had shared the same fate. The master-of-camp
having returned meanwhile, Legazpi sent a reenforcement
of thirty men to Goyti with orders to explore the
strait between Abuyo and Tandaya. At the mouth
of this strait, news was had of a Christian “named
Juanes, who had lived with the Indians for more than
twenty years, and had married the daughter of a chief,
and that he was painted like the other natives.”
Although an effort was made to obtain definite news
in regard to this man, it was unsuccessful; and Goyti,
falling ill of fever, was obliged to return without
ransoming him. He brought as captives two chiefs
whom he caused to be seized. While the camp was
weakened by the absence of so many men on these expeditions,
the malcontents at the settlement took occasion to
attempt another mutiny. The ringleader was a certain
soldier named Carrion, who had been pardoned by Legazpi
after being “condemned to death by the master-of-camp
for a certain crime.” He was exposed by
a Frenchman, who, like Carrion, had been implicated
in the previous mutiny. It was planned to get
to the Moluccas, “where they would receive all
courtesy.” A boat was to be seized from
certain Moros of Luzon, and other depredations, to
ensure sufficient food, etc., were to be committed.
Carrion and one other were hanged. The former
“knew but little, but presumed to know it all,
and talked too much, so that the majority of his acquaintances
shunned his conversation.” The master-of-camp
was sent with a number of men to attempt the ransom
of Juanes from the natives, with orders to stop on
the way at Eleyti to ascertain the cause of the delay
of a certain Pedro de Herrera who had been sent thither
to obtain resin for pitching the ships. When
this latter returned he bore a letter from the master-of-camp
to the effect that Herrera had gone beyond his instructions.
The latter was thereupon arrested and tried.
This man brought news of three Spaniards who were
held in the island of Tandaya who had been captured
from a vessel within fourteen or fifteen months.
Legazpi immediately sent this information to the master-of-camp,
in order that he might ransom those men as well as
Juanes, but the messengers failed to find that officer.
Juanes proved to be not a Spaniard, but a Mexican Indian
who had accompanied Villalobos. This Indian declared
the three men to be of the same expedition, and Herrera
had made a mistake in the time, which should be years,
not months. The men despatched under Juan de la
Isla to take the information of Herrera to the master-of-camp,
fell in with the ship “San Geronimo,”
which had been sent from New Spain with aid to Legazpi.
The ship itself arrived at Cebu on October 15, 1566,
with a doleful story of “bad management, mutinies,
want of harmony, deaths, hardships, and calamities.”
The captain, by name Pericon, was not a suitable officer
for such a voyage, setting sail from “Acapulco
with more haste and less prudence than was needful.”
A conspiracy to mutiny was formed under the leadership