palm-wood, so that there were three dead.  I have already said at the beginning of this relation that the lances of palm-wood are harder than iron.  The fort having been entered, as I have told, the enemy made no resistance after the Spaniards were within.  Whoever was able to flee to save his life fled, and of the Indians there were slain, men and women, four hundred persons.  The rest who had escaped came thereupon, and made terms of peace and friendship.  The fort and all the bamboo thickets surrounding it were destroyed, and the people are today very humble and submissive.  There were found in this fort but four culverins.  Their having artillery, and the source of their knowledge of casting it, I shall state in a few words, for I forgot to do so at the beginning.  According to the natives of the province of Capanpanga and Manilla, there were two Spaniards, from the first fleets which came to this land, who had been captives among them.  One of these was a Fleming, the other a Vizcayan; and from them they learned to cast artillery.  I do not affirm this, although, as I say, the natives make this assertion.  I am inclined rather to the belief that they have learned it from the Moros of Burney, with whom they had dealings.  The fort of Caynta was destroyed, as I have related.  This fort or village was very near a great lake of fresh water located about four leagues from the city of Manylla.  It was reputed to be very large and thickly populated along the shores; but it is not one tenth so thickly populated as they say.  With regard to the lake, I shall state what it is like, for I have gone all around it afoot, and seeing gives authority.  It is more than twelve leagues long and two wide, and is fresh.  Its freshness is caused by the fact that a great number of streams enter it, and only two flow from it; and for this reason also it is very deep, because much water enters and there is but little outflow.  The villages about this lake, containing about twenty-four or twenty-six thousand men, were pacified by the captain Juan de Sauzedo.  From here the latter crossed with sixty men to the opposite coast of this island, in quest of some mines which the natives had told him were very rich and abounding in gold.  The galley was left in the lake above mentioned.  These mines are on the opposite coast of this island, which is the northeastern, and the natives call them the mines of Paracali. [44] When the captain had arrived at the mines with his soldiers, who had suffered much on the march because it was in the wet season, they found them excellent and very rich, and more than thirty or forty estados in depth.  The natives were afraid and did not await the coming of the Spaniards.  Some of the soldiers complained also that the captain conducted himself badly.  And thus they returned having lost by death four soldiers, among whom was the sergeant Juan Ramos, newly come to this land.  I believe, according to reports, that possession of these mines will be taken, and the whole coast thereabout conquered—­for it is a very rich land—­if our Lord will it and give his divine sanction thereto, for here we are gaining little profit.