In the opinion of all it was the greatest misfortune that the news had not arrived sooner, so that our fleet could have gone to meet it; for not a single ship would have escaped; and, had he followed them to Maluco, he would have destroyed their forces without difficulty--as Don Geronimo de Silva, his cousin, wrote to him, whose letter I have.

I heard afterward from the same man that he had made a treaty with all of them to surrender their forts to him if Don Juan arrived.

God did not so ordain it, for our sins or for His secret judgments.

So great an opportunity, which might have ended the war, was lost, for all the natives were resolved to become our friends; for they always cry "long live the conqueror!" Sections 1, 9, and 15 of Don Geronimo's letter are of the following tenor.
Letter of Don Geronimo de Silva, Governor of Maluco I am replying to the duplicate of your Lordship, which I received by the hand of Captain Juan Cutirez Paramo and Sargento-mayor Don Pedro Tellez, dated at the Strait of Sincapura, March 15, in which your Lordship gives me advice of the resolution that you took in Manila to make your voyage to Malaca, expecting to find there the viceroy of India, or at least the squadron of galleons from that state--a thing as generally desired by all as it is deemed difficult by me.

For I could never persuade myself that the viceroy of India would decide to send a larger fleet this year than the four galleons; and, supposing this, I would have been glad had your Lordship not gone in search of the viceroy this year.