Chapter XXIII.
Relates the causes which led the Captain to create a ministry of war, and the names of the officers.
The Lord having been served that the Captain should find anchorage for his ships in so long sought-for, so good, and so necessary a port, seeing the excellence of the land which surrounded it, the necessity there was to take possession in the name of His Majesty, feeling the contest in his mind that his desires should be fulfilled, that there should be full security for celebrating the divine offices, and that for this and the rest that had been done here there was manifest risk, for the natives with their arms, from the woods and the beaches, continually attacked, so that we could not seek for wood, water, or provisions, or fell timber for the ship’s use to make certain bulk-heads for storing and arranging the cargo; seeing, also, how much it imported that the roads should be guarded by escorts, and that there should be ambuscades to alarm the enemy and secure our safety; knowing further that for the royal authority, the better establishment of the work, the discipline of the people, the union of all their wills, and for other hidden reasons, and for them altogether, it was very necessary and obligatory to create a ministry of war and marine, so that by land and sea there might be established such order that what was desired might be the better secured; and that it may not be a cost of His Majesty, and be the means of giving satisfaction, and of making a foundation, and they themselves having petitioned for it, he named—
| To act as Admiral | Pedro Bernal Cermeño. | |
| Master of the Camp | Luis Vaez de Torres. | |
| Royal Ensign | Lucas de Quiros. | |
| Captain andSergeant-Major | Pedro Lopez de Sojo. | |
| His Ensign | Pedro de Castro. | |
| His Sergeant | Francisco Martin Toscano. | |
| His Aide-de-Camp | Francisco Davila. | |
| Captain of the crew of the“Almiranta” | Alonso Alvarez de Castro. | |
| His Ensign | Manuel Rodriguez Africano. | |
| His Sergeant | Domingo Andres. | |
| Captain of the Launch | Pedro Garcia da Lumbreras. | |
| His Ensign | Francisco Gallardo. | |
| His Sergeant | Antonio Gonzalez. | |
| Captain of the Artillery | Andres Perez Coronado. | |
| Constables of the threeVessels | Francisco Ponce. | |
| Lazaro de Olivera. | ||
| Antonio Balalan. | ||
| Chief Pilot | Gaspar Gonzalez de Leza. | |
| Assistant Pilot | Francisco Fernandez. | |
These elections having been made, presently the Camp Master asked the Captain to leave him to sleep on shore with the people. The Captain never wished to consent, because they should not sleep on the ground, and because he did not wish for further licence with the natives, and to avoid danger, and for other reasons which they could understand.
The Master of the Camp, with the Sergeant-Major, officers, and sailors, who were serving as soldiers, made such good progress on shore that by Friday, the eve of Pentecost, they finished all that had been arranged, without injury to any of our people.
On the same afternoon the Captain assembled the people of all the vessels, and addressed them in the following manner:—
“His Majesty, the King, our Lord, was served by sending me, at the cost of his royal treasury, without giving me instructions or orders, nor other memoir whatever, of what I was to do in these parts, nor did he restrict my will as to what I was not to do; therefore, in the name of the royal grandeur, I undertake what is best for His Majesty’s better service, and greater honour. In fine, all is left to my charge; and this mercy was so great, that it has made me his perpetual vassal and slave, and put upon me new obligations and cares to find how I can better serve and please His Majesty so long as my life lasts. For this I am of a mind, and determined to make a beginning of my honourable thought, some time planned and desired to be put into execution; for the good work that it promises for God and for the King, for the strengthening of your resolves, for giving firmness and hope, which are the qualities needed to achieve great and famous deeds, the more when the honour and the reward are to be seen and palpable: which are two things so sought after and loved in this present life, and the want of which causes what happens to be evil.
“The present subject to be announced to you, gentlemen, is that of an Order, the title of which is to be the ‘Knights of the Holy Ghost,’ with the constitutions and precepts to be kept and professed, guided by such lofty and Christian ends as will be seen in them when the Lord is served, as I shall be able to show. All is done in confidence that His Holiness and His Majesty, each of those two Lords as regards what concerns them, will be served in payment of my continual labours and good desires, by confirming this Order, with advantageous privileges, as long as the world endures: as well for the good that it secures as for the merits of vassals so honourable and so loyal, as is shown by the numerous services they perform, and will continue to perform, in these parts.
“For all I have said and can say on this subject, I seek from all the consent of their free wills, in the names of the Most Holy Trinity, in the name of the Roman Pontiff, in the name of His Catholic Majesty the King, Don Philip, third of that name, King of Spain, and my Lord; and I, the Captain Don Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, give to each one of your mercies this cross, of a blue colour, which presently you are to place on your breasts, being the insignia by which the Knights of the Order of the Holy Ghost are to be known; and for the persons in whose charge, if I should fail, is to be placed the discovery, pacification, and possession of all these parts that we are discovering and may discover in the time to come.
“I pray heartily that the Knights may know and esteem the value of this cross, gained with a determination to win much higher honours; and they must bear in mind that, though it has not cost much money, labour, sickness, nor time, that which it remains in their power to pay in this very high enterprise is very great, for it is now known that the enterprise holds a world for its heaven and its earth.
“Pray to God, gentlemen, that it may serve Him to show me greater lands and other things; for greater are my desires that the King our Lord may deign to grant to all still greater favours. Here I, in his royal name, offer to raise you to higher offices and dignities. I charge you all to be, as it were, members of one body; and I announce to you that from this day forward your obligations will be greater, and the rewards or punishments greater which are merited for good or for bad deeds.”
All this was listened to with much pleasure and accepted with satisfaction. The Captain asked them all to confess on Saturday, that on Sunday, the day of Pentecost, they might earn the Holy Jubilee which His Holiness had conceded to this expedition, and five other days in each year. Presently the Father Commissary persuaded all, and with his three priests he offered to confess, and all confessed.