At this same time of which we have spoken, there came down from up
the river which flows by Manilla, several chiefs of a village named
Caynta, to proclaim themselves friends of the governor. This said
village had about a thousand inhabitants, and was surrounded by very
tall and very dense bamboo thickets, and fortified with a wall and a
few small culverins. The same river as that of Manilla circles around
the village and a branch of it passes through the middle dividing it in
two sections. Now when they had made their declarations of friendship
to the Spaniards, and saw our situation and condition in Manilla,
they came to think lightly of us; and, after their departure to their
village, sent word that they did not care to be friends, but would
rather fight with the governor and his men. They said that, if the
Spaniards would come up the river for this purpose, they would see how
the people of Caynta would hurl them from their lands. The governor
gave them a month or two to return to their allegiance, and sent
certain friendly Indians to treat with them; but no conclusion could
be reached until the governor sent his nephew Juan de Sauzedo with one
hundred soldiers to conquer them, or rather to destroy them. During
this interim there arrived the two ships coming from Nueva Espana,
which had been lying in port in the island of Panay. I have already
told above how the master-of-camp had gone to order them to come to
this port of Manilla. On the fifteenth of August, the day of the
Assumption of our Lady, they arrived; and on the same day Captain
Juan de Sauzedo embarked in a galley, with his hundred soldiers and
three pieces of heavy artillery, to go to the fort of Caynta. He
ascended the river for three days before he reached the fort. After
his arrival, the captain, following out the orders of the governor,
waited three days longer, summoning them to return to the terms of
peace and friendship with the Spaniards which had been arranged with
the governor at Manilla. The ill-fated creatures were intractable,
on account of the confidence which they had in their miserable fort;
and for response told the captain that they desired to fight. They
called upon their hearers as witnesses of the fact, saying that on the
day of the battle it would be seen that their God was better than the
one worshiped by the Castilians. This latter statement was shown to
be a falsehood; for God our Lord was vindicated, and they and their
demons, whom