Cogseng, elated with this success, determined to become master of the Philippines, for which purpose he sent the Friar Victorio Riccio, a Dominican, with the title of his Ambassador, to Manila, with a letter to the Governor, in which he required him to recognize him as Sovereign, and pay him tribute, threatening, if he refused, to ravage his coasts with his fleet. On the 18th of May, 1662, the friar arrived on this embassy at Manila, and delivered his letter with great secrecy, which, however, was not long withheld from the public. The Governor without delay began to levy troops, repair the fortifications, and recall all the forces to the capital; and in order to be as secure as possible, he sent away all the Chinese merchants, and others that were established in the islands. Upon this being known, it was whispered that the Governor intended to decapitate all the Chinese, who, being naturally cowards, believed the knife already at their throats, and retired to the mountains, from whence some passed, with great risk, in small boats to Formosa. The day on which the Governor called the Chinese chiefs before him, in order to intimate to them that they must retire, the remaining Chinese believing that they were all to be murdered, took up arms; but the Dominicans had sufficient influence to prevail on them to remain quiet. The Governor now sent back Friar Riccio to Cogseng with an answer to his letter, but, on Riccio's arrival, he found the pirate dead of a fever, Manila being by this means released from the danger with which she was threatened. The Chinese who had fled to Formosa, circulated a thousand calumnies, which would have cost Friar Riccio his life, if he had not been saved by the son of Cogseng, who had succeeded his father in power; but not possessing the warlike spirit of his father, he sent an Ambassador to Manila, to make a treaty of amity and commerce with the Spaniards. Although the expedition of Cogseng had not reached Manila, the place of its destination, the effects of it had fallen very heavy on the islands, as all the churches and convents near Manila were destroyed, to prevent the enemy from converting them into military stations. The Governor of Ternate had abandoned that station, by no means easy to be recovered, as the garrison was, in its retreat to Manila, accompanied by the Indians, called Mahhicas, who were the best friends to the Spanish cause, and who were then settled at the mouth of the river Marigondon, where their descendants remain to this hour. The garrisons too of Calamianes and Zamboanga evacuated these stations; and as they had always been a check on the Moors of Jolo and Mindanao, opportunities were by this means offered of committing with impunity such ravages in the Bisayas, that the friars were compelled to abandon the province of Calamianes.