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.