Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 06).djvu/107

 the pirate, before dawn of the morning following—two days after the assault, as above related, by the four hundred soldiers at his orders—appeared with his entire fleet in front of the port. He disembarked about six hundred soldiers, who without delay fell upon the city, which they were able to sack and burn at will, as indeed they did; for the inhabitants had abandoned it, as above stated, at the order and command of the governor, gathering at the fort for greater security.

Having set fire to the city, they attacked the fort, flushed with their past murders, and fully persuaded that the inmates would offer little resistance. But the outcome was not so certain as they thought, because of the great valor and courage of those inside, through which all the pirates who had the daring to enter the fort paid for their boldness with their lives. Upon seeing this, the Chinese withdrew, after fighting almost all that day, and losing two hundred men (who were killed in the assault), besides many wounded. Of the Spaniards but two were killed, namely, the ensign Sancho Ortiz, and the alcalde of the same city, Francisco de Leon.

The pirate Limahon, who was a man of astuteness and ability, in consequence of all this—and as it seemed to him that to persist further in his design against the steadfastness of the Spaniards, which was different from what he had experienced hitherto, was to lose time and people—resolved to embark and sail to the port of Cabite, whence he had come. First he collected very carefully his dead, whom he buried afterward in the above-named island, remaining there for this purpose two days. Then leaving this place, he returned by the same route that he had