Note 21 — Preface

This cross is still preserved. It was enclosed in an octagonal temple by the Augustinians in the time of the Augustinian bishop of Cebú, Fray Santos Marañón, in order to preserve it from the weather, and from the natives, who, regarding it as miraculous, were accustomed to take splinters from it as relics. The foundation of the enclosure is of stone, and it has a grated window which permits passers-by to see the cross. The latter is wooden, not stone, as Montero y Vidal states in his Historia general, i, p. 17. This is the identical cross erected by Magallanes in 1521.—Coco.