ablest of the Spanish officers- who had been absent on a northern expedition, returned with his party the night before, and the troops and citizens, encouraged by the reunion, attacked the Chinese so gallantly, that they were again compelled to fly to their vessels. The piety of the Spaniards would not allow them to assume the honor of this spirited repulse. They rather ascribed it to the potent assistance of St. Andrew, on whose day the deliverance was effected. A public procession, with the usual holiday accompaniments, was appointed, and an annual solemnization of the same decreed, that so signal an interposition might never be forgotten.*

Disheartened by the loss of so many of his men, including his Japanese lieutenant, Limaon, withdrew to the province of Pangasinan on the gulf of Lingayen and there renewed his attempts at territorial occupation; enforcing his demands on the submission of the natives, by a declaration that he had destroyed Manila. When this news reached Labezares, he detached the valiant Salcedo, by sea, to intercept and chastise the pirate. Limaon found himself blockaded in a little estuary, but eluding the vigilance of Salcedo, he escaped, by cutting a new or deepening an old and unguarded channel. Satisfied however with his Spanish antagonists, he never returned to molest the Philippines.

Manila now rose again from its ashes, under the labors of Labezares and his associates, and soon recovered its former influence over the surrounding country. Two of the most intelligent of its clergy were also sent on a mission to the governor of Fuhkeën, with a message, of which Limaon and his expulsion was in part the burden.

After an administration, ad interim, of three years, Labezares was relieved in his government, by the arrival of Don Francisco Sandean Oidor of the Royal Audiencia of Mexico-duly appointed to succeed him. Soon after his arrival, the settlement suffered the loss of the ship Espirito Santo, with her crew and cargo, in the Straits of St. Bernardino.

In the October following (1575), the two envoys sent to Fuhkeën by Labezares, returned in a Chinese vessel, accompanied by an officer, authorized to accept the propositions of the Manila government, and to frame articles of commerce. Unhappily the new incumbent did not enter into the views of his predecessor, and the Chinese envoy

The San Andres' day has been continued down to the present time though many who mingle in its festivities, particularly among the strangers who share in the dance at the 'palacio,' may have forgotten, or never known, the brave deliverance commemorated.

disgusted by the want of attention to himself, or disappointed at receiving fair words only where he had expected Mexican silver, broke off negotiations and returned to his own country. The P. Martin de Rada and another friar determined to return with him, and thus exposed themselves to a vile trick from the vindictive ChiAfter getting clear of Manila and reaching a wild part of the coast near Cape Bolinao, their servants were cruelly beaten, and the padres themselves put on shore, stripped naked, and flogged severely.

nese.

Sande did not however neglect the domestic interests of his colony. We find him soon after sending a new expedition to the southward into Camarines, and founding a provincial capital (cabezera), calling it Nueva Caceres, after his native city. He had the misforture to lose one of his best supporters, in 1576, in the death of the gallant and successful Juan de Salcedo.

The following year, the first Franciscan missionaries reached the islands; the zeal of a lay brother-Antonio de San Gregorio-having moved the Order to send them. This humble individual, in the solitude of his convent at Lima, first conceived the design of a mission to New Guinea, and the then recently discovered Solomon's islands. He had already gone from his cell to Madrid and Rome; procured the sanction of the pope; enlisted seventeen individuals as his associates; when a royal order changed the destination of the mission to the Philippines. The new missionaries landed at Manila, the 24th June, and excited much admiration by their poor garb and pure spirit; the governor extending to them his distinguished protection, and their Augustine brethren giving them a hospitable welcome, until the liberality of the citizens provided for them a church and a convent.

The remissness of Sande in failing to cultivate a communication with the Chinese, drew on him the censure of his superiors in Mexico, as it had done that of the Manila residents. To recover from this imputation, he took advantage of a singular runaway expedition of two friars, who had been provided with a vessel, &c., by government, to go and introduce their missions into the northern parts of the island. These zealous rather than scrupulous men, after leaving Manila, betook themselves to Cauton, where the expenses of their residence and of their negotiations with the local officers, quite ate up their vessel and everything on board her. They were then compelled to retire to Macao, where one of them succeeded in giving existence to a Franciscan mission, but getting into difficulties with the

authorities, he was obliged to reembark, and was afterward drowned on the voyage, near the coast of Cochinchina. His companion returned to Manila, and frankly told the whole story of the truant expedition to the governor. The account reached him, just at the moment when he was most anxious to demonstrate his interest in an intercourse with China, and the friar and his associates got rewards and compliments, when they were expecting what they had merited- a severe

censure.

The fame of the Spanish power had now spread among the islands, and a Bornean prince-named Maleala-whose younger brother had shut him out from the succession, came in 1579, to seek succor, offering to hold his possessions as a fief of Spain and Portugal. This was too good an opportunity to be lost, and 30 vessels with a strong force, were fitted out to restore Maleala. Sande commanded in person, and was successful in placing his espoused in possession of his lost dominions. He returned safely, with some booty taken from the deposed prince; but soon after his departure from Borneo, Maleala was again driven out by his brother, who had meantime secured assistance from the Portuguese at the Moluccas.

Sande on his way home, detached Figueroa to Mindanao and the Súlú islands, the natives of which were equally ready to avouch themselves vassals of Spain while he was present, and to forget their fealty on his departure.

