ught that it would be impossible to set foot there
on account of the unfavorable condition of affairs. He started to
return to these islands; but, as the weather was not suitable for the
voyage, he coasted along Cochinchina, where he repaired his ships,
and sent overland, to the kingdom of the Laos, Bias Ruiz and Diego
Bellosso, well-known to the king of Canboxa, to acquaint him with
what had taken place in his kingdom, so that he should descend upon
it. Thereupon he left Cochinchina, where he had had some unpleasant
encounters with the king and natives, in which, however, he sustained
no loss. He reached these islands in September of ninety-six, with
the flagship and part of his men. The other ship was crippled by
a storm and made port at Malaca, and the rest of the men came in
the following year from Malaca. When Blas Ruiz and Diego Bellosso
reached the kingdom of the Laos, they found that the king of Canboxa
and his elder son were dead, and that the younger, called Prauncar,
alone remained, together with his mother and grandmother. This son,
in company with Blas Ruiz and Diego Bellosso, descended upon Canboxa,
with an auxiliary force of six thousand Laos. They found the country
divided by factions, and that a son of the tyrant whom the Spaniards
had killed had returned to reign over the greater part of it. There
were many battles with these enemies of theirs, all of which--by the
help of Blas Ruiz and Diego Bellosso, and about ten Spaniards, from
those who had made port at Malaca, who joined them--were gained by
Prauncar. These few Spaniards did marvels in the sight of all these
heathens, so that Prauncar, the legitimate king, has recovered his
whole kingdom, except one small province which still remained for
him to subject. On account of this, and of the friendship which his
father had had with the Spaniards, and the assistance which he had
just received from them, he wrote to me by an ambassador of his, who
came to this city, of the outcome of all these matters, asking me to
send religious and Spaniards to settle his kingdom, make Christians,
and build churches, offering every facility for it. At this time Don
Luis Dasmarinas, having some knowledge of affairs in Camboxa, urged
me to give him permission to go with some men at his own cost to begin
the conversion of that kingdom, and its settlement by Spaniards. This
expedition being proper, in my opinion and that of the Audiencia,
because of its many consequences for