and the sailors. The Sangley ship, seeing them bearing down upon it,
tried to take flight; but, the contrary wind not permitting this,
as a consequence, the Spanish ships, by means of sail and oar, came
within cannon range, and even nearer, in a few moments. On one of
the Spanish ships was a Chinese named Sinsay, who had been in Manila
many times with merchants, and was very friendly and well known to the
Spaniards, and understood their language. When this man saw that the
ship was Chinese, and that, from its appearance, it was not a pirate,
he requested our men not to fire or do any damage until it was known
clearly who its occupants were. He went to the bow of the vessel and
hailed them, thus ascertaining that theirs was one of the ships of the
fleet sent by their king in search of the pirate Limahon. They had left
the fleet behind and put out to sea in order to explore those islands,
to ascertain whether the pirate were in any of them. In order to gain
this information, they were about to put in to the port of Buliano,
whence the Spaniards were coming out with two ships, and from whom
they tried to flee, fearful lest they should prove to belong to the
pirate. Thus assured on each side, the two parties joined together
in all peace and friendship. The Spaniards immediately entered a
small boat, and went over to the Chinese ship, taking with them the
said Synsay as interpreter, in order that he might talk with the
Chinese. In the ship of the latter was a man of much influence named
Homoncon, who bore a decree from his king, which he showed to the
Spaniards and to the father provincial, in which the king and his
council pardoned all of Limahon's soldiers, on condition that they
immediately left the latter and enrolled themselves under the royal
banners; and it bestowed great reward upon whomsoever should capture
or kill the said pirate. Thereupon Sinsay told him of the coming of
the pirate to the island, and all the story of the siege, as related
above; and that the pirates were shut up on the Pangasinan River,