Note 18 — Portuguese and Spanish Expedition Against the Dutch, 1615

The largest fleet ever seen in these islands or perchance in the Indias was prepared that year of 1615 in the port of Cabite.18 It seems a miraculous circumstance that so large a number of ships could be gathered together in a land so recently conquered and peopled with Spaniards, and the most remote and distant in all the Spanish monarchy. It was the peculiar offspring of the magnanimous courage, valor, and energy (never sufficiently praised) of Governor Don Juan de Silva. It consisted of ten galleons, four galleys, Page 273one patache, and other smaller craft: the flagship of the galleons, called “La Salvadora,” of two thousand tons burden; the almiranta, by name “San Marcos,” of one thousand seven hundred; “San Juan Bautista,” and the “Espiritu Santo,” of one thousand three hundred; “San Miguel” and “San Felipe,” of eight hundred; “Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe,” and “Santiago,” one hundred less; “San Andres,” five hundred; and “San Lorenco” (the smallest one), four hundred. The galleys were all under the advocacy and name of the Virgin Mary, our Lady. Those craft were armed and equipped with five thousand men, two thousand, or a few less, being Spaniards; three hundred pieces of artillery—the flagship alone carrying forty-six (the smallest of eighteen, while the majority of them were twenty-two libras’ caliber, and some were thirty), and all were bronze, and it carried nine hundred men; the almiranta seven hundred men, and thirty-two pieces; and the other vessels in proportion. Of powder, they carried four thousand five hundred arrobas; of biscuits, five thousand; of clean rice, three thousand fanegas; and so on, in all the other war-supplies, ammunition, and food. All this was at the king’s account, not to mention the private persons who embarked.