LITMIR.BIZ

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lawful king, it was decided to go down to Camboja. Prauncar, his grandmother, aunt, and stepmother—he wife of Langara—together with Diego Belloso and Blas Ruyz, embarked and journeyed in the said boats and praus down the rivers flowing from Lao to Camboja. [55] There they found fresh disturbances in the provinces. But as soon as Prauncar arrived many went over to his side, especially two Moro Malays, Acuña La Casamana [56] and Cancona, who were in the country with a Malay army and a quantity of artillery and elephants. Prauncar was victorious on various occasions, and Chupinanu with his brothers and other rebels having died in battle, became master of almost all the provinces of his kingdom. He made Diego Belloso and Blas Ruyz chiefs in war affairs, and they managed war matters until they completely established Prauncar on the throne. When the war was almost entirely ended, the king made Belloso and Blas Ruyz great chofas [57] of his kingdom, gave them two provinces, and granted them other favors, although not so many as they expected, or as he had promised while still in Lao. The chief reason for this was the stepmother, grandmother, and aunt of the king, who managed him, on account of his youth, and of his being addicted to wine, in excess even of his father Langara. The Moro Malay, Acuña Lacasamana, had great influence with these women. Being envious of the valor of the Spaniards, he was continually opposing them, and seeking their destruction, with whom, on this account, they were always at odds. It must be understood that this Moro held unlawful relations with the wife of Langara, the stepmother of King Prauncar.

      Captain Gallinato's fleet remained in Cochinchina negotiating with the king of Tunquin for the royal standard and the artillery of the galley, as above stated, for the galley was lost upon that coast, and this king had the rest in his possession. The latter not only did not restore them, but entertaining Gallinato with flattering speech, was, on the contrary, planning to take from him his ships and their contents. Gallinato was secretly warned of this by one of the chief women of Cochinchina, who came to the fleet to see him, after which he kept a much more careful watch than before, and allowed no one to go ashore. But this order was of no avail with Fray Alonso Ximenez, one of the Dominican religious whom he had with him, and the chief promoter of the expedition. When the latter went ashore, they seized and kept him there. The Cochinchinese, imagining that the fleet was off its guard, sent some fire ships against it, followed by some galleys and warboats, in order to burn it, while many men armed with arquebuses annoyed the Spaniards from the neighboring shore. The fleet succeeded in getting away from the fire and put off from shore, and resisted the enemy's ships with artillery, musketry, and arquebuses, thus sinking some of them. After this the Spaniards waited no longer, but leaving Fray Alonso Ximenez on shore, and two lay companions, whom he took with him, put to sea and left the bay of Cochinchina, and ran toward the Filipinas.

      While these things were happening in Camboja and Cochinchina, orders had arrived from España from his Majesty to conclude an agreement that Captain Estevan Rodriguez de Figueroa had made with Gomez Perez Dasmariñas, under which the former was to pacify and settle the island of Mindanao at his own expense, and receive the governorship of the island for two lives [58] and other rewards. The said agreement was effected, after certain difficulties that arose were settled. Don Estevan Rodriguez prepared men and ships, and what else was necessary for the enterprise, and with some galleys, galleots, frigates, vireys, barangays, and lapis, [59] set out with two hundred and fourteen Spaniards for the island of Mindanao, in February of the same year, of ninety-six. He took Captain Juan de la Xara as his master-of-camp, and some religious of the Society of Jesus to give instruction, as well as many natives for the service of the camp and fleet.

