easures so obstinately. When the commander stopped
speaking, he ordered every one to express his opinion. Thereupon,
the father prior, Fray Andres de Urdaneta, arose and spoke first,
as was his custom, because of his experience and his offices, and
because all the Spaniards regarded him as a father, from whom must
originate the remedy. He said that natural law conceded to them the
right to get provisions by the readiest means, in order that that
fleet, which had been constructed for the good of those barbarians,
might not perish. Even if the end of their coming had not been so
great and important to those peoples, it was a well-known wrong
to refuse them the intercourse most natural to men, without the
Spaniards having given any occasion for it. Inasmuch as they were
reduced to the preservation of life itself, they were justified in
taking arms, wherewith to get the sustenance that the Indians had
unjustly withheld from them and refused them for their money. _Quibus
necessarium tunc est bellum_. Therefore, he considered war justifiable,
since by no other way had any remedy been found among those unreasoning
barbarians. But before commencing war, he said, a solemn declaration
of the wrongs should be made, of which the Spaniards would be, in
no manner, guilty, since they had labored so sincerely for peace
and harmony. Father Urdaneta's advice was concurred in unanimously,
as was usual. Accordingly, his advice was followed on this occasion,
as being the sanest and most sensible.

In order to put the decision of the conference into execution,
the governor ordered Martin de Goiti to land with fifty well-armed
soldiers. By means of the interpreter, Pacheco, he was to announce the
articles of peace to the Indians; and declare that, if they did not
accord what was so reasonable to all, then they should prepare for the
war, which, from that moment was proclaimed on them as rebels. The
Indians paid no more heed to this than to all the rest that had
been told them. Thus it was necessary to make use of their arms. The
arquebuses were fired more to scare than to harm the Indians; for, as
soon as those natives heard the report, being so little used to them,
their terror was so great, that, without awaiting more, they abandoned
the shore and village, fled to the hills, and allowed the soldiers
to collect the swine that were found there, and the fowls and rice
that they could carry away. All this was appraised at its just value,
and t