NAVARRETE, DOMINGO FERNANDEZ, a Spanish missionary, was born at Peñaflor in the first half of the seventeenth century, and was educated at Valladolid as a Dominican. In 1647 he set sail on a mission to the Philippine Islands. There his learning soon recommended him to the post of first professor of theology in the college of Manila. He repaired, however, in 1659 to China, and was busily engaged in the interior of the country studying the Chinese language, manners, and customs, when the jealous natives raised a persecution against the Christian missionaries. Navarrete, along with some of his brethren, was sent a prisoner to Canton; but contriving to escape to Macao, he set sail homewards, and arrived in Europe in 1673. In the same year he paid a visit to Rome, and had an interview with the Pope. His account before the Supreme Pontiff of the state of the Chinese mission was accompanied with a strong protest against the temporizing policy which the Jesuit missionaries used in dealing with the superstitions of the natives. After his return to Spain, Navarrete published his principal work, entitled Tratados, historicos, politicos, eticos, y religiosos de la Monarchia de China, fol., Madrid, 1676. At length, in 1678, he was rewarded for his eminent services by being appointed archbishop of San Domingo in the West Indies. His death happened there in 1689. The sixth book of the above-mentioned work of Navarrete was translated into English under the title of A Collection of Voyages and Travels, fol., Lond. 1704.