Page:The jade story book; stories from the Orient (IA jadestorybooksto00cous).pdf/352

336 enormous fleet of the Spaniards whose numbers were so great that in no direction could the horizon be seen. His heart sank within him, for he knew well that he and his country were doomed.

Though he could not hope to win in a fight against such great numbers, he called his head men together, and said:

"My Brothers, the Spanish dogs have come to destroy the land. We cannot successfully oppose them, but in the defense of the fatherland we can die."

So the great warship was again prepared, and all the soldiers of Islam embarked, and then with Bantugan standing at the bow they sailed forth to meet their fate.

The fighting was fast and furious, but soon the great warship of Bantugan filled with water until at last it sank, drawing with it hundreds of the Spanish ships. And then a strange thing happened. At the very spot where Bantugan's warship sank, there arose from the sea a great island which you can see to-day not far from the mouth of the Rio Grande. It is covered with bongo-palms, and deep within its mountains live