Volume 17 — Portuguese and Spanish Expedition Against the Dutch, 1615

After the Dutch pirates began to sail the seas of Eastern India and the archipelago of Filipinas, and to carry cloves from Maluco, silks from China, and drugs from the adjacent islands, they began also to cripple the cities that were sustained by the trade, which are the principal cities; because the seas were infested, and there was little security on them from those pirates. They, from the first year of their entrance into the Orient, coasted the shores, sounded the ports, and established trading-posts in the chief places, which they filled with people whom they brought from Holanda. Consequently, by the year 1614, the Dutch had eighteen armed galleons in the South Sea, and they burned the city of Arevalo, where the food for Maluco was stored, and committed many other depredations, which obliged Don Juan de Silva, governor and captain-general of the Filipinas Islands, to prepare a large fleet to attack them and drive them from our seas. But, thinking that the forces of the Filipinas were insufficient to attend to so many things at once—the support of the camp in Maluco; the defense of the city of Manila, which is in sight of twenty thousand Chinese (who had already, in 1603, risen against it and incited a war); Page 252and sallies to fight the enemy—it was determined to ask help from the viceroy of India and to join the two forces, Castilian and Lusitanian, who are especially being attacked by the Dutch. Indeed, the letters-patent given to them by Count Mauricio read that they are to make war on the Castilians and Portuguese. Besides this argument, it is evident that Yndia is not less interested in driving out those enemies than are the Filipinas.

The latter left Goa May 12. The voyage, which is generally thirty days, lasted three and one-half months. We ran short of water in the middle of the open stretch, and thought that we were lost, on account of having been despatched with broken tanks and hogsheads. Together with this was the disorder among the soldiers of Yndia, who surreptitiously took with them many servants of their own and of other people, so that it was necessary to support these people aboard the vessel. These afterward consumed the food, and then caught and spread a pestilence. Although there were only one hundred and ten soldiers in our galleon, there were about seven hundred persons, mostly negroes and Cafres; of these many were free, although nominally slaves, as Don Gonzalo de Silva, bishop of Malaca, who was aboard the same galleon, testified. He declared that many Page 254lads were free, even some whom they were taking as captives. This is a general sin, wherefore some Portuguese authors say, with Father Hernando Rabelo, that God is punishing Yndia and the Portuguese nation, which alone has more slaves than any other nation of the world.

July 30 we met two Dutch ships, which were apparently going from Palliacate [i.e., Palicat] to carry aid to Maluco. Our galleon fought singlehanded with those two ships, because the other galleons were far to leeward. The enemy had waited two days between us, without our knowing it, in order to show themselves at a favorable opportunity. So great is the confidence of the Portuguese that they did not fear them. They said that they were ships from Cochin, and that, had they known in time that they were enemies, they could have captured them easily. In short they remained a cannon-shot from the flagship, and so fought until night, when they made off badly battered—as we learned later from the people of Achen, on whose coast one of the ships was immediately wrecked, having sprung a leak through the effect of our balls and their own firing. They only killed two of our men. After the battle, our galleon ran aground on a shoal, on the eve of our Lady of the Assumption, near Pulo Parcelar. At the first shock, the helm was shifted seaward, and all that night we tossed up and down dreadfully until, next morning, we miraculously got off the shoal. We reached the strait of Sincapura on August 10, where, as the pilots said the Manila monsoon was over, we determined to run to Malaca.

In Malaca the ships were very inhospitably received, for soldiers are wont to commit depredations. Page 255But within a few days they were made to see that the landing there of the galleons was for their relief and the salvation of their city; for a month after their arrival the king of Achen came with sixty thousand men to besiege it. Information of this number and of the other things that will be related, was given by the Portuguese who were captives in Achen and returned to Malaca. They had three hundred and fifty sail—among them sixty galleys, each with three pieces in the bows; the piece in the midship gangway fired balls of sixty libras, as we saw in those found in the galleons after the war. Along the sides they carried five falcons, firing balls of six libras. In the royal galley, called “Espanto del mundo” [i.e., Fear of the world] by the people of Achen, were sixteen hundred soldiers and one hundred and fifty falcons and half-sized falcons. That king of Achen, the most powerful on the sea of all this Orient, had concerted with the Dutch that both should take Malaca. Consequently they took a few days in arriving. The king of Achen arrived first at the bay of Malaca with a squadron of eighteen galleys, in order to reconnoiter the place. Finding our four galleys anchored in the port, and learning that they were war-vessels, they put to sea to await the Dutch. When our men saw them depart and go toward the strait, where they might capture the boats from China and unite with the Dutch, they resolved to set sail and give battle. They did so with the four galleons and six galliots—ten small vessels. They encountered the Achen boats on November 15, and fought for two and one-half days. The enemy carried a considerable force. They burned one galliot, so that the soldiers abandoned it and went Page 256to the galleons. The flagship grappled eleven galleys. Fire was set to it many times, but our men extinguished it. The enemy grappled the galleon of Don Juan de Silveira, which carried twenty-two pieces of artillery, and set fire to it. They were unable to extinguish the fire, and so it was entirely burned.

