By the death of Don Gonzalo, his kinsman, Don Diego Ronquillo, succeeded as Governor ad interim, being nominated as such in the royal order. The new Governor directed all his attention, to the rebuilding of the city, assisting personally in the public works, and paying particular attention, to the restoration of the houses, belonging to the inhabitants. Such diligence was used, that in a short time, the city was completely re-established. Many of the inhabitants, lost almost all their property in this fire; and the disaster, though of sufficient magnitude, was swelled into a most dreadful picture, by the ship going to Acapulco, but which had been forced by stress of weather into China. It is inconceivable, in what consternation, the inhabitants of the islands in the neighbourhood of Manila, arrived to their assistance. Don Diego Ronquillo immediately sent to China the factor of the royal works, Juan Bautista Roman, with orders to chastise those, who had been the cause of spreading this report, and to despatch, at any expense, a ship to New Spain, with a true statement of the extent of the mischief. The factor performed his commission with such efficacy, that the ship he despatched, returned the year following from Acapulco, in company with another; and in these ships came the new Governor and the Royal Audience. The government of Don Diego had lasted only one year, but, though short, it was of great importance to the settlement. He reduced to obedience in the island of Layte, and the province of Pangasinan, some towns which refused to pay the usual tribute, and he effectually suppressed symptoms of sedition in the other provinces, and which took their rise in the ill treatment of the factors. The factors entertained the idea, that the Indians whom they had found on their lands, ought to be considered in the light of slaves in every respect, and compelled them to work, appropriating all the wages of their labour to their own use, by which means they enjoyed all the luxuries of life, and even accumulated fortunes. To such a height had these abuses been raised, that a reform was absolutely necessary. The Governor bestowed particular attention on this subject, punishing those who were culpable, and watching over the general good. The result of this was, that many Indians who before had fled to the mountains, returned to the towns, and paid the tribute settled by the government, either in silver, or in the produce of the land they cultivated. By these desirable arrangements, the royal revenue was improved, and the interest of the factors so much injured by their own avarice, that from hence arose the proverb, "Avarice bursts the sack." CHAPTER X. ANNO DOM. 1584. The Administration of Don Santiago de Vera, fourth Governor of Manila.