they conquered, and not he; consequently what with the ill-feeling of the said Doctor against some of them, and of others against him, there are very few people in these islands who are not concerned.  Accordingly he is odious and suspected in his office by all men; and no lawsuit is brought up in which he is not accused, as is now happening in several cases.  The general ill-feeling here is no less owing to the fact that, whereas there are so many soldiers here who have come to these regions with no declared object except to serve your Majesty, and have done so since their arrival here, with good success, the said Doctor Morga should bring this about under the claim and pretext that there were no persons in these islands to whom such a matter could be entrusted; and that by this means the Spaniards had lost a victory so obviously theirs that it would without doubt have been gained if it had been entrusted to the least famous soldier here.  We humbly beseech your Majesty in consideration of all these matters pertaining to the said Doctor, that a remedy may be applied to them, as is usually done by your Majesty, owing to your holy zeal and righteous justice.  May our Lord protect your Majesty as we, your Majesty’s vassals, desire.  Manila, July 20, 1601.

Don Gonzalo Ronquillo de Vallesteros Francisco de las Missas Francisco Mercado Dandrade Hernando da [illegible in MS.] Bernardino de Avila Diego Melendez Florez

By command of the city of Manila: 

Luys de Contreras, clerk of the cabildo.

Letter from Morga to Felipe III

Sire: 

During the month of March of the past year, 1600, there passed through the Strait of Magallanes into the South Sea a squadron of armed ships from Holland, belonging to Count Mauricio, having as commander Oliver de el Nort, and as admiral Lamberto Biezman, with a patent and instructions in Flemish and Castilian to make war with fire and sword upon the Castilians and Portuguese whom they might meet in these parts.  After they had made a few captures of little importance on the coast of Piru, the commander’s ship and admiral’s ship, together with their long-boats, came to these islands, where they came out of the channel on the sixteenth of November of the said year.

Governor Don Francisco Tello found himself unprovided with any kind of fleet to resist them by sea; for he had no galleys and no other kind of ship with which to carry on offensive warfare, because a galizabra which had been commenced the year before in the shipyard of Cavite had been abandoned, and its build changed to that of a merchant ship.  As he feared that the enemy would come down to the said port, and burn the few ships which were on the voyage from Nueva Espana, in order to secure himself from the seaside at all points he commanded Don Juan Ronquillo de Castillo (who was drawing his salary as commander of galleys