In the port of Tidore, on the sixteenth day of the month of March,
in the year one thousand six hundred and six, the captain and
sargento-mayor Christoval Asqueta Minchaca of the regiment of the
master-of-camp Joan de Esquibel, the royal commander of this fleet,
declares that the said master-of-camp, Joan de Esquibel, sent to him
in his ship a foreigner, whom he found with others in the factory
[15] at Tidore, that he might undergo examination.

The following interrogatory was put to this man: "What are the names of
this declarant and his companions? In what vessels did they come? How
many are there in Maluco and in these Eastern Yndias? In what regions
have they been, each of them, and how long in each region, and in what
vessels did they come? To whom do these vessels belong? who equipped
them? on whose account did they make their voyage? and for whom is this
factory conducted? Are this factory and that of Terrenate all one,
belonging to the same owners? With what permission did they come to
these regions?"

He said that he was named Joan and was a native of Amberes, a
Christian, and had been baptized in the said city. Of his companions,
the factor, named Jacome Joan, is a Dutchman, a native of the city
of Absterdaem; the second is named Pitri, a native of Yncussa in
the islands of Olanda; a third is named Costre, by his last name,
and this declarant does not know his first name. He is a native
of Campem, of the states of Olanda. This declarant came to these
regions in the ship of the [Dutch] vice-commander, which voyaged in
company with the other four; and they seized Ambueno and this fort
of Tidore. It is eight months since they left him on this island,
and two months before they had anchored in the said port, the said