Notwithstanding that all this was well known in Manila, these reports came so plausibly fabricated that Don Manuel de León thought that he ought not to neglect or leave in uncertainty a matter which could occasion us irreparable injury; he therefore decided that it was less of an evil to seem credulous and over-cautious than to fail in his duties as commander through heedlessness and lack of foresight. He endeavored to take all precautions for such a contingency, warning the Pampangan and Cagayan peoples (who are the most warlike ones) to be ready in due time. He regulated the Manila garrison, which needed much reformation; and appointed experienced leaders. He commanded the armed fleets of the Pintados to be made ready; those of Panay and Ogton were taken by Captain Don Jose de San Miguel to be united with those of Cebú and Caraga, and all together formed a fleet of more than a hundred joangas--which, if occasion arose, would be under the command of Don Fernando de Bobadilla. All this armada arrived at Manila at a time when it was quite certainly known that Kinsie was not undertaking any such attacks, and was quite destitute of forces to do so. And as I shall not have occasion to speak of him again, I consider it excusable to relate here the condition in which he found his affairs after the death of his father Kuesing. [Here follows a long account of this matter, which has no further relevance to our subject, and is therefore omitted.] In the ship which came in the year 1672 arrived Doctor Diego Calderón y Serrano, a native of Granada--a student in the collegiate school [52] of Master Rodrigo at Sevilla, and professor of canon law [53] at the university there--who came as auditor of the royal Audiencia of Manila; he entered that body to fill the office of fiscal, which is customary for the most recent auditor to do, when there is no proprietary fiscal. He was married to Doña Catalina Ansaldo, a very honorable and virtuous woman, who died soon after her arrival. He was one of the excellent, and even of the best, official judges that Manila has had--very conscientious, with much fear of God, and very disinterested, which is a great virtue in one who is a judge; and therefore he always remained poor, contenting himself with the income which he received from the royal treasury (which is three thousand pesos), and even from that he gave much in alms. He lived until the year 1688, and had a very pious death; he humbled himself to ask absolution from the censures which he, with his associates, had incurred in the banishment and exile of the archbishop Don Fray Felipe Pardo, who refused it to the others--as we shall see in the proper place, if by God's favor we reach the discussion of those times! CHAPTER III