When I left that city I told your Grace that, even if I found myself in the utmost need, I should not turn my prow back thither; but first should go to the land of the enemy, and my duty should be well done. If I have accomplished this against so many difficulties as your Grace may see, I believe there are few men who would not have been moved by the circumstances and the necessity which urged me on. When I was most pressed and the troops most in want--so much so that it would bring pity to the heart of anyone who saw it, no matter how hardened he was; for their shirts, shoes, and hose but ill sufficed them, and their food was only a dish of rice with nothing else--even at such a time, I conquered the island; for we may say that it is already conquered, as the larger part pays or gives tribute; and I hope, God willing, that a year from now the whole island will pay us. All this occurred in the midst of the winter, in water waist-deep, with no change of clothing, and the men weary from head to foot. What I think most of is, that I kept the men free from discontent, which seems almost a miracle. And when it was understood that I must depart for lack of supplies, I put in the warehouse eight hundred sestos of rice of forty gantas each; and I supplied almost the whole camp for a month and a half with the crops; the Spaniards and Indians brought in food enough for another month, and the friendly Indians did the same. Much more than what was gathered was destroyed and ruined, as it was not the harvest season. On all these occasions soldiers and captains worked so gallantly that I have never before so much regretted being poor, since I cannot provide them with some little part of all that they deserve. The sargento-mayor and Captain Juan de Valencia arrived on the twenty-eighth of the last month in a fragata, in which they had been despatched from that city to Butuan. They brought a thousand sestos of rice and some fish, wine, and some clothing which Captain Guenca gave them in Zebu, together with other articles. Very luckily they were retarded, as I had also been, so that they did not arrive earlier; for if they had been twenty days earlier the enemy would have taken them without fail.