fire on his ship; and with the foresail,
which he had had up all the time, he took flight toward the island
of Luban, where he has not appeared since that day, nor in any other
of the adjacent islands. From this and from the fact that he was so
broken and so stripped of men and without any long-boat, it may be
inferred that he went to the bottom. Some indications of this have
been seen since in the shape of yards and sails, and bodies of the
enemy's men, so that we may presume that it is so.
When the flagship of the fleet on which I was went to the bottom,
there was no shallop or boat to saye the men, because the boats had
been taken by some sailors and soldiers, who to escape the danger, had
gone with them to the aforesaid island of Fortun. Consequently when the
ship sank I was left in the water, and saved myself at the end of four
hours by swimming with great exertion to the island of Fortun, which
was a legua and a half away, against many waves and a high wind. The
same thing was done by two hundred other persons, including Spaniards
and slaves, but the rest drowned and perished, with what was left in
the ship. Then I made haste to take all the people from that island,
because it was without inhabitants and without water, and I started
them on the way to this city. After that I went along the coast to
get information about the enemy which had fled, and in search of the
admiral's ship and of the captured vessel; but I could not find them,
nor could I in the islands of that district, although I searched among
them in light vessels, for they had departed thence. At last, having
heard that they were near Mariveles, I came to claim them, but did
not enter them because your Lordship wrote to me, at just that time,
to come to this city on other business in the service of his Majesty.
Thus that expedition ended. It is true that the desired end was
accomplished--namely, to destroy the aforesaid corsair so that he
should not be able to do the damage which he was doing in this sea,
and to conquer him, which was done. Nevertheless it could have been
accomplished fully without the loss which there was, if my orders
had been followed in the aforesaid fleet, and if there had not been
other transgressions and irregularities--which I should have proceeded
against and executed justice upon if I had had opportunity to return
to the aforesaid fleet, as I tried to do. Since on my part this is
all ended, it remains for your Lordship, a
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