he vessels. Even if they were not divided, I should have tried
my fortune with him, but having made all preparations and efforts,
and issued proclamations to assemble the Spaniards who could be found
for this purpose, those who gathered in Cavite, aside from the paid
soldiers, would not number seventy; nor were there more than four
hundred soldiers outside of the maimed and sick, and one company and
a detachment from another--amounting to about a hundred men, more
or less, who remained in this city, prepared also to embark. These
had been brought as detachments of the companies from Nueva Segovia,
Cibu, and Oton--all of which will appear by the depositions of paid
officers and the secretary of the governor, which accompany this, with
the papers referring to the above mentioned matter. [_In the margin_:
"The matters contained in this clause are the concern of the Junta,
and have been examined there." "Examined; the Junta is taking care to
send reenforcements; and let him be careful to maintain what he has
there in so good condition as may serve for whatever occasion may
arise there, as is expected from him. Have a letter written to the
viceroy of Nueva Espana, telling him to send all the best part of
the troops which he can, considering that the governor writes that
in past years so few troops have gone there that he is now almost
without any in the service; and accordingly he should decree that it
be such which he sends. Advise Don Alonso of what is written to the
viceroy of Nueva Espana."]

The reason for there being so few troops is, that after the year one
thousand six hundred and sixteen, when a ship called the "Angel de la
Guarda" came, in the following year, sixteen hundred and seventeen,
there came no reenforcements of infantry, but only a patache called
the "Sant Geronimo," with the archbishop Don Fray Miguel Garcia,
and a number of friars; and in that year there died in the engagement
which Don Juan Ronquillo had with the enemy, and were drowned in the
six galleons, more Spaniards than I brought in the year one thousand
six hundred and eighteen. Since my arrival I have sent almost four
hundred soldiers to Terrenate, and this number has not come in the two
reenforcements from Nueva Espana which arrived in the past years of
nineteen and twenty. Then besides these--and a number who have left
with good cause and permission (although these are few), and others
who have managed to flee without permission, and others