and with it the whole island of Mindanao lost courage and were awed. The island was surrendered peacefully, and is peaceful today. They acknowledged obedience to our sovereign, the king, whereupon the robberies and injuries which the Terrenatans were accustomed to commit in the provinces of the Pintados, who are your Majesty's vassals, have ceased.
Before these happy results, Don Juan Ronquillo wrote a letter to Don Francisco Tello, governor of the Philipinas, in which he told how far this conquest of Mindanao extended, and the distress of the camp for lack of supplies, unless he were continually assisted from these islands. For that island is quite lacking in them, and altogether of little profit or substance to his Majesty, as it is a poor and wretched land, lacking in everything; and, even when it is pacified, the natives there would not be able to pay tribute, on account of its great sterility. It would likewise be impossible to come to close quarters with the Indians, because they never stand their ground, and are able to inflict injury with safety to themselves, shooting arrows from the heights at the Spanish camp without any possibility of being attacked in return, because they flee immediately to the mountains. When the said governor, Don Francisco Tello, heard this, he called a council of war of the most practiced and experienced captains in the land; and, having read the letter of the said Don Joan Ronquillo, all were unanimous that, if the island of Mindanao was so fruitless and profitless, and the pacification would have to spread so far over it, the said Don Joan Ronquillo should be ordered to have a last fight with the natives of the island, and do them all the harm possible, with-
