to
be present and continue the expedition, Captain Torivio de Miranda
was sent forward to encourage and animate the troops, under orders
to keep them in his charge; and in case the post should be abandoned,
and a retreat made to Manila, he should detain the troops and return
to Mindanao. The said Captain Toribio de Miranda having arrived at
the island of La Caldera, which lies forty leagues from the river of
Mindanao, there found the whole camp, which was returning from the said
islands. Conformably to the orders which he had, he turned back and
fortified the site where they had first been, which was on the river,
four leagues from the forts of the enemy. Juan Ronquillo, having been
despatched to Mindanao, had taken the camp in his charge, and begun
to achieve some success. He achieved a victory in the battle which
he fought with the Terrenatans, who had entered with eight hundred
men to give aid to the people of Mindanao. Before these successes,
he had written a letter in disparagement of that country (a copy of
which was sent to his Majesty)--on account of which, in a council
of war which had been held, the general Don Juan Ronquillo had been
ordered to make a last effort against the Mindanaos, doing them all
possible damage. He was then to come to the island of La Caldera, and
there build a fort, to be garrisoned with a hundred Spanish soldiers,
with artillery, arms, and munitions; and leave them there as a check
upon Terrenate and Mindanao, in charge of a good soldier, one of the
captains of the camp, and with the rest return to Manila. Although
Don Juan Ronquillo received this order, after having won considerable
victories, he again wrote that he would not abandon that place, even if
such were the order, because it would not be expedient to retire from
the camp and comply with what had been ordered, when he was leaving
the island of Mindanao already pacified--the chiefs, with whom he
had used gentle means, that they might all be more contented, having
again rendered submission to his Majesty; and likewise as the king
of Jolo again rendered obedience and submission. Confiding in this,
Captain Cristoval Villagra, whom Don Juan Ronquillo had appointed
commander of the garrison of La Caldera, had sent thirty soldiers to
the island of Jolo for supplies. They found at this time in Jolo a
Mindanao chief--an uncle of the king of Mindanao, and a brother-in-law
of the king of Jolo--who had been driven out of Mindanao because