are the royal department of justice of the one part,
and certain Indian chiefs, natives of the villages
of Tondo, Misilo, Bulacan, and other villages in the
neighborhood of Manila, of the other part. The
cause of this contention seems to be that on the twenty-sixth
of October of last year, one thousand five hundred
and eighty-eight, Doctor Santiago de Vera, governor
and captain-general of these islands, and president
of the royal Audiencia, learned that the following
persons: Don Agustin de Legaspi, one of the chiefs
of this land; Martin Panga, governor of the village
of Tondo, and his first cousin; Magat Salamat, the
son of the old lord of this land; and other chiefs,
had not long ago sent a present of weapons and other
articles to the king of Burney, and that they were
quite intent upon holding meetings and their usual
drunken feasts, swearing to keep secret whatever they
discussed. He also learned that they had sold
and were selling their landed property. In order
to ascertain what the condition of affairs is, the
governor made an inquiry and many witnesses were summoned.
From this inquiry and other investigations and inquests
made in the course of the trials, it appears that
the said Don Agustin de Legaspi and Magat Salamat
had sent a quantity of shields, arquebuses, and other
weapons to Xapon and to the petty king of Burney, who
has thus been enabled to put himself on a war-footing.
They warned these powers to fortify themselves in
their strongholds, because the Spaniards intended
to go there. They added that the said Don Agustin
would notify them in person of what was taking place;
and that, for this purpose, he would ask permission
to set out on his commercial enterprises. Likewise
we learned that the people of the kingdom of Burney
were thinking of manning a fleet for the purpose of
attacking the Spaniards; and that they had killed
a Franciscan friar and other Spaniards while on their
way to Malaca from Manila with messages and despatches
for the king, our sovereign. It appears that
on the fourth of November of the said year, when the
inquiry had not gone further than this, Captain Pedro
Sarmiento arrived in this city from the Calamianes,
which are islands near Burney; and brought the news
and information that he had left behind in the said
Calamianes three Indian chiefs of Tondo, namely, Magat
Salamat, Don Agustin Manuguit, son of Don Phelipe Salalila,
and Don Joan Banal, brother-in-law of the said Magat.
Through Don Antonio Surabao, his servant and chief
of his encomienda, he had learned that these men were
going as ambassadors to the petty king of Burney, in
order to induce him to send a fleet to attack the Spaniards,
and to join the chiefs of Jolo, and Sumaelob, chief
of Cuyo, who had already come to terms and offered
to help them with two thousand men. They had
persuaded the said Don Antonio Surabao to accompany
them and carry out their plans; but the latter while
on the one hand he promised to help them, in order
not to arouse their suspicion, on the other hand unfolded