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1521–1569]
RESUME OF DOCUMENTS
105

del Saz, and the pataches "San Juan" and "San Lucas," captained by Juan de la Isla and Alonso de Arellano respectively. The vessels bore as pilots Esteban Rodriguez (chief pilot), Pierres Plin (or Plun, a Frenchman), Jaymes Martinez Fortun, Diego Martin, Rodrigo de Espinosa, and Lope Martin, Legazpi's vessel, the "San Pedro," carried a small brigantine on her poop deck. On November 25, Legazpi opened the instructions given him by the Audiencia, which radically changed the course from the one that had been hitherto pursued—the new course being in accord with the advice of Carrión, and by the same route which Villalobos had taken. "The religious in the fleet were very sorry at this, giving out that they had been deceived; and had they known while yet ashore, that such a route was to be pursued, they would not have accompanied the expedition, for the reasons that father Fray Andres de Urdaneta had advanced in Mexico." But they expressed their willingness to make the expedition now for the service of God and the holy Catholic faith, the increase of the kingdom, and the general good of the fleet. On the night of the twenty-ninth, the "San Lucas," which, by the general's orders, was accustomed to take its position at night ahead of his vessel, became separated from the rest of the fleet and was seen no more.[1] Being

  1. This vessel, after trying to find—or at least making such a claim—the fleet in Mindanao and other islands, returned to New Spain, anchoring at Puerto de la Navidad August 9, 1565. A relation by its captain Alonso de Arellano, gives an account of this voyage (published in Col. doc. inéd. Ultramar, iii, no. 37, pp. 1–76). Testimony as to the truth of this relation is given under oath by its author, his pilot Lope Martin, and others. It is quite evident throughout that it was written with the hope of explaining satisfactorily the "San Lucas's" sudden disappearance and failure