I, Dr. Antonio de Morga, auditor of the royal Audiencia and Chancilleria of these Philipinas Islands, say that in the month of October just passed, in the year one thousand six hundred, there came to these Islands for the purpose of robbery one Oliver de Nor, corsair and a heretic, and a native of the states of Flandes, with two men-of-war well provided with men, artillery, and munitions. One of the two ships was large and strong, and was the flagship; the other, smaller and of less importance and strength, was the admiral's ship. With these he had entered the South Sea through the Strait of Magallanes, and skirted the coast of Chile; and then came and anchored outside the entrance to these islands, in the bay of Alvay. After making inquiries about affairs in these islands, and finding that there was no fleet, and no arrangement by which one that could molest him could be created, he passed by Capul and proceeded on his way until he reached the mouth of the bay of this city of Manila. There he made some captures and committed some robberies on vessels which entered, and he was hoping to commit greater ones on the ships which are expected this year, both from China and from Nueva España, with the money belonging to these islands. On this account your Lordship, together with the royal Audiencia, by a decree in due form dated the last day of the aforesaid month of October, commanded me to go to the port of Cavite and to place it and keep it in a state of defense; and likewise to finish some vessels which had been begun there in the dockyard, and to prepare and put in order those which could be used quickly for a fleet to go out and resist and punish the enemy. By working personally day and night, without having anything given to me for it, I put all this into operation with the greatest diligence and care, in thirty-two days. When I came to this city to give your Lordship an account of the good condition of the fleet—in order that it might be immediately arranged who was to go out in it, and the soldiers and seamen who were to embark—considering the fact that the corsair still remained near this bay, your Lordship, influenced by urgent causes and reasons, ordered and commanded me in writing, in the name of our lord the king, to set out with the volunteers of this city, who were placed at my disposal for this expedition. It was understood that I was to conduct this expedition, and, with another body composed of hired soldiers from this district, was to go out as quickly as possible in search of the enemy, and was to fight with him until I overcame him or sent him to the bottom. There were many other conditions which are contained more fully in the letter of instructions which your Lordship gave me, signed and sealed, to which I refer. In fulfilment of this, and only for the service of God and of our lord the king (which service your Lordship commended to me so strongly), leaving my house and quiet life, leaving my wife and nine children, I obeyed your Lordship's command. At my own cost, without having anything supplied from the royal treasury either to myself or to the volunteers who were with me, and who formed the larger part of all the body, I embarked on the fleet on the twelfth day of the month of December of the aforesaid year, taking as flagship the vessel "San Diego," which is of about two hundred tons burden; and in its convoy the ship "San Bartolome" as admiral's ship, of the same burden, in command of the captain Joan de Alçega, admiral of the fleet, and other small vessels for the service of the fleet.
That same day I set sail from the port of Cavite in search of the enemy; and on the following Thursday, the fourteenth of December, I came in sight of him. Both ships of his fleet were anchored near the mouth of the bay at the point of Balagtigui, with his boats at the stern. The flagship of the enemy, from behind, was very easily seen to be a strong vessel, but the admiral's ship was not. When he discovered the two ships of the royal fleet and saw that we were keeping together, in order jointly to board and attack his flagship, he weighed anchor; and, after sending the said admiral's ship out to sea under all sail, in order to divide us, thinking that one of our ships would go after it, he with his flagship luffed toward our vessels, in order to get to windward of us, which he was not able to accomplish. On the contrary, when I discovered the number and excellence of his artillery, with which he began to cannonade me, I saw that success must consist in coming hand to hand with him as soon as possible, with both of our vessels, according to the arrangement which I had made on the day before, the thirteenth of December, when I had given orders and instructions to that effect in writing to the said admiral. So with my flagship I boarded the corsair's flagship, and grappled with it side to side, on the port quarter of the enemy, in the expectation that my admiral would do the same on the other side, as he was perfectly able to do. At the first volley from the artillery and arquebuses I swept the deck of the enemy, unrigged his main and mizzen masts, sent his yards and shrouds into the sea, burned his sails, and won and took into my power the flag at the topmast, the standard and flag at the stern, and the others which the ship bore. Then I sent on board of him a band of men with arms and a banner of infantry, who captured the poop and the cabin and took the shallop or long-boat which it had at the stern. All the enemy retired below the harpings and coverings at the bow. Seeing from there that my admiral was already coming upon them, and that they could not defend themselves, they sent to ask protection for their lives, and to say that they would surrender; and I granted their request, in order to end the battle with the least possible loss and with the greatest safety.
At this time the admiral's ship of my fleet ought to have boarded the enemy as I had done, according to his duty, and to the order which he had from me; and, without orders from me, ought not to have passed by, and still less to have gone in pursuit of, the opposing admiral's ship which was going out to sea. These orders, for many reasons, I could not be expected to give him, especially at that time, until the flagship had completely surrendered and a guard had been placed over it and over the people on it, which would be impossible with my ship alone. Nevertheless our admiral aforesaid, for some reasons of his own which he had, passed by, and with all sail started to pursue and overtake the admiral's ship of the corsair. When the enemy on the flagship saw this, and that they were alone, and that, on account of the superiority of his ship and artillery, he might hope to defend himself, he turned a deaf ear to the terms which I sent him; and he not only did not surrender, but he put himself on the defensive, and fought with me with all the fury of his artillery and of his musketry, from both sides of the ship, and with fire contrivances, with which he was well supplied. The battle lasted six hours, with both ships lashed side to side, but in all this time my admiral aforesaid did not leave his course, or return to succor or help me. On the contrary he began, in our sight, to fight with the admiral's ship of the enemy, which he had overtaken, and he easily captured it because it was a very small ship, with about twenty-two men, including boys and the sick; and after it had surrendered he remained there, instead of returning to help me in time of battle. The enemy killed ten or twelve Spaniards of my men, and some Indians of the service, and on his side most of his men died; so that, being still so hard pressed, he himself set fire to his ship of his own accord, at the stern, where our men were on the poop with the banner. The fire so increased there that we feared that both ships were going to be consumed.
