I have sent money and men to Cagayan to fortify your Majesty's fort
there. If the men and assistance which I have asked from Nueva Spaña
are sent to me, I shall not fear all the power of Japon; because,
although there are few troops here, they are all excellent and
well-drilled. Your Majesty may be certain that your vassals here
will maintain what we hold, even to the death, with sword in hand,
doing our duty in your Majesty's service. May our Lord preserve your
royal person, as Christendom has need and your vassals desire. Manila,
June 19, 1597.

_Don Francisco Tello_

As matters of importance arise in this government, it becomes necessary
to give your Majesty an account of such affairs. Yesterday we held
a council of war to consider a petition presented to us by Don Luys
Perez Dasmariñas, relative to an expedition to the island of Hermosa,
and we passed resolutions which your Majesty may examine, if you
be pleased to do so, by means of the report which will accompany
this. Although I ordered with resolution what was to be done, I shall
keep the sounding-lead in my hand until reënforcements and money
arrive from Mexico; for without men nothing can be done. I have sent
to the viceroy for five hundred men.

While the detachment of thirty soldiers under an ensign, ordered
to the assistance of Mindanao, was on its way thither, aboard a
Sangley ship, the Sangleys (who numbered more than forty) mutinied,
and killed twenty-five soldiers and some women, and the rest jumped
overboard. Captain Gregorio de Bargas, who was sailing in that region
with my orders, upon hearing of the matter, attacked and captured the
ship, and killed forty soldiers. Nine who were left alive were brought