On June 24, 1577, fifteen religious of St. Francis arrived at Manila, under the orders of Fray Pedro de Alfaro, the father custodian of the province. On June 15, 1579, Alfaro left Luzon (secretly, as our text declares, because Sande refused to permit him to go), to establish a mission in China; he was accompanied by the friars Juan Bautista, Sebastian de San Francisco, and Agustin de Tordesillas. The last-named wrote a detailed account of their journey and their experiences in China up to November 15 of that year; this relation is published in Mendoca's _Hist. China,_ part ii, book ii. [44] Maluco, the Portuguese post on Ternate, was taken over by Spain with other colonial possessions of Portugal, when Felipe II seized the government of the latter country (September, 1580), after the death of its king, the cardinal Henrique. This union lasted during sixty years. The possession of the Moluccas of course gave to Spain the control of the spice trade. [45] Apparently a reference to the visit of Sir Francis Drake to Ternate, in November, 1578. A full account of this visit, the friendly reception of the English by the Malay ruler, and the expulsion of the Portuguese from the island, may be found in Francis Fletcher's _World Encompassed by Sir Francis Drake_ (Hakluyt Soc. pubs. no. xvii, London, 1854), pp. 137-148. [46] Rada had died at sea, in June, 1578. [47] Felipe II was crowned at Lisbon in April, 1581. [48] The first bishop of Manila, and of the Philippines, Domingo de Salazar (a Dominican) arrived at Manila in March, 1581. With him came Fray Christoval de Salvatierra, of his own order; twenty Augustinians, and eight Franciscans; and two Jesuit priests, Antonio Sedeño and Alonso Sánchez, with the lay brother Nicolas Gallardo. See Juan de la Concepcion's _Hist. Phil_., ii, pp. 44, 45. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Philippine Islands 1493-1898, Vol. 4 of 55, by Edited by E. H. Blair and J. A. Robertson