The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 17 of 55 - 1609-1616 - Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of the Catholic Missions, as Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Sho by Unknown
page 198 of 297 (66%)
page 198 of 297 (66%)
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three pieces in the bows; the piece in the midship gangway fired balls
of sixty libras, as we saw in those found in the galleons after the war. Along the sides they carried five falcons, firing balls of six libras. In the royal galley, called "Espanto del mundo" [_i.e._, Fear of the world] by the people of Achen, were sixteen hundred soldiers and one hundred and fifty falcons and half-sized falcons. That king of Achen, the most powerful on the sea of all this Orient, had concerted with the Dutch that both should take Malaca. Consequently they took a few days in arriving. The king of Achen arrived first at the bay of Malaca with a squadron of eighteen galleys, in order to reconnoiter the place. Finding our four galleys anchored in the port, and learning that they were war-vessels, they put to sea to await the Dutch. When our men saw them depart and go toward the strait, where they might capture the boats from China and unite with the Dutch, they resolved to set sail and give battle. They did so with the four galleons and six galliots--ten small vessels. They encountered the Achen boats on November 15, and fought for two and one-half days. The enemy carried a considerable force. They burned one galliot, so that the soldiers abandoned it and went to the galleons. The flagship grappled eleven galleys. Fire was set to it many times, but our men extinguished it. The enemy grappled the galleon of Don Juan de Silveira, which carried twenty-two pieces of artillery, and set fire to it. They were unable to extinguish the fire, and so it was entirely burned. Don Juan de Silvera and Antonio Rodriguez de Gamboa, son of the commander-in-chief of that fortress of Malaca, and forty other Portuguese, took to the water; but all were captured by the king of Achen and placed aboard his galley. A fresh wind began to blow, wherewith the vessels separated and the men of Achen went to their country with something less than thirty craft, counting large and |
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