The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 17 of 55: 1609-1616; Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of the Catholic Missions, as Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century
History
The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 17 of 55: 1609-1616; Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of the Catholic Missions, as Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century
Demarcation line of Alexander VI; Missions -- Philippines; Philippines -- Discovery and exploration; Philippines -- History -- Sources
On the eve of the Assumption [87] we ran upon a shoal three brazas
under water, where the galleon remained all night, tossing up and down
frightfully. In the morning a boat came from one of our other ships
in response to the numerous pieces that we discharged, and helped us
get off the shoal; but we were in so bad condition that from then on
the boat made thirty palmos of water every twenty-four hours.
We finally reached Malaca August twenty-two. Although it was thought
that the monsoon or favorable wind was already ended, we attempted
to make the voyage to Manila. We passed the strait of Sincapura,
and on the fifth of September, because of the little progress that
we made, called a council, in which we all resolved to winter at
Malaca. However, on the next day, the commander attempted to continue
the voyage to Manila, until the soldiers and sailors mutinied and
forced him to put in at Malaca, on the nineteenth of the same month.
The fleet was very ill received by the inhabitants there, because
of the harm that soldiers generally do. But our going there was soon
seen to have been a providence of God; for within one month the king
of Achen came to attack that city with a fleet of one hundred and
fifty sail and forty thousand men, and had not he found our galleys
there would surely have captured it. And further, according to rumors
(and as was shown in the result), he had agreed with the Dutch to join
them, since they came only twenty days apart, as I shall immediately
relate. In my opinion the same thing that had happened to the prophet
Abacuc [_i.e._, Habakkuk] happened to me. For he having prepared
the food for his reapers, the angel bore him by the hair to Babylon,
to relieve the necessity of Daniel, who had been locked in the den
of lions. I took that aid from Goa for Manila, and the Lord took us
to Malaca, and conveyed us as if by the hair, since we put in with
great repugnance; and at last all that reinforcement was consumed in
helping Malaca.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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