[1] Pyrard de Laval says—in his Voyage (Hakluyt Society’s publications, London, 1887–88), ii, pp. 256, 257: “When one is making a voyage from Goa, one says to which quarter one is going, whether to the south or the north coast. ’The north’ is from Goa to Cambaye, ’the south’ from Goa to the Cape of Comori.... From Bassains [Baçani of our text; the modern Bassein] comes all the timber for building houses and vessels; indeed, most of the ships are built there. It also supplies a very fine and hard free stone, like granite; ... All the magnificent churches and palaces at Goa and the other towns are built of this stone.” The editors of the Voyage add: “Bassein, twenty-six miles north of Bombay, was ceded to the Portuguese in 1536. It became the favorite resort of the wealthier Portuguese, the place being noted for handsome villas and pretty gardens. It was taken by the Mahrattas in 1739, after a siege of three months, in which the Portuguese, for the last time in India, fought with stubborn courage.” Bassein was captured by the British in 1780. The term “Mogors” in the text refers to some of the kings who were vassals of the Great Mogul (Vol. XVII, p. 252).
[2] Diego de Pantoja, born in 1571, became a novice in the Jesuit order at the age of eighteen. Seven years later he embarked to join the mission in Japan; but on reaching Macao he was assigned as companion to the noted Jesuit missionary, Mateo Ricci, and the two founded the mission of Pekin. Being later expelled from the kingdom, Pantoja died at Macao in January, 1618 (Sommervogel). Ricci died at Pekin in May, 1610. In the archives not only of Spain, but of Italy, France, and England, are many and voluminous documents referring to the Catholic missions in China. The Jesuit missions there are very fully recounted in Lettres édifiántes.
[3] See Henry Yule’s account of “Nestorian Christianity in China,” in his Cathay and the Way Thither (Hakluyt Society’s publications, London, 1866), pp. lxxxviii–ci; cf. pp. clxxxi–iii, and 497. Regarding the Jews in China, see ut supra, pp. lxxx, 225, 341, 497, 533.
[4] In 1618 the Manchu leader Noorhachu invaded the province of Liaotung—now a division of the province of Sheng-King, and lying on the northern coast of the Korean Gulf; its southern extremity forms a long, narrow peninsula which terminates at the entrance of the Gulf of Pe-chili, and on it are the fortified posts of Dalny and Port Arthur, important strategic points commanding the entrance to that gulf, and prominent in the present war (May, 1904) between Russia and Japan. In Liaotung are also the important towns of Mukden and Niuchuang (Newchwang). In 1621 Noorhachu captured Mukden, and soon conquered the rest of the province; and, about twenty-five years later, his successors completed the conquest of China, expelling the Ming dynasty (which had begun in 1368), and establishing that of the Manchus, which still rules in China. For a detailed description of this conquest, see Boulger’s History of China (London and New York, 1900), pp. 97–125.
[5] There is an apparent hiatus here; perhaps it should read “before the last invasion.”—Trans.
[6] Boulger says (History of China, p. 107): “During this campaign it was computed that the total losses of the Chinese amounted to 310 general officers and 45,000 private soldiers.” Noorhachu defeated three Chinese armies, and captured the towns of Fooshun, Tsingho, and Kaiyuen.
[7] A phonetic rendering of Wanleh (Vol. III, p. 228). See account of his reign in Boulger’s History of China, pp. 97–107.
[8] The Christian religion was first introduced into Cochinchina (a kingdom founded in 1570, by a Tonquin chief) by Spanish Franciscans, in 1583; but little was accomplished for the conversion of the heathen until 1615, when both Franciscans and Jesuits entered upon that work. See Crawfurd’s account of the country, in his Dictionary of Indian Islands, pp. 105–112.
[9] See letter by Bishop Arce, post.
[10] This name is not to be found in Sommervogel.