Note 61 — The Printing of the Books

Juan González de Mendoza, The Historie of the great and mightie kingdom of China ... Translated out of Spanish by R. Parke, London, 1588, p. 138. The original edition of 1585 said he made an “arte y vocabulario.” We must take the phrase “in few daies” in a comparative sense, but that an Augustinian, probably Rada, knew some Chinese as early as July 30, 1574 is shown by a letter from Governor Lavezaris to the King from Manila, sending him “a map of the whole land of China, with an explanation which I had some Chinese interpreters make through the aid of an Augustinian religious who is acquainted with the elements of the Chinese language,” B. & R., III, p. 284, from the original MS. in the A. of I. (67–6–6), Torres, II, no. 1868, p. 10–11. Antonio de León Pinelo, Epitome de la Biblioteca Oriental i Occidental, Nautica i Geographica, Madrid, 1629, p. 31, also records Rada’s Chinese grammar and dictionary. Santiago Vela, VI, pp. 444–60, gives a full history of Rada and his writings. He went to China a second time in May 1576, and in 1578 accompanied La Sande on his expedition to Borneo, dying on the way back to Manila in June of that year.