In July, 1620, three Mexican galleons were met by three Dutch vessels off Cape Espiritu Santo (Samar Is.), at the entrance of the San Bernadino Straits, but managed to escape in the dark. Two ran ashore and broke up; the third reached Manila. After this, the Gov.-General, Alonso Fajardo de Tua, ordered the course of the State ships to be varied on each voyage. In 1625 the Dutch again appeared off the Zambales coast, and Geronimo de Silva went out against them. The Spaniards, having lost one man, relinquished the pursuit of the enemy, and the Commander was brought to trial by the Supreme Court. In 1626, at the close of the Governorship of Fernando de Silva, a Spanish Colony was founded on Formosa Island, but no supplies were sent to it, and consequently in 1642 it surrendered to the Dutch, who held it for 20 years, until they were driven out by the Chinese adventurer Koxinga. And thus for over a century and a half the strife continued, until the Dutch concentrated their attention on the development of their Eastern Colonies, which the power of Spain, growing more and more effete, was incompetent to impede. In the middle of the 17th century the Tartars invaded China and overthrew the Min Dynasty--at that time represented by the Chinese Emperor Yunglic. He was succeeded on the throne by the Tartar Emperor Kungchi, to whose arbitrary power nearly all the Chinese Empire had submitted. Amongst the few Mongol chiefs who held out against Ta-Tsing dominion was a certain Mandarin known by the name of Koxinga, who retired to the Island of Kinmuen, where he asserted his independence and defied his nation's conqueror. Securely established in his stronghold, he invited the Chinese to take refuge in his island and oppose the Tartar's rule. Therefore the Emperor ordered that no man should inhabit China within four leagues of the coast, except in those provinces which were undoubtedly loyal to the new Government. The coast was consequently laid bare; vessels, houses, plantations, and everything useful to man, were destroyed in order to cut off effectually all communications with lands beyond the Tartar Empire. The Chinese from the coast, who for generations had earned a living by fishing, etc., crowded into the interior, and their misery was indescribable.