All the rest was burned to the very foundations.  The inhabitants of Manila, who owned many of the houses, lost considerable in that fire.  But in the space of four months, most of that alcaiceria has been rebuilt in squares and straight streets and uniform houses.  It presents a very beautiful appearance, and is as large as the city of Manila itself.  It is no wonder that a city should be built entire in so short a time, when more than three thousand men have worked on it.  I do not know whether there can be any other part of the world than Manila where there are so many workmen and so abundant materials.

[Volume i of the Ventura del Arco MSS. (Ayer library) contains the following synopsis of another relation for the years 1627-1628.]

Events in the Filipinas Islands from August, 1627, until June, 1628.

In August, 1627, Governor Don Juan Nino de Tabora left the bay of Manila with the fleet, going toward the island of Hermosa in order to drive away the Dutch who had established themselves there two years before the Spaniards.

The fleet sailed out of season, for the relief ships from Nueva Espana arrived a month later than they ought.  Accordingly, the fleet encountered northerly winds when they reached Cape Bojeador.  They remained there for some days, beating to windward, until after several storms they had to put back to Manila.

The galleys joined the fleet at Bangui, which is located at the same cape.  The smaller vessels, not being able to withstand the weather, became separated from the fleet; and one of them, with the heavy storm that overtook them, ended its voyage at a port of China, in the province of Fo-chiu, and another at the island of Hermosa.  The galleys lost their moorings at Bangui, where the earth and even the sea trembled fourteen times in one day.  Hills were toppled over; and one called Los Caraballos, which was on the road to Nueva Segovia, and was inaccessible, sank and became very level.  Some of the convents of the Dominican religious (who instruct that province) fell.  The hurricane wrecked immense numbers of trees, which covered the beaches of the sea.  By the middle of September the weather moderated.  The commander of the galleys, not knowing that the galleons had put back, continued his voyage, and reached the point on the island of Hermosa, and entered the Dutch port without knowing it.  He went within cannon-shot, reconnoitered the port, and sounded the coast.  He observed the fort, and the preparations made by the Dutch, who were fearful of some attack.  Then he went to a small island inhabited by Chinese fishermen, who received him cordially; they expressed hatred for the Dutch, and their desire to aid the Spaniards to drive them from the island of Hermosa.  They had some Dutch prisoners, who had been shipwrecked from a galleon that had been lost on their coasts, or on the reefs of the said island.  The galleys sailed thence toward our port in the island of Hermosa, but so furious a north wind caught them, when near it, that they were carried to Cape Bojeador in five days; and they were able to make the port called Japones.  There another storm struck them on the first of October, and the two galleys were smashed to pieces, although the artillery and men were saved.