ender peacefully. The Moro having performed his mission,
and delivered the message of the captain to those in the fort, they
sent back the reply that they did not desire to be friends with the
Spaniards but were eager to fight with them; and with this reply
the Indian aforesaid returned to the captain. On the following day
we went with some four hundred friendly Indians to the fort; and the
captain, advancing within sight of it, addressed them, asking that they
should be friends with the Spaniards and not try to fight with them,
as that would result badly for them. They again declared that they
did not desire this friendship, and began to fire their culverins and
discharge arrows; and in return the soldiers discharged, on all sides,
their arquebuses. But during the whole day we were not able to enter
the fort, for we Spaniards were very few in number; and the heat was
intense, and we had not eaten, although it was near night. The captain,
seeing that he had not accomplished anything, decided to return to
the boats which he had left behind, and on the next morning again to
besiege the fort, and hem them in as closely as possible; and thus he
did. Having come in this manner and having grounded his boats upon a
beach close to the enemy, when these latter saw the determination of
the Spaniards, and that they would not depart under any circumstances
until they had conquered them, they therefore determined to make peace
and become friends. To this end the leaders came out of the fort and
made peace and friendship with the captain, becoming good friends,
which they are up to the present time. They gave him a hundred _tall
[taels]_ of gold, which he divided among his soldiers. From there the
captain went to a rock belonging to another small islet very near to
that of Loban, and lying in the sea at a very short distance from the
said islet. The natives who lived in that island had retired to this
rock to the number of about three hundred warriors. The captain,
having arrived on the same day at about ten o'clock, went around
the rock, and we captured a small boat containing thirty men. Many
volleys from the arquebuses were fired at them during this day;
and on the following morning the soldiers began to make ladders to
scale the rock--whose occupants, when they saw the determination of
the Spaniards, came to terms of peace and friendship, giving another
hundred _tall_ of gold, following the example of those of the other
fort, who