The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 — Volume 02 of 55 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 316 pages of information about The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 — Volume 02 of 55.

The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 — Volume 02 of 55 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 316 pages of information about The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 — Volume 02 of 55.
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
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The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 — Volume 02 of 55 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.