Early Voyages to Terra Australis, Now Called Australia:: A Collection of Documents, and Extracts from Early Manuscript Maps, Illustrative of the History of Discovery on the Coasts of That Vast Island, from the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century to the Time of Captain Cook.Major, Richard Henry
History
Early Voyages to Terra Australis, Now Called Australia:: A Collection of Documents, and Extracts from Early Manuscript Maps, Illustrative of the History of Discovery on the Coasts of That Vast Island, from the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century to the Time of Captain Cook.
Major, Richard Henry
Australia -- Discovery and exploration; Discoveries in geography -- Portuguese; Voyages and travels
At the termination of this land we found Mahometans, who were cloathed,
and had firearms and swords. They sold us fowls, goats, fruit and some
pepper, and biscuit which they called _sagoe_, which will keep more than
twenty years. The whole they sold us was but little; for they wanted
cloth, and we had not any; for all the things that had been given us for
traffic were carried away by the _Capitana_, even to tools and
medicines, and many other things which I do not mention, as there is no
help for it; but, without them, God took care of us.
These Moors gave us news of the events at the Malucas, and told us of
Dutch ships, though none of them came here, although they said that in
all this land there was much gold and other good things, such as pepper
and nutmegs. From hence to the Malucas it is all islands, and on the
south side are many uniting with those of Banda and Amboyna, where the
Dutch carry on a trade. We came to the islands of Bachian, which are the
first Malucas, where we found a _Theatine_, with about one hundred
Christians in the country of a Mahometan king friendly to us, who begged
me to subdue one of the Ternate islands inhabited by revolted
Mahometans, to whom Don Pedro de Acunha had given pardon in Your
Majesty’s name, which I had maintained; and I sent advice to the M. de
Campo, Juan de Esquivel, who governed the islands of Ternate, of my
arrival, and demanded if it was expedient to give this assistance to the
king of Bachian, to which he [Juan de Esquivel] answered that it would
be of great service to Your Majesty if I brought force for that purpose.
On this, with forty Spaniards and four hundred Moors of the king of
Bachian, I made war, and in only four days I defeated them and took the
fort, and put the king of Bachian in possession of it in Your Majesty’s
name, to whom we administered the usual oaths, stipulating with him that
he should never go to war against Christians, and that he should ever be
a faithful vassal to Your Majesty. I did not find these people of so
intrepid a spirit as those we had left.
It must be ascribed to the Almighty that, in all these labours and
victories, we lost only one Spaniard. I do not make a relation of them
to Your Majesty, for I hope to give it at large.
The king being put in possession, I departed for Ternate, which was
twelve leagues from this island, where Juan de Esquivel was, by whom I
was very well received; for he had great scarcity of people, and the
nations of Ternate were in rebellion, and assistance to him was very
unexpected in so roundabout a way.
In a few days afterwards arrived succour from Manila, which was much
desired, for half of the people left by Don Pedro de Acunha were no
more, and there was a scarcity of provisions, for, as I said, the
nations of the island were in rebellion; but by the prudence of the M.
de Campo, Juan de Esquivel, he went on putting the affairs of the island
in good order, although he was in want of money.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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