A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W X Z

History of the Philippine Islands Vols 1 and 2

A >> Antonio de Morga >> History of the Philippine Islands Vols 1 and 2




Some years before this his Majesty had ordered an expedition to be
prepared in Portuguese India for the capture of the fort of Terrenate
in Maluco, which was in the power of a Moro who had rebelled and
subjected it in a tyrannical manner, and had driven out the Portuguese
there. The necessary preparations of ships, munitions, and men were
made for this undertaking in India, and a hidalgo, named Andrea Furtado
de Mendoça, [158] was chosen general of this expedition. He was a
soldier skilled in the affairs of India, who had won many victories
of great importance and fame on sea and land in those parts, and had
lately had a very notable one at Jabanapatan. [159] He sailed from
Goa with six galleons of the kingdom, fourteen galliots and fustas,
and other ships, and one thousand five hundred fighting men, and with
supplies and munitions for the fleet. On account of the storms which
he met, his fleet was so scattered before reaching Amboino that the
galleys and fustas could not keep up with the galleons or follow them,
and only three of them, in convoy of the galleons, reached Amboino. The
other vessels put back into Goa and other forts on the line of that
voyage. The island of Amboino was in rebellion and the Portuguese
fort there was in great need, so that, while the galliots, fustas,
and other vessels of his fleet which had fallen off on the voyage were
gathering, and while help was coming which he had sent to ask of the
fort of Malaca, it seemed best to Andrea Furtado de Mendoça to stop
in Amboino, which is eighty leguas from Maluco, in order to pacify
the island and some towns of the neighborhood, and reduce them to
the crown of Portugal. He was more than six months in this, having
encounters with the enemy and with the rebels, in which he always
came out victorious, and from which he obtained the desired result,
and left everything reduced and pacified. His ships did not arrive,
however, and the help which he had requested did not come from Malaca,
and yet it was necessary for him to go to Terrenate, as that was the
principal purpose for which he had been sent. Considering this, and
yet seeing that he had fewer men than he needed for it, and that the
greater part of the munitions and supplies which he had brought were
spent, he determined to send word to the governor of the Filipinas of
his coming with that fleet, of what he had done in Amboino, that he
was to proceed to attack Terrenate, and that, because a part of his
ships had been scattered, and because he had stopped so many months
for those undertakings, he had fewer men than he wanted and was in need
of some things, especially supplies. He requested the governor, since
this matter was so important and so to the service of his Majesty,
and since so much had been spent on it from the royal treasury of the
crown of Portugal, to favor and help him, by sending him some supplies
and munitions and some Castilians for the undertaking. He asked that
all of this should reach Terrenate by January of six hundred and three,
for he would then be off that fort and the help would come to him very
opportunely. This message and his letters for the governor and the
Audiencia he sent to Manila from Amboino in a light vessel in charge
of Father Andre Pereira of the Society of Jesus, and Captain Antonio
Fogoça, one of his own followers. They found Governor Don Pedro de
Acuña in Manila, and presented the matter to him, making use of the
Audiencia and of the orders, and making many boasts of the Portuguese
fleet and the illustrious men who were in it, and of the valor and
renown of its general in whatever he undertook. They asserted at
the same time the success of the capture of Terrenate at that time,
especially if they received from Manila the succor and help for which
they had come, and which, in justice, should be given them, as it was
given from the Filipinas whenever the king of Tidore and the chief
captain of that fort requested it, and as his Majesty had ordered--and
with more good reason and foundation on such an occasion. [160]

