necessity, perchance, compel us to undertake
this, you may know what we are doing here about it.

His Majesty's two fortresses in Gilolo, as your Lordship knows, serve
only as garrisons for eighty soldiers, sixty of them Spanish. They
are continually dying and falling sick, and because of our lack of
men in these forts, which are of importance, those men would prove
very advantageous here, while there they are of no use. Whenever the
enemy may attack them in force, they cannot be succored by either
sea or land. Consequently, I think, for these and other reasons,
that it would be wise to withdraw them before the enemy oblige us by
force to do so. Will your Lordship order this to be considered, and
ordain what is most advisable. At present the enemy have two ships,
as I wrote in my previous letters.

The surgeon sent by your Lordship for this hospital I am sending back,
as he is useless here--both because father Fray Juan de Santamaria, a
lay brother of St. Francis, is here, who attends to this with charity,
willingness, and great skill; and because the former has certain
defects or excesses that are not suitable for a country so short of
the sort of thing that he specially cares about, and of which even
the sick are in want. Consequently, he would do better in Panay or
La Pampanga, and his Majesty would save six hundred pesos of salary.

Just now I learned from the king of Tidore that many Dutchmen were
killed at the burning of the fort of Ambueno. Yesterday a ship arrived
at the forts of Malayo from the Sunda. I suspect that it does not
bring altogether pleasant news, for it entered very silently. All
say that the fleet in Ambueno will come. However, it is said that the
commander Lorenco el Real and other captains were killed in that fire,
besides other prominent people. Consequently there are three of the
enemy's ships here now.

The ship "San Antonio el Chico" [_i.e._, "the little"] is going with
this despatch, and the "Santa Margarita" will remain here. Further
nothing else offers at present of which to advise your Lordship, whom
may our Lord preserve with all possible prosperous estate. Tidore,
June 30, 1618.

_Lucas de Bergara Gaviria_

As I have heard that Governor Lucas de Vergara Gaviria is giving
your Lordship a long account of the condition of affairs in these
islands, I shall not say more in this than to refer to his letter,
and only to greet you in my own name, and tell you of the so great
affl