Don Gabriel de Curucelaegui began his government with great acceptability and satisfaction to all, and taking the measures necessary for the maintenance of these islands. The year of 1685 was a hard one on account of the general epidemic of smallpox which raged, not only in these islands but in all the kingdoms of China and Eastern India--especially on the Coromandel coast, where many millions of Malabàrs died. In Filipinas the ravages of the epidemic were great, principally among the infants; but the place where, it is affirmed, the pest caused incredible loss was in the mountains of Manila where the insurgent blacks [i.e., Negritos] dwell, so many dying that those mountain districts were left almost uninhabited. But it was not only among them that the disease wrought such destruction, but also among the deer and wild swine, of which there is an innumerable multitude in these mountains, even after they have contributed with their flesh to the support of so great a number of blacks. The reason why so many die with this contagion is, first, their weak physique; and second, the custom that they have of abandoning those who are attacked by the disease, on account of which they die much sooner--and, what is worse, in their heathen blindness. In China many millions of people died, so that there was no one to cultivate the fields; from this resulted great famine and mortality, after the epidemic of smallpox. CHAPTER XV The first vessel that the governor despatched for Nueva España was the galleon "Santa Rosa;" and he appointed as its commander Don Francisco Zorrilla, a native of Granada; as its chief pilot, Admiral Don Lorenzo Lazcano; and as sargento-mayor, Don Bernardo de Endaya. The voyage of this galleon caused great damage to the citizens of Manila, on account of the difficulty in disposing of their property caused by the poor market [104] that they found at the port of Acapulco, because a fleet of many vessels, laden with merchandise, had arrived at Vera Cruz. From the time of this voyage, the shipments which were sent from these islands to the commerce of Nueva España began to decrease--not only on account of the above-mentioned fleets, but through the numerous imposts and contributions which were levied on the galleons of Filipinas, which continually increased; [105] consequently, seldom was a voyage made from which the citizens obtained any profits beyond their principal from the goods which they shipped.