Although Don Pedro de Acuña, from the time of his appointment to
the government, had the intention and desire to make an expedition
against Terrenate, and when he was in Mexico on his way, had treated
of this matter with those there who had any information about Maluco,
and sent Brother Gaspar Gomez of the Society of Jesus from Nueva
Españia to his Majesty's court--who had lived in Manila many years,
and also in Maluco in the time of Governor Gomez Perez Dasmariñas--to
treat of the matter in his name with his Majesty; and although he was
in hopes of making this expedition: nevertheless it seemed to him best,
without declaring his own desires, to aid in what Andrea Furtado asked,
and even more, not only on account of the importance of the matter,
but also because by thus helping, he would keep the general and his
messengers, in case they were unsuccessful, from excusing themselves
by saying that they had asked for help and reënforcement from the
governor of the Filipinas, and the latter had not given it, and so
that it might not be understood that he had failed to do so because
he himself was arranging for the expedition. Don Pedro de Acuñia
consulted about this matter with the Audiencia, which was of the
opinion that the aforesaid reënforcement, and more besides, should
be sent to the Portuguese at the time for which it was asked. When
this was decided upon, they put it into execution, very much to the
satisfaction of Father Andrea Pereira and Captain Fogaça. At the end of
the year six hundred and two they were despatched from the Filipinas,
taking with them the ship "Santa Potenciana" and three large frigates,
with one hundred and fifty well armed Spanish soldiers, ten thousand
fanégas of rice, one thousand five hundred earthen jars of palm wine,
two hundred head of salt beef, twenty hogsheads of sardines, conserves
and medicines, fifty quintals of powder, cannon-balls and bullets,
and cordage and other supplies, the whole in charge of the captain
and sargento-mayor, Joan Xuarez Gallinato--who had now returned from
Jolo and was in Pintados--with orders and instructions as to what he
was to do, namely, to take that help to Terrenate, to the Portuguese
fleet which he would find there, and to place himself at the orders
and command of its general. [161] Thither he made his voyage in a
fortnight, and anchored in the port of Talangame, in the island of
Terrenate, two leguas from the fort, where he found Andrea Furtado
de Mendoça with his galleons at anchor, awaiting what was being sent
from Manila. He and all his men were very much pleased with it.

In the month of March of this year six hundred and three, there
entered Manila Bay a ship from Great China, in which the sentinels
reported that three great mandarins were coming, with their insignia
as such, on business in the service of their king. The governor gave
them permission to leave their ship and enter the city with their
suites. In very curious chairs of ivory and fine gilded woods, borne
on the shoulders of men, they went straight to the royal houses of
the Audiencia, where the governor was awaiting them, with a large
suite of captains and soldiers throughout the house and through the
streets where they passed. When they had reached the doors of the
royal houses they alighted from their chairs and entered on foot,
leaving in the street the banners, plumes, lances and other very showy
insignia which they brought with them. The mandarins went into a large,
finely-decorated hall, where the governor received them standing,
they making many bows and compliments to him after their fashion, and
he replying to them after his. They told him through the interpreters
that their king had sent them, with a Chinaman whom they had with
them in chains, to see with their own eyes an island of gold, called
Cabit, which he had told their king was near Manila, and belonged to no
one. [162] They said that this man had asked for a quantity of ships,
which he said he would bring back laden with gold, and if it were
not so that they could punish him with his life. So they had come
to ascertain and tell their king what there was in the matter. The
governor replied briefly, saying only that they were welcome, and
appointed them quarters in two houses within the city which had been
prepared for them, in which they and their men could lodge. He said
that the business would be discussed afterwards. Thereupon they left
the royal houses again, and at the doors mounted in their chairs on
the shoulders of their servants, who were dressed in red, and were
carried to their lodgings, where the governor ordered them to be
supplied fully with whatever they needed during the days of their stay.

The coming of these mandarins seemed suspicious, and their purpose
to be different from what they said, because it seemed a fiction for
people, of so much understanding as the Chinese, to say that their
king was sending them on this business. Among the Chinese themselves
who came to Manila at the same time in eight merchant ships, and
among those who lived in the city, it was said that these mandarins
were coming to see the land and study its nature, because the king of
China wished to break relations with the Spaniards and send a large
fleet, before the end of the year, with one hundred thousand men to
take the country.

