[267] Acosta in his _History of the Indies_ (Hakluyt Soc. edition,
London, 1880) says of the courses between the Philippines and New
Spain: "The like discourse is of the Navigation made into the South
sea, going from New Spaine or Peru to the Philippines or China, and
returning from the Philippines or China to New Spaine, the which is
easie, for that they saile alwaies from East to West neere the line,
where they finde the Easterly windes to blow in their poope. In the
yeere 1584, there went a shippe from Callao in Lima to the Philippines,
which sailed 2000 and 700 leagues without sight of land, and the
first it discovered was the Iland of Lusson, where they tooke port,
having performed their voiage in two moneths, without want of winde or
any torment, and their course was almost continually vnder the line;
... The returne is like vnto the voiage from the Indies vnto Spaine,
for those which returne from the Philippines or China to Mexico,
to the end they may recover the Westerne windes, they mount a great
height, vntill they come right against the Ilands of Iappon, and,
discovering the Caliphornes, they returne by the coast of New Spaine
to the port of Acapulco."

[268] Bartolomé Leonardo de Argensola was born in 1566 of a family
of Italian origin, being the second son. Taking orders, he became
rector of Villahermosa in 1588, and chaplain to Maria of Austria,
the queen, in 1598. After the latter's death he was commissioned by
the Conde de Lemos, president of the Council of the Indias, to write
a history of the conquest of the Moluccas. He later spent some time in
the kingdom of Naples, and about 1618 was made historian of Aragón. He
died at Zaragoza in 1631. In addition to the present history, which
is noted for its excellent literary style, he wrote _Primera parte
de los anales de Aragón_ (Zaragoza, 1630) the continuation of the