[1] Spanish, buenas collas de bendabales. In August the prevailing winds at Manila are from the southwest, the vendavals. It often happens that in the months of June and July there develop in northern Luzón centers of minimum pressure so slowly that they appear to remain stationary for many days, followed, as is natural, by continuous currents and showers of rain from the third quadrant, known by the native-born residents as “collas” (Report of U. S. Philippine Commission, 1900, iv, pp. 229, 236; this chapter is furnished by the Jesuit fathers in charge of the Manila Observatory).
[2] Juan Zubelzu, a native of Biscay, and a novice in the Dominican convent at Mexico, came to the Philippine Islands in the mission of 1615. After his ordination, he ministered to the Indians in Bataán, and in Cavite and Manila—where he died, December 14, 1657. He built a stone church in Samal, for which, it is remarked, he did not harass the Indians, although they were few in number. (Reseña biográfica, i, p. 350.)
[3] “Son of the devil, scourge of God, and other similar things.”
[4] Spanish, padres barbados; also known as Barbones, from their practice of wearing long beards; they came in 1635, with Corcuera, headed by Collado, and formed the congregation of San Pablo (for mission work only), by “warrants fraudulently obtained.” A royal decree of February 21, 1637, commanded the Dominican provincial at Manila to suppress the Barbones; it is the execution of this decree which is described in our text. See Reseña biográfica, i. pp. 338, 391, 420.
[5] This statement about the Sangleys is printed by Barrantes as a postscript to Lopez’s letter of July 23, 1637 (q.v., VOL. XXVII). Internal evidence indicates Juan Lopez as the author of the present document, and that it was written at Cavite, where Lopez was in charge of the Jesuit house.
[6] Melchor de Vera was born in Madrid about 1585, and entered the Jesuit order at the age of nineteen. Two years later, he departed for the Philippine mission, and after his ordination labored in the missions of Visayas and Mindanao. He was for a time minister of Manila college, and afterward rector of Carigara, and superior at Dapitan and Zamboanga. He was well versed in architecture and military defense, and several forts were built (especially that at Zamboanga) under his direction. He died at Cebú, April 13, 1646. See Murillo Velarde’s Hist. Philipinas, fol. 153 verso; and Combés’s Hist. Mindanao.
[7] Fernando de Estrada, a native of Ecija, Spain, was a missionary among the Bisayans and Tagáls, and at Ternate. He died at Manila in 1646, at the age of forty-five. See Murillo Velarde’s Hist. Philipinas, fol. 193 verso.
[8] Charles I sought at various times to play Spain against France, but his Spanish policy was, on the whole, a failure.
[9] Morabites: the name of a Mahometan sect, founded by the son-in-law of Mahomet. The name was also used among Mahometans to indicate a wise man or a mystic.