The governor and the Audiencia thought that they ought to be very
careful in guarding the city, and that these mandarins should be well
treated, but that they should not go out of the city nor be allowed to
administer justice, as they were beginning to do among the Sangleys,
at which the mandarins were somewhat angry. He asked them to treat
of their business, and then to return to China quickly, and he warned
the Spaniards not to show that they understood or were suspicious of
anything other than what the mandarins had said. The mandarins had
another interview with the governor, and he told them more clearly,
making some joke of their coming, that he was astonished that their
king should have believed what that Chinaman whom they had with them
had said, and even if it were true that there was so much gold in the
Filipinas, that the Spaniards would not allow it to be carried away,
since the country belonged to his Majesty. The mandarins said that they
understood very well what the governor had communicated to them, but
that their king had ordered them to come and that they must needs obey
and bring him a reply, and that when they had performed their duty,
that was all, and they would return. The governor, to cut short the
business, sent the mandarins, with their servants and the prisoner,
to Cabit, which is the port, two leguas from the city. There they were
received with a great artillery salute, which was fired suddenly as
they landed, at which they were very frightened and fearful. When they
had landed, they asked the prisoner if that was the island of which
he had spoken to the king, and he replied that it was. They asked him
where the gold was, and he replied that everything there was gold and
that he would make his statement good with the king. They asked him
other questions and he always replied the same thing. Everything was
written down in the presence of some Spanish captains who were there
with some confidential interpreters. The mandarins ordered a basketful
of earth to be taken from the ground, to take to the king of China,
and then, having eaten and rested, they returned to Manila the same
day, with the prisoner. The interpreters said that the prisoner,
when hard pressed by the mandarins to make suitable answers to their
questions, had said that what he had meant to tell the king of China
was that there was much gold and wealth in the hands of the natives
and Spaniards of Manila, and that if they gave him a fleet with men,
he offered, as a man who had been in Luzon and knew the country, to
capture it and bring the ships back laden with gold and riches. This,
together with what some Chinamen had said at the beginning, seemed very
much to have more meaning than the mandarins had implied, especially
to Don Fray Miguel de Benavides, archbishop-elect of Manila, who knew
the language. Thereupon the archbishop and other religious warned the
governor and the city, publicly and privately, to look to its defense,
because they felt sure of the coming of the Chinese fleet against it
shortly. Then the governor dismissed the mandarins and embarked them
on their ship, with their prisoner, after giving them some pieces
of silver and other things with which they were pleased. Although,
in the opinion of the majority of those in the city, it seemed that
it was beyond all reason that the Chinese should attack the country,
the governor began covertly to prepare ships and other things suitable
for defense, and made haste to complete extensive repairs which he
had begun to make on the fort of Sanctiago at the point of the river,
and for the defense of the fort he built on the inside a wall of
great strength, with its wings, facing toward the parade ground.

At the end of April of this year six hundred and three, on the
eve of Sts. Philip and James [Santiago] a fire started in a little
field house [casilla de zacate] used by some Indians and negroes of
the native hospital in the city, at three o'clock in the afternoon,
and passed to other houses so quickly, with the force of the rather
fresh wind, that it could not be stopped, and burned houses of wood
and stone, even the monastery of St. Dominic--house and church--the
royal hospital for the Spaniards, and the royal warehouses, without
leaving a building standing among them. Fourteen people died in the
fire, Spaniards, Indians, and negroes, and among them Licentiate Sanz,
canon of the cathedral. In all two hundred and sixty houses were
burned, with much property which was in them, and it was understood
that the damage and loss amounted to more than one million [pesos].

After Ocuña Lacasamanà, the Moro Malay, with the help of the mandarins
of Camboja who sided with him, and of the stepmother of King Prauncar,
had killed and put an end to Bias Ruyz de Hernan Gonçales and Diego
Belloso, and the Castilians, Portuguese, and Japanese on their side
who were in the kingdom, his boldness went so far that he even killed
the king himself, whereby the whole kingdom was divided into factions
and suffered greater disturbances than it had ever known before. God
permitted this for His just judgments, and because Prauncar did
not deserve to enjoy the good fortune which he had had in being
placed on his father's throne, since he lost it at the same time
that he did his life. Nor did Bias Ruiz de Hernan Gonzales and Diego
Belloso, and their companions, deserve the fruit and labor of their
expeditions and victories, since they were converted into disastrous
and cruel death at the time when they seemed most secure and certain,
for perchance their pretensions and claims were not so well adjusted
to the obligations of conscience as they ought to have been. But God
did not wish the Moro Malay to remain unpunished.

When this Malay thought that he was going to get the better part
of the kingdom of Camboja, because he had killed the Castilians and
Portuguese, their captains, and the legitimate and natural king himself
who favored them, he was more mistaken than he thought, because the
disorders and uprisings in the provinces gave opportunity for some
powerful mandarins in the kingdom, who held and maintained the saner
course, to join, and avenge the death of King Prauncar by force of
arms. So they turned against Ocuña Lacasamana and his Malays, and,
meeting them in battle on different occasions, conquered and routed
them, so that the Moro was forced to flee from Camboja, with the
remaining remnant of his men, and pass to the kingdom of Champa,
which bordered on it, with the purpose of disturbing it and making
war on the usurper who held it, and of seizing it all, or as much as
he could. This also did not turn out well for him, for, although he
brought war into Champa, and all the disturbances which it brings,
and caused the usurper and his men a great deal of trouble, at last
he was routed and killed and came to pay wretchedly for his sins at
the usurper's hands.

