Chapter V: deals with the term of Gomez Perez Dasmariñas and the (9)

After Ocuña Lacasamanà, the Moro Malay, with the help of the mandarins of Camboja who sided with him, and of the stepmother of King Prauncar, had killed and put an end to Bias Ruyz de Hernan Gonçales and Diego Belloso, and the Castilians, Portuguese, and Japanese on their side who were in the kingdom, his boldness went so far that he even killed the king himself, whereby the whole kingdom was divided into factions and suffered greater disturbances than it had ever known before. God permitted this for His just judgments, and because Prauncar did not deserve to enjoy the good fortune which he had had in being placed on his father's throne, since he lost it at the same time that he did his life. Nor did Bias Ruiz de Hernan Gonzales and Diego Belloso, and their companions, deserve the fruit and labor of their expeditions and victories, since they were converted into disastrous and cruel death at the time when they seemed most secure and certain, for perchance their pretensions and claims were not so well adjusted to the obligations of conscience as they ought to have been. But God did not wish the Moro Malay to remain unpunished.

When this Malay thought that he was going to get the better part of the kingdom of Camboja, because he had killed the Castilians and Portuguese, their captains, and the legitimate and natural king himself who favored them, he was more mistaken than he thought, because the disorders and uprisings in the provinces gave opportunity for some powerful mandarins in the kingdom, who held and maintained the saner course, to join, and avenge the death of King Prauncar by force of arms. So they turned against Ocuña Lacasamana and his Malays, and, meeting them in battle on different occasions, conquered and routed them, so that the Moro was forced to flee from Camboja, with the remaining remnant of his men, and pass to the kingdom of Champa, which bordered on it, with the purpose of disturbing it and making war on the usurper who held it, and of seizing it all, or as much as he could. This also did not turn out well for him, for, although he brought war into Champa, and all the disturbances which it brings, and caused the usurper and his men a great deal of trouble, at last he was routed and killed and came to pay wretchedly for his sins at the usurper's hands.

Seeing themselves rid of the Malay, but finding that the kingdom was still disturbed, as he had left it, and without a male descendant in the line of Prauncar Langara, who died in Laos, the mandarins of Camboja turned their eyes toward a brother of his whom the king of Sian had captured and taken with him in the war which he had made against Langara, and whom he held in the city of Odia, as they thought that he had the best right to the kingdom of Camboja, by legitimate succession, and that it would be more easily pacified in his presence. They sent an embassy to Sian, asking him to come to reign, and asking the king of Sian, who held him captive, to allow him to go. The king thought well of it, and, with certain provisions and conditions which he made with his prisoner, gave him his liberty and six thousand fighting men to serve and accompany him. With these he came immediately to Camboja and was readily received in Sistor and other provinces, and placed on the throne, and from those provinces he went on pacifying and reducing the more distant ones.

This new king of Camboja who, from being a captive of the king of Sian, came to the throne by such strange events and varying chances--for God held this good fortune in store for him, and holds still more of greater worth, if he can carry on what he has begun--caused search to be made for Joan Diaz, a Castilian soldier, who survived from the company of Blas Ruyz de Hernan Gonçales. He bade him go to Manila and, in his behalf, tell the governor that he was on the throne, and also what had happened in regard to the death of the Spaniards and of his nephew Prauncar, in which he [the new king] was in no wise to blame. He said that he recognized the friendship which they--Langara, his brother, and the latter's son--received from the Spaniards in the time of their troubles; that he himself was well disposed to continue this friendship and understanding; and he again asked the governor, if he were willing, to send him some religious and Castilians to reside at his court and to make Christians of those who wished to become so.

With this message and embassy, and many promises, Joan Diaz came to Manila, where he found Don Pedro de Acuña in the government, and treated of the matter with him. The governor thought it unwise to close the door to the preaching of the holy gospel in Camboja, which God had opened again in this way, and he agreed to do what the king asked. So, at the beginning of the year six hundred and three, he sent a frigate to Camboja, with four religious of the Order of St. Dominic with Fray Yñigo de Santa Maria, prior of Manila, at their head with five soldiers to accompany them, among them Joan Diaz himself. They were to give the king the reply to his message, in confirmation of the peace and friendship for which he asked, and, according to the circumstances which they found there, the religious were to stay in his court and advise what seemed best to them. This frigate reached Camboja after a ten days' voyage with favoring winds, and the religious and the soldiers in their company ascended the river to Chordemuco, where the king received them with great satisfaction. He immediately built them a church, and gave them rice for their support, and granted them liberty to preach and christianize. This seemed to the religious to be the work of Heaven, and a matter in which a great many workers could be employed. They sent immediate word of their good reception and condition to Manila in the same frigate, after asking permission of the king that it might return. The king granted it and gave them the necessary supplies for their voyage, and at the same time sent a servant of his with a present of ivory tusks, benzoin, and other curious things for the governor, with a letter thanking him for what he was doing and asking for more religious and Castilians. Fray Yñigo de Santa Maria [163] with a companion embarked on this frigate, in order to come to give a better report of what he had found, but he sickened and died on the voyage. His companion and those aboard the frigate reached Manila in May of six hundred and three and gave an account of events in Camboja.

At the end of the same month of May, there came to Manila two ships from Nueva España, in command of Don Diego de Camudio, with the regular reënforcements for the Philipinas. It brought news that Fray Diego de Soria, [164] of the Order of St. Dominic, bishop of Cagayan, was in Mexico, and was bringing the bulls and pallium to the archbishop-elect of Manila, and Fray Baltasar de Cobarrubias, [165] of the Order of St. Augustine, appointed bishop of Camarines by the death of Fray Francisco de Ortega. In the same ships came two auditors for the Audiencia of Manila, Licentiates Andres de Alcaraz, and Manuel de Madrid y Luna.

