Our flagship kept up the fight longer, but at last men were lacking; for, as the land was near, they tried to reach it in boats or by swimming. The commander Francisco de Miranda Enriquez was left with very few men; and they even, seeing that it was impossible to defend themselves, were forced to land, after having set fire to the galleon. It was a very fine and strong boat. It earned thirty-six cannon, and had so much ammunition that when the fire reached the powder magazine, the vessel blew up with so great a din, that it made the entire city and the island of Malaca shake, and the vessel was seen no more. This was different from the almiranta, which, when its powder had been spent, was two days in burning. The dead and wounded on our side number about one hundred. The enemy lost one of its vessels, but was at last victorious. Then they went to the strait to await the ships expected from China. In the city was little harmony, those of the fleet and those of the city accusing one another of the fault [of the defeat]. I reverenced the judgments of God, and considered that, although there was some excess on both sides, the chief cause of so great a loss was our sins. _Quia peccavimus tibi Domini_, etc. [88] The largest fleet ever seen in these islands or perchance in the Indias was prepared that year of 1615 in the port of Cabite. [89] It seems a miraculous circumstance that so large a number of ships could be gathered together in a land so recently conquered and peopled with Spaniards, and the most remote and distant in all the Spanish monarchy. It was the peculiar offspring of the magnanimous courage, valor, and energy (never sufficiently praised) of Governor Don Juan de Silva. It consisted of ten galleons, four galleys, one patache, and other smaller craft: the flagship of the galleons, called "La Salvadora," of two thousand tons burden; the almiranta, by name "San Marcos," of one thousand seven hundred; "San Juan Bautista," and the "Espiritu Santo," of one thousand three hundred; "San Miguel" and "San Felipe," of eight hundred; "Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe," and "Santiago," one hundred less; "San Andres," five hundred; and "San Lorenco" (the smallest one), four hundred. The galleys were all under the advocacy and name of the Virgin Mary, our Lady. Those craft were armed and equipped with five thousand men, two thousand, or a few less, being Spaniards; three hundred pieces of artillery--the flagship alone carrying forty-six (the smallest of eighteen, while the majority of them were twenty-two libras' caliber, and some were thirty), and all were bronze, and it carried nine hundred men; the almiranta seven hundred men, and thirty-two pieces; and the other vessels in proportion. Of powder, they carried four thousand five hundred arrobas; of biscuits, five thousand; of clean rice, three thousand fanegas; and so on, in all the other war-supplies, ammunition, and food. All this was at the king's account, not to