and influential
priests during the early days of the Spanish colony, and who was the
first linguist of note to work in the Philippines. The first language
he learned was Visayan, [59] native to the island of Cebu where the
Spaniards first landed, but he also learned Chinese. In May 1572 he
was elected provincial of his order, and in June 1575 he went with
Jeronimo Marin, as ambassador to China, being "the first Spaniard
who entered into that said kingdom." [60] In preparation for the
voyage, we are told by Gonzalez de Mendoza, whose famous and popular
history of China first printed in 1585 derives in a great measure from
information brought back by Rada, that Rada "began with great care &
studie to learne that language [Chinese], the which he learned in
few daies: & did make thereof a dictionarie." [61] Rada was then not
only the first to write in Visayan, but also the first to compile a
Chinese dictionary, and more important still brought back with him
to Manila from China many books of which Mendoza gives a list. [62]
These books, printed in the usual Chinese method from wood-blocks,
could have provided models for the Spaniards in the Philippines who
lacked European facilities for printing, and they may have given
birth to the idea which resulted in the xylographic Doctrinas.

Within the first few years several more Augustinian fathers [63]
arrived whose linguistic accomplishments are briefly noted by the
historians, but while these men were certainly pioneers in the speaking
of Tagalog and Chinese, they are not recorded as having written in
the language. According to Cano, [64] the first Tagalog grammar was
written by Agustin de Alburquerque, and Retana [65] considered him
one of the possible authors of the present Doctrina. This friar
reached the Philippines in 1571, accompanied Rada on his second
expedition to China in 1576, was elected provincial in 1578, and died
in 1580. However, there is no early record saying that Alburquerque
wrote any linguistic work. The statement was not made until the 19th
century, and in contradiction Juan de Medina, who wrote in 1630,
said that Juan de Quinones "made a grammar and lexicon of the Tagal
language, which was the first to make a start in the rules of its
mode of speech." [66] Furthermore, in the official acts [67] of the
Augustinian province we find that on August 20, 1578 Alburquerque
as provincial of the order commissioned Quinones to write a grammar,
dictionary and confe