The captain and sargento-mayor, Joan Xuarez Gallinato, with the ship "Santa Potenciana" and the men whom he had taken in it to Maluco in aid of the Portuguese fleet which Andrea Furtado de Mendoça had brought to assault the fortress of Terrenate, found this fleet in the port of Talangame. As soon as this help arrived, Andrea Furtado landed his men, Portuguese and Castilians, with six pieces of artillery, and marched with them along the shore, toward the fort, to plant the battery. He took two days to reach the fort, passing through some narrow places and gullies which the enemy had fortified. When he had reached the principal fort, he had all that he could do to plant the artillery, for the enemy sallied out frequently against the camp and hindered the work. Once they reached the very gate of the quarters, and would have done a great deal of damage had not the Castilians nearest the entrance stopped them and pressed the Moros so hard that, leaving some dead, they turned and fled and shut themselves up in the fort. At the same time five pieces were placed within cannon-shot of it. The enemy, who had sufficient men for their defense, with a great deal of artillery and ammunition, did much damage in the camp, whereas the pieces of the battery had no considerable effect, having but a short supply of powder and ammunition. Consequently what Gallinato and his men had heard, when they joined the Portuguese fleet, of the scant supply and outfit which Andrea Furtado had brought for so great an enterprise, was seen and experienced very quickly. That they might not all be killed, Andrea Furtado, having asked the opinion of all the officers of his camp and fleet, withdrew his pieces and camp to the port of Talangame. He embarked his men on his galleons and returned to the forts and islands of Amboino and Vanda, where he had first been, taking for the support of the fleet the supplies brought him by Gallinato, to whom he gave permission to return to Manila, with the Castilians. The latter did so, in company with Ruy Gonçales de Sequeira, until recently chief captain of the fort of Tidore, who, with his household and merchandise, left that fortress in another ship, and they reached Manila at the beginning of the month of July of this year six hundred and three, bearing the following letter from Andrea Furtado de Mendoça to Governor Don Pedro de Acuña.

* * * * *

A letter which General Andrea Furtado de Mendoça wrote to Don Pedro de Acuña from Terrenate on the twenty-fifth of March of the year one thousand six hundred and three.

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.

I am leaving for Amboino to see if I can get help there, and if I find sufficient, and if there is not elsewhere in the south anything in such urgent need that I must attend to it, I am going to return to this undertaking, and I will inform your Lordship of it at length. If I do not find there the help which I expect, I shall go to Malaca to refit, and from whatever place I am in, I shall always inform your Lordship. I am writing to his Majesty, giving him a long account of the affairs of this enterprise, and stating that it cannot be accomplished or preserved in the future, unless it is done by the order of your Lordship, and helped and increased by that government, since India is so far that it could not receive help from there within two years. In conformity with this, your Lordship should inform his Majesty, that he may be undeceived in this regard about Maluco, and I trust to God that I may be one of your Highness's soldiers.

I do not know with what words I can praise or thank your Lordship for the kind things which you have done for me. These were made plain to me by Antonio de Brito Fogaça, as well as by Tomas de Araux, my servant. These are things which can not be rewarded or paid except by risking life, honor, and property on every occasion which offers itself in your service. If such an occasion should be presented to me, it will be seen that I am not ungrateful for the favors which I have received; the greatest of which, and the one which I esteem most highly, was that, with this help, your Lordship sent me Joan Xuarez Gallinato, Don Tomas de Acuña, and the other captains and soldiers. If I were to mention to your Lordship the deserts of each and every one of these, I should never end.

Joan Xuarez Gallinato is a person whom your Lordship should esteem highly on every occasion, because he deserves it all. In this expedition and enterprise he conducted himself with so great satisfaction, courage, and prudence, that it is very clear that he was sent by your Lordship and had fought under the banners of so distinguished captains. Consequently, I shall be glad to know that your Lordship has shown him many kindnesses, on account of his services to his Majesty in these regions, and on my own account. The thing which pleased me most in this undertaking, and which is worthy of being remembered, is that, contrary to the proverb of the old Portuguese women, in the course of this war there was not one harsh word between the Spaniards and Portuguese, though they ate together at one mess. But your Lordship may attribute this to your good fortune, and to the intelligence and experience of Joan Xuarez Gallinato.

Don Tomas conducted himself in this war, not like a gentleman of his age, but like an old soldier, full of experience. Your Lordship should greatly esteem this relative, for I trust that your Lordship may be a second father to him.

The sargento-mayor conducted himself in this war like an excellent soldier, and he is a man whom your Lordship should regard favorably, for I give my word that the Manilas do not contain a better soldier than he, and I shall be greatly pleased if your Lordship honor him and show him very particular favors on my account. Captain Villagra fulfilled his duty well and Don Luys did the same. In short all the soldiers, to a man, great and small, did likewise in this enterprise, so that for this reason I am under so great obligations to them that, if I were now before his Majesty, I would not leave his feet till I had heaped them all with honors and favors since they also deserve them. So for this reason I shall always be particularly glad if your Lordship confers honors and favors on them all in general. May our Lord preserve your Lordship for many years, as I, your servant, desire. From the port of Talangame, in the island of Terrenate, on the twenty-fifth of March, of the year one thousand six hundred and three.

ANDREA FURTADO DE MENDOÇA

(To be concluded)

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DATA

Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas, by Dr. Antonio de Morga.--The translation is made from the Harvard original. In conjunction with it have been used the following editions: The Zaragoza reprint (Madrid, 1887) a unique copy (No. 2658, Catálogo de la librería de P. Vindel) owned by Edward E. Ayer, of Chicago; the Rizal reprint (Paris, 1890); and Lord Stanley's translation (London, Hakluyt Society edition, 1868).