The necessary preparations having been made for this expedition, the master-of-camp and the said captain embarked in two of our small ships, with three large pieces of artillery, and accompanied by fourteen or, fifteen ships of the Pintados Indians, our friends, who in their own language are called Viseys. They sailed out of the river of Panay in the year of seventy, above mentioned, on the third of May, the day of Sancta Cruz. I did not take part in this expedition but shall describe literally everything which occurred in it. I have drawn my information from the others who participated in it, and more especially from two of my associates, both of whom went on this expedition, and who are men of great reliability--an advantage, as I have before mentioned. The master-of-camp arrived at the island of Mindoro, the village and port of which had the reputation of being very great and very strong, but which proved to be an exaggeration, for the village is small, containing only about three or four hundred inhabitants. The master-of-camp having arrived, as I have said, at that port, the Indians were drawn up on a declivity before the village, and made signs that they intended to prevent the entrance of the Spaniards. The master-of-camp, with all his soldiers, leaped ashore in front of the village on a little plain, and, approaching the village in a zigzag course, thus attacked it. The gunners who were in the ship were ordered to discharge a cannon in the air when the attack was made, and this was done. The Indians seeing that they intended to enter the village by force, made peace with the master-of-camp, and paid him tribute; and they have remained friends and vassals of the royal Spanish administration up to the present day. This is the port where enter all the passengers who come from the islands of the Pintados and from España to this island of Luzón, where the governor resides. From here the master-of-camp set sail for the island of Luzón, or rather the port and village of Manilla, which was said to be large and very strong. It is but just to say that it is not more than one-tenth as large and as strong as in Nueva España and in other places it is reported to be; and yet, in comparison with the natives of this land, the inhabitants of Manilla were powerful, for they had twelve pieces of small and inferior artillery and a few culverins, with such other weapons as I have already mentioned. This village of Manilla is situated on a tongue of land extending from east to west between the river and the sea, and a fort had been built on the extreme western end of this peninsula at the entrance to the port. The sea makes a very large harbor about thirty leagues in circumference; and bordering upon this harbor are many villages, among which is that of Manilla. [43] Manilla is now a Spanish city, founded in the name of his Majesty by the governor Miguel López de Legazpi. The captain-general and Captain Juan de Sauzedo having arrived in view of this port of Manilla, entered in peace, and under the safe-conduct of two native chiefs of the said village. One of these was called Laya, lately deceased, who died a Christian; the other was called Raxa Solimán. With these two chiefs were drawn up articles of peace, although Raxa Soliman was suspected of lack of good-faith, while Laya was always to be trusted, even until the day of his death. While these peaceful negotiations were in progress between the master-of-camp and the two chiefs above-mentioned, there collected a large number of natives of various classes; and yet there were not so many a» was reported in Nueva España, where it was claimed that there were in all eighty thousand Moros in this village of Manilla, when this event took place. Indeed one should subtract seventy-eight thousand from the eighty thousand mentioned, in order to arrive at the two thousand which there might have been from the said village of Manilla and those in its environs, including the women and children, who were present in great numbers. Now, as I say, these negotiations being in progress, some of the natives desired peace and others war; for indeed the Indians had some pride, and it seemed to them that the Spaniards were very few and could be easily slain, even if only with clubs. Thus it was that, at the end of three days during which these friendly negotiations continued (because it was impossible to come to an agreement, or conclude them), one day at ten o'clock, on the twenty-fourth day of the month of May of the year above mentioned, the Indians, who were in the fort, began to discharge their artillery at two of our ships, which were moored very near by. The master-of-camp was ashore with eighty soldiers, close to this same fort, on a small piece of level ground.