On the twentieth of June an eclipse of the sun began at eleven o’clock, and at thirteen minutes after twelve it was so far eclipsed that it could not be seen at all.  It seemed as if it were night, and the stars were seen in the sky, so that we were forced to light candles in order to eat; for there was a dinner that afternoon, on the occasion of a certain feast.  As far as I know, this eclipse was not seen in Nueva Espana; it is the most complete one that I have ever seen, though I have seen many.

On the eighteenth of July last, in the village of Guiguan, which is a mission of the Society, an image of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady with a gilded face, began to weep piteously—­in the sight of all, and of the father who was expounding Christian doctrine in that village—­with a saddened countenance, to the great terror of all who were present.  It seemed as if this was the announcement of the disasters and calamities which have been suffered by those poor islands of the Pintados (which are in our missionary charge) from their enemies the Camucones and the Joloans, who have become very insolent—­plundering many ships on the sea, some of them valuable; robbing and burning towns, capturing the people, and destroying the images, which the fathers have kept well until their flight and refuge in the mountains.  It has been considered a singular providence that no one of our fathers has been captured (although there are fears about one, but nothing certain is known about it).  The enemy suddenly landing, one father was surprised in bed, but made his escape almost in his shirt; they surprised another while saying mass, and he was obliged to make his escape in his chasuble, fleeing through the marshes; another they found sprinkling with holy water the whole population of the town in the church; another they met on the sea, and having given chase to his vessel, the father leaped overboard and finally escaped.  The father provincial was in great danger several times, but in the end God preserved him and all the other fathers.  The greatest hardship is, that it seems as if those who conduct the government do not endeavor to check these raids; may the Lord do so by restraining the enemies.

Relief was sent this year to the Malucas Islands, as has usually been done in past years, in several pataches and a galley.  The Dutch enemy had at their Malayo fort (which is almost within sight of our fort at Terrenate), a very powerful ship which passed in front of our fort several times discharging their artillery as if defying us to come out and fight.  After this bravado our men and Pedro de Heredia, governor of those fortifications, armed two pataches and the galley (a force much inferior to that of so powerful a ship) and went out to meet the enemy.  He boarded it and began to attack the soldiers in it; the enemy, seeing that the fight was going against them, cut loose from our ship, and retreated or fled to their fort.  There their people arrested the captain, because, although he had had the advantage on his side, he had not sunk our little pataches, but instead had taken to flight.  Some of the Dutch and some of our men were killed in this fight.