[267] Acosta in his _History of the Indies_ (Hakluyt Soc. edition, London, 1880) says of the courses between the Philippines and New Spain: "The like discourse is of the Navigation made into the South sea, going from New Spaine or Peru to the Philippines or China, and returning from the Philippines or China to New Spaine, the which is easie, for that they saile alwaies from East to West neere the line, where they finde the Easterly windes to blow in their poope. In the yeere 1584, there went a shippe from Callao in Lima to the Philippines, which sailed 2000 and 700 leagues without sight of land, and the first it discovered was the Iland of Lusson, where they tooke port, having performed their voiage in two moneths, without want of winde or any torment, and their course was almost continually vnder the line; ... The returne is like vnto the voiage from the Indies vnto Spaine, for those which returne from the Philippines or China to Mexico, to the end they may recover the Westerne windes, they mount a great height, vntill they come right against the Ilands of Iappon, and, discovering the Caliphornes, they returne by the coast of New Spaine to the port of Acapulco." [268] Bartolome Leonardo de Argensola was born in 1566 of a family of Italian origin, being the second son. Taking orders, he became rector of Villahermosa in 1588, and chaplain to Maria of Austria, the queen, in 1598. After the latter's death he was commissioned by the Conde de Lemos, president of the Council of the Indias, to write a history of the conquest of the Moluccas. He later spent some time in the kingdom of Naples, and about 1618 was made historian of Aragon. He died at Zaragoza in 1631. In addition to the present history, which is noted for its excellent literary style, he wrote _Primera parte de los anales de Aragon_ (Zaragoza, 1630) the continuation of the _Anales of Zurita_. He was also a poet, whose poems are remarkable for their purity of style and loftiness of sentiment; they are published, with those of his elder brother, under the title _Rimas de Lupercio i del doctor Bartolome Leonardo de Argensola_ (Zaragoza, 1634). One of the chief poems is an ode in honor of the church after the battle of Lepanto. [269] The original book contains numerous side notes indicative of the subject matter of the text. We omit such notes in our translated extracts. [270] The above places are identified as follows: Cafa is the modern Kaffa or Theodosia, a Russian seaport on the Black Sea; Trapisonda is either the city or district of Trebizond or Tarabozan (called by the Turks Tarabesoon, and formerly Traplezus); Barcito (misprint for Bareito?), Lepo, and Damasco, are Beirut, Aleppo, and Damascus respectively. [271] Argensola defines this title, which he also spells _sangaje_, as equivalent to "count" or "duke," and says that it may be derived from _senchaq,_ a Turkish word meaning "captain." [272] Argensola gives a description of the clove in book ii, pp. 52-54 of his work.