Don Juan de Silvera and Antonio Rodriguez de Gamboa, son of the commander-in-chief of that fortress of Malaca, and forty other Portuguese, took to the water; but all were captured by the king of Achen and placed aboard his galley. A fresh wind began to blow, wherewith the vessels separated and the men of Achen went to their country with something less than thirty craft, counting large and small boats, and with two thousand men killed. Although we did them damage, it was not so great as that which we received. Accordingly they regarded it as a victory and entered their kingdom in triumph—where they feasted the captains, whom they treated courteously, and then loosed them and gave them liberty.

On December 7 of the same year of 1615, the Dutch reached the bay of Malaca with seven ships and one patache, coming to join the king of Achen. They found our three galleons, which, for greater security, had been anchored between a sandbank made by the sea and a small island near Malaca. There they said that they were invincible, for entrance could be had only by a channel near the rampart, which, by means of its pieces of artillery, would refuse entrance. On the sea side they were defended by the sandbank and shoals. But the enemy sounded the port that night with its lanchas and found a new Page 257channel, where they entered without being hindered by the rampart. This was attributed to the fault and negligence of those who could and ought to have prevented the lanchas from making soundings, because of the many galliots in the port.

The enemy having entered and coming within cannon range, opened a fierce bombardment, which lasted two and one-half days. At this time our vessels defended themselves with three pieces that could be fired, and no more, because they were anchored, and the current threw them in a line toward the Dutch; although had the people on shore been diligent, they could have brought the vessels about with cables. The enemy tacked at will and played the majority of their pieces. We discovered that our galleons were stronger than their ships, for their balls did not pass through the sides of the galleons, especially of the almiranta and flagship. The damage inflicted by them was through the open ports; while we saw that our balls passed through the Dutch ships from side to side, and then went bounding through the water. Nevertheless, distrusting the Dutch and their battery, the men of the galleons began to edge away and to leave them at the approach of night, especially when they saw Captain Juan Pinto and Admiral Alfonso Vaez fall; they were killed with four others, by a ball that entered through a port.

First they abandoned the galleon called “Plata,” without taking the precaution to set it afire when they left, so that the enemy could not approach with their artillery. This the enemy did, entering and capturing it, as was well seen; and afterward they set it afire.

In the four galleons ninety-two pieces of artillery were lost. The wounded and dead reached one hundred. Page 259The enemy were insolent and victorious, and, although we had done them some damage, they nevertheless attained their purpose, not only of preventing the relief of Maluco, but of destroying the Portuguese squadron—and that without the necessity of boarding any galleon, for which there was no such need; because, before they could reach the galleys, these were abandoned.

As soon as the enemy were discovered, many said that it would be advisable to mount some pieces on the island, with some gabions, in order to attack the enemy, and defend the galleons, which would have been an admirable relief. But it did not have the desired effect, for only one piece was mounted, and that late; and no one cared to guard it, until Antonio Pinto de Fonseca, inspector of forts and one who insisted urgently that the pieces be mounted, found a homicide, who with other criminals, guarded the piece. He did considerable injury to the enemy, for he fired from a short distance and with safety. Had there been six guns, they would have sunk the enemy; but that was not the first or the last act of carelessness.

On the twelfth of the month, the galleons were converted into ashes, and the Maluco relief expedition was destroyed. After the battle and disaster many quarrels arose among the nobles by land and sea, over the question who was to blame. Each one blamed the other, attributing the loss to many excesses that they mentioned. The truth is that such excesses existed, and they and our sins were the cause of so great a chastisement.

