Within a short time, the viceroy prepared one hundred and thirty large vessels, manned by forty thousand men, all under command of a gentleman named Omoncon.

This man was ordered to seek and pursue the pirate, being expressly commanded to capture or kill him, even if he should endanger his ships and men while doing it.

Limahon was at once informed of all this, through certain secret friends.

As he saw that the plan to pursue him was being pushed forward in all earnestness, and that he was inferior to his enemy in point of ships and men, he determined not to await the latter, but to withdraw from that coast.

In his flight he betook himself to a remote island, Tonzuacaotican by name, forty leagues from the mainland, and lying in the pathway to the Felipinas.