Don Francisco Tello

[In the margin:  “Have the new governor give information of all this, and meanwhile let everything provided be observed.”]

Relation of Mindanao

After Gomez Perez Dasmarinas saw that the sect of Mahoma was effecting an entrance into the island of Mindanao by way of Maluco, and that through the proximity and association of the said island with the province of the Pintados, this sect was sure to insinuate itself into the said province and others of the Philipinas Islands, he tried to remedy matters by giving the pacification of the island to Captain Estevan Rodriguez de Figueroa, of which your Majesty has been informed.  He approved the said agreements, declaring what should be given to Estevan Rodriguez de Figueroa as a reward for this pacification.  The said Captain Estevan Rodriguez de Figueroa left these islands in the month of April, in the year five hundred and ninety-five, with thirty-six ships, large and small, well supplied with artillery, and with two hundred and twelve Spanish soldiers, and one thousand five hundred Indians.  On the twentieth of the said month, he arrived at the river of Mindanao, where are the largest settlements on the island, and where the king of the island resides.  On the twenty-fifth he went ashore, leaving the master-of-camp aboard the vessels with a guard for the security of the fleet.  Marching in the direction of one of the enemy’s forts, they came upon an ambuscade in their path.  Coming to a hand-to-hand conflict, Captain Estevan Rodriguez de Figueroa was wounded in the head by a knife-thrust, and died in two days without regaining consciousness.  At this turn of affairs the soldiers, who had disembarked, retired to their ships without avenging his death.  The captains and soldiers held a council and appointed as their captain-general, Joan de Lajara, master-of-camp of the said fleet, who disembarked with his men, and built another fort four leagues below the enemy’s fort, where they remained several days without accomplishing anything.  Finally, in the month of October, the said Joan de Laxara came to this city, saying that he had left the camp to come to ask for help for the men whom he had left there, for they were in great distress.  Don Francisco Tello, governor and captain-general of these islands, thought that the said Joan de Laxara had done wrong in deserting his camp, when he was able to ask for help by means of letters, or by means of some other person.  He imprisoned him for several days, and tried to find some one to take charge of it.  Finding that the children of Estevan Rodriguez de Figueroa were infants, the eldest being four years old, and that the guardians could not take care of affairs of such importance and trust with the punctuality and readiness necessary, and aware of the danger encountered by the men who remained in Mindanao, he called a council of war of the most practiced and experienced captains