The auditor went to the port with all his men and put them aboard the two ships. As flagship he took the "Sant Antonio" of Sebu, on account of its having more room to accommodate the assistants [gente de cumplimiento] who embarked with him. He left the Portuguese patache because the governor had taken off the embargo, in order to allow the Portuguese to return with it to Malaca without loss of time. Then he equipped two caracoas for the service of the fleet with Indian crews and two Spaniards to direct them. After they had confessed and taken communion, they left the port of Cabit and set sail on the twelfth day of the month of December of the year one thousand six hundred, with Alonzo Gomez as chief pilot. They also took Father Diego de Santiago and a lay brother of the Society of Jesus, and Fray Francisco de Valdes of the Order of Augustine, aboard the flagship; and Fray Joan Gutierrez [136] and another associate of the same order aboard the almiranta, so that they might attend to whatever required their ministry. At night of the same day both ships of this fleet anchored near the settlement and anchorage of the island of Miraveles at the mouth of the bay. Immediately at daybreak a barangai approached the ships from shore with the sentinels whom the auditor had hastily sent the day before to obtain some reliable news of the corsair's position. They told him that, as soon as the fleet sailed from the port of Cabit, the enemy, who lay in the direction of the port Del Fraile [of the Friar], [137] had also weighed anchor, and having stowed their small boats, both ships had crossed to the other and sea side, and that they had seen him anchor after nightfall opposite the point of Valeitegui, [138] where he still was. Upon hearing this, the auditor thought that perhaps the corsair had been informed of the preparation of the fleet and of its departure, and had consequently weighed anchor from his position; and that, since he had stowed his small boats aboard the ships, he was about to put to sea to avoid the fleet. He immediately sent the same news to the admiral, and opened the instructions given him by the governor. Seeing that he was ordered thereby to seek the enemy with all diligence, pursue him, and endeavor to fight him, he thought best to shorten the work before him, and to lose no time and not allow the enemy to get farther away. With this object in view, the fleet spent the thirteenth of December, St. Lucy's day, in making waist-cloths, arranging the artillery, getting ready the weapons, alloting men to their posts, and preparing themselves to fight on the next day, on which it was thought that they would fall in with the corsair. The auditor sent special instructions in writing to the admiral concerning what he was to do and observe on his part. These instructions specified chiefly that upon engaging with the enemy, both ships were to grapple and fight the corsair's flagship--in which