In the former year of six hundred and sixteen, seven galleons were
stationed at the city of Manila and the port of Cabite, one of which
[53] came built from Yndia, and was bought in Pinacan for the service
of your Majesty. The other six were built in the time of Don Juan de
Silva, and Don Juan Ronquillo [54] took them all when he sailed in
pursuit of the enemy at Playa Honda. These said galleys were in the
greatest need of being repaired--one because it was very badly used
up in the fight, and another because its decks had not been changed
for two years; while most of them were holed along the sides by
seaworms and leaked badly, and all their masts, yards, and topmasts
were rotten. Consequently, Don Geronimo de Silva, captain-general of
those islands, was preparing to send them to be repaired (except three)
to the island of Marinduque, forty leguas from Manila, in order to
avoid the expense of hauling the wood, while awaiting the arrival of
the ships from Nueva Espana in which Don Alonso Fajardo came last year
(one thousand six hundred and eighteen), in order to repair the said
galleys with that money [brought by those ships]. He also intended
to hold them in readiness, in order to comply with your Majesty's
orders, sent by a despatch-boat, to keep them so prepared that they
might join the fleet that was about to sail with reenforcements by
way of the cape of Buena Esperanca, to make the journey to the Malucas
Islands and drive the enemy from them.
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