14. This despatch reached Butuan at a time when the alcalde-mayor, Atienza, was there. Each one received his letter. Attentive to the urgency of the danger, they arranged a speedy relief expedition. The "Padre Capitan," Fray Agustin, and the alcalde-mayor set out in that expedition with what men they could gather on the spur of the moment, marching across mountains and conquering innumerable difficulties, at the cost of immense hardships. Finally, they reached their destination, making a jest of the passes filled with the enemy when they came within sight of the besieged presidio. The fort was so beset that its occupants no longer had any hopes of relief; for the Moros, seeing their inventions of the rafts frustrated, arranged on land some strong carts mounted on four wheels, which they filled with straw and dry grass. They pushed these carts near the fort, and setting fire to that combustible material, continued their bombarding under cover of that heavy smoke. That would have proved so offensive to the besieged, and much worse had the fire caught the fort, that they would have been obliged to burn or surrender. But before those contrivances were finished, the universal hunger which was weakening their stomachs was proving more cruel than they; for the magazines contained only wine for the masses, and hosts. They determined to take the last communion, and to give up their lives to such ravage, on the twenty-ninth day of so desperate a siege. The sight of the two captains rejoiced the fort. They undertook to break up the siege. Arranging their troops in order and drawing them up in military array, they attacked sword in hand, and with so great valor and spirit that they caused the position to be evacuated in less than two hours, and freed that presidio, which was well near its ruin, from all the enemy.
15. Once masters of themselves, the Spaniards discussed a bloody vengeance. They fitted up a boat, together with the other one that they had captured. Then sailing out on the lake, they were joined by some large boats, so that they formed a considerable squadron, with which they attacked the settlements. Those settlements were deserted, because all had taken to the mountains, after ruining their houses and destroying their fields. It was a warning, to all, of the little advance that the war made when they thus yielded the field to the soldiers. Captain Vermudez, having been despatched, finished burning and destroying the little that had remained. In order not to expose the troops to another and more severe siege, he considered that expense and fatigue as a useless thing, and determined to retreat, and with those arms and stores to fortify Bayug. He left the arrangement of it to the skill of father Fray Agustin, who so conducted the retreat in the marches of the men and in the transportation of the artillery, that he did not lose a single man, although there were ambushes and dangerous passes. For so brilliant a feat, Father Belin and Captains Atienza and Vermudez compared him in their letters to the heroes most renowned in valor and military skill, so much did they accredit his conduct. Had it not been a scheme of the Jesuits, these achievements would have led to his remaining with Captain Vermudez; and the fort would have been completed, and his fame alone would have subdued these Moros. But the Jesuits caused such troubles that the well-planned and extensive arrangements of the superior government were of none effect. Therefore he descended to the seashore with all the men, and they erected a fort upon the bar of the river of Iligan. The men of the garrison were left in charge of Adjutant Francisco Alfaro, a man of valor and experience, who was accustomed to fighting with the Moros. Captain Vermudez returned to Manila to make a full report of occurrences to the governor, and the necessity of the final decision. The matter rested at this point for the time being.