not need to be in haste to send me help in defective vessels.  But then I hope, God helping, that the fleet will have arrived from Castilla, and that it and that of those regions will come, even though somewhat late, both to bring that aid safely and to achieve the results that his Majesty desires, since these Dutchmen are quite stripped of men; and although they have many ships, and those from Olanda, they do not expect reenforcements as abundant as hitherto.  It appears that all the natives are already turning against them, and are continually supporting the English in these regions with greater forces.  The latter are so very hostile to the Dutch, that they will hasten to profit by a very good opportunity. [34] I regard it as certain, that in case that we wish to avail ourselves of the forces of the English, if our own are insufficient to destroy these Dutchmen, they will aid us in it very willingly, by short agreements that might be made with them.  I know that this cannot be a bad thing for his Majesty, but very good.  This English captain who is here has told me that if we wish to bring this about, his nation will do it.  I advise your Lordship go that should necessity, perchance, compel us to undertake this, you may know what we are doing here about it.

His Majesty’s two fortresses in Gilolo, as your Lordship knows, serve only as garrisons for eighty soldiers, sixty of them Spanish.  They are continually dying and falling sick, and because of our lack of men in these forts, which are of importance, those men would prove very advantageous here, while there they are of no use.  Whenever the enemy may attack them in force, they cannot be succored by either sea or land.  Consequently, I think, for these and other reasons, that it would be wise to withdraw them before the enemy oblige us by force to do so.  Will your Lordship order this to be considered, and ordain what is most advisable.  At present the enemy have two ships, as I wrote in my previous letters.

The surgeon sent by your Lordship for this hospital I am sending back, as he is useless here—­both because father Fray Juan de Santamaria, a lay brother of St. Francis, is here, who attends to this with charity, willingness, and great skill; and because the former has certain defects or excesses that are not suitable for a country so short of the sort of thing that he specially cares about, and of which even the sick are in want.  Consequently, he would do better in Panay or La Pampanga, and his Majesty would save six hundred pesos of salary.

Just now I learned from the king of Tidore that many Dutchmen were killed at the burning of the fort of Ambueno.  Yesterday a ship arrived at the forts of Malayo from the Sunda.  I suspect that it does not bring altogether pleasant news, for it entered very silently.  All say that the fleet in Ambueno will come.  However, it is said that the commander Lorenco el Real and other captains were killed in that fire, besides other prominent people.  Consequently there are three of the enemy’s ships here now.