Moro “Vinta.”
Battle at Mariveles with the Dutch.—In October, 1600, two Dutch vessels appeared in the Islands; it was the famous expedition of the Dutch admiral, Van Noort. They had come through the Straits of Magellan, on a voyage around the world. The Dutch were in great need of provisions. As they were in their great enemy’s colony, they captured and sunk several boats, Spanish and Chinese, bound for Manila with rice, poultry, palm-wine, and other stores of food. At Mariveles, a Japanese vessel from Japan was overhauled. Meanwhile in Manila great excitement and activity prevailed. The Spaniards fitted up two galleons and the “Oidor” Morga himself took command with a large crew of fighting men.
On November 14, they attacked the Dutch, whose crews were greatly reduced to only eighty men on both ships. The vessel commanded by Morga ran down the flagship of Van Noort, and for hours the ships lay side by side while a hand-to-hand fight raged on the deck and in the hold. The ships taking fire, Morga disengaged his ship, which was so badly shattered that it sank, with great loss of life; but Morga and some others reached the little island of Fortuna. Van Noort was able to extinguish the fire on his vessel, and escape from the Islands. He eventually reached Holland. His smaller vessel was captured with its crew of twenty-five men, who were all hung at Cavite.[9]
Other Troubles of the Spanish.—In the year 1600, two ships sailed for Acapulco, but one went down off the Catanduanes and the other was shipwrecked on the Ladrones. “On top of all other misfortunes, Manila suffered, in the last months of this government, a terrible earthquake, which destroyed many houses and the church of the Jesuits.”[10]
The Moros, the Dutch, anxieties and losses by sea, the visitations of God,—how much of the history of the seventeenth century in the Philippines is filled with these four things!
[1] Fray Gaspar de San Agustin: Conquista de las Islas Filipinas, lib. I., c. 13.
[2] One of the best paintings of the Filipino artist Juan Luna, which hangs in the Ayuntamiento in Manila, represents Legaspi in the act of the “Pacto de Sangre” with this Filipino chieftain.
[3] There is an old account of this interesting expedition by one who participated. (Relacion de la Conquista de la Isla de Luzon, Manila, 1572; Retana, Archivo del Bibliofilo Filipino, vol. IV.)