The Attack upon Manila.--From here they marched rapidly up the beach and fell furiously upon the city. Almost their first victim was the field-marshal Goiti. The fort of Manila was at this date a weak affair, without ditches or escarpment, and it was here that the struggle took place. The Spaniards, although greatly outnumbered, were able to drive back the Chinese; but they themselves lost heavily. Limahong now sent ashore heavy reinforcements, and prepared to overwhelm the garrison. The Spaniards were saved from defeat by the timely arrival of Salcedo with fifty musketeers. From his station at Vigan he had seen the sails of Limahong's fleet, cruising southward along the Luzon coast, and, suspecting that so great an expedition could have no other purpose than the capture of Manila, he embarked in seven small boats, and reached the city in six days, just in time to participate in the furious battle between the Spaniards and the entire forces of the Chinese pirate. The result was the complete defeat of the Chinese, who were driven back upon their boats at Parañaque. The Result of Limahong's Expedition.--Although defeated in his attack on Manila, Limahong was yet determined on a settlement in Luzon, and, sailing northward, he landed in Pangasinan and began constructing fortifications at the mouth of the river Lingayen. The Spaniards did not wait for him to strengthen himself and to dispute with them afresh for the possession of the island, but organized in March an expedition of two hundred and fifty Spaniards and fifteen hundred Filipinos under Salcedo. They landed suddenly in the Gulf of Lingayen, burned the entire fleet of the Chinese, and scattered a part of the forces in the surrounding mountains. The rest, though hemmed in by the Spaniards, were able to construct small boats, in which they escaped from the islands. Thus ended this formidable attack, which threatened for a time to overthrow the power of Spain in the East. It was the beginning, however, of important relations with China. Before Limahong's escape a junk arrived from the viceroy of Fukien, petitioning for the delivery of the Chinese pirate. Two Augustinian friars accompanied his junk back to China, eager for such great fields of missionary conquest. They carried letters from Lavezares inviting Chinese friendship and intercourse. Beginning of a New Period of Conquest.--In the spring of 1576, Salcedo died at Vigan, at the age of twenty-seven. With his death may be said to close the first period of the history in the Philippines,--that of the Conquest, extending from 1565 to 1576. For the next twenty-five years the ambitions of the Spaniards were not content with the exploration of this archipelago, but there were greater and more striking conquests, to which the minds of both soldier and priest aspired.