[57] Antonio Palau y Dulcet, Manuel del Librero Hispano-Americano, Barcelona, 1923–37, III, p. 72.
[58] Schilling, op. cit.
[59] Chirino, p. 3, writes that he was “the first who made converts to Christianity in the Philippines, preaching to them of Jesus Christ in their own tongue—of which he made the first vocabulary, which I have seen and studied;” and Juan de Medina (who originally wrote his history in 1630), p. 54, says that in visiting Cebú in 1612 he “saw a lexicon there, compiled by Father Fray Martin de Rada, which contained a great number of words.” Grijalva, op. cit., f. 124V, writes that Rada “by the force of his imaginative and excellent ability learned the Visayan language, as he had learned the Otomi in this land [Mexico], so that he could preach in it in five months.”
[60] Pérez, p. 5.
[61] Juan González de Mendoza, The Historie of the great and mightie kingdom of China ... Translated out of Spanish by R. Parke, London, 1588, p. 138. The original edition of 1585 said he made an “arte y vocabulario.” We must take the phrase “in few daies” in a comparative sense, but that an Augustinian, probably Rada, knew some Chinese as early as July 30, 1574 is shown by a letter from Governor Lavezaris to the King from Manila, sending him “a map of the whole land of China, with an explanation which I had some Chinese interpreters make through the aid of an Augustinian religious who is acquainted with the elements of the Chinese language,” B. & R., III, p. 284, from the original MS. in the A. of I. (67–6–6), Torres, II, no. 1868, p. 10–11. Antonio de León Pinelo, Epitome de la Biblioteca Oriental i Occidental, Nautica i Geographica, Madrid, 1629, p. 31, also records Rada’s Chinese grammar and dictionary. Santiago Vela, VI, pp. 444–60, gives a full history of Rada and his writings. He went to China a second time in May 1576, and in 1578 accompanied La Sande on his expedition to Borneo, dying on the way back to Manila in June of that year.
[62] González de Mendoza, op. cit., pp. 103–5.
[63] Diego Ordoñez Vivar came to the Philippines in 1570, filled various ministries there, and according to Agustin Maria de Castro was in Japan in 1597, where he witnessed the martyrdom of the Franciscans; he died in 1603, Pérez, p. 10. Juan de Medina, p. 74, says, “Father Diego de Ordoñez learned this language [Tagalog] very quickly.” Alonso Alvatado had been on the unsuccessful 1542 expedition of Villalobos, and returned to the Philippines in 1571. Pérez, p. 11, records that he became familiar with the Tagalog language, was the first prior of Tondo, ministered to the Chinese there, and was the first Spaniard to learn the Mandarin dialect. He was elected provincial in 1575, and died at Manila the following year. Jéronimo Marín came to the islands with Alvarado, acquired skill in the Visayan, Tagalog and Chinese languages, accompanied Rada on his first expedition to China, was in Tondo in 1578, and later returned to Spain to recruit new missionaries for the province, dying in Mexico in 1606, Pérez, pp. 11–12.
[64] Cano, p. 12. Santiago Vela, I, p. 85, expresses the opinion that Cano’s statement was an overenthusiasm, and is not valid.
[65] Retana, col. 9.
[66] Juan de Medina, p. 156.