      He reached Mindanao River, after a good voyage, where the first settlements, named Tancapan and Lumaguan, both hostile to the people of Buhahayen, received him peacefully and in a friendly manner, and joined his fleet. They were altogether about six thousand men. Without delay they advanced about eight leguas farther up the river against Buhahayen, the principal settlement of the island, where its greatest chief had fortified himself on many sides. Arrived at the settlement, the fleet cast anchor, and immediately landed a large proportion of the troops with their arms. But before reaching the houses and fort, and while going through some thickets [çacatal] [60] near the shore, they encountered some of the men of Buhahayen, who were coming to meet them with their campilans, carazas [61] and other weapons, and who attacked them on various sides. The latter [i.e., the Spaniards and their allies], on account of the swampiness of the place and the denseness of the thickets [çacatal], could not act unitedly as the occasion demanded, although the master-of-camp and the captains that led them exerted themselves to keep the troops together and to encourage them to face the natives. Meanwhile Governor Estevan Rodriguez de Figueroa was watching events from his flagship, but not being able to endure the confusion of his men, seized his weapons and hastened ashore with three or four companions, and a servant who carried his helmet, in order that he might be less impeded in his movements. But as he was crossing a part of the thickets [çacatal] where the fight was waging, a hostile Indian stepped out unseen from one side, and dealt the governor a blow on the head with his campilan, that stretched him on the ground badly wounded. [62] The governor's followers cut the Mindanao to pieces and carried the governor back to the camp. Shortly after, the master-of-camp, Juan de la Xara, withdrew his troops to the fleet, leaving behind several Spaniards who had fallen in the encounter. The governor did not regain consciousness, for the wound was very severe, and died next day. The fleet after that loss and failure left that place, and descended the river to Tampacan, where it anchored among the friendly inhabitants and their settlements.

      The master-of-camp, Juan de la Xara, had himself chosen by the fleet as successor in the government and enterprise. He built a fort with arigues and palms near Tampacan, and founded a Spanish settlement to which he gave the name of Murcia. He began to make what arrangements he deemed best, in order to establish himself and run things independently of, and without acknowledging the governor of Manila, without whose intervention and assistance this enterprise could not be continued.

      Of the administration of Don Francisco Tello, and of the second establishment of the Audiencia of Manila; and of occurrences during the period of this administration.

      CHAPTER SIXTH

      Governor Don Luis Dasmariñas was awaiting news from Captain Juan Xuarez Gallinato, and from Governor Estevan Rodriguez de Figueroa concerning the voyage which each had made at the beginning of the year ninety-six, to Camboja and to Mindanao, when news reached Manila, in the month of June, that two ships had entered the islands by the channel of Espiritu Santo, and that they brought a new governor sent from España, namely, Don Francisco Tello de Guzman, knight of the Order of Sanctiago, a native of Sevilla, and treasurer of the India House of Trade. He arrived at Manila in the beginning of July and entered upon his office. It was also learned that Fray Ygnacio Sanctivañez, of the Order of St. Francis, a native of Sanctivañez, in the province of Burgos, had been nominated in Nueva España as archbishop of Manila, for Bishop Fray Domingo de Salazar had died in Madrid; and that Fray Miguel de Venavides, a native of Carrion and a religious of the Order of St. Dominic, who had gone to España with Bishop Fray Domingo de Salazar, had been appointed bishop of the city of Segovia in the province of Cagayan; also that Fray Pedro de Agurto, of the Order of St. Augustine, a native of Mexico, had been appointed in Mexico, bishop of the city of Sanctisimo Nombre de Jesus, and that these two bishops with another for the city of Caceres, in the province of Camarines, who was not yet named, had been lately added to the Filipinas and appointed as suffragans to the archbishop of Manila, at the instance of Bishop Fray Domingo. Also it was learned that the Audiencia which had been suppressed in Manila was to be reëstablished there, as well as other things which the bishop had presented at court.

      Shortly after Don Francisco Tello had taken over the governorship, news was brought of the death of Estevan Rodriguez de Figueroa in Mindanao, by Brother Gaspar Gomez of the Society of Jesus. The latter brought the body for burial in the college of Manila, of which Don Estevan was patron. Juan de la Xara wrote that he had charge of affairs, that he had settled in Tampacan, that he intended to continue the pacification and conquest of the island as should seem most advisable, and that reënforcements of men and other things should be sent him. It was learned that he intended to make an ill use of the government, and would not remain dependent on, and subordinate to, the governor of the Filipinas; and that he was depriving the heirs of Estevan Rodriguez of what lawfully belonged to them. It was learned that, in order to make himself

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