Note 3 — FORMOSA LOST TO SPAIN

Affairs being now in the said condition, we continued to make ready our retirade,3 and were expecting that the enemy would begin with baskets [i.e., filled with earth] or would be fortified in some other manner in order to make an assault; but this did not occur, as they made no fort at the lookout, which would rise above the land about. However, on the side next the sea they made on the mountain a large esplanade, from which they fired the cannons; and, this done, they opened in the mountain itself two mouths, as it were, in the shape of trenches, through which they brought the cannons to bear, and bombarded us openly, while from our retirade we could not discover their men or more than barely see the mouths of the cannon in their artillery.