sustained no loss. He reached these islands in September of ninety-six, with the flagship and part of his men. The other ship was crippled by a storm and made port at Malaca, and the rest of the men came in the following year from Malaca. When Blas Ruiz and Diego Bellosso reached the kingdom of the Laos, they found that the king of Canboxa and his elder son were dead, and that the younger, called Prauncar, alone remained, together with his mother and grandmother. This son, in company with Blas Ruiz and Diego Bellosso, descended upon Canboxa, with an auxiliary force of six thousand Laos. They found the country divided by factions, and that a son of the tyrant whom the Spaniards had killed had returned to reign over the greater part of it. There were many battles with these enemies of theirs, all of which by the help of Blas Ruiz and Diego Bellosso, and about ten Spaniards, from those who had made port at Malaca, who joined them—were gained by Prauncar. These few Spaniards did marvels in the sight of all these heathens, so that Prauncar, the legitimate king, has recovered his whole kingdom, except one small province which still remained for him to subject. On account of this, and of the friendship which his father had had with the Spaniards, and the assistance which he had just received from them, he wrote to me by an ambassador of his, who came to this city, of the outcome of all these matters, asking me to send religious and Spaniards to settle his kingdom, make Christians, and build churches, offering every facility for it. At this time Don Luis Dasmariñas, having some knowledge of affairs in Camboxa, urged me to give him permission to go with some men at his own cost to begin the conversion of
