed by them—is sending to Your Majesty a book, one of a number brought to him from China.”[111] Further witness to Cobo’s amazing knowledge of Chinese writing is given by Aduarte:
“He knew three thousand Chinese characters, each different from all the rest, for the Chinese have no definite number of letters nor alphabet.... He translated a number [of Chinese books]; for like those of Seneca, though they are the work of heathens, they contain many profound sayings like ours. He taught astrology to some of them whom he found capable of learning; and to bring them by all means to their salvation also taught them some trades that are necessary among Spaniards, but which, not being used by the Chinese, they did not know—such as painting images, binding books, cutting and sewing clothes, and such things—doing all to win men to God.”[112]