The Dutch carried on this pillaging with little risk, and without fear, because they had learned, through some prisoners who had escaped, of the loss of our galleons.  With these spoils they returned, I think, to Japon, where they will again be received as they were last year.  And the worst of it is that they will delight in coming [every year to inflict as much more damage; and therefore the Chinese will not dare to come—­V.d.A.] to this city with their ships, and commerce will cease.  Everything will then be lost, because the prosperity of these islands depends solely upon trade with China.  May God prevent this with his powerful hand.

In the island of Oton a strange thing happened this year.  The ships that usually go with supplies to aid the forces of Maluco were despatched from the city of Manila.  In one of the best of these embarked Manuel Riveyro, a father of our Society from the house of Ternate.  He had come here to solicit and collect the alms which his Majesty orders to be given to the fathers who labor in the Malucas Islands.  For many days, for years even, nothing had been given; and, as a result, Ours were suffering great privation.  The father was very successful and collected from the royal treasury a large sum of money.  Part of this he spent for very rich ornaments and for images for our churches; part for ship stores, and for gifts with which to aid the poor soldiers in those strongholds of Maluco, who suffer great want.  These soldiers are materially assisted by our fathers who reside there, to the great edification and gratitude of the soldiers.  With these supplies the father embarked in one of the ships, and arrived at Punta de Najo [Naso—­V.d.A.], about eight leagues from the town of Arebalo, where the king’s ships go to take on rice and meat for the Malucas.  At this town it was necessary for the father of our Society, and other fathers of St. Francis, to go ashore to obtain some things which they needed, in order to have them ready when the ship should arrive.  Therefore they disembarked to go by land, and the ship anchored off the point.  One day the master, who was called Juan de Ochoa Sarape [?  Lara—­V.d.A.], brought it about by deceit that the captain of the ship, Francisco Benitez, the pilot, and two soldiers who were not of his following, should disembark.  There were on board also two mariners, a Galician and a Castilian, neither of whom had sided with him in the treason that he had planned with the others.  He sent these down the hatchway for some ropes, and then took a lock and fastened the hatchway.  Thereupon the traitors unsheathed their swords, drew their arquebuses and muskets, and lighted their fuses.  Standing under arms, they cut the cables, and set sail, taking possession of the ship and of all the goods that it carried for the king, for the governor of Maluco, and for the fathers of San Francisco and of our Society, all of which, they say, might be worth more than thirty