Seeing themselves rid of the Malay, but finding that the kingdom was
still disturbed, as he had left it, and without a male descendant
in the line of Prauncar Langara, who died in Laos, the mandarins
of Camboja turned their eyes toward a brother of his whom the
king of Sian had captured and taken with him in the war which he
had made against Langara, and whom he held in the city of Odia, as
they thought that he had the best right to the kingdom of Camboja,
by legitimate succession, and that it would be more easily pacified
in his presence. They sent an embassy to Sian, asking him to come to
reign, and asking the king of Sian, who held him captive, to allow
him to go. The king thought well of it, and, with certain provisions
and conditions which he made with his prisoner, gave him his liberty
and six thousand fighting men to serve and accompany him. With these
he came immediately to Camboja and was readily received in Sistor and
other provinces, and placed on the throne, and from those provinces
he went on pacifying and reducing the more distant ones.

This new king of Camboja who, from being a captive of the king of Sian,
came to the throne by such strange events and varying chances--for
God held this good fortune in store for him, and holds still more of
greater worth, if he can carry on what he has begun--caused search
to be made for Joan Diaz, a Castilian soldier, who survived from the
company of Blas Ruyz de Hernan Gonçales. He bade him go to Manila
and, in his behalf, tell the governor that he was on the throne, and
also what had happened in regard to the death of the Spaniards and
of his nephew Prauncar, in which he [the new king] was in no wise to
blame. He said that he recognized the friendship which they--Langara,
his brother, and the latter's son--received from the Spaniards in the
time of their troubles; that he himself was well disposed to continue
this friendship and understanding; and he again asked the governor,
if he were willing, to send him some religious and Castilians to reside
at his court and to make Christians of those who wished to become so.

With this message and embassy, and many promises, Joan Diaz came
to Manila, where he found Don Pedro de Acuña in the government,
and treated of the matter with him. The governor thought it unwise
to close the door to the preaching of the holy gospel in Camboja,
which God had opened again in this way, and he agreed to do what the
king asked. So, at the beginning of the year six hundred and three,
he sent a frigate to Camboja, with four religious of the Order of
St. Dominic with Fray Yñigo de Santa Maria, prior of Manila, at
their head with five soldiers to accompany them, among them Joan
Diaz himself. They were to give the king the reply to his message,
in confirmation of the peace and friendship for which he asked, and,
according to the circumstances which they found there, the religious
were to stay in his court and advise what seemed best to them. This
frigate reached Camboja after a ten days' voyage with favoring winds,
and the religious and the soldiers in their company ascended the river
to Chordemuco, where the king received them with great satisfaction. He
immediately built them a church, and gave them rice for their support,
and granted them liberty to preach and christianize. This seemed
to the religious to be the work of Heaven, and a matter in which a
great many workers could be employed. They sent immediate word of
their good reception and condition to Manila in the same frigate,
after asking permission of the king that it might return. The king
granted it and gave them the necessary supplies for their voyage, and
at the same time sent a servant of his with a present of ivory tusks,
benzoin, and other curious things for the governor, with a letter
thanking him for what he was doing and asking for more religious and
Castilians. Fray Yñigo de Santa Maria [163] with a companion embarked
on this frigate, in order to come to give a better report of what he
had found, but he sickened and died on the voyage. His companion and
those aboard the frigate reached Manila in May of six hundred and
three and gave an account of events in Camboja.

At the end of the same month of May, there came to Manila two ships
from Nueva España, in command of Don Diego de Camudio, with the
regular reënforcements for the Philipinas. It brought news that
Fray Diego de Soria, [164] of the Order of St. Dominic, bishop of
Cagayan, was in Mexico, and was bringing the bulls and pallium to
the archbishop-elect of Manila, and Fray Baltasar de Cobarrubias,
[165] of the Order of St. Augustine, appointed bishop of Camarines
by the death of Fray Francisco de Ortega. In the same ships came two
auditors for the Audiencia of Manila, Licentiates Andres de Alcaraz,
and Manuel de Madrid y Luna.

