During the governorship of Gomez Perez Dasmarinas (1590-1593), the native king of Siao Island--one of the Moluccas group--came to Manila to offer homage and vassalage to the representative of the King of Spain and Portugal, in return for protection against the incursions of the Dutch and the raids of the Ternate natives. Dasmarinas received him and the Spanish priests who accompanied him with affability, and, being satisfied with his credentials, he prepared a large expedition to go to the Moluccas to set matters in order. The fleet was composed of several frigates, one ship, six galleys and one hundred small vessels, all well armed. The fighting men numbered one hundred Spaniards, four hundred Pampanga and Tagalog arquebusiers, one thousand Visayas archers and lancers, besides one hundred Chinese to row the galleys. This expedition, which was calculated to be amply sufficient to subdue all the Moluccas, sailed from Cavite on the 6th of October, 1593. The sailing ships having got far ahead of the galleys, they hove-to off Punta de Azufre (N. of Maricaban Island) to wait for them. The galleys arrived; and the next day they were able to start again in company. Meanwhile a conspiracy was formed by the Chinese galleymen to murder all the Spaniards. Assuming these Chinese to be volunteers, their action would appear most wanton and base. If, however, as is most probable, they were pressed into this military service to foreigners, it seems quite natural that, being forced to bloodshed without alternative, they should first fight for their own liberty. All but the Chinese were asleep, and they fell upon the Spaniards in a body. Eighteen of the troops and four slaves escaped by jumping into the sea. The governor was sleeping in his cabin, but awoke on hearing the noise. He supposed the ship had grounded, and was coming up the companion en deshabille, when a Chinaman cleaved his head with a cutlass. The governor reached his stateroom, and taking his missal and the Image of the Virgin in his hand, he died in six hours. The Chinese did not venture below, where the priests and armed soldiers were hidden. They cleared the decks of all their opponents, made fast the hatches and gangways, and waited three days, when, after putting ashore those who were still alive, they escaped to Cochin-China, where the king and mandarins seized the vessel and all she carried. On board were found twelve thousand dollars in coin, some silver, and jewels belonging to the governor and his suite. Thus the expedition was brought to an untimely end. The King of Siao, and the missionaries accompanying him, had started in advance for Otong (Panay Island) to wait for the governor, and there they received the news of the disaster.