[This chapter describes a remarkable comet which was visible in the
islands from the middle of November, 1680, to February 14, 1681;
and relates at much length the condition of the Chinese empire at
that time, and the founding of Augustinian missions therein. Of this
matter, we retain only the description of the comet and its course.]
The frightful comet [was] so large that it extended, like a very
wide belt, from one side of the horizon to the other, with but
little difference [in its breadth], causing in the darkness of
the night nearly as much light as the moon in her quadrature. The
course of this comet was, like those of the planets, a rapid one from
east to west, so that every day it disappeared and was hidden. The
other movement was a retrograde one, so that it moved from west to
east three or four degrees, and sometimes more than five, each day,
at times less. This movement lasted from November 20 until February
14, 1681, in which time it passed through the signs of Virgo, Libra,
Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricornus, Aquarius, Pisces, and Aries--passing
the equator from the south, from the handle of Libra and Ophiuchus
[Serpentario]. It crossed the ecliptic and southern solstice, and
through the constellation Antinous to the tail of the Dolphin, to the
tail of the Little Horse [i.e., Equellus], and the breast of Pegasus,
and thence to the head of Andromeda; and it passed over the equator
at 310° from the point of Aries. Its magnitude was frightful, for
its circumference and head [i.e., of the coma and nucleus] was two
thousand one hundred and four leguas; and its magnitude was equal to
that of Mercury, which is nineteen times larger than the earth. Its
tail reached, on January 8, an extent of seventy-five degrees, which at
its distance made 1,437,919 leguas. It was a celestial comet, and not
elemental; [81] and according to its parallax it was in the celestial
quarter distant from us 1,150 semidiameters or halves of the line
which we regard as crossing the center [82]--which, according to the
measurement of Father José Zaragoza, a distinguished mathematician of
the Society of Jesus, are 1,153,000 leguas, which was its apogee. Its
movement was 7,458 times as swift as the velocity of a cannon-ball
weighing twelve libras, which, according to those who are curious,
travels in each minute, or sixtieth part of an hour, two-thirds of
a legua. This comet was visible throughout the world, giving rise
to much discussion over its effects, which in truth were generally
very evil. On the second of January it passed the parallel of our
zenith. These observations were made by Father Eusebius Kino, [83]
a German, of the Society of Jesus--a mathematician of the university
of Ingolstad, a missionary in California--while he was in Méjico;
and he printed them, with a dedication to our Lady of Guadalupe.