d to accompany me on the service of
your Majesty on such an occasion (all at their own cost), as the enemy
was well established at the mouth of the bay, waiting for the ships
of the Chinese and the vessels from Nueva Espana with the silver,
in order to capture them. When the governor saw the state in which
I had put things, and at so little cost to your Majesty's exchequer,
and that the troops with which the expedition must be made would not
do so, or even go in the fleet if I did not go as its leader, and
realized the great importance of promptness, he ordered me in the name
of your Majesty to make the expedition immediately. He told me that in
no other wise on this occasion could I serve your Majesty. I obeyed,
and made ready to go where I was ordered, without seeking any pay of
profit. I spent more than four thousand pesos of my scanty property
to procure the necessaries for the expedition, some reenforcements, an
outfit of arms, and other things. I risked my person, honor, property,
and the support of ten children whom God has given me, and a good wife,
solely for the service of God and your Majesty; for it is certain that
no other interest or profit could take me from my house, where I was
in quiet and safety, since I never sought or asked for this thing.

This resolution was distasteful to the said Don Juan Ronquillo de el
Castillo and his retainers--chief of whom are the factor, Francisco
de las Missas [49] and the licentiate Tellez Almacan, auditor of this
Audiencia. These men quite openly proposed to the governor to give
Don Juan the expedition, as he was the commander of the galleys;
and other things to this purpose, which satisfied the governor but
little. It seemed best to him not to change the design if I should
desire it, or at least should not be burdened by it.

I sailed with the two armed ships in quest of the pirate, from the port
of Cabite, on the twelfth of December. On Thursday, the fourteenth
of the same month, I came to close quarters with him, and the battle
resulted as your Majesty will learn more at length by the relation
which accompanies this.

I took as admiral, by the appointment of the governor, a certain
captain Juan de Alcega, a citizen of this city, and a partisan of
the said Don Juan Ronquillo; he is for this reason a great friend of
the said licentiate Tellez Almacan, the auditor, and likewise because
at the time when he came to this city the latter was hospitable and
kind to him,