menderos, and from there
to give the soldiers and captains some gratification and pay._ All the
captains and soldiers of this camp perform their duties grumblingly,
since the encomenderos enjoy the fruits of their labor. Through false
representations the encomenderos have remained behind, instead of
coming here on this pacification. If each encomendero has to live on
his encomienda, and the heirs of Estevan Rodriguez in some part of the
island, there is nothing left for the captains and soldiers. The owners
should come, therefore, to reduce their encomiendas to subjection,
since they take the gain. They do not go very far upon the road,
and it is not a good argument to say that each one will pacify his
own encomienda; for so long as this river is unpacified, nothing
is pacified. Your Lordship should order all of them, without any
exception, to come in person, and to bring some soldiers at their own
cost, with sufficient food for a year's maintenance. In this way,
something will be done; for an encomienda cannot be pacified with
only one soldier, paid by an encomendero. I entreat your Lordship to
decide quickly upon the course to be taken, and, with the same haste,
to send me immediate advice by a birey. The route is open, and the
virey can come here any time in June; thus I may be advised in advance
of your Lordship's orders as to the course to pursue here, and this
needy people may be encouraged with the hope of speedy relief. Your
Lordship should write to them, thanking them for their labors, and
encouraging them with their pay, to continue their work. May God
preserve your Lordship many years, with the increase of dignities
that we your servants desire. Tanpaca, May 10, 97. Your Lordship's
most humble servant.

_Don Juan Ronquillo_

[_Endorsed:_ "Mindanao, 1597. General Don Juan Rronquillo."]

_The campaign_

The sargento-mayor of the city of Manila left for Mindanao on the
thirtieth of December of ninety-six, and arrived at the city of Zebu
on the fourteenth of January. He left there for La Caldera [41]
on the twenty-ninth of the said month, and arrived at La Caldera
on the second of February, where he found the fleet of Mindanao,
which had gone away for lack of supplies. The whole fleet left La
Caldera on the sixth of said month, in the direction of Mindanao;
and on the eleventh Captain Torivio de Misa was sent forward with a
galliot and two lapis, as he suspected that the unfriendly Indians
had surrounded th