“Barangay,” as used here, is evidently a bit of slang meaning “gang” or “clique,” in modern phrase.
[48] From the context, esto here seems to designate the former governor, Vargas.
[49] Gines de Barrientos, titular bishop of Troya, who was assistant to the archbishop. Juan Duran, titular bishop of Sinopolis, was assistant to the bishop of Cebú (then Diego de Aguilar). Andres Gonzalez was bishop of Nueva Caceres (or Camarines); and Francisco Pizarro, of Nueva Segovia. These were Dominicans, save Duran, who belonged to the Order of Our Lady of Mercy; and Pizarro, who in 1681 was a member of the cabildo of Manila cathedral.
[50] Spanish, se le picaba sobradissimamente la retaguardia—literally, “its rearguard was entirely cut to pieces.”
[51] i.e., “Hurrah for [the bishops of] Troya!”
[52] Elio Antonio de Nebrija (or Lebrija) was a celebrated linguist and great Latinist, who wrote various works. He was born about the year 1444, and died in 1522. (Dominguez, Diccionario nacional.)
[53] Apparently a play on words, mingled with a sarcastic comment on Fray Gaspar. One may hazard the conjecture that the latter (who was a noted grammarian) is here mentioned in contempt as knowing more of grammar than of current affairs, and being able only to understand events actually completed and past, without the foresight to perceive how these affect the future.
[54] i.e., no more than two—referring to the “dual” number in Greek declension.
[55] A copy of this act may be found in Ventura del Arco MSS., iii, pp. 513–515; it is dated “at our house on the river of Manila, October 22, 1684.”
[56] An allusion to the well-known quotation, Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus (line 139 of the Ars poetica of Horatius).