he was appointed general superior of
the mission from 1610 to 1622. He died at Peking, December 11, 1655,
according to Sotwell. Father de Machault says that he died September 1,
1654, according to a letter written May 7, 1655, by Father Francois
Clement; but the inscription on his tomb gives the first date. He
had written a number of treatises, some of them apparently in the
Chinese language. See Sommervogel's _Bibliotheque_.

[49] The Dominican provincial at this time was Bartolome Martinez,
who made his profession in 1602, and arrived in the Philippines
in 1611. In the following year he made an unsuccessful attempt to
found a mission at Macao; but on his return to Manila was assigned
to the Chinese village of Binondo, where he became proficient in
their language, and afterward was vicar of the Parian at Manila. In
1618 he was shipwrecked on the coast of Formosa, which he considered
to be a gateway to the Chinese empire. In 1626 he founded a mission
there, and when his provincialate was ended he returned to Formosa,
where he died by accidental drowning, August 1, 1629. See sketch of
his life in _Resena biog. Sant. Rosario_, i, pp. 335-337.

[50] Cf. the account by Paul Clain (Manila, June 10, 1697) of a
similar occurrence, natives of the Caroline Islands being blown by
storms to the coast of Samar. See _Lettres edifiantes_, i (Paris,
1717), pp. 112-136.

[51] "In 1610, the Dutch had built [in Java] a fort, which they named
Batavia. This was besieged by the Sunda princes of Bantam and Jacatra
in 1619, and it was on their defeat in that year that it was resolved
to build a town on the ruins of the native one of Jacatra, and this
took the name of the fort. Batavia has been the capital of all the
Dutch possessions in India since its foundation in 1619." (Crawfurd's
_Dict. Indian Islands_, p. 44.)

[52] A native town in the northern part of Gilolo (or Almahera)
Island; it was captured by Juan de Silva.

[53] Probably referring to the plant called "China grass" (_Boehmeria
nivea_), a shrub indigenous in India, and probably in China and other
countries of eastern Asia; also introduced by cultivation into Europe
and America. The Chinese name for it is _tchou-ma_. The well known
"ramie" is but a variety (_tenacissima_) of _Boehmeria nivea_. The
fiber of China grass is considered as a textile substance of the
first rank. For description of this plant and its culture and use,
see C.R. Dodge's _Useful Fiber Plants of the Wor