On February 25, Don Juan de Silva, governor and captain-general of the Filipinas, reached the strait Page 260with ten galleons, four galleys, and one patache. The Dutch were informed of his coming, for having captured Juan Gallegos, a pilot who came from Macao in a patache, he told them the plans of the governor. Thereupon the enemy took refuge a week beforehand. They had been awaiting two vessels that were coming from China with all the wealth of Yndia; and the Portuguese considered it a foregone conclusion that these would fall into the hands of the enemy. They had resolved to land on the island of Bintan or Pulo Timón and burn the galleons, so that the enemy should not benefit therefrom. For that purpose they sent Captain Fernando Acosta to Malaca. But at the news of the governor’s coming, the enemy abandoned their station and left a free passage to the ships, which arrived one day after the governor. It is reported that the two vessels had ten days of contrary southeast winds which prevented them from reaching the strait sooner, where their danger was. But God our Lord did better, and He deprived the enemy of the prize, which would have enriched them enormously, and allowed them to make war on Europe.

From Cochin we went to Goa on April three of this year, one thousand six hundred and fifteen, in a galley of the fleet. We coasted along the shore and visited the fortresses of Malabar. We spent Holy Week in Mangalor. We lodged in the convent of St. Francis, and helped confess the soldiers. We spent forty days in the voyage, until we reached Goa, where Father Francisco Vergara, rector of the college, and all the others received us with great charity. Four of them took me to visit the viceroy, who showed us great courtesy. After I had been talking with him for almost an hour, the chief chancellor entered, who is at the same time auditor for the reports in causes, and is a knight of the habit. Having given him a seat of honor, such as we were occupying, the viceroy said to him: “I am surprised, sir, that all the fathers of the Society are all so much alike; for the father rector of Manila, whom we have here, is just like the fathers here, even in speech.” He determined immediately what could be done in accordance with the present state of India, in respect to the aid that I was come to request—namely, to give four well-equipped galleons, with as many as four hundred soldiers and ninety pieces of artillery among them all. As commander of this fleet, he assigned Francisco de Miranda Enriquez, a gentleman who has had good fortune in war; and, as admiral, Alfonso Vaez Coutiño.

We left Goa on the twelfth of May. We were one hundred and two days on the voyage for the lack of good weather, and on account of the poor route chosen by the pilot, who took us to the land of Page 267Achan; and as its inhabitants are hostile to the Portuguese, the latter did not dare land there. The men were dying with thirst, and had it not been for some showers, and the final resolution to get water on a desert island, we would have suffered even death. We had many samatras, or hurricanes, on the coast of that great land, which broke topmasts, tore sails, and broke moorings, causing us to lose anchors and other necessary articles.

On July thirty, on the eve of our Father St. Ignatius, in the district of Pulu Parcelar, our capitana galleon fought two Dutch vessels, without the other galleons being able to render aid, as they were to leeward. Our galleon made two vain attempts to grapple—one because of too much wind, and the other for lack of wind—for the one was a samatra or hurricane, and the other so great a calm, that neither we nor the Dutch could manage our ships. But inasmuch as we remained within cannon-shot of one another, we fought until night deepened, and they fled battered to pieces; for our balls had gone clear through them, while theirs made scarcely any impression on us. Accordingly we only lost two men in the fight.

We finally reached Malaca August twenty-two. Page 268Although it was thought that the monsoon or favorable wind was already ended, we attempted to make the voyage to Manila. We passed the strait of Sincapura, and on the fifth of September, because of the little progress that we made, called a council, in which we all resolved to winter at Malaca. However, on the next day, the commander attempted to continue the voyage to Manila, until the soldiers and sailors mutinied and forced him to put in at Malaca, on the nineteenth of the same month.

The fleet was very ill received by the inhabitants there, because of the harm that soldiers generally do. But our going there was soon seen to have been a providence of God; for within one month the king of Achen came to attack that city with a fleet of one hundred and fifty sail and forty thousand men, and had not he found our galleys there would surely have captured it. And further, according to rumors (and as was shown in the result), he had agreed with the Dutch to join them, since they came only twenty days apart, as I shall immediately relate. In my opinion the same thing that had happened to the prophet Abacuc [i.e., Habakkuk] happened to me. For he having prepared the food for his reapers, the angel bore him by the hair to Babylon, to relieve the necessity of Daniel, who had been locked in the den of lions. I took that aid from Goa for Manila, and the Lord took us to Malaca, and conveyed us as if by the hair, since we put in with great repugnance; and at last all that reinforcement was consumed in helping Malaca.

