[Fol. 152 b:] Our military forces, being set free from the nearer enemies, were employed against those more distant. Accordingly, the commander of our armada, Pedro Duran de Monforte, directed his course to the great island of Borney, where he burned many villages on that coast, and carried away forty captives; and he succeeded in making this voyage known [to navigators], and in observing the shoals, monsoons, and other difficulties. With this experience he again set out, on January 11, 1649, with fourteen vessels, his people being partly Indian adventurers from Pintados, partly Lutaos; and Father Francisco Lado accompanied him. He touched at Lacaylacay; went on to Onsan, the limit of the former expedition; and went to the island of Bangui. Everywhere he found abundance of rice, swine, and goats. He plundered and destroyed several villages; burned more than three hundred vessels, among them the armed fleet which they held ready that year to infest these islands--which on account of this exploit remained for the time free from their fury and barbarity. He brought back more than two hundred captives, and ransomed some Christians. All this was done in a short time and with ease, because these affairs were undertaken with proper seriousness. As a result of this, when the governor of Samboangan, Rafael Omen, died, Pedro Duran de Monforte was appointed in his place; and the latter imitated his predecessor in his zeal for religion, in his Christian mode of life, in disinterestedness, and in an affable and mild bearing, for which he was beloved by all, while his government was peaceful and prosperous. With the opportunity afforded by these armadas, the Jesuits (who went as chaplains) began to announce the gospel in the great island of Borney, than which there is no larger island in the world. So prosperous were those beginnings that they succeeded in having seven hundred islanders baptized. Two chiefs of the neighboring islands offered vassalage to the king of Spain, and asked for gospel ministers, as Father Colin testifies; and this mission finally gave hopes that a numerous and extensive Christian church would be founded which would compensate for the losses in Japon and the Orient; but, lacking the protection of the Spanish military forces, this so beautiful hope faded away almost at its flowering. Deplorable and repeated experiences persuade us that in these latter times the Christian missions are maintained and increased only when in the shelter of Catholic arms; sad witnesses to this are Japon, India, and now China. If in these islands and America our kings did not protect religion, I believe that those regions would now be as heathen as in their former times. Experience teaches this, and the rest I regard as speculation--although the powerful arm of the Highest easily overcomes the greatest impossibilities.