Note 4 — SECOND RELATION

Through the said two Dutch prisoners was obtained all information that we desired of the enemy’s fleet. These men declared that they had sailed from Jacatra in Batabia, early in March, having been despatched by Cornelio Fandelin,4 governor of that place, under command of General Martin Gercen [Gertzen?] a Frisian by birth; and that the fleet consisted of thirteen vessels, one of which was lost on the voyage. The voyage lasted three months, and they halted only at Pulolaor for provisions. As for the size of the ships, the flagship is a vessel of seven hundred toneladas; the ships of the admiral, fiscal, and sub-fiscal, of eight hundred; and the others from three hundred to four hundred; and the pataches from sixty to one hundred toneladas. The flagship carries forty-eight guns: eighteen of these are of bronze, carrying balls of eighteen, twenty-four, and thirty-six libras; the others are of iron, with balls of nine to fifteen libras. The almiranta, and the ships of the fiscal and sub-fiscal carried forty, thirty-eight, and thirty-six guns respectively, some of bronze, with balls of twenty-four libras or less. The four other ships carried thirty-libra cannon. The guns on the pataches, some of bronze, carried balls of eighteen to twenty libras. The flagship was also supplied with many devices for using fire, with a German inventor who manufactures them, so that on occasion these could be placed in some one of their smaller vessels, in order to burn our fleet. The flagship left Batabia with two hundred and twenty men, all white, of various European nations, unmixed with men from any of the peoples in these regions; the almiranta and the fiscal’s ship carried each two hundred and ten, and the sub-fiscal’s two hundred; the other vessels seventy or eighty each. The flagship had already lost from its quota seventy men, and the other vessels proportionately, many having been killed in the fight at Cabite and in other engagements; moreover, there is a disease, known as Verber [i.e., beri-beri], which is now prevalent throughout the fleet, by which most of the men have been attacked. The orders carried by the Dutch ships are, to capture the vessels coming from Nueva España and prevent the voyage of those that must go to that kingdom for aid. They were also to ascertain, at the same time, the condition in which these fortified posts are, so that they can prepare for a larger fleet to follow in the succeeding year. It was said that he who will come in that fleet as commander is Antonio Can [i.e., Caan], former governor of Malayo, who had come last year from Olanda, and now is in Jacatra as second in command at that place. The season here will be favorable to them, as the monsoon will give them time [enough], and their provisions will hold out; and within a month four of the said ships will set out for the kingdom of Japon, with merchandise which they are carrying, and will go with the proceeds to the kingdom of Siam. Such is the information which the prisoners have thus far given us regarding the Dutch armada; and it is confirmed from other sources.5