"Moreover in this year [1581] the ministry for the Sangleys
was founded in the convent of Tondo, and P. Fr. Diego Muñoz
was named as its special minister. He devoted particular
zeal to the study of the Chinese language, and preached in
it with much elegance. And all the Sangleys who were going
to be baptized, and there were many, had recourse to this
ministry, and the teaching was continued with much vigilance
and care. And there never lacked a religious of our order
to apply himself to such holy work, from the time we came to
this land, as our original records of the province prove." [73]


To him is also attributed [74] a volume of manuscript panegyric sermons
in Tagalog, and because of this and his work at Tondo he may have
been consulted by the Dominicans. We also mention Lorenzo de León,
[75] who arrived in 1582, spent twelve years in the provinces, wrote
a book called the _Estrella del mar_ in Tagalog, and died in 1623,
and might also have helped.




THE FRANCISCANS


Although the first Franciscans did not arrive in the Philippines
until June 24, 1577, the writings of the linguists of that order
are more fully recorded. Among the earliest was Juan de Plasencia
who, the Franciscans claim, wrote the first Tagalog grammar. He was