bearing food and merchandise. In the month of June of this year six hundred and three, [18] two vessels were despatched from Manila to Nueva Espana, under command of Don Diego de Mendoca who had been sent that year by the viceroy, Marques de Montesclaros, with the usual reenforcements for the islands. The flagship was "Nuestra Senora de los Remedios" and the almiranta "Sant Antonio." Many rich men of Manila, warned by the past troubles, took passage in these vessels with their households and property, for Nueva Espana--especially in the almiranta--with the greatest wealth that has ever left the Filipinas. Both vessels experienced so severe storms during the voyage, in the altitude of thirty-four degrees, and before having passed Japon, that the flagship, without masts and greatly lightened and damaged, put back in distress to Manila. The almiranta was swallowed up in the sea, and no one was saved. This was one of the greatest shipwrecks and calamities that the Filipinas have suffered since the past ones. During the rest of that year and that of six hundred and five, until the sailing of the vessels which were to go to Castilla, [19] the governor occupied himself in repairing the city, and supplying it with provisions and ammunition, with the special object and care that the decision which he was awaiting from the court for making an expedition to Maluco--of which he had been advised and warned--should not find him so unprepared as to cause him to delay the expedition. In this he was very successful, for at that same time, the master-of-camp, Joan de Esquivel, had arrived in Mexico with six hundred soldiers from Espana. In Mexico more men were being enrolled, and a great preparation was made of ammunition, food, money, and arms, which the viceroy sent to the governor from Nueva Espana in March of that year, by order of his Majesty, in order that he might go to Maluco. All this arrived safely and in due season at Manila. Shortly after the ships had left Manila for Nueva Espana, and those despatched thence by the viceroy had entered, Archbishop Don Fray Miguel de Benavides died of a long illness. His body was buried amid the universal devotion and grief of the city. [20] At this same time, Don Pedro de Acuna received three letters, by the ships that continued to come from China that year, with the merchandise and with their principal captains. They were all of the same tenor--when translated into Castilian--from the Tuton and Haytao, and from the inspector-general of the province of Chincheo, and were on the matter of the insurrection of the Sangleys and their punishment. They were as follows: [This letter occupies folios 113b-115a of the original edition of Morga. We have already presented that document in our V0L. XIII, p. 287, which is translated from a copy of the original manuscript. The answer of Acuna to this letter will be found in V0L. XIV, in the second document of that volume.]