Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 10).djvu/63

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1597–1599]
RONQUILLO TO MORGA
59

that if the enemy fled I should follow them even as far as their own country. When the men got back I embarked, on Thursday morning, which I reckon to be the third of November. By noon I had come in sight of the enemy, where I anchored, and we exchanged cannon-shots. Seeing that he had a larger force than I had understood, I immediately sent an order to Captain Guerrero who was in Butil, that he should come down to the river of Vitara to the sea, with a galliot, and enter the mouth of this river of Mindanao and come within sight of the enemy, and exchange cannon-shots on his arrival. He did so, arriving at noon on Friday. On the way he met an outpost of the enemy, and killed a few Indians who were with them, with a cannon-shot. When he arrived at cannon-shot distance from the fort he anchored, and commenced to fire. The enemy replied so well that at the first shot they hit the galliot, and it was only by good fortune that it did not go to the bottom. With the second they killed a soldier. With such exercise the day was passed. Saturday morning, Lumaguan having arrived with some troops that were expected, I ordered Captain Guerrero to land immediately with twenty-five soldiers and join me, leaving the rest and the captain of the galliot in it, with orders that, when the troops began the investment, the galliot should come up close to the mouth of a lake which was close to the fort. Accordingly, when these troops came I landed ninety men with Captains Juan Pacho, Guerrero, Ruy Gomes, Grabiel Gonzalez, and Altra. I circled about the fort with the galley, fighting with a good deal of skirmishing, and the galliot doing the same on the other side, so that we had the fort between us. On my side the