Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 11).djvu/142

he informed them that they would be protected, favored, and upheld in justice, as vassals of his Majesty, and that with this object a garrison had been placed in La Caldera; and that to aid in maintaining it, and in covering the expenses which they had caused in the war by their disobedience, the largest possible quantity of tributes would be collected for his Majesty, and that he would send for them shortly—which had not been done earlier because the Mindanaos had been so spent and afflicted. Having arrived on the second of September at the river of Mindanao, and delivered his despatch, this chief was well received, and found the people in the settled state in which General Don Juan Ronquillo had left them. Adiamora, the main chief of Mindanao, in the name of them all, sent him back on the fifteenth of the said month, offering to give to his Majesty all the tribute which they could collect.

At this time—news from the chief captain of Malaca having reached the governor, to the effect that in the Sunda,^[1] a hundred and fifty leagues from that port, there had been seen a number of English ships, whose designs were not known; and, a little later, word from the commander of the fort of Maluco that there were at Terrenate, within the port, two English ships with four hundred men and fifty pieces of artillery—a council of war was held as to what was best to do. The said council decided to withdraw the garrison from La Caldera to Zibu, so that the enemy should not take that place; and, if they should attempt to do damage to that province, they would find it in a state of defense. Accordingly an order was sent to Captain Toribio de Miranda to withdraw