The latter left Goa May 12. The voyage, which is generally thirty days, lasted three and one-half months. We ran short of water in the middle of the open stretch, and thought that we were lost, on account of having been despatched with broken tanks and hogsheads. Together with this was the disorder among the soldiers of Yndia, who surreptitiously took with them many servants of their own and of other people, so that it was necessary to support these people aboard the vessel. These afterward consumed the food, and then caught and spread a pestilence. Although there were only one hundred and ten soldiers in our galleon, there were about seven hundred persons, mostly negroes and Cafres; of these many were free, although nominally slaves, as Don Gonzalo de Silva, bishop of Malaca, who was aboard the same galleon, testified. He declared that many lads were free, even some whom they were taking as captives. This is a general sin, wherefore some Portuguese authors say, with Father Hernando Rabelo, that God is punishing Yndia and the Portuguese nation, which alone has more slaves than any other nation of the world. July 30 we met two Dutch ships, which were apparently going from Palliacate [_i.e._, Palicat] to carry aid to Maluco. Our galleon fought singlehanded with those two ships, because the other galleons were far to leeward. The enemy had waited two days between us, without our knowing it, in order to show themselves at a favorable opportunity. So great is the confidence of the Portuguese that they did not fear them. They said that they were ships from Cochin, and that, had they known in time that they were enemies, they could have captured them easily. In short they remained a cannon-shot from the flagship, and so fought until night, when they made off badly battered--as we learned later from the people of Achen, on whose coast one of the ships was immediately wrecked, having sprung a leak through the effect of our balls and their own firing. They only killed two of our men. After the battle, our galleon ran aground on a shoal, on the eve of our Lady of the Assumption, near Pulo Parcelar. At the first shock, the helm was shifted seaward, and all that night we tossed up and down dreadfully until, next morning, we miraculously got off the shoal. We reached the strait of Sincapura on August 10, where, as the pilots said the Manila monsoon was over, we determined to run to Malaca.