elancholy because of his reverses. A
relation of the expedition to China was despatched to Felipe II.]

Second Book of the Second Part of the History of the Great Kingdom
of China

In which is contained the voyage made to this great kingdom in
the year one thousand five hundred and seventy-nine by father Fray
Pedro de Alfaro, custodian in the Filipinas Islands of the order of
the blessed St. Francis, of the province of San Joseph; and three
other religious of the same order. The miraculous entrance into that
kingdom, and all that happened to them during their seven months'
residence there, and all they discovered and saw--all of which are
most notable and interesting.

The Franciscan fathers arrive at the Filipinas Islands, and try to
gain entrance to the mainland of the kingdom of China, with great
desire to preach the holy gospel. Chapter I.

On the day of the Visitation of our Lady, in the year one thousand
five hundred and seventy-eight, there arrived from Espana at the city
of Manila, in the Filipinas Islands, father Fray Pedro de Alfaro, [30]
appointed custodian of that province, with fourteen religious of the
same order. They were sent by his Catholic Majesty, King Don Felipe,
our sovereign, and his royal Council of the Indies, as helpers to
the Augustinian fathers--who, until then, had been occupied alone in
the islands in the conversion of the natives, and had been the first
preachers of the gospel therein, which they had preached with much zeal
and to the great good of the natives. The said fathers had baptized,
when the Franciscans arrived, more than one hundred thousand of the
natives, besides preparing and catechizing the others for baptism;
and, in addition, preparing themselves so that at the first opportunity
they might enter the kingdom of China to preach the holy gospel. After
the Franciscans had lived in the islands for the space of one year,
busying themselves in helping the Augustinians, and in the conversion
and instruction of the natives, learning during this time through
the reports of the Augustinian fathers themselves, and from many
Chinese merchants who were constantly coming to the islands with
merchandise, of the many wonderful things of that great kingdom and
the countless number of souls, whom the devil held in his service,
deceived with false idolatry--they were filled with great zeal and
longing for the salvation of these people, and with the desire to
go thither to preach t