A squadron of galleys came ahead to reconnoiter. Finding our galleons anchored, and taking note of the soldiers in them and in the city, it went ahead to Page 269the strait to await (as was heard) the Dutch. Our men feared lest they should attack the trading ships which generally come at that time from China. Accordingly it was resolved that four galleons, six galliots, and other oared craft should sail out to drive the enemy from the coast. They engaged on the fifteenth of November, and fought all that day, and the one following. The enemy’s force was large. They burned one galliot and forced the men to desert the others and enter the galleons, which now were in need of men. The enemy attacked our flagship and surrounded it with twelve large galleys. It caught fire many times, but our men always extinguished the fire and defended themselves valiantly. They attacked the galleon of Don Juan de Silveyra, which was a fine vessel, and a fort of twenty-two cannons. It caught fire and burned so furiously that the flames could not be extinguished; and it was accordingly burned to ashes. The said Don Juan de Silveyra and Antonio Rodriguez Gamboa—his brother-in-law, and son of Juan Cayado de Gamboa, commandant of that fortress of Malaca—leaped overboard. They and thirty or forty other Portuguese were captured by the people of Achen and taken to their king, who treated them courteously and gave them liberty. Those gentlemen declared to me, in writing, in Malaca that the fleet of the people of Achen consisted of three hundred and fifty craft, among which were sixty large galleys, each with three pieces of artillery at the bow, while that of the midship gangway had the caliber of sixty libras; that the royal galley carried one thousand six hundred men, with one hundred and twenty falcons and half-falcons; and that they lost ten large galleys in Page 270the fight, besides twenty other lesser craft. They also stated that after returning to his country the king punished certain of his captains because they had not burned all the galleys; and that having given liberty to the captives he sent them to Malaca, with che message that he desired peace with his brother, the king of Castilla and Portugal.

Our good fortune resulted in his not having effected a meeting with the Dutch, who arrived the next month, on the seventh of December, with seven ships and one patache. Our three galleons had been stationed in a cove between the small island of Malaca and a sandbank—a place that seemed impregnable, as it was defended on the sea side by the sandbank and shoals, and on the land side by the artillery of its ramparts. But the enemy, having thoroughly reconnoitered the sandbank and shoals, discovered a channel where they could enter, and thereupon entered on the morning of the next day, flying their red rear-admiral’s banners. The flagship remained outside, although within cannon-shot. Then began a cruel bombardardment that lasted three days. Our galleons could not play all their artillery, for they were anchored, and the currents were dragging them toward the Dutch, who were free, and maneuvered at will. Our artillery was heavier than theirs, consequently the few pieces that we fired did them great damage. The building of a protection for the cannon was discussed, and the planting of some pieces on the island, in order to defend the galleons. That would doubtless have been of great importance for they would have fired from a covered battery and at very close range, as was seen by the effect produced by only one piece that was mounted Page 271there. It was fired by a man who had been condemned to death, and who was awaiting justice for having pillaged two Chinese vessels. He was promised pardon if he would take charge of that piece, as he did, to the damage of the enemy. But as he was alone and the enemy were bringing to bear all the artillery of their ships, they finally prevailed. On the first day, Juan Pinto, captain of a galley, being killed, and his uncle, a valiant soldier, having broken his leg, his men were disheartened, and deserted the galleon; but they did not take the precaution to burn it, so that the enemy could not profit, as they did, by its artillery, food, and other things that it was carrying; afterward the enemy set it on fire.

At dawn of the next day, December ten, the heretics began to attack the almiranta. At the first volleys the admiral and five other men were killed. The men were so disheartened by that event that they began to jump overboard, and it was impossible for certain commanders and brave soldiers, who were trying to defend the galleon, to prevent them. But, as the enemy perceived them deserting the vessel, they sent their lanchac and entered it; they first lowered the flag of Christ from the masthead and placed it on their ship below that of Count Mauricio. The vessel was already burning from the fire set by our men, and accordingly the enemy deserted it quickly.

That noble fleet could not set sail until the last day of that year of 1615. It had been collected with the intention of going straightway in search of the enemy in their own forts and the chief stronghold of Malayo. But as the galleons from India did not arrive, which they had heard were wintering in Malaca; and knowing that at that time some ships were generally awaiting in its strait the trading-ships from China which pass that way, and that some good fortune could be secured from them: the governor considered it advisable to lay his course toward Malaca—whence he supposed that after the destruction of the enemy that he would cause there, and after having joined the Portuguese galleons, he would go straight to Malayo. It was a well founded idea, but founded on an uncertain end as are all human ideas and considerations. For besides that there were then no galleons in Malaca, because they had been burned in the manner above related, if the governor had not left these coasts, or at least had he sailed directly to those of Maluco, and even without leaving the bay of Manila, he would have had in a short time a victory equal to the past, and would have destroyed the help that came, because of his preparations, from Olanda by way of the coasts of Page 276Pirú and Nueva-España to these islands. For it happened that at the same time that Don Juan de Silva was going out by way of Miriveles with his fleet, one of the four governors of the state of Olanda was entering by way of Capulco [i.e., Capul] with four large ships—his flagship being one called “Sol de Olando” [i.e., “The sun of Holland”]—and two pataches. Those ships were coming straight to anchor at the same entrance of Mariveles, by which the fleet that we had fitted out had sailed one month previously.

