t some light craft within their fort. They are
said to have calked these, for want of pitch, with their own blood;
and to have carried them on their shoulders for several leguas over
land, until they succeeded in launching them into the sea, and fled
under full sail. They left their ships in the river and dismantled
the forts and camps, where our men found some spoils, of which I saw
a part. But satisfaction over the booty was outweighed by chagrin at
losing the enemy whom they had practically in their hands. The enemy,
however, had received such a lesson that they never returned.

Some years afterwards they planned to elect another patron against
hurricanes, which are called in those parts _vagios_, and by the
Portuguese _tufones_. [42] They are furious winds which, springing
up ordinarily in the north, veer toward the west and south, and move
around the compass in the space of twenty hours or more.

One of these days of tempest is a very Judgment day; especially
if it overtake one in the night-time, and in a wooden house. It
rends some houses, and turns others over on one side; still others
(and most frequently) it destroys and hurls to the ground. With the
assistance of the bishop of Yucatan, [43] who was at that time dean
of the church, the cathedral of Manila had been temporarily erected,
with pillars of the very strongest trees, so large that two men could
not reach around them; and all the timber above and below was on the
same scale; yet in half an hour one of these typhoons destroyed the
newly-built cathedral, and left only the tabernacle of the most Holy
Sacrament between four pillars. In this accident some people were
killed: for, fleeing from their houses, which were falling to pieces
over their heads, they betook themselves for greater safety to the
church. The vessels in the bay were hurled ashore the distance of a
stone's throw, and those who were caught in the tempest were carried
away like straw. To remedy so great an evil, lots were cast with great
solemnity at a concourse of all classes; from these came forth the
[name of the] most glorious virgin St. Potenciana--not without much
mystery; for, on the day when the event took place (the 19th of May),
one of the earliest settlers, hearing her name called, arose and said:
"Hers is the day when we first entered Manila, by which it is meant
that our Lord chose to inform us of the obligation that we owe to
this glorious Saint." What followed confirmed his s