ained here, however, for five or six months, during which time
the people suffered great distress from the lack of rice in the island,
because of the swarms of locusts which had prevailed for two or three
years. Therefore the father provincial preached to us each day, and
strongly urged the governor, in all his public sermons and private
conversations, that he should depart from this island and not permit
the people to suffer so great distress. Therefore, influenced by
the prayers and warnings of the said father, and because he saw that
there was reason therefor, he decided to sail out of the said river
of Panay with all his fleet and army, to settle the island of Luzon.

Accompanied by the ships necessary for such an expedition, the governor
set sail in the year one thousand five hundred and seventy-one, on
the day after Easter, taking with him the father provincial, Fray
Diego de Herrera, the master-of-camp and all the other captains, and
two hundred and thirty arquebusiers. It was on the twentieth of the
month that he set sail, and with fair weather he arrived at the island
of Mindoro with his whole fleet of twenty-six or twenty-seven ships,
large and small, including both our own and those of the natives who
came with us. He remained on that island fifteen or sixteen days,
and from thence set out for the island of Luzon, where we arrived a
week later, at the bay which I have before mentioned and on which
Manilla is situated. When the natives knew that the governor had
come with his entire force to settle upon their lands, and when they
saw him entering the bay, they set fire to their village of Manilla
(which they had rebuilt after its burning, a year before, by the
master-of-camp); and this time many of the houses were consumed and
many remained standing, while the natives crossed to the opposite
shore, to the village of Alcandora. The governor having arrived at
the port of Manylla one day in the middle of the month of May, at
two o'clock in the afternoon, Alcandora came out in a little boat to
welcome him in peace and friendship, and speak to him on behalf of Raxa
Soliman and Laya, begging that he would treat them with friendship,
and pardon them for having taken up arms the past year against the
master-of-camp. He said that on the following day they would come,
under safe conduct from him, to talk with him and make peace. The
governor received him very well, and told him through an interpreter
to retire for the n