The present volume contains no record of events in the year 1640; but its two documents are retrospective from that date. The first, an historical survey of Philippine commerce with Nueva España, from its beginning until 1640, is taken from the Extracto historial (Madrid, 1736), a work devoted to that subject and compiled by order of the Spanish government. The second is Aduarte’s noted history of the Dominican missions in the Philippines; although much of it is briefly synopsized, its great length permits us only to begin it here, two more volumes being necessary to complete it.
