they had retired with their ships), that to escape the fury of our men they were obliged to construct some light craft within their fort.  They are said to have calked these, for want of pitch, with their own blood; and to have carried them on their shoulders for several leguas over land, until they succeeded in launching them into the sea, and fled under full sail.  They left their ships in the river and dismantled the forts and camps, where our men found some spoils, of which I saw a part.  But satisfaction over the booty was outweighed by chagrin at losing the enemy whom they had practically in their hands.  The enemy, however, had received such a lesson that they never returned.

Some years afterwards they planned to elect another patron against hurricanes, which are called in those parts vagios, and by the Portuguese tufones. [42] They are furious winds which, springing up ordinarily in the north, veer toward the west and south, and move around the compass in the space of twenty hours or more.

One of these days of tempest is a very Judgment day; especially if it overtake one in the night-time, and in a wooden house.  It rends some houses, and turns others over on one side; still others (and most frequently) it destroys and hurls to the ground.  With the assistance of the bishop of Yucatan, [43] who was at that time dean of the church, the cathedral of Manila had been temporarily erected, with pillars of the very strongest trees, so large that two men could not reach around them; and all the timber above and below was on the same scale; yet in half an hour one of these typhoons destroyed the newly-built cathedral, and left only the tabernacle of the most Holy Sacrament between four pillars.  In this accident some people were killed:  for, fleeing from their houses, which were falling to pieces over their heads, they betook themselves for greater safety to the church.  The vessels in the bay were hurled ashore the distance of a stone’s throw, and those who were caught in the tempest were carried away like straw.  To remedy so great an evil, lots were cast with great solemnity at a concourse of all classes; from these came forth the [name of the] most glorious virgin St. Potenciana—­not without much mystery; for, on the day when the event took place (the 19th of May), one of the earliest settlers, hearing her name called, arose and said:  “Hers is the day when we first entered Manila, by which it is meant that our Lord chose to inform us of the obligation that we owe to this glorious Saint.”  What followed confirmed his statement; for from that time forward there has been a notable improvement in this respect, the storms and the fury of the winds recognizing the favor and protection of this blessed virgin.

How the Spaniards spread over all the Filipinas to Manila.  Chapter III.