That it is advisable to send hither the encomenderos, and from there to give the soldiers and captains some gratification and pay. All the captains and soldiers of this camp perform their duties grumblingly, since the encomenderos enjoy the fruits of their labor.  Through false representations the encomenderos have remained behind, instead of coming here on this pacification.  If each encomendero has to live on his encomienda, and the heirs of Estevan Rodriguez in some part of the island, there is nothing left for the captains and soldiers.  The owners should come, therefore, to reduce their encomiendas to subjection, since they take the gain.  They do not go very far upon the road, and it is not a good argument to say that each one will pacify his own encomienda; for so long as this river is unpacified, nothing is pacified.  Your Lordship should order all of them, without any exception, to come in person, and to bring some soldiers at their own cost, with sufficient food for a year’s maintenance.  In this way, something will be done; for an encomienda cannot be pacified with only one soldier, paid by an encomendero.  I entreat your Lordship to decide quickly upon the course to be taken, and, with the same haste, to send me immediate advice by a birey.  The route is open, and the virey can come here any time in June; thus I may be advised in advance of your Lordship’s orders as to the course to pursue here, and this needy people may be encouraged with the hope of speedy relief.  Your Lordship should write to them, thanking them for their labors, and encouraging them with their pay, to continue their work.  May God preserve your Lordship many years, with the increase of dignities that we your servants desire.  Tanpaca, May 10, 97.  Your Lordship’s most humble servant.

Don Juan Ronquillo

[Endorsed: “Mindanao, 1597.  General Don Juan Rronquillo.”]

The campaign

The sargento-mayor of the city of Manila left for Mindanao on the thirtieth of December of ninety-six, and arrived at the city of Zebu on the fourteenth of January.  He left there for La Caldera [41] on the twenty-ninth of the said month, and arrived at La Caldera on the second of February, where he found the fleet of Mindanao, which had gone away for lack of supplies.  The whole fleet left La Caldera on the sixth of said month, in the direction of Mindanao; and on the eleventh Captain Torivio de Misa was sent forward with a galliot and two lapis, as he suspected that the unfriendly Indians had surrounded the friendly natives from Tanpacon.  On the fourteenth he sent Sargento-mayor Diego de Chaves with two galleys, and other light vessels, to follow up Torivio de Miranda; and he remained behind with the three fragatas, which, as they were heavy vessels, could not follow the rest of the fleet.

On the fifteenth of December, Captain Graviel Gonzales, who was on board one of the lapis which accompanied Torivio de Miranda, was drowned while passing Las Flechas, at the edge of the river of Mindanao.  On the seventeenth, Captain Torivio de Miranda entered the river, where he found that the enemy had drawn a blockade about our friends of Tanpacon, and had killed more than seventy of them; but at his arrival they raised the blockade, and retired to their fort in flight.