Note 2 — Events in Manila, 1662–63

Vittorio Ricci (Spanish Riccio) was a relative of the noted Jesuit, Mateo Ricci. He made profession as a Dominican in 1635, and was a student and afterward a teacher in the Dominican college at Rome. Meeting there (1643) the noted Fray J. B. Morales, Ricci decided to return with him to the East, and arrived at Manila in 1648. There he ministered to the Chinese for seven years, when he was sent to the China mission. He was much favored by the noted Kue-sing (or Ko-xinga), who obliged him to become his ambassador to Manila (1662). Returning to China, Ricci found that Kue-sing was dead, and persuaded the latter’s officers that it was to their interest to maintain peace and commerce with the Spaniards—for which purpose they sent him again to Manila, as here narrated. In 1664 a persecution arose in China, and the missionaries were summoned to Peking. Fearing to obey, as he had been on Kue-sing’s side, Ricci fled to Formosa, and afterward (March, 1666) returned to Manila—where he was imprisoned for some time. Afterward he held various important offices in his order, and aided in the compilation of Santa Cruz’s continuation of Aduarte’s history. He died at the Parián, February 17, 1685. See Reseña biográfica, ii, pp. 461–464.