The captain and sargento-mayor, Joan Xuarez Gallinato, with the ship
"Santa Potenciana" and the men whom he had taken in it to Maluco in aid
of the Portuguese fleet which Andrea Furtado de Mendoça had brought
to assault the fortress of Terrenate, found this fleet in the port
of Talangame. As soon as this help arrived, Andrea Furtado landed
his men, Portuguese and Castilians, with six pieces of artillery,
and marched with them along the shore, toward the fort, to plant the
battery. He took two days to reach the fort, passing through some
narrow places and gullies which the enemy had fortified. When he had
reached the principal fort, he had all that he could do to plant the
artillery, for the enemy sallied out frequently against the camp and
hindered the work. Once they reached the very gate of the quarters,
and would have done a great deal of damage had not the Castilians
nearest the entrance stopped them and pressed the Moros so hard that,
leaving some dead, they turned and fled and shut themselves up in the
fort. At the same time five pieces were placed within cannon-shot
of it. The enemy, who had sufficient men for their defense, with
a great deal of artillery and ammunition, did much damage in the
camp, whereas the pieces of the battery had no considerable effect,
having but a short supply of powder and ammunition. Consequently what
Gallinato and his men had heard, when they joined the Portuguese fleet,
of the scant supply and outfit which Andrea Furtado had brought for so
great an enterprise, was seen and experienced very quickly. That they
might not all be killed, Andrea Furtado, having asked the opinion of
all the officers of his camp and fleet, withdrew his pieces and camp
to the port of Talangame. He embarked his men on his galleons and
returned to the forts and islands of Amboino and Vanda, where he had
first been, taking for the support of the fleet the supplies brought
him by Gallinato, to whom he gave permission to return to Manila,
with the Castilians. The latter did so, in company with Ruy Gonçales
de Sequeira, until recently chief captain of the fort of Tidore, who,
with his household and merchandise, left that fortress in another ship,
and they reached Manila at the beginning of the month of July of this
year six hundred and three, bearing the following letter from Andrea
Furtado de Mendoça to Governor Don Pedro de Acuña.

* * * * *

A letter which General Andrea Furtado de Mendoça wrote to Don Pedro
de Acuña from Terrenate on the twenty-fifth of March of the year one
thousand six hundred and three.

There are no misfortunes in the world, however great they may be,
from which some good may not be gained. Of all those through which
I have passed in this undertaking, and they have been infinite, the
result has been that I have learned the zeal and courage which your
Lordship shows in the service of his Majesty, on account of which I
envy your Lordship and hold you as master, affirming that the thing
which I would like most in this life would be for your Lordship to hold
the same opinion of me, and, as one that is very particularly your own,
that your Lordship should command me in what is for your service.

The help sent me by your Lordship came in time, by the favor of God,
and was what gave this fleet to his Majesty and our lives to all of
us alive today. By what happened in this expedition, his Majesty will
understand how much he owes to your Lordship and how little to the
captain of Malaca, for the latter was partly the cause that the service
of his Majesty was not accomplished. When the ship sent me by your
Lordship arrived, this fleet was without any supplies because it had
been two years since it had left Goa, and they had all been consumed
and spent on the occasions which had presented themselves. Admitting
this in order that it may not be imagined that it was on my account
that the service of his Majesty was not carried out, I went on shore,
which I gained, inflicting great losses on the enemy, and I placed
my last trenches a hundred paces from the enemy's fortification. I
landed five heavy pieces for battering, and in ten days of bombarding,
knocked to pieces a large part of a bastion where all the enemy's
force was concentrated. In these days all the powder in the fleet
was spent, without a grain being left with which its artillery could
be loaded even once, and if I should happen to run across a Dutch
squadron, of which I have little doubt, I should be forced to fight
with them. This was the principal cause for which I raised the siege,
when I had the enemy in great distress through hunger and also through
having killed many of his captains and other men in the course of the
fighting. From this your Lordship may judge of the state of suffering
and grief in which I must be. God be praised for everything, since
it is His will, and may He permit that His greatest enemies in these
regions may become the vassals of his Majesty.

Copyright (c) 2007. famouswriterz.com. All rights reserved.