Note 1 — Chapter V

After the preaching of the apostle of the Orient, St. Francis Xavier, in these archipelagos, as far as the island of Mindanao and Japon (as has been related already in its place), before the Spaniards were established in these islands, the first fathers of the Society of Jesus reached these islands by way of the west or by the Western Indias, coming with the first bishop of the islands, his Excellency Don Fray Domingo de Salazar, of the Order of Preachers—the city of Manila having been already founded, and that colony established in some fashion—in September of the year 1581. The first founders were the fathers Antonio Sedeño and Alonso Sánchez, together with the lay-brother, Nicholás Gallardo, the student brother, Gaspar de Toledo—a legitimate brother to the illustrious doctor, Father Francisco Suárez—having died on the voyage. For some years those fathers remained without any ministry to the natives which they could permanently carry on, busied only in preaching, hearing confessions, and aiding in what necessity or obedience ordered them. Their first dwelling was in the convent of the seraphic father St. Francis, until they obtained a house of their own in the suburbs of Manila, in the location called Aguio—whence, as facilities and opportunity came, they moved, and established themselves inside the city, in the year 1591. There the Society has the chief residence of St. Ignatius, and a fine church where they exercise to great and continual crowds all the ministries peculiar to their institute. In that residence, there is a pontifical and royal university, of which we shall speak later, together with a royal college of San José,1 and the college of the fathers, established near the royal gate of the city, in which are taught all useful learning and arts, commencing with grammar.