[24] Spanish, crescas, a word not given in the lexicons, but evidently, from the context, to be thus rendered.
[25] See Linschoten’s account of this story of St. Thomas’s preaching in India, and A. C. Burnell’s notes thereon, in Voyage of Linschoten (Hakluyt Society Publications, London, 1885), i, pp. 83–89. Burnell says that this story is unknown to the natives of India, and evidently originated in Syria. The inscription on the alleged tomb of St. Thomas near Madras is now known to be Nestorian, of about the ninth century A. D.
[26] Tercia: the third part of a vara (33.38+ inches), therefore a little more than 11 inches; generally used as a measure of length.
[27] Concepción’s account of this occurrence (Hist. de Philipinas, vii, pp. 258, 259) contains an explanation somewhat remarkable for a period when sanitary science had made little progress, even in Europe.
“Governor Don Manuel de Leon was sick from excessive corpulency; and Don Juan de Sarra treated him by making cruel cuts in the flesh of his body. He attended, when these incisions were not yet quite healed, the funeral of Doña Maria del Cuellar, the deceased wife of Auditor Don Francisco Coloma; and in the church the vapors which exhale from buried corpses—which, experience proves, cost those so dear, who enter the church with sores or wounds, as these are poisoned and corrupted by those vapors—had the effect on the governor of opening his wounds, and bringing on a hemorrhage which exhausted him, [and he died. April 11, 1667].”
[28] Salazar relates the disposition of the governor’s estate (Hist. Sant. Rosario, pp. 114, 115), saying that, besides the provincial, Fray Balthasar de Santa Cruz and General Marcos Quintero Ramos were named by León as his executors; referring to the prohibition (see his p. 43) of such administration to the Dominican friars, he adds: “The said fathers could not refuse to accept this onerous charge as executors, not only on account of what our order owed to the deceased, but because of other circumstances which stood in the way and concerned the peace of the community.” He states that Fray San Roman’s death (less than a year after the governor’s) did not prevent the administration of León’s estate and the disposal of his property, which Santa Cruz carried out, the handling of the money being left entirely to Quintero. The governor’s fortune amounted to 250,000 pesos, of which the Dominican order appropriated nothing to itself, the money being almost entirely spent in pious foundations and charitable works. To the Misericordia was given 50,000 pesos, part of which was set aside for the dowries of orphan girls; to León’s native place, 33,000 pesos to found chaplaincies, for the benefit of his soul; 12,000 to rebuild the hospital of San Lazaro at Manila, and a like sum for rebuilding the seminary of Santa Potenciana; and the remainder was spent in various works of piety and charity, for the benefit of the community.
[29] Every province was entitled to choose four definitors and two visitors. In chapters the voting list is published prior to the elections; it contains the name of every person entitled to vote therein, with the position entitling him to vote.—Rev. T. C. Middleton, O.S.A.
[30] Spanish, altura; here meaning the most northern part of the ship’s course, as the ships sailing from Manila took a route far northward to avail themselves of the trade-winds.
[31] This should be Antonio de Letona; his book is entitled Perfecta religiosa (Puebla, Mexico, 1662). See our VOL. XXXVI, p. 189.
[32] In text, rectores; but, as there is no meaning of that word that properly applies here, we conjecture it to be a typographical error for receptores.