the sides of the ships.” [50] The vessels having anchored in a small cove for the purpose of refilling the water-butts, the natives showed hostility, discharging showers of stones from two sides, wounding some of the Spaniards, among others Captain Juan de la Isla, whereat the master-of-camp was sent ashore to remonstrate.  The natives, in consequence, promised to keep the peace.  Repeated experiences proved that no confidence could be placed in these people; for they broke their word as soon as given.  Legazpi took possession of this island “in the name of his majesty”; and the religious disembarked to say mass, and celebrated divine worship. [51] Several natives were captured and held as hostages, being well treated in each case.  One escaped, although his legs were fettered with irons, by swimming; one hanged himself, and the others were set free.  Urdaneta proposed that a settlement be made in this island, and a vessel despatched to New Spain, but Legazpi said this would be acting contrary to his instructions.  Before leaving the island, however, a hundred men under the command of Mateo del Saz landed to inflict chastisement for the death of a ship-boy whom the natives, finding him asleep in a palm grove, whither he had gone while the water-butts were being refilled, had killed in a most barbarous manner.  Four of the natives were captured, three of whom (all wounded) were hanged at the same place where the boy had been killed; and the other was, through the intervention of the priests, taken aboard the ship, in order to send him to New Spain.  Many houses were burned, a damage, “which, although slight, was some punishment for so great baseness and treachery as they had displayed toward us, ... and was done, so that when Spaniards, vassals of his majesty, anchor there another time, the natives shall give them a better reception, and maintain more steadfastly the friendship made with them.”  “This island of Goam is high and mountainous, and throughout, even to its seacoast, is filled with groves of cocoa-palms and other trees, and thickly inhabited.  Even in the valleys, where there are rivers, it is inhabited.  It has many fields sown with rice, and abundance of yams, sweet potatoes, sugar cane, and bananas—­these last the best I have seen, being in smell and taste far ahead of those of Nueva Espana.  This same island has also much ginger, and specimens of sulphurous rock were found.”  The island had “no wild or tame cattle, nor any birds, except some little turtle-doves that are kept in cages.”  The natives captured would not eat the meat offered them, nor “would they at first eat anything of ours.”  The natives were skilful fishermen, being able to catch the fish with the naked hands, “which is a thing of great wonder.”  “They are excellent swimmers.  Their houses are high, and neatly and well made”—­some, placed on posts of stone, served as sleeping-apartments; other houses were built on the ground, and in them the cooking and other work was done.  They had other large buildings