History of the Philippine Islands, vols 1 and 2 | Page 4

to Manila, and the machinations of Juan de la Xara to carry on the expedition independently of Manila learned. His death shortly after arrest, while on his way to Oton to push his suit with Rodriguez's widow, frustrates his plans. Juan Ronquillo is sent to Mindanao and takes over the command there, but being discouraged by the outlook advises an evacuation of the river of Mindanao and the fortifying of La Caldera, on the Mindanao coast. However he gains a complete victory over the combined forces of Mindanaos and Ternatans, which causes him to send another despatch to Tello. But the latter's reply to the first despatch having been received, in accordance with its orders he burns his fort, and after establishing a garrison at La Caldera, returns to Manila with the rest of his command. There he is arrested for not awaiting Tello's second despatch, but is liberated on producing a letter ordering him in any event to return to Manila. Gallinato, on his return from Cochinchina is accused by his own men of not following up the victory at Camboja, for had he done so, "all that had been hoped in that kingdom would have been attained." An incipient rebellion in Cagayan is checked by the murder of its leader by his own countrymen "who had offered to do it for a reward." In the year 1596, the remnants of Alvaro de Menda?a de Neira's expedition that had set out from Peru to rediscover the Solomon Islands reaches the Philippines after great sufferings from famine and disease, and after the death of many men, among them the commander himself. The voyage is related in detail in a letter from the chief pilot, Pedro Fernandez de Quiros to Morga; it is full of stirring adventure, and of keen and appreciative observation. One of the vessels, the "San Geronymo" despatched to Nueva Espa?a in 1596, is forced to put in at a Japanese port because of storms. There they receive ill-treatment, and the efforts of the Franciscan missionaries in Japan in their behalf lead to the edict sentencing them to death, in accordance with which six Franciscans, three Jesuits, and seventeen native helpers are crucified in 1597. Taicosama's wrath, intensified by the accusation that the Spaniards conquered kingdoms "by first sending their religious to the kingdom" and by entering afterward "with their arms," is satisfied by the crucifixion of the religious and their assistants, and the men of the "San Geronymo" are allowed to return to Manila. The religious write a letter of farewell to Dr. Morga, in which they inform him that Japan intends to attack the Philippines. Luis Navarrete Fajardo is sent to Japan to demand satisfaction, but accomplishes little. Faranda Quiemon, one of Taicosama's vassals, a man of obscure birth, obtaining permission to make an expedition of conquest, sets about his preparations, but owing to lack of resources and initiative fails to complete them. Meanwhile great caution is exercised in Manila, and the Japanese residing there are sent back to Japan, while those coming on trading vessels are well treated but gotten rid of as soon as possible. Cambodian affairs are again set on foot, although against the advice of some, through the instrumentality of Father Alonso Ximenez, a Dominican who had accompanied Gallinato on the former expedition, but who had been left behind at Cochinchina through his own disobedience of orders. Affairs in Mindanao and Jolo assume a threatening aspect. One Juan Pacho, commander of La Caldera, is killed in an incursion into Jolo with twenty of his men, and a new commander of La Caldera is appointed until a punitive expedition can be undertaken. In 1598 the archbishop arrives, and the Manila Audiencia is re?stablished by royal order, and the seal received with great pomp and ceremony. A letter received that same year by Morga from Blas Ruiz details events in Camboja since he and Belloso went there with Gallinato's expedition. Blas Ruiz seeks to excuse their actions in Camboja and holds out the hope of Spanish conquest and influence on the mainland, and asks help from the islands. As a consequence of this letter, Luis Perez Dasmari?as secures permission to attempt an expedition to the mainland at his own expense to aid the king of Camboja and then to seize the kingdom of Champan, whose king was a constant menace to all navigators throughout that region. Negotiations with China and the granting of an open port to Spaniards called El Pinal, are opened and secured through the efforts of Juan de Zamudio who is sent to China for saltpeter and metals, although with great and vindictive opposition from the Portuguese, who fear the loss of their own trade at Macao. At El Pinal the survivors of two of Luis Perez's three ships meet with