de Alcacar.  The other two, under Captains Juan Guerra de Cervantes and Christoval de Villagra, were from the camp of Manila and the province of Pintados.  All of these with their officers amounted to one thousand four hundred and twenty-three Spaniards.  Under Master-of-camp Don Guillermo and Captains Don Francisco Palaot, Don Juan Lit, Don Luys, and Don Agustin Lont were three hundred and forty-four Pampanga and Tagal Indians; while there were also six hundred and twenty men from the same tribes for the naval and military service, and six hundred and forty-nine rowers.  The entire fleet, exclusive of the household and following of the general, amounted to three thousand and ninety-five men; they had seventy-five pieces of various kinds of artillery, and all the materials for navigating, disembarking, and fighting, and for bombarding walls.

Don Pedro left the port of Yloilo with this armament January five, one thousand six hundred and six, in doubtful weather, but as courageous as ever.  He reached the island of Mindanao, hostile to the Spanish name and allied with the Ternatans, and anchored in the port of La Caldera to take in water.  There the flagship, called “Jesus Maria,” in which Master-of-camp Esquivel was sailing, began to drag the anchors with which it was moored—­an action which the sailors name by the peculiar word garrar [298]—­and, in order to save itself, had to set sail.  But finding that it could not double a point in this way, it fired two shots as a call for help, just when the rudder struck.  The galleys hastened to give it a tow, but some cables were snapped atwain; and their efforts were in vain, for the sea and winds prevented the work.  Captain Villagra was given charge of the rescue of the men and provisions aboard the flagship.  Although many possessions of the king and of private persons were lost, by incredible effort he saved the bulk of the provisions and of the clothing, and all the men, artillery, powder, cables, rigging, and sails.  In order that the Mindanaos might not enjoy the spoils of the shipwreck, he set fire to the hull, after taking out the nails and bolts.  They felt this first misfortune because of its very importance, and because the soldiers, a class often given to foolish superstitions, interpreted it in a sinister manner.  The general’s prudence calmed everything.  He ordered the master-of-camp to proceed with the fleet from La Caldera to the port of Talangame, which, as we have said, is situated in the island of Ternate.  Don Pedro accompanied him with his galleys until they got outside the strait of Sambuanga, a place dangerous because of its currents and reefs.  For that reason they towed the ships, until this danger was past, and because of a calm that overtook them.  The fleet took the open sea.  The galleys, in order to take in water enough to last until reaching Ternate, coasted along gradually; for the men rescued from the submerged flagship were distributed in them and in the other boats, and their weight and