Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 11).djvu/183

which the ship was taking in increased so that all at once the ship sank.

When the enemy saw himself alone, with the few men that he had, he hastily began to put out the fire on his ship; and with the foresail, which he had had up all the time, he took flight toward the island of Luban, where he has not appeared since that day, nor in any other of the adjacent islands. From this and from the fact that he was so broken and so stripped of men and without any long-boat, it may be inferred that he went to the bottom. Some indications of this have been seen since in the shape of yards and sails, and bodies of the enemy's men, so that we may presume that it is so.

When the flagship of the fleet on which I was went to the bottom, there was no shallop or boat to save the men, because the boats had been taken by some sailors and soldiers, who, to escape the danger, had gone with them to the aforesaid island of Fortun. Consequently when the ship sank I was left in the water, and saved myself at the end of four hours by swimming with great exertion to the island of Fortun, which was a legua and a half away, against many waves and a high wind. The same thing was done by two hundred other persons, including Spaniards and slaves, but the rest drowned and perished, with what was left in the ship. Then I made haste to take all the people from that island, because it was without inhabitants and without water, and I started them on the way to this city. After that I went along the coast to get information about the enemy which had fled, and in search of the admiral's ship and of the captured vessel; but I could not find them, nor could I in the islands of that district, although I