Note 21 — Portuguese and Spanish Expedition Against the Dutch, 1615

Recognizing the approach of death, he received the holy sacraments, and performed many acts of faith and penitence, protesting that he was dying in the service of his king, and, as he hoped, in that of God, for his intent had been none but the conservation and increase of the Catholic faith and the destruction of heresy in those districts. And he said that if the natives had been harassed any, those molestations had not been intended and were unavoidable, for war brings them. He ordered his body to be embalmed and carried to this city of Manila in the flagship galley. From here he ordered his body to be carried to Xerez de los Cavalleros, where he ordered a convent of discalced Carmelites to be founded; and that his remains should be deposited in Page 280the residences of the Society. Thus was it done in Malaca, and afterward here in Manila, where all that fleet arrived in the first part of June, on the eve of Corpus Christi, in the year of 1616. The mission and ministry of Ours and of the other religious who took part in the campaign had lasted for four months, in which they had a very abundant harvest of souls, discomforts and hardships; for they had been two months below the equator itself, where they suffered incomparable heat and drank poor water, which was the cause of the men catching the plague. And hence there was considerable to do, and in which to employ their fervor, particularly during Lent and Holy Week, which they spent at sea.21