They are a poor people and in need of food.  All of them begged among the ships of the fleet, and in the Spanish tongue, that, for the love of God, humay be given them for they are hungry.  It was seen that they gave their weapons and clothes in exchange for rice.  Thereupon the captain ordered the tributes brought by them, as they said, to be placed before him.  They brought some robes, daggers, dishes, and articles of slight value and price, and cloth of their land, but no gold or silver.  When the said captain saw how slight was the tribute and that it was in almost worthless articles, and as he had heard that there was a large field-piece in the village of Jolo, taken from the lost galley, he said that, since they did not have the tribute collected and were so pressed by dire need, he would have pity and not take the tribute, on condition that they would give the said piece.  They said they would all assemble and discuss this, and they asked the said captain to await them there until they returned to Jolo.  His Grace told them that this would trouble him considerably because of his great lack of food; but that he would send Pedro de Oseguera in a fragata to bring back the said piece, and to ascertain whether they had told him the truth.  Thereupon that very night he ordered the said Pedro de Oseguera to get ready and embark with ten soldiers in the said fragata.  He was to go to the said island of Jolo and examine the people and their settlement and ascertain their need of food.  He was to take note of everything, charging his men to act cautiously, and was not to land or molest the natives.  The said Pedro de Oseguera left that night to execute this commission, in order to take back the tributes that the said natives had brought, and took them.

Witnesses, Francisco Velazquez, Juan Davila, Melchor de Torres, and many other soldiers.

Before me: 

Gabriel de Ribera Benito de Mendiola, notary of the fleet

In the port of Cavite, on the nineteenth day of the month of April of the said year, Pagalugan and other chiefs and timaguas of the island of Taguima [Basilan] appeared before the said captain in the presence of me, the notary, and of witnesses.  They said that they brought to his Grace, in recognition of tribute (for they knew the fleet needed food), twenty fowls, twenty pieces of colored medrinaque, three hogs, and one chivanta of wax in four pieces.  They said that they had paid their tribute to Juan Lopez de Aguirre in civet-cats, fowls, swine, goats, and cloth.  They came also to find out to whom they must pay the tribute hereafter, and how much they must pay.  The captain asked how many people they were and how they could pay their tribute.  Through the said interpreters they replied that they could pay their tribute in wax, civet-cats, tortoise-shell, and colored cloth.  With the tinguianes [mountaineers] they number about one thousand men more or less.  Upon this day the captain, seeing the fleet’s need of food and the slight prospects for getting any, ordered all the said vessels of this fleet to return to the town of Santisimo Nombre de Jesus.