Perhaps Chimalpahin understood much of what he heard mentioned in Spanish churchmen’s circles because he knew some Asians himself: in those years, there were many unfortunate souls from India and the Philippines who were kidnapped, sold in the Manila slave market, then brought to Mexico’s western port of Acapulco. They were called chinos, and many hundreds of them labored in Mexico City as domestic servants. Some even staffed a monastery run by the Dominicans.46
