Note 13 — AFFAIRS IN FILIPINAS, 1644–47

After this event, and after the aforesaid battles and victories, our armada retired to the port of Cavite for necessary repairs. The galleons were already in the shipyard when the heretical Corsairs again appeared on the coast with three ships. They had captured a rich Chinese vessel of large size; and they thought best not to destroy it, but to send it to Jacatra intact. Twenty soldiers were placed aboard it, in charge of an officer, and fifty of the Chinese traders and mariners who came in it were left to work the ship; while the rest of the Chinese, with some Indians whom they held as captives, were set free and put ashore. The Chinese traders who were left on board managed so well that before they cleared the coast, they seized a suitable opportunity to turn against the Dutch, and killed them all; and they brought the vessel to this city, where they were received with great applause and general satisfaction. And, to crown our joy more fully, it pleased God that the pirates should depart—either driven by unfavorable winds or constrained by some other accident—and leave free passage to the Chinese. They, since December, when this occurred, until May of 647, the time of this writing, have continued their voyages to Manila as usual—although with fewer vessels and less merchandise than formerly, on account of the wars of invasion in that great monarchy, which has been almost conquered and subdued by the Eastern Tartars. According to information in letters of February and March of this year, received in this city from trustworthy persons, and the statements of the Chinese themselves, who arrive here with their hair cut in the fashion of the Tartars, the natives offer but little resistance.13