When, in 1542, Captain Ruy Lopez de Villalobos sailed from Natividad (Mexico) for the Islands of the Setting Sun, only to die of grief at Amboyna, there accompanied him a group of Augustinian Friars. After the loss of his vessels the survivors took ship for Goa and from thence returned to Europe, arriving at Lisbon in August 1549, seven years after leaving the port of Natividad. The Order has carefully preserved the names of these early missionaries; they are, Frs. Jeronimo de San Esteban, Sebastian de Trasierra, Nicolas de Perea, Alonso Alvarado. In the expedition under General Don Miguel Lopez de Legáspi, which sailed in 1564, Fray Andres Urdanéta, an Augustinian, went as chief navigator and cartographer, and the following friars accompanied him: Frs. Andres de Aiguirre, Martin de Rada, Diego Herrero, Pedro Gamboa. Since founding the city of Cebú in 1570, and the city of Manila the following year, the Augustinians have continued to found town after town, and down to 1892 had founded no less than two hundred and forty-two, administered by two hundred and forty-seven priests of the Order as by the following table:-- Year 1892. Summary of Towns founded by the Augustinians. Handed over to other Orders 28 Amalgamated with other towns 11 Administered by Augustinians 203 --- Total 242 Population of the above 203 towns, 2,082,181. The Augustinians in the Philippine Islands. In Parish Ministry. Parish Priests 188 Stewards 37 Coadjutors 7 Vicars (learning dialects) 3 Missionaries 12 --- 247 Residing in the convents of Manila, Cebú, and Guadalupe. Superiors or Office bearers 19 Conventual Priests 7 Students 14 Invalids 6 Lay Brethren 17 -- 63 === Total 310 In former years this Order had established missions in Japan, and they were very successful in making converts, but during the persecution many members of the Order lost their lives, or, as they phrase it, "attained the palm of martyrdom."