ps
could be gathered together in a land so recently conquered and peopled
with Spaniards, and the most remote and distant in all the Spanish
monarchy. It was the peculiar offspring of the magnanimous courage,
valor, and energy (never sufficiently praised) of Governor Don Juan
de Silva. It consisted of ten galleons, four galleys, one patache,
and other smaller craft: the flagship of the galleons, called "La
Salvadora," of two thousand tons burden; the almiranta, by name
"San Marcos," of one thousand seven hundred; "San Juan Bautista,"
and the "Espiritu Santo," of one thousand three hundred; "San Miguel"
and "San Felipe," of eight hundred; "Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe,"
and "Santiago," one hundred less; "San Andres," five hundred; and
"San Lorenco" (the smallest one), four hundred. The galleys were all
under the advocacy and name of the Virgin Mary, our Lady. Those craft
were armed and equipped with five thousand men, two thousand, or a
few less, being Spaniards; three hundred pieces of artillery--the
flagship alone carrying forty-six (the smallest of eighteen, while
the majority of them were twenty-two libras' caliber, and some were
thirty), and all were bronze, and it carried nine hundred men;
the almiranta seven hundred men, and thirty-two pieces; and the
other vessels in proportion. Of powder, they carried four thousand
five hundred arrobas; of biscuits, five thousand; of clean rice,
three thousand fanegas; and so on, in all the other war-supplies,
ammunition, and food. All this was at the king's account, not to
mention the private persons who embarked.

Among the other precautions that the governor took in order to
accomplish a successful result was one, namely, to ask the provincials
of the orders and their religious to aid--the one with their prayers
and continual sacrifices in their convents; and the other by religious
who were priests, to act as chaplains of the vessels. Six fell to
the share of the Society, two of whom embarked in the flagship,
in which were the chief Japanese of a company of that nation which
had been raised to serve as volunteers on that expedition, through
the vigilance of Father Garcia Garces, [90] a Castilian, one of the
exiles, whom the governor esteemed highly. Accordingly, the latter
ordered that the father should embark on the flagship, and with
him another religious of the Japanese nation, a person respected
because of his worth. In the galleon "San Juan Bautista" was Father
Pedro Go