from China which pass that way, and that some good fortune could be secured from them:  the governor considered it advisable to lay his course toward Malaca—­whence he supposed that after the destruction of the enemy that he would cause there, and after having joined the Portuguese galleons, he would go straight to Malayo.  It was a well founded idea, but founded on an uncertain end as are all human ideas and considerations.  For besides that there were then no galleons in Malaca, because they had been burned in the manner above related, if the governor had not left these coasts, or at least had he sailed directly to those of Maluco, and even without leaving the bay of Manila, he would have had in a short time a victory equal to the past, and would have destroyed the help that came, because of his preparations, from Olanda by way of the coasts of Piru and Nueva-Espana to these islands.  For it happened that at the same time that Don Juan de Silva was going out by way of Miriveles with his fleet, one of the four governors of the state of Olanda was entering by way of Capulco [i.e., Capul] with four large ships—­his flagship being one called “Sol de Olando” [i.e., “The sun of Holland"]—­and two pataches.  Those ships were coming straight to anchor at the same entrance of Mariveles, by which the fleet that we had fitted out had sailed one month previously.

That unlooked-for event caused great confusion in this city of Manila and the port of Cabite.  Licentiate Andres de Alcaraz and the gentlemen of the royal Audiencia were governing.  They put aside their togas and girded on their swords.  They divided the most dangerous and important posts.  One of them was charged with the fortification of Cabite, and the repair of three galleys and other boats that had been going to rack and ruin there; another with the casting of new pieces from the little metal remaining in the royal magazines, and he, because by its scarcity the sudden need for artillery could not be supplied, tried to use the waste left from former castings, by digging and sifting the earth around the ancient foundry.  That was so excellent a scheme that three thousand arrobas of metal were collected in a few days.  It is a cause for wonderment, and could not have been accomplished except by Spanish activity, stimulated by necessity and the energy of the Chinese, sharpened by the reward of three reals given them for each arroba.  More than one thousand five hundred persons worked at the sifting, and at the casting of new pieces.  As a result the necessary cannon for the defense of Cabite and Manila were manufactured in a short time.