as some say, twenty-three, having 2000 soldiers on board, and were
likewise in hopes of taking the fleet at that place, which was bound for
Japan, having already taken several Portuguese and Chinese ships near
the Philippine islands. After battering the fort of St Francis for five
days, the Dutch admiral, Cornelius Regers, landed 800 men, with which he
got possession of a redoubt or entrenchment, with very little
opposition. He then marched to take possession of the city, not then
fortified, where he did not expect any resistance; but Juan Suarez
Vivas, taking post on some strong ground with only 160 men, defeated the
Hollanders and compelled them to return precipitately to their ships,
leaving 300 of their men slain, seven only with the colours and one
piece of cannon being taken, and they threw away all their arms to
enable them to swim off to their ships. In the mean while, the ships
continued to batter the fort, but were so effectually answered that some
of them were sunk and sixty men slain. After this the enemy abandoned
the enterprise, and the citizens of Macao built a wall round the city
with six bastions; and, as the mountain of _our Lady of the Guide_
commanded the bastion of St Paul, a fort was constructed on its summit
armed with ten large guns.

We have formerly mentioned the destruction of the Portuguese cities of
_Liampo_ and _Chincheo_, in China, through their own bad conduct. From
that time, they lived in the island of _Lampazau_ till the year 1557,
when they were permitted to build the city _Macao_, the largest
belonging to the Portuguese in the east after Goa. They had been in use
to resort to the island of _Sanchuan_, on the coast of China, for trade,
where they lived in huts made of boughs of trees, and covered with sails
during their stay. At this time, the island of Goaxama, eighteen leagues
nearer the coast of China, being wild and mountainous, was the resort of
robbers who infested the neighbouring part of the continent, and, as the