Letter from Santiago de Vera to Felipe II

Sire: 

This past year of eighty-eight I gave an account to your Majesty of the condition of this land.  As the voyage is so full of sea-perils and danger from corsairs, and it is difficult for the despatches to reach the hands of your Majesty, the duplicate of that letter accompanies this.  Therein is declared the extreme need of the islands for reenforcements of troops and necessary supplies for the camp, and other things, of which I gave an account to your Majesty.  They are most important to the royal service and the preservation of this land.  I beseech your Majesty to have provision made with all possible expedition.

A small ship leaving this port for the city of Malaca carried two descalced religious of the order of St. Francis.  As the king of Burney was at peace with us, they stopped at the port of Mohala which is two leagues from Burney.  They visited the king, to whom they gave my letters, and were well received by him.  He commanded houses to be given them and everything necessary to assure their sustenance.  One night many people of that kingdom attacked them, among whom, it is said, there were a brother and other kinsmen of the king.  They killed three Spaniards, among them one of the religious, and robbed them of all their possessions.  From those who escaped I learned that the assaulting party were people well known in Burney, and that the spoils were sold publicly in that city.  Some articles were seen in the possession of the king’s kinsmen.  I learned that some chiefs of these islands had intrigued with that people to secure their aid; and that they had plotted together to do this, and had agreed to bring Burney and the kings of Jolo and of Mindanao, and many other foreigners against this city, in order to rob and kill us.  As there was a Japanese ship here, they conferred with the captain, and with people who came from that land, all Japanese, proposing that the latter should aid them with what they had, and with supplies and everything necessary, and thus deliver to them this land, in accordance with the plan and arrangements previously agreed upon.  So well did they keep this secret, during fifteen months while they were awaiting a favorable opportunity, that they were not even suspected by myself, or the religious, or any other person.  To accomplish their design, they despatched the chiefs of these islands to Burney, and to the other kingdoms three chiefs of their number.  They wrote to Japon, so that, at the appointed time, all would come; and all were given orders as to what they were to do.  I made secret investigations, and found out that all the aforesaid was true; and in a short time I had in my hands the guilty ones who were in these islands, and also those who had gone away after the death of the people, so that none remained uncaptured.  Without any disturbance whatever, I beheaded seven of the authors of the rebellion,