Note 122 — The Printing of the Books
Reading edition
“They are so skillful and clever, that, as soon as they see any object made by a Spanish workman, they reproduce it with exactness. What arouses my wonder most is, that when I arrived no Sangley knew how to paint anything; but now they have so perfected themselves in this art that they have produced marvelous works with both the brush and the chisel.... What has pleased all of us here has been the arrival of a bookbinder from Mexico. He brought books with him, set up a bindery, and hired a Sangley who had offered his services to him. The Sangley secretly, and [38] without his master noticing it, watched how the latter bound books, and lo, in less than [lacuna in MS.] he left the house, saying that he wished to serve him no longer, and set up a similar shop.”122