[the church of] La Misericordia, [77] praying our Lord for his
health. At his death, they bewailed him with extreme sorrow.

Before dying he saw that his end was near, and accordingly prepared
himself by acts of faith and penitence, receiving the sacraments. He
ordered his body to be embalmed, and taken on the royal galley to
Manila, and thence to Jerez de los Caballeros, [78] where he founded
a convent of discalced Carmelite nuns. In the meanwhile the body
should be deposited in the residence or houses of the Society of
Jesus. Accordingly, in the residence of Malaca they celebrated the
church services for him. At the end of nine days, the body was taken to
the galleys anchored in the strait of Sincapura. There it was received
with a salute on May 2. On the fourth, sail was set toward Manila.

The fleet was composed of ten galleons, four galleys, one patache, and
three frigates. It carried three hundred pieces of artillery, eight
companies of Spanish soldiers, five hundred Japanese, two hundred
volunteers, sixty artillerymen, and two hundred sailors. [Without
signature. [79]]

_Letter from Father Juan de Ribera, [80] rector of the residence of
the Society of Jesus at Manila, in which he gives account of his
voyage to and from India, and of the unfortunate fate of the four
galleons that he took thence._

We set sail at Cabite November twenty-one, the day of the Virgin. In
a fortnight we entered the strait of Sincapura, having followed
the new route, which is called that of China. It is a very wide
channel, some forty or fifty brazas deep. We anchored at Malaca on
Tuesday, December nine, by our account, but on Wednesday by that of
Malaca. We left there on Christmas eve, with favorable weather. In
the neighborhood of Punta de Gale [or Galle], which is located in
Ceylan, we experienced a heavy storm. When that had subsided, the
currents carried us to the islands of Mal-Divar [_i.e._, Maldives],
a voyage from which few emerge in safety. We lost our reckoning,
and were in great need of wood and water. But by God's help, after
having approached one of those islands, our necessity was relieved
by some Malabar pirates for money. We were sailing among that great
forest of islands when we became becalmed, the peril most feared by
pilots. When we were all grieving over that, the chief of the Lascars,
a Moro by nation, and religion, arose. Taking a dish in his hand,
he begged us all for an alms for our Lady of Guadalupe of the