Now when the father had exerted himself to receive the confessions of the soldiery, and had exhorted them to fight bravely, on the fourteenth of December they came in sight of the enemy; and the flagship spread its sails and bore down so swiftly on the other flagship that the passage from one to the other was easy.  In the conflict our men tore away the enemy’s flags and carried them back to their own ship, shouting, “Victory!” with joyful voices.  Just then our ship, having taken in a great quantity of water from all sides, was by the permission of God suddenly swallowed in the waves with all the sailors, except a few who by the help of a skiff captured from the Dutch, or by swimming, made their way to land.  The general was one who threw himself into the water with two flags of the enemy’s.

Then the almiranta, having encountered the enemy’s almiranta, captured it, and carried it away to Manila, where punishment was inflicted on all the sailors.  Among the number of those on our side who were slain or drowned, a hundred and fifty-nine in all, Father Diego was drowned.  He had heard, as it appeared, the confessions of all; and as he was making the effort to throw himself clear into the sea, he was called back by the voice of a captain desiring to make his confession.  While he was hearing the confession he was drowned, with the brother and the rest.  The father was in the twenty-ninth year of his age, and had lived fifteen years in the Society.  The brother, his companion, was of the same age, and had lived in the Society seven years; he had entered it in these regions.  He was a man endowed with every virtue, being especially noteworthy for his obedience, to which he was always greatly inclined.

Of the brethren there has also died Martin Sanchez, a native of these islands, who was for a decade a member of the Society, and who left a glorious example in life and death.  There remain in this vice-province thirty priests and twenty-nine brethren (of whom two are scholastics and four novices)—­those nine being included whom your Paternity has sent hither with Father Gregorio Lopez, in whom this vice-province assuredly receives a great assistance.  As it is of later birth, more scantily supplied with workers, and further from Rome, it is likewise poorer; and, as the younger daughter, ought to be the dearer and more precious to your Paternity.

College of Manila

There live in this college (the leading one [34] in this vice-province) seventeen of Ours—­seven priests and ten brethren.  All of them, by the favor of divine Providence, have by their example and labor brought in a rich harvest from the spiritual tilling of this city.  This has been added to on account of the war and the earthquake, the loss of the ships, and other calamities; and we have learned by experience that piety grows more rapidly in adverse than in prosperous fortune.  The earthquake has