Whimpers, and a bang

Luis Pérez did not give up on his wishes to go to Cambodia. In October of 1598, Blas Ruiz and Veloso met a son of Langara (King Paramaraja II), who became Paramaraja III, and they claim they had assisted him in regaining his capital. Rodao says that the major force was that of the King of Laos, the son-in-law of Paramaraja. The new king then sent a letter to Manila through Blas Ruiz and Veloso, ¹ and Blas Ruiz himself wrote a long account of their adventures in Cambodia, dated 20 July 1598. ² The Spaniards in Manila felt encouraged by this turn of events and the new governor, Francisco de Tello, consulted the Audiencia and other senior figures. Luis Pérez was enthusiastic and in the end he offered to pay for the expedition himself, rather than the royal treasury having to pay. ³ One of the rewards, ostensibly, for the Spanish crown would be the taking of Champa in extreme south-east Indo-China, and it seems clear that Luis Pérez intended this as a stepping-stone to (the conversion of) China. As Rizal put it, the opposition to such an expedition ceased when it was clear that only the royal conscience and not the royal finances would suffer. ⁴ The expedition, comprising two galleons and a galliot with more than 100 soldiers and a number of priests, set forth on 17 September or thereabouts and immediately ran into severe weather – the typhoon season was well under way. At the first attempt they did not clear Luzon and turned back to Mariveles at the entrance to Manila Bay. On the second attempt they thought they would be able to pull in to Bolinao, halfway up the western coast of northern Luzon. They did not, but the galliot and the almirante managed to get to Cagayan on the north coast. Meanwhile the capitana was driven before the storm up to China rather than westwards towards Cambodia reaching islands near Macao. After repairs the other two 213vessels tried to follow and the galliot did indeed make it to Cambodia where its commander, the alférez Luis Ortiz found Blas Ruiz and Veloso. ⁵ He told them that the rest of the fleet was coming but this was not the case.