History of the Philippine IslandsMorga, Antonio de
History
History of the Philippine Islands
Morga, Antonio de
Philippines -- History
The religious and men with the general tried to persuade him, since the
weather was calm, to wait in that place, in order to take these men
from those islands, where they had lingered for a year. Certain more
courageous persons even offered to go ashore to get them either in
the galleon's boat or in the vessels of the Ladrones themselves. But
the general would not allow this, believing that time would be lost,
and his expedition exposed to peril. Without leave from the general,
Fray Juan Pobre, a lay-brother, who was in charge of the discalced
religious of St. Francis, who were coming on that occasion to the
Filipinas, jumped into one of the Ladrones' vessels, and was taken by
the Indians to the island of Guan, where he remained with the Spaniards
whom he found. The galleon "Santo Tomas," without further delay,
pursued its voyage, to the great grief and regret of the Spaniards on
shore, who saw themselves left among those barbarians, where some of
them died later of illness and other hardships. The galleon reached
the Filipinas, making for the cape of Espiritu Santo and the harbor of
Capul, at the conjunction of the moon and change of the weather. The
land was so covered with thick fogs, that the ship was upon it before
it was seen, nor did the pilots and sailors know the country or place
where they were. They ran toward the Catenduanes, and entered a bay,
called Catamban, [145] twenty leguas from the channel, where they
found themselves embayed and with so much wind and sea astern of
them, that the galleon ran upon some rocks near the land and came
very near being wrecked that night with all aboard. At daybreak,
the general went ashore with the small boat and had the ship made
fast to some rocks. As the weather did not improve, and the ship was
hourly in greater danger of being wrecked, and the cables with which
it was made fast had given way, he determined to disembark the cargo
there, and as quickly as possible, by means of the boat. They went
to work immediately and took off the people, the silver, and the
greater part of the goods and property, until, with native boats,
the Spaniards and Indians of that province carried everything to
Manila over a distance of eighty leguas, partly by sea and partly
by land. They left the ship--a new and handsome one--wrecked there,
without being able to derive any profit whatever from it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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