them, and the galleys and other boats; and in the other was a narrow pass, which ran to a point, on which was built a rampart guarded by forty men.  From that place to the other side of the river, our men had themselves built a very strong wooden bridge, close to which a galliot plied.  The Ternatans, seeing so strong a defense on both sides, resolved to fortify themselves on the chief mouth of the river.  They built a small fort, and, together with an equal number of Mindanao soldiers, shut themselves up in it.  This news aroused General Ronquillo to dislodge them.  He went down to accomplish it with the galleys and other vessels, and one hundred and forty well-armed men.  He landed with one hundred and sixteen men, together with Captains Ruy Gomez Arellano, Garcia Guerrero, Christoval Villagra, and Alonso de Palma.  He met the enemy at a distance of eighty paces on the bank of the river.  The Ternatans and Mindanaos had carefully cleared the front of their fort, but had designedly left a thicket at one side of it, where three hundred Ternatans were ambushed, while the rest were inside the fortress.  As both parties saw how few of our men were attacking them, they grew ashamed of their fortress and ambush.  Threatening our men insolently, they showed themselves and advanced upon the Spaniards.  They found so great opposition from our men that without using any stratagem, or for no other reason beyond natural strength, at the first shock of battle nearly all the Ternatans were killed, and the rest fled.  Our men pursued them until they killed them all.  The men of Tampaca, who had been neutral until then, in consideration of the dealings of Fortune, and seeing that she had declared in our favor, took up arms for us.  Only seventy-seven Ternatans, badly wounded, escaped; and fifty of these were drowned in the river, into which they had thrown themselves in desperation.  Only three of the twenty-seven survived, and they informed their king of it.  The Spaniards seized the boats, artillery and spoils of she conquered, and became encouraged to continue the war against infidels.

Don Francisco Tello was not neglectful of other similar occurrences.  He learned by his spies, and rumor had it, that the emperor of Japon was collecting a large army and preparing many boats for it, and large supplies of arms and food.  It was also learned that he was securing himself, by treaty, from the Chinese, of whom the Japanese, because of their natural enmity, live in fear.  Hence they inferred that he was equipping himself to make war outside his kingdoms.  He had negotiated and concluded alliances with the king of Ternate, and with other neighbors who were hostile to the Spanish crown.  From all of those actions there resulted eager conjectures that all that tempest was threatening the Filipinas, and particularly their capital, Manila.  The governor prepared his forces, and under pretext of saluting that barbaric emperor with a present, sent Captain Alderete to find