Accompanied by the ships necessary for such an expedition, the governor set sail in the year one thousand five hundred and seventy-one, on the day after Easter, taking with him the father provincial, Fray Diego de Herrera, the master-of-camp and all the other captains, and two hundred and thirty arquebusiers.  It was on the twentieth of the month that he set sail, and with fair weather he arrived at the island of Mindoro with his whole fleet of twenty-six or twenty-seven ships, large and small, including both our own and those of the natives who came with us.  He remained on that island fifteen or sixteen days, and from thence set out for the island of Luzon, where we arrived a week later, at the bay which I have before mentioned and on which Manilla is situated.  When the natives knew that the governor had come with his entire force to settle upon their lands, and when they saw him entering the bay, they set fire to their village of Manilla (which they had rebuilt after its burning, a year before, by the master-of-camp); and this time many of the houses were consumed and many remained standing, while the natives crossed to the opposite shore, to the village of Alcandora.  The governor having arrived at the port of Manylla one day in the middle of the month of May, at two o’clock in the afternoon, Alcandora came out in a little boat to welcome him in peace and friendship, and speak to him on behalf of Raxa Soliman and Laya, begging that he would treat them with friendship, and pardon them for having taken up arms the past year against the master-of-camp.  He said that on the following day they would come, under safe conduct from him, to talk with him and make peace.  The governor received him very well, and told him through an interpreter to retire for the night to his house and to come on the next day with the two Raxas, saying that he would make peace with the latter, and would treat them as sons; for he had no ill-feeling toward them, but rather regretted that they had resisted the master-of-camp.  Thus with these assurances, Alcandora took his leave, going to his house greatly pleased.  The next day the governor disembarked in Manilla and the three chiefs came to talk with him and declare themselves his friends.  It should not be understood in Nueva Espana or in Espana that the chiefs in this land are absolute rulers, or that they have great authority or power.  Rather the very opposite is true, for there exist among them the most primitive conditions to be found in any race.  It often befalls that in one village, however small it may be, there are five, six, or ten chiefs, each of whom possesses twenty or thirty slaves, whom he has the power to sell, or treat as he pleases.  Others there are who are called timaguas (that is to say, freemen), over whom the chiefs have no power—­except that the timaguas are under obligation to follow their own chief when war arises between the different factions; and even this service is not compulsory and cannot