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(Relacion de las Islas Filipinas by Father Pedro Chirino)
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<p>
The <i>Relacion de las Islas Filipinas</i> was mainly intended as a history of the missions in the islands conducted by the Jesuits, which begun in 1581.  Chirino gave a full and detailed account of the missions from that time until his departure in 1602.  He narrates many things of interest and importance regarding the people, their customs and character, their language and state of civilization, their religious beliefs and worship, and the results of missionary labors and influence upon them. 
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Much of this information is of special value as one of the earliest records regarding the Filipino peoples in their primitive condition, before they had had much contact with the white men; for the Jesuits went even beyond the outposts of Spanish civilization, among tribes who sometimes had never seen white men before.  
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Chirino also recorded the transition of Filipino writing from the Baybayin script to the Latin alphabet.
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Chirino was born in 1557 in Osuna of Andalucia. He graduated in both civil and canon law at Sevilla, and entered the Society of Jesus at the age of 23.  Having been appointed to the mission in the Filipinas in place of Father Alonso Sanchez, he arrived in Manila in 1590 together with the new governor, Gomez Perez Dasmariñas. 
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He acted as missionary to the Tagalogs and the Pintados, and was superior of the Jesuit colleges at Manila and Cebu.
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September 16, 1635: Father Pedro Chirino died in Manila