of Tanay fled at their approach, and the little food
found there was sent to Legazpi; while the two leaders
remained at the island some days in a fruitless endeavor
to make peace and friendship with the natives.
On All Saints’ Day “about the hour of
mass” some twenty houses were burned in the Spanish
settlement, “among others that where the religious
slept, and the hut where mass was said,” and
many goods were burned. “It could not be
proved whether this fire was set, or happened through
carelessness.” It having been discovered
that the inhabitants of Matan and Gavi who would not
make peace with the Spaniards, but were friendly to
the natives of Cebu, came freely to that island, and
even entered the Spanish settlement, the master-of-camp
and Goyti were despatched to Matan to receive the
homage of the chiefs or to make war upon them.
Warned by the natives of Cebu, those of Matan fled.
The invaders burned their village, for which the natives
threatened retaliation, saying they would burn the
houses of the Spanish settlement. Meanwhile the
food problem assumed threatening dimensions, and the
men became discontented and began to grumble because
they were not allowed to take anything from the natives
without pay. “And although the governor
and captains, the religious and other chief persons
... tried to encourage them with good words and promises,”
a mutiny was arranged among certain men, which, “if
God in his infinite mercy had not caused it to be discovered,
might have caused great loss and trouble.”
Certain of the petty officers (some of them foreigners),
and some of the soldiers and servants, conspired to
seize the “San Juan,” and, making first
a cruise through the islands, to seize “the
junks of Borneo, Luzon, and Venduro, trading among
these islands.” Then they planned their
course by way of the Strait of Magellan to New Spain,
Guatemala, or Peru, or to Spain or France. If
the weather were contrary then “they would go
to Malaca, where the Portuguese would receive them
with open arms ... because they had fled from this
camp and settlement.” All officers had been
selected. The mutiny had every appearance of succeeding,
for the master of the “San Pablo” had
in his care all the artillery, powder, and ammunition
aboard the ship. The twenty-seventh of November
was set for their desertion, and to avoid pursuit
the “San Pablo” and the frigates that
had been built were to be sunk. The date, for
some unknown reason, was postponed until the twenty-eighth.
On that day the master of the “San Pablo”
divulged the conspiracy to the master-of-camp, who
immediately informed Legazpi. Pablos Hernandez,
a native of Venice, the head of the conspiracy, fled,
first making an ineffectual attempt to assume the
ecclesiastical garb, in order that he might escape
with his life. Finally “he determined to
die as a Christian, in order that his soul might not
be lost;” he gave himself up, and was hanged.
The French pilot Pierres Plin, and a Greek were also
hanged. The others were pardoned after being