[20] Apparently alluding to the penitent thief who was crucified with Christ.
[21] Secuestrarle, in MS.; but compare the same letter in Diaz’s narration, ante, where the word is secuestrarme (“sequester my” property).
[22] A line is omitted here by transcriber; see Diaz’s copy, as above.
[23] Francisco de Paula, a native of Segovia, arrived at Manila in 1618, where he ministered to the Chinese, and afterward gave instruction in the college of Santo Tomás for sixteen years. He filled numerous important posts—among them that of provincial (twice), and commissary-general of the Inquisition; and not long before his death he had been appointed bishop of Nueva Cáçeres. He died at Manila, April 5, 1664, at the age of sixty-seven.
[24] The only friar of this name who is mentioned in Reseña biográfica came to the islands with the mission of 1635; “he returned at once to España, summoned by his Majesty to take charge of the chair of mathematics at the court, with a stipend of one thousand ducados a year.”
[25] Antonio Gomez de Espejo was born in Manila, in 1604; and made his profession in the Dominican order, at the age of twenty-one. He ministered in various Indian villages in Luzón; and in 1678 died, at Lallo-c.
[26] Pedro Fernandez de Ledo, a native of Mexico, made his profession as a Dominican friar in 1625, at the age of seventeen. He was one of the faculty at Santo Tomás until 1651, when he was chosen prior, and afterward provincial. Ledo died at Manila, October 15, 1662; soon afterward, his appointment to a bishopric was received there.
[27] Applied to a crime that may be tried either in ecclesiastical or secular courts.
[28] Dispensation for receiving orders outside the time specified by the church.
[29] Perhaps some allusion to a well-known proverb or saying.