Some of the Spaniards of the Moluccas took prisoner Pablo Blancardo, the Dutch commander at Malacca, and brought him in his galley to Ternate. The Governor there, in consideration of fifty thousand dollars, set him and all his people at liberty, which, when it was known in Manila, was stigmatized as an act of great baseness; and this public censure affected the Governor's mind to that degree, that he died of grief soon afterwards. The second in command succeeded; and to give satisfaction to the Royal Audience, despatched two ships in search of General Blancardo, who, it was supposed, had gone towards Maquien, in a patache; they took him prisoner a second time, and sent him with all his people, to Manila, where he was some time afterwards repaid from the Royal coffers, the amount of his ransom. Pablo Blancardo died of grief in prison at Manila, where he had been confined until the arrival of twenty-two Spaniards, who had been taken at Amboyna by the Dutch, and for whom it was intended he should be exchanged. The Royal Audience conducted themselves with great approbation in the civil administration, until the year 1608, when Don Rodrigo Vivero of Laredo, who was named by the Viceroy as Governor ad interim, arrived at Manila, and having had great experience in the management of the Indians in New Spain, he availed himself of it on this occasion, giving instructions to that effect to the chief judges, and other ministers of justice. He governed with much satisfaction for one year, when he delivered up the insignia of his office, and returned to Mexico. CHAPTER XIV. ANNO DOM. 1609. Of the Administration of Don Juan de Silva.