The same year Don Gonzalo Ronquillo de Penalosa, alguazil mayor of Mexico, being in Spain, entered into an engagement with the king to transport 600 men to the Philippines, to reduce and people them, in consideration of the life-government being vested in him. After losing one ship on the bar of San Lucar, Ronquillo at length embarked and arrived at Manila, via Panama, in 1580. Soon after his arrival he took up again the part of Maleala, and a second restoration of the fugitive was effected by his lieutenant Gabriel de Rivera. The new governor exerted himself further to tranquilise some disturbed districts and to put an end to the depredations of the Malay pirates. He next projected an expedition to Cagayan, the province which occupies the northern and northeastern part of LuDe Carrion, who commanded the detachment, found the port at the mouth of the river of Cagayan an important stream, which penetrates far south into the interior of the island occupied by a

zon.

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Japanese corsair, who was bent, it appeared, on a permanent occupation of the country. De Carrion, not daring to attack him, landed and threw up an intrenchment. His defenses were hardly completed,

when the Japanese rushed upon them, but the Spanish cannon were so well served and did so much execution, that after successive charges, the corsair retired to his ships, and soon after quitted the country. The Spaniards were thus left without a foreign rival in Cagayan and proceeded to secure their possession, but it was not until a later day that this region became a settled province of the colony.

Ronquillo, was fully sensible of the great advantages Manila would derive from a more certain and frequent communication with Mexico. To advance this end, he made another effort to open a southern passage; but the ship he despatched, after clearing New Guinea, was stopped by the same adverse winds, which had frustrated the expeditions of Saavedra and Villalobos. This seems to have been the last of the attempts after a southern route to Mexico; the naos, or galleons, henceforth pursuing the northern, starting in July or August, and, whenever baffled in getting beyond the Marianne islands, returning to Manila and waiting for the following season.

The year after Ronquillo assumed the government (1581), was marked by the arrival of the first bishop of Manila, Fr. Domingo de Salazar, a Dominican, who brought with him a further supply of ecclesiastics, including two Jesuits. He was unhappily soon involved in disputes as to the extent of his official rights and privileges. Instead of dwelling on these altercations, we will only notice one decision, recorded as having been taken this year, and much more honorable to its authors-that of studyimg and cultivating the native dialects, as means of imparting instruction. At this early period, it is further remarked, that the Fr. Juan de Placencia had translated the prayers and catechism into Tagalo - the dialect spoken around Manila and prepared a grammar and vocabulary.

The intelligence now reached Manila of the union of the crowns of Spain and Portugal, and the governor despatched the Jesuit Fr. Alonzo Sanchez to inform the authorities of Macao, and to receive their oath of allegiance to Philip II. P. Sanchez reached Macao in May 1582, and after spending some time in preparing the minds of the citizens for the change, he succeeded in securing their quiet submission. It is added that no public rejoicings or demonstrations It should be mentioned that as early as 1573, an English pilot, Philip Tonson (Thomson), a resident at Manila, had taken a ship, owned by merchants of the place, to San Blas by the southern route; ascending as high as 38' or 39° S. latitude, and discovering, on the way, several islands. The viceroy of Mexico and the king of Spain complimented the navigator on his successful voyage, but he did not live long enough to follow up his discoveries, or to enjoy the rank and pay conferred on him. Those who came after him, seem to have wanted the skill and hardihood, to profit by the experience he had gathered.

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of loyalty took place on this occasion, 'because they were in a strange country,' and were afraid of awakening suspicion on the part of the Chinese. The object of this mission happily accomplished, P. Sanchez sought to return to Manila. His own vessel being embargoed, he took passage via Japan, but was wrecked on the coast of Formosa. Returned once more to Macao, he was so fortunate as to find a conveyance to the Philippines, where he was received with great distinction by the governor and his fellow citizens.

The difficulties the P. Sanchez met with in getting back from his mission are among the very many evidences, in the accounts of this period, of the miserable state of communications between the ports of Eastern Asia. The following year, we meet with another. The nao of that season (1583) put in to Macao, on account of some mutinous conduct in her crew, and the factor was obliged to come over from Manila to recover the vessel and give her a new despatch for Acapulco. This done, he reëmbarked, but meeting with bad weather, was driven out of his course and brought up at Malacca ! It was late the next year, before he got back to Manila.

The life-government, for which Ronquillo had bargained, proved but a short possession. After three years of weak health, he died: and great preparations were made to give him honorable burial. On the ninth day, a funeral ceremony was celebrated, in the church of the Augustines, in the midst of which, the decorations of the church took fire, and all attempts to arrest the flames were ineffectual. The church itself, the palace, cathedral, and half the city, became the funeral pyre of the deceased Ronquillo.

His relative and successor ad interim, Don Diego Ronquillo, was compelled to give his first attention to the rebuilding of the half ruined city. Before this was accomplished, Don Santiago de Vera arrived, as president of the newly constituted 'Royal Audiencia,' and finding Ronquillo dead, assumed the governorship. By his direction, aid was sent to the Tidoreans, and a stone-fortification-planned by P. Sedeno was erected for the first time at Manila, and planted with cannon cast by a native Indian.

It was now thought desirable that the state of the colony-its commercial and political condition, its religious disquietudes, &c.,should be brought before the king and cortes; and P. Alonzo de Sanchez, who had acquired reputation by his mission to Macao, was unanimonsly deputed to perform this office. He left Manila in June 1586, and arrived at Seville in September 1587. His reports of the progress of the Philippine mission were received with much interest,