[24] For the text of this decree, see p. 137, _ante_.

[25] With this document cf., throughout, the "Relation" by Miguel de
Loarca, in _Vol_. V of this series.

[26] Juan de Plasencia, who entered the Franciscan order in early
youth, came to the Philippine Islands as one of the first missionaries
of that order, in 1577. He was distinguished, in his labors among
the natives, for gathering the converts into reductions (villages in
which they dwelt apart from the heathen, and under the special care
of the missionaries), for establishing numerous primary schools, for
his linguistic abilities--being one of the first to form a grammar and
vocabulary of the Tagal language--and for the ethnological researches
embodied in the memoir which is presented in our text. He died at
Lilio, in the province of La Laguna, in 1590. See account of his life
in Santa Inés's _Crónica_, i, pp. 512-522; and of his writings, _Id_.,
ii, pp. 590, 591.

[27] The betel-nut; see _Vol_. IV, p. 222.

[28] The Aetas, or Negritos, were the primitive inhabitants
of the Philippine Islands; but their origin is not certainly
known. It is perhaps most probable that they came from Papua or New
Guinea. For various opinions on this point, see Zúñiga's _Estadismo_
(Retana's ed.), i, pp. 422-429; Delgado's _Historia general_, part i,
lib. iii, cap. i; and _Report_ of U.S. Philippine Commission, 1900,
iii, pp. 333-335. Invasions of the islands by Indonesian tribes, of
superior strength and culture, drove the Negritos into the forest
and mountain regions of the islands where they dwelt; they still