LETTER FROM VERA TO FELIPE II
Sire:
In the past year of 87, I sent your Majesty an account of the condition of this land, by the usual route, and also one by way of India. As the voyage is so uncertain and dangerous, another duplicate is sent herewith; and I beg your Majesty to have it examined, as it is important for your service.
On the twenty-seventh of February of this year, I had news from the Pintados Islands that, on the seventh of the said month, at one of the islands about eighty leagues south of Luçon, an English ship had been seen. With their small boat they had seized a Spanish sailor who was coasting along carelessly in a small bark. He did not flee from the enemy, as he took them to be Spaniards and friends; for it is unusual for ships from England to come here. Next day the English learned that a galleon of your Majesty was being built in the shipyard of Caigoan on the island of Panay. An attempt was made to land troops for the purpose, as is supposed, of burning it; but it was defended by some carpenters and calkers who were working thereon. By this it may be inferred that the enemy carried but a small force. After this resistance, the enemy went to Mindanao, leaving on an islet in their course the mariner whom
