rudder, and getting food in Macan. They bought a patache, of which they had great need. On the eighteenth of February the two galleons and patache sailed out to pursue their voyage. The latter was sent by the commander, Don Juan Alcarazo, to take its station in the bay of the kingdom of Tonquin and Cochinchina, in order to await a ship from Siam of which it should make a prize; and then to go with it in search of the two galleons. The fact is that they had an order from Governor Don Juan Nino de Tabora to capture all the Siamese vessels for reprisal, inasmuch as five years ago a ship was taken from us in that kingdom, although it was friendly to us. The ship was said to be valued at one million in merchandise, and was on its way from Macan to Manila. Several Spaniards were killed. An embassy having been sent under Father Pedro de Morejon, as I wrote in another relation, the Siamese returned to us only the value of ten thousand pesos. That patache, whose captain was Diego Lopez Lobo, a Portuguese, and which carried thirty Spaniards, waited two months in the said place, sailing about hither and thither. When the king of Cochinchina saw it, fearing lest it capture some vessels that he was expecting in his kingdom, he sent a father of the Society (one of those who reside in his court and other places, who I think are sixteen in number) in a small ship to tell the captain not to do any harm to anything belonging to his kingdom, and that he had always been a friend to us. Answer was returned that the presence of the ship in that region was not to do harm to Cochinchina, but to attain certain purposes which his captain-general had ordered him. Finally, on Thursday, the twentieth of April, a great freight ship was sighted, one of the sort that sail these seas. The Spaniards attacked it, and although its occupants tried to defend themselves, they were obliged to see that they had no defense against our artillery and musketry. They surrendered, and it was found to be the ship which was being sought. It was one which the king of Siam sends every year to Canton with some tribute for the king of China. It was returning with great wealth of silks and other things, and carried sixty Siamese and sixty Chinese. Half of the men were placed aboard our patache, and soldiers were transferred from the patache to the said Siamese ship. The strict vigilance necessary was maintained, as our men were so few, so that they should not be killed some night. The patache set out in search of the galleons, in the direction that had been set. But the winds were contrary in that direction, and they were unable to make any distance. Consequently, they had to sail with a stern wind to Manila. With their captured reprisal they reached this city on May 14. The cargo of the Siamese ship was unladed carefully, and it was found that it was worth about one hundred thousand pesos. It was placed on deposit in a building and excellent treatment is being given to the Siamese.