mez, rector of Maluco. He had gone to India, and returned
with the news of the four Portuguese galleons which were coming to
unite with our ten. As his associate went Father Manuel Ribeyro of
the province of Cochin and its subject. In the ship "San Felipe" was
Father Miguel Ignacio, at present rector of the residence of Zebu,
who, without urging the obligation of his office or the ill-health
that he was enjoying _[la poca salud, que gozaua]_, offered himself
so fervently to the superiors for that perilous mission, that they
had to yield to him. The commander of that ship has declared in his
many letters the talent of the said father as a preacher, and his
opinion of his sanctity; and how great was the esteem of the soldiers
and sailors for the abundant fruit that he had gathered in Cabite by
his apostolic preaching. His associate was Father Melchor de Vera,
[91] who had been in the expedition and victory of the year 10. Of
the other religious orders there were also some prominent members,
divided among the other boats.

That noble fleet could not set sail until the last day of that year of
1615. It had been collected with the intention of going straightway
in search of the enemy in their own forts and the chief stronghold
of Malayo. But as the galleons from India did not arrive, which they
had heard were wintering in Malaca; and knowing that at that time
some ships were generally awaiting in its strait the trading-ships
from China which pass that way, and that some good fortune could be
secured from them: the governor considered it advisable to lay his
course toward Malaca--whence he supposed that after the destruction
of the enemy that he would cause there, and after having joined the
Portuguese galleons, he would go straight to Malayo. It was a well
founded idea, but founded on an uncertain end as are all human ideas
and considerations. For besides that there were then no galleons in
Malaca, because they had been burned in the manner above related,
if the governor had not left these coasts, or at least had he sailed
directly to those of Maluco, and even without leaving the bay of
Manila, he would have had in a short time a victory equal to the
past, and would have destroyed the help that came, because of his
preparations, from Olanda by way of the coasts of Piru and Nueva-Espana
to these islands. For it happened that at the same time that Don Juan
de Silva was going out by way of Miriveles with his fleet, one of the