Works such as Pedro Murillo Velarde’s Historia de la provincial de Philipinas de la Compañia de Jesus (1749), and the multi-volume Historia General de Philipinas by the Augustinian Juan de la Concepción published in 1788, one year before Malaspina’s departure, described local customs, flora and fauna, and the geography and climate of the archipelago, with the aim of bringing science into the service of God. The botanical drawings, detailed annotations, and collections of plant and animal specimens by the Czech Jesuit lay brother Georg Josef Camel, for example, were the first serious inquiry into the botanic and zoologic life found in the Philippine archipelago; and the two-volume Historia of the Visayan peoples, written in 1668 by the Jesuit Ignacio Alcina, was a richly detailed ethnography, the result of a 42-year residency in the Philippines and a strong grasp of local languages.