Francisco de Sandes, 1589 
55 
he rendered to your Majesty was his discovery of a man who was defraud¬ 
ing the royal fifths 37 of silver by means of a false coining stamp. Sandes 
executed justice upon him, confiscating half of his possessions, these being 
one hundred thousand ducats. 
Sandes was then promoted to be oidor of the same Audiencia, in which 
position he earned a good reputation, as the royal Council of the Indies 
will report. Then, after having served successfully in the war with the 
Chichimecas, which was intrusted to him, he was appointed governor and 
captain-general of the Philippine Islands. There he governed so wisely, 
that, finding the islands robbed and sacked and burned by the corsairs, 
the inhabitants living in fear of the Moros, especially of the Moro king 
of Borneo and the revolted Indians who refused to pay tribute or attend 
Christian instruction, and finding the Spaniards thereby impoverished, he 
restored the lost reputation of the government. Using galleys and artil¬ 
lery which he manufactured, he vanquished the king of Borneo in a naval 
battle in which the latter attacked him with fifty galleys well armed with 
artillery. Sandes put him to flight, and, seizing his galleys, took twenty- 
seven of them and four hundred pieces of artillery to Manila as booty. 
All these spoils he turned over, with other booty, to your Majesty’s 
treasury officers, without taking for himself anything of that which the 
laws allow to captains-general. He claimed nothing for himself save the 
exaltation of the name of your Majesty which he achieved by punishing 
the boldness of the Moros, and their king, who were trying to disturb the 
peace of those islands which had cost so much of the blood and treasure 
of your Majesty’s vassals. Sailing where no captain of your Majesty 
had ever been, he reached the most remote parts of the land, always 
gaining victories for the standards of your Majesty, so that in his time 
there were no corsairs, as there had been before and frequently after. 
He increased the possessions of the king, took much artillery, all of bronze, 
as well as ships, and gained great reputation among all those nations, 
especially in the execution of justice, toward those conquered and toward 
strangers, acting as the mirror of your Majesty so that he caused them to 
marvel that a conqueror should not rob nor profane the natural rights of 
the conquered. 
Although he expects, for such distinguished services, to receive from 
your Majesty’s grandeur and justice the reward usually given to the ser¬ 
vants who thus serve you, he now beseeches your Majesty, since the visi¬ 
tation of Mexico and the residencia of the Philippines have been reviewed 
by the Council of the Indies, and since as a result of the residencia he has 
been fined six thousand ducats for the costs of justice and transportation 
of friars, and in the visitation five hundred ducats—he alone of all his 
companions not having been suspended, [which is] proof of the fidelity 
and uprightness with which he discharged his duties—to be so gracious as 
to remit to him the said fine or such part of it as you will, so that by this 
indication he may begin to understand that his services have been accept¬ 
able. For, granting that the Council has justly fined him the amount 
specified notwithstanding he had hoped that, in recognition of his con¬ 
tinuous intention to do right, his actions would have been differently 
estimated, he has necessities caused by such wide wanderings, so much 