That unlooked-for event caused great confusion in this city of Manila and the port of Cabite. Licentiate Andres de Alcaraz and the gentlemen of the royal Audiencia were governing. They put aside their togas and girded on their swords. They divided the most dangerous and important posts. One of them was charged with the fortification of Cabite, and the repair of three galleys and other boats that had been going to rack and ruin there; another with the casting of new pieces from the little metal remaining in the royal magazines, and he, because by its scarcity the sudden need for artillery could not be supplied, tried to use the waste left from former castings, by digging and sifting the earth around the ancient foundry. That was so excellent a scheme that three thousand arrobas of metal were collected in a few days. It is a cause for wonderment, and could not have been accomplished except by Spanish activity, stimulated by necessity and the energy of the Chinese, sharpened by the reward of three reals given them for each arroba. More than one thousand five hundred persons worked at the sifting, and at the casting of new pieces. As a result the necessary cannon Page 277for the defense of Cabite and Manila were manufactured in a short time.

To that and other temporal precautions and efforts, were added at the same time the spiritual—acts of prayer and supplications, the most holy host being exposed in the cathedral, the convents, and the parochial churches, with the effect and devotion that exigency and need are wont to stimulate. The image of our Lady of Guidance was carried in solemn and devout procession from her church (which is located in the suburbs of this city) to the cathedral, where it was visited continually by the inhabitants, who could not tear themselves from it. In our residence the most holy host was also exposed to all the town; with the solemnity of service and sermon on the day that belonged to it; while on all other days it was especially exposed by Ours at the hour of prayer and devotion. Each priest was ordered to say a novena of masses, and those who were not priests a novena of rosaries, penitences, and other devotions. Similar and even advantageous action was taken in the other convents, churches, and communities of the city and surrounding villages.

The Lord, whose providence is always most notable in the greatest exigencies, was pleased to hear the united voice of this community, and induced our enemy, after they had lain at anchor for a fortnight in the bay in sight of Manila, to hoist their sails; and without doing more than seize one champan and send two letters by a prisoner—one to the commander of their nation [i.e., van Caerden] who was a prisoner here, and the other to the royal Audiencia, asking for his ransom. But that could have no effect, for the miserable man had died a short time before in Page 278his perfidy, exchanging his temporal for the eternal prison. [After sending these letters] the enemy returned to Terrenate, ridding this city of its great anxiety. On that occasion the religious served not only with spiritual weapons, but also with what temporal arms they could use and those that they knew how to manage. Among others was one of our brethren, whom the royal Audiencia charged with the management of the artillery of the port of Cabite, because of his skill in the art and of his bravery, which the occasion required. Another religious, also ours, by his good management prevented the soldiers of Cabite from burning that settlement, for they had already commenced at one of the houses, where were collected the goods of the Portuguese commander, who had come from España the year before as commander of certain caravels with reenforcements from the kingdoms of España. They considered it less wrong for us to burn them ourselves than to let the enemy make use of them. But that religious with his arguments and good management hindered it, and inspired them all to extinguish the fire. That was a cause of rejoicing afterward, when they saw the enemy go away and leave us, without forcing us to so costly a precaution.

While the above was passing in Manila, our fleet reached Malaca, and entered the strait February twenty-five. The enemy had left it one week previous, fleeing with all sails set, because of the secret advice that they had received that our fleet was going in search of them. The day following the arrival of our galleons, the two Chinese trading-ships entered the same strait, bearing all the wealth of India It was a most fortunate event and was worthily celebrated Page 279by the public acclamations of the inhabitants of Malaca, who called Governor Don Juan de Silva their redeemer. They received him in their city under the pall, with demonstrations of joy and honors as if he were a viceroy, for as such did they regard him; and they assured themselves that with his valor and powerful fleet, they were to deliver India from the inopportune war and the continuous pillaging of the Dutch. But (O human misery!) fortune changed within a few days, and all those hopes were frustrated; it brought the governor to his bed with a mortal burning fever, which killed him in eleven days. During the course of those eleven days the city made a public procession from the cathedral church to the Misericordia, praying God for his health. On the day of his death—namely, April nineteen, 1616—there were general mourning and tears from men, women, and even children, as if each one of them had lost a father.

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