[41] As the word "creole" is often used in a vague or inexact manner, it seems best to state that, as used in our text, it means a person of pure Spanish blood, born in any of the Spanish colonies. [42] Pedro de Arce was born in the province of Vitoria, in Spain, and made his profession in the convent at Salamanca, in 1576. He came to the Philippine Islands in 1583, and ministered in various Indian villages, then filled several high offices, finally becoming bishop of Nueva Caceres (1609) and bishop of Cebu (1613). After a long and laborious career, he died at Cebu, on October 16, 1645, at the age of eighty-five. [43] Bernardo Navarro de Santa Catalina was one of the first Dominican missionaries, arriving at Manila in July, 1587. His labors were principally among the Indians of Pangasinan (in whose language he composed many short devotional works), until he became provincial of his order in the islands, June 15, 1596. When the term of this office expired, he was appointed commissary of the Inquisition; and in 1616 was again elected provincial. Undertaking soon afterward a journey to Cagayan in the rainy season, he was made ill by fatigue and exposure, and died at Nueva Segovia (the modern Lal-lo or Lallo-c), on November 8, 1616. See sketch of his life in _Resena biog. Sant. Rosario_, pp. 80-86. [44] The enterprise here mentioned was an attempt to regain possession of the Maluco Islands, which had just been seized by the Dutch. In June, 1605, arrived at Manila the commandant of the Portuguese fort at Tidore, with some of his soldiers, accompanied by three Jesuits and many native Christians--all of whom had been expelled from Amboyna and Tidore by the Dutch. At the same time came a reinforcement of a thousand troops from Spain; and Acuna resolved, with this aid, to prepare an expedition for the recovery of the Spice Islands. In February, 1606, a powerful fleet set out for this purpose, carrying more than one thousand three hundred Spaniards, who were aided by six hundred Indian auxiliaries; they were successful, under Acuna's personal command, in recapturing Amboyna, Tidore, and Terrenate, and carried to Manila as a prisoner the petty king of the last-named island. See La Concepcion's account of this expedition, in _Hist. de Philipinas_, iv, pp. 20-93. [45] In July, 1606, Rivera sailed for Mexico to fill his post in the Audiencia there; but an epidemic (probably ship-fever) on the ship caused the death of eighty persons, among them Rivera. See La Concepcion, _Hist. de Philipinas_, iv, p. 108.