Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 06).djvu/106

 for the courageous soldiers well knew that, if they remained alive, the fatigue and weariness would soon pass away. With this incessant work, they were enabled to make a fort out of planks, and casks filled with sand, with such other means of defense as these few hours permitted. They brought out four pieces of very excellent artillery that were in the city. These were placed in good position, and all the people were gathered in the little fort thus made. This occurred, as we believe, through the providence of God, our Lord, who did not choose that the many souls baptized in those islands, and sealed with the light of the knowledge of His most holy faith, should return into the power of the devil, from whose grasp He had drawn them by His infinite mercy. Neither did He wish that the convenient proximity of those islands to the great kingdom of China be lost, by which means, perhaps, his divine Majesty has ordained the salvation and rescue of all that country. The night before the assault. Captain Juan de Salcedo, lieutenant-governor of the town of Fernandina, arrived—who, as we said, was coming for the purpose of aiding the Spaniards of Manila. His coming and that of his companions was clearly the chief remedy for both the city and its inhabitants; for, besides being few, the work of the late resistance and that of preparing the defenses for the coming assault, together with the fear left in their hearts by the danger in which they beheld themselves, had rendered them feeble and in great need of help such as this; and he seemed to all of them to have been sent miraculously by God. With this arrival, all recovered courage and the assured hope of making a courageous resistance. They prepared themselves for this immediately, because