Before passing on to the Dominicans we shall mention briefly the
linguists of the Society of Jesus. In the early days there were not
many Jesuits in the Philippines. However, there were some linguists
among them, chiefly of the Visayan tongue, in which they are said to
have printed a Doctrina [90] as early as 1610. Limiting ourselves to
a note of those who knew Chinese and Tagalog, we find that the first
mentioned by Chirino as an outstanding master of one of these was
Francisco Almerique, who arrived with Santiago de Vera in 1583. Shortly
thereafter he "began the study of the Chinese language in his zeal
to aid in the conversion of the many Chinese who came to Manila and
whom we in the Philippines call Sangleys." [91] And Colin says "his
principal occupation was with the Tagalog Indians, being the first of
the Company to learn their language." [92] Nothing further is said of
his accomplishments in these languages, but his knowledge would have
been available in 1593, for he was then still active in the islands.
Chirino himself landed at Manila in 1590 shortly after Dasmariñas,
and went almost immediately to Taytay where he learned Tagalog and
was joined in 1592 by Martin Henriquez. At the time Juan de Oliver
was preaching in that district, and it is exceedingly probable that
he helped the newcomers with the language, for Chirino speaks of him
in terms of highest praise. Henriquez "learned the language in three
months and in six wrote a catechism in it, a confessionary, and a
book of sermons for all the gospels of the year in the said idiom,"
[93] but he died on February 3, 1593 at Taytay. How thoroughly Chirino
himself had grasped the fundamentals of Tagalog is evident from his
three chapters [94] on the language and letters of the natives in
which he prints the Ave Maria in Tagalog and reproduces the Tagalog
alphabet--its first appearance in a European publication. But Chirino,
who remained in the provinces until 1595, would have mentioned his
participation and that of Henriquez in the Doctrina of 1593, so we
record them as possible but not probable consultants.