History of the Philippine IslandsMorga, Antonio de
History
History of the Philippine Islands
Morga, Antonio de
Philippines -- History
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
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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