had expressed an intention of sending to the Emperor, they accepted the
invitation. A party of thirty-four accordingly landed, but as they were
proceeding to the Rajah's palace, two of their number, Juan Carvalho and
Sebastian del Cano, pilots, suspecting from certain signs that something
was amiss, returned to the boats and pulled back to the ships.

Scarcely had they got on board when fearful shrieks and shouts and
clashing of arms were heard, as if men were engaged in desperate fight,
and they saw several of their companions come rushing down towards the
shore.

They immediately brought the broadsides of the ships to bear on the
town, and began firing their guns in the hopes of driving back the
savages. The fugitives were quickly overtaken. Some were struck down;
others were seized, among whom was Don Juan Serrano. He was dragged,
bound hand and foot, to the water's edge. He shouted to his countrymen
to desist from firing and to rescue him. The natives told him that he
should be delivered up if the Spaniards would supply them with artillery
and ammunition. This they would have done, but the cunning savages
first wished to get the guns into their hands, hoping afterwards to
obtain possession of the ships.

Carvalho and the remainder of the crews suspecting this, weighed their
anchors ready to put to sea. Serrano, on observing what they were
about, threw himself on his knees, entreating them not to leave him in
the hands of the treacherous savages. Finding, on mustering their
forces, that only eighty men now remained, and fearing that should they
continue longer they themselves would lose their lives, they refused to
listen to his entreaties, and loosing the sails, they stood away from
the shore, thus leaving to a cruel fate their talented captain, the best
seaman among them, who, had he been saved, would undoubtedly have proved
of the greatest advantage to the expedition. What ultimately became of
him was never known. Many years afterwards, it was reported that eight
Spaniards had been sold as slaves by the Rajah of Zebut to the Chinese.
The two ships, now commanded by Carvalho, proceeded on their way to the
Moluccas. On reaching the island of Bohol, as their numbers had been
greatly reduced by sickness and the loss of men at Matan and Zebut, they
shifted the guns and stores of the _Conception_ into the two other
ships, and then burned her.

Touching at the island of Mindanao, they met with a friendly