Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 02).djvu/283

 remedy, aid, nor favor—which I expected from friends and vassals of a sovereign so related by kinship and blood with his majesty; and as I would have done for them, if I had found them in the plight in which they find me. It is no valid objection to say that I have had ships in which I could have left—such, for example, as the "Capitana" and the "San Juan," which went to Nueva España—for the "Capitana" carried about two hundred persons, and the patache "San Juan" seventy, which number was the utmost that they could carry, on account of the supplies and rigging which they bore. Nor does it avail to say that I intentionally ran the flagship aground, for the opposite is the truth; nor should it be presumed or believed that a vessel so much needed by this camp (the property, moreover, of his majesty) could purposely have been run aground—which statement any person who is willing to look at the matter dispassionately, will clearly perceive. And it avails even less to say that the father Fray Andres de Urdaneta requested me to settle in the island of Ladrones, for this did not occur; nor will such a request ever appear, in truth, save in so far as it was discussed whether it would be well for us to go to that island, in view of our having no supplies, or any kind of meat, or anything to live on. It was agreed by all that we should proceed thither, as was done; and the six hundred crafts which he said came alongside the ships came to beg and not to give. For, in all the ten days of our stay there, we could not buy ten fanégas of rice; and if they brought anything, it was cocoanuts, bananas, tamalle, and other articles of the fruit kind, of very unsubstantial and ordinary quality. This will prove to be the truth, rather than what is