The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803; explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commericial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the beginning of the nineteenth century; [Vol. 1, no. 13]

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THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS

[Vol. 13

They then resolved to cast anchor, hoping in this way
to gain some safety for the vessel, and thus they remained during an entire night in twenty-six brazas
of water, exposed to great danger, and in fear of
being lost. On the next morning, the auditor Don
Antonio de Ribera (who went as commander and
chief of the vessel), seeing the great danger to which
they were exposed, and considering all human means
weak and useless, hastened to entreat the Divine favor; and, recalling those which our Lord had recently bestowed upon certain persons through the
mediation of our blessed Father Ignatius, resolved
upon this occasion to implore his favor and assistance,
and to beseech our Lord, through the merits of His
servant, to give them at ten o'clock that day a propitious wind whereby the vessel might reach a place
of safety. He added that he did not set that time as
a limitation to the divine Majesty, but because such
answer to their prayer would show that the mercy
bestowed upon them had come through the intercession of the blessed Father Ignatius, to whom they
made an offering of the vessel and its deliverance.
This petition and its conditions he called those to witness who were then present in the stern-cabin.
The shallop was launched, to seek some refuge
within the shelter of the shore where the ship might
be anchored, and the men were ordered to give signals when they should find it. But while the shallop
was reconnoitering the shore, the galleon began to
drift from its moorings toward the shoals and the
rocky coast, whither the force of the wind was bearing it. Accordingly a cannon was fired, to call back
the crew of the shallop, so that it might accompany
the vessel and lend to its crew what assistance it could.