hese Western Islands, and his auditor in the royal Audiencia of
Mexico in Nueva Espana, declared that he has heard that a war-galley
of the king of Portugal was lost on the coast of Mindanao, and in
order to ascertain where it was going, and whose it was, he ordered
to be made, and did make, the following inquiries.

In verification of the abovesaid, the said governor summoned to his
presence a man, who declared his name to be Bartolome Fernandez,
a native of the city of Goa in Yndia. He said that he was there
a freeman, serving as page a Portuguese named Luis Fragoso; and
that he is a baptized Christian. The oath was taken and received
from him before God and the blessed Mary, and on the sign of the
cross, in the form prescribed by law; under which obligation,
being questioned, this witness said that he left the city of Goa,
in Yndia, about a year or so ago, in a galleon called "San Jhosef,"
under Captain Martin Lopez de Sossa, a nobleman. With the said ship
was a merchant ship from Cochin. The said ship "San Jhosef," had
one hundred old Portuguese soldiers, and one hundred others, young
mestizos of that land. It was equipped with twelve large pieces and
certain culverins. The soldiers were armd with arquebuses and other
weapons. This said vessel was despatched to Maluco, by order of the
governor of Yndia, Don Diego de Meneses, and the said Martin Lopez
de Sossa was captain. In Malaca, more of the mestizos of Yndia,
sons of Portuguese, were shipped, to the number of three hundred
men. These with the mestizos brought from Yndia, made somewhere
about five hundred men in the said galleon. A galley of twenty-four
benches accompanied it, each oar being manned with three men. They
carried lead. The galley was old and was given to them in Malaca by
the captain of Malaca, named Arias de Saldeva, who is captain of the
fortress. The captain of the sea is Matias de Alburquerque. Because
of the said Martin Lopez de Sossa falling sick, he remained in Malaca,
very sick; and one of his brothers, Pedro Lopez de Sossa, came in his
place as captain of the said galleon. Another nobleman, Tome de Sossa,
a former page of the said Matias de Alburquerque, captain of the sea,
was made captain of the said galley. This witness was aboard this
galley, in the service of the said Tome de Sossa, who brought this
witness from Yndia to Malaca. Thus the said galleon and galley, with
the people above mentioned (of whom some fifty soldiers were aboard