known as the “Vitoria”—­and with it and a very few of the crew who aided him, arrived, with God’s help, at Sevilla.  Thus they circumnavigated the world, from east to west, an event which caused universal wonder, and especially to the Emperor Carlos the Fifth, our sovereign.  After the latter had bestowed great favors upon Sebastian de Guetaria, he ordered a new fleet to be prepared, to seek those islands anew, and to explore that new world.  As soon as this fleet was in readiness to sail, which was very soon, a certain Villalobos was appointed as general of the entire fleet, and was ordered to sail by way of Nueva Espana.  This Villalobos reached the Malucos Islands, those of Terrenate, and others near by, which had been sold by the above-named emperor to the crown of Portugal.

In these islands they had many wars, because of the Portuguese; and seeing their feeble means of resistance, and how ill-prepared they were to prosecute the conquest, they gave it up.  Most of them accompanied the above-mentioned Portuguese to Portuguese India, whence they were sent, half prisoners, to the king of Portugal himself, as men who had committed crimes, and had entered his islands without his permission.  He not only did them no harm, but gave them excellent treatment, sending them to their native country, Castilla, besides providing them fully with the things necessary for their journey.  Some years after that, King Don Felipe, our sovereign, with the desire to prosecute this discovery, attempted so earnestly by the emperor his father, sent an order to Don Luys de Velasco, his viceroy in Nueva Espana, to prepare a fleet and crew for the rediscovery of the above-named islands.  He was ordered to despatch in this fleet, as governor of everything discovered, Miguel Lopez de Legaspi.  All was carried out in obedience to his Majesty’s orders, and the discovery was made in the manner recounted at length in the first relation of the entrance of the Augustinian fathers into China.

These islands were formerly subject to the king of China, until he relinquished them all voluntarily, for the reasons expressed above in the first part of this history.  The Spaniards, therefore, at their arrival found them without ruler or seignior to whom they might render obedience.  In each one of the islands, he who had most power and followers acted as ruler.  And because there were many equally powerful, there was occasion for continual civil wars, without any heed to nature, or to kindred, or to any other obligation, just as if they were unreasoning animals—­destroying, killing, and capturing one another.  This aided and favored our Spaniards to conquer the land so easily for his Majesty.