for their shirts, shoes, and hose but ill sufficed them, and their
food was only a dish of rice with nothing else--even at such a time,
I conquered the island; for we may say that it is already conquered,
as the larger part pays or gives tribute; and I hope, God willing, that
a year from now the whole island will pay us. All this occurred in the
midst of the winter, in water waist-deep, with no change of clothing,
and the men weary from head to foot. What I think most of is, that I
kept the men free from discontent, which seems almost a miracle. And
when it was understood that I must depart for lack of supplies, I put
in the warehouse eight hundred sestos of rice of forty gantas each;
and I supplied almost the whole camp for a month and a half with the
crops; the Spaniards and Indians brought in food enough for another
month, and the friendly Indians did the same. Much more than what was
gathered was destroyed and ruined, as it was not the harvest season.

On all these occasions soldiers and captains worked so gallantly that I
have never before so much regretted being poor, since I cannot provide
them with some little part of all that they deserve. The sargento-mayor
and Captain Juan de Valencia arrived on the twenty-eighth of the last
month in a fragata, in which they had been despatched from that city
to Butuan. They brought a thousand sestos of rice and some fish,
wine, and some clothing which Captain Guenca gave them in Zebu,
together with other articles. Very luckily they were retarded, as I
had also been, so that they did not arrive earlier; for if they had
been twenty days earlier the enemy would have taken them without fail.

The friendly natives were so alarmed at this that even those from the
village of Tanpaca, who are near to this fort, withdrew their goods to
the tingues, and did not feel safe. They thought that we were dead,
and told us to eat, for we must soon kill the Terrenatans. It is