Furthermore, my flagship, which was not a strong one, having been made especially for the merchant trade, sprang a leak at the bow with the force of the artillery which had been fired in this long combat; and it made water so fast that nothing could be done, because we had no pumps, as they had been knocked to pieces by one of the enemy's shot. On this account, by the advice and counsel of the chief pilot and of the seamen who understood the situation, I was asked to loosen myself from the enemy and to go to save my ship (or at least the artillery and men on it) at the island of Fortun, which was to leeward of us a legua and a half away, and which they said we could reach quickly. When I saw the opinion of the aforesaid men and the danger which my ship was in, both from the fire on the enemy and from the risk of sinking, I followed the advice; and, having withdrawn the men and the banner that I had on the poop-castle of the corsair's ship, which was left, as I have said, so broken and disabled, I started for the aforesaid island of Fortun to make repairs; but the water which the ship was taking in increased so that all at once the ship sank.
When the enemy saw himself alone, with the few men that he had, he hastily began to put out the fire on his ship; and with the foresail, which he had had up all the time, he took flight toward the island of Luban, where he has not appeared since that day, nor in any other of the adjacent islands. From this and from the fact that he was so broken and so stripped of men and without any long-boat, it may be inferred that he went to the bottom. Some indications of this have been seen since in the shape of yards and sails, and bodies of the enemy's men, so that we may presume that it is so.
When the flagship of the fleet on which I was went to the bottom, there was no shallop or boat to saye the men, because the boats had been taken by some sailors and soldiers, who to escape the danger, had gone with them to the aforesaid island of Fortun. Consequently when the ship sank I was left in the water, and saved myself at the end of four hours by swimming with great exertion to the island of Fortun, which was a legua and a half away, against many waves and a high wind. The same thing was done by two hundred other persons, including Spaniards and slaves, but the rest drowned and perished, with what was left in the ship. Then I made haste to take all the people from that island, because it was without inhabitants and without water, and I started them on the way to this city. After that I went along the coast to get information about the enemy which had fled, and in search of the admiral's ship and of the captured vessel; but I could not find them, nor could I in the islands of that district, although I searched among them in light vessels, for they had departed thence. At last, having heard that they were near Mariveles, I came to claim them, but did not enter them because your Lordship wrote to me, at just that time, to come to this city on other business in the service of his Majesty.
Thus that expedition ended. It is true that the desired end was accomplished—namely, to destroy the aforesaid corsair so that he should not be able to do the damage which he was doing in this sea, and to conquer him, which was done. Nevertheless it could have been accomplished fully without the loss which there was, if my orders had been followed in the aforesaid fleet, and if there had not been other transgressions and irregularities—which I should have proceeded against and executed justice upon if I had had opportunity to return to the aforesaid fleet, as I tried to do. Since on my part this is all ended, it remains for your Lordship, as captain-general of this realm, to take action in this cause—not only to execute whatever may be just in the matter, but also in order to give an account to our lord the king of what has happened. I have had this in mind in giving to your Lordship so faithful and exact an account of the case, and of the aforesaid irregularities, of which the ones that need particular attention are the following.
First. When the fleet was on the point of setting out from the port of Cavite, although it was already scantily equipped with seamen and artillerymen (which was a matter of the greatest importance), the majority of those who had been provided and supplied absented themselves and fled from the aforesaid fleet at the time of setting out, so that they could not be reached; and the fleet had to go without them, which was the cause of a great deal of suffering and loss. It can be determined who were guilty of this through the lists of allowances and apportionment which are in the possession of the factor of the royal treasury, and through the register which the accountant afterwards made of both fleets at Mariveles.
Item: Although your Lordship, at my request, had some seamen sought out in this city, and had them sent to me with the sergeant Pedro Lopez to Mariveles (where the fleet was anchored) on Wednesday, December thirteenth, and although the aforesaid men arrived on Wednesday, they refused to go on the expedition because they were men of wealth and property; and they did not go to the fleet that night, but went to the settlement on the island. There they remained until the fleet had gone in pursuit of the enemy in the early morning, when they left the village and returned to this city.
Third. The Sangley nation of this city offered themselves, with three ships, according to their custom, to go in the service and convoy of the aforesaid fleet. They were armed and set out after it from Cavite for that purpose, but when they reached the station at Mariveles, where the fleet was anchored, they left it; and it was necessary to send to them and order that on the following day they should join the fleet and follow it without moving off, under pain of their lives. Not only did they not comply with this, but on the following day, when they saw the battle, they remained more than three leguas behind, looking at it; and although they could have been of great assistance, when they saw my flagship founder, they returned toward the bay, ringing bells and beating drums, as is their custom.