"Moreover in this year [1581] the ministry for the Sangleys was founded in the convent of Tondo, and P. Fr. Diego Munoz was named as its special minister. He devoted particular zeal to the study of the Chinese language, and preached in it with much elegance. And all the Sangleys who were going to be baptized, and there were many, had recourse to this ministry, and the teaching was continued with much vigilance and care. And there never lacked a religious of our order to apply himself to such holy work, from the time we came to this land, as our original records of the province prove." [73] To him is also attributed [74] a volume of manuscript panegyric sermons in Tagalog, and because of this and his work at Tondo he may have been consulted by the Dominicans. We also mention Lorenzo de Leon, [75] who arrived in 1582, spent twelve years in the provinces, wrote a book called the _Estrella del mar_ in Tagalog, and died in 1623, and might also have helped. THE FRANCISCANS Although the first Franciscans did not arrive in the Philippines until June 24, 1577, the writings of the linguists of that order are more fully recorded. Among the earliest was Juan de Plasencia who, the Franciscans claim, wrote the first Tagalog grammar. He was fortunate in meeting soon after his arrival Miguel de Talavera, [76] who had come with his parents on the expedition of Legazpi. Miguel, then quite young, became in a manner of speaking the disciple of Plasencia, and while the father taught him Latin, he in turn taught Plasencia the elements of Tagalog which he had picked up. For two years Plasencia ministered in the provinces of Tayabas, Laguna, and Bulacan where he used and perfected his knowledge of the native language. On May 20, 1579, when the provincial Pedro de Alfaro left for China, he named Plasencia acting provincial during his absence. A reference to the earliest linguistic writings of the Franciscans occurs in an account by Santa Ines of the chapter meeting held in the Convent of Los Angeles in July 1580, which was presided over by Plasencia: "The third and last thing that was determined in this chapter was that a grammar and dictionary of the Tagalog language should be made and a translation of the Doctrina Christiana completed. And since Fr. Juan de Plasencia, the president of this same chapter, excelled all in the language, he was given this responsibility, and he accepted it, and immediately set to work. And then after great study, much lack of sleep and care, together with fervent prayers and other spiritual duties, of not little importance in the good profit of such work, he reduced the language to a grammar, made a catechism, a very full dictionary, and various translations." [77]