The said viceroy wrote me that the troops came paid for a year, and that from the wages of the troops he had retained sixty-five pesos in the case of each soldier. The total amount is forty thousand pesos, which sum was sent under registry on the account and at the risk of the said forces. This is a piece of excellent foresight; for if the total amount of wages had been paid, as is customary, they would have gambled and spent the whole in two days, and would be in need the whole year, from which great evils would follow. For the expedition the viceroy sent sixty thousand pesos, without considering that the treasury here is in such a state that, even if the whole amount should be paid into it on account of these islands, there would not be enough to pay unavoidable debts and the loans which have been taken throughout a whole year from private persons, some of which were granted on my credit. I was expecting some good quantity of money on a separate account; and I also hoped for the ordinary soldiers who are sent every year to supply the places of those who are drowned and those who die of disease and in battle. We are continually waging war in one province or another, and sometimes at home. But I have been disappointed in all this, and must expend my efforts to get on as best I can, using some methods to prevent the service of your Majesty from failure.
As soon as I was informed that your Majesty would be pleased to command this expedition to be undertaken, I began on the very day when I arrived here to busy myself with the preparation of the materials and other things necessary to build the galleys and also to keep them in proper condition. I regard them as the most effective means of defense for this kingdom, on account of the causes which I have previously written to your Majesty. Accordingly, I have five equipped. The flagship has twenty-two benches, the second in command [patrona] and another have nineteen each, and two others seventeen each. One of these two which have seventeen will be launched within a fortnight, and has the necessary supply of rowers. These vessels are not made larger, being thus more suitable for these regions, because there are many shoals here; and when they are of this size they are sufficient for the contests which they have to carry on with the oared vessels employed by the enemy Another reason is the advantage of keeping down the number of rowers and reducing the expenses, as I have written your Majesty. These galleys have turned out very well, because I found here a good foreman; and although he died a few days ago, I have had the good fortune to find a second, a Genovese, a good workman. He is well known in Cartagena, where he built a galley. I have met with much opposition from the archbishop and from the licentiate Don Antonio de Rivera Maldonado, auditor of this royal Audiencia. If I had had to follow the opinion of either of them so that they could restrain my hand, the first stick of wood would still have to be worked. God knows what I have had to undergo in this, and what I am still undergoing; and He knows the evil results which follow from such a state of things in a region so distant from your Majesty, when those persons undertake to correct matters of war, and to meddle with them, who do not understand them and have nothing to do with them.
I expect to take with me on the expedition four of these galleys, and a vessel which has arrived here just now from Acapulco, which was made here and has capacity to carry a large amount of troops and provisions; it is of seven hundred toneladas. This vessel I will have fitted and put in good order. I expect also to take another of moderate size, of two hundred and fifty toneladas, which I have had built in the province of Camarines. I shall have three Moro ships from Perú. These will be very light, the largest being of a hundred and fifty toneladas, and the other two of a hundred and thirty each, more or less. Thus in all there will be five, in addition to seven brigantines and five lorchas, vessels built after the fashion of China and Japon. These are very good with both oar and sail, and have greater capacity and accommodation for carrying provisions than any other kind of vessels with which oars are used.
I expect that this expedition will include the foregoing vessels and galleys on account of your Majesty; and that in addition there will go seven or eight other ships belonging to private encomenderos and other persons. These will be ships of moderate size, with a high freeboard, in which their owners will take a quantity of biscuit, rice, wine, meat, and other supplies; these will be of great assistance, since a number of volunteers will go. This provision made by private persons is of considerable usefulness, and on that account I have had it made. To induce them to go it is absolutely necessary to encourage them to it, and to urge upon them the service which they will render to your Majesty. This I have had to undertake, since in view of the losses and misfortunes which they have suffered, they are poor and discouraged. They finally volunteered to go with a good will, and their going will be an assistance of no little consequence; as a result of it, I am certain that we shall have provisions for more than a year.
I have commanded the whole of this body of vessels to assemble in the island of Panay, at the town and port of Oton, where the infantry is on shore. When they have assembled there they will proceed, and I will leave this city after the day of St. Francis, taking advantage of the north winds. I shall attend to whatever shall be necessary there, and get it all in order by the end of January or the beginning of February. That is the season best suited for the voyage to Maluco. It will then be most likely that we shall have the benefit of the monsoon which is likely to blow with gentle and favorable brisas. In this way I shall not be forced off my course by vessels with a high freeboard; this accident happens very often, because of the great number of currents among these islands. I have no doubt that we shall encounter some vessels from Olanda and Gelanda, and more this year than others, since this is the year of the clove monsoon more than the two previous years; for in the third year the clove-trees bear much more heavily. The fruit is like olives, and the trees resemble olive-trees in their leaves and in their size, as I am told.[2] I had further information from Enrique de Castro, a Fleming, a native of Amberes [i.e., Anvers?], a man of good reputation, able to speak several languages, and very sensible; he told me that he came as a soldier in one of the companies brought by the despatch-boat which reached here February 25. He said that he had left Olanda fifteen months before, from the city of Nostradama [i.e., Amsterdam]; and that there, and in another city in the same country of Olanda, they were preparing twelve or thirteen large vessels with the purpose of coming to the Yndias. He was told that they were to seize Ambueno and the Maluca Islands, and that they were carrying a large number of men, besides lime and cut stone in ballast, to make a fortress. I am much afraid that this is true, because of what I have previously written to your Majesty with reference to the advices which I have received from the king of Tidore. He states that the king of Terrenate had sent to invite the Dutch, offering to permit them to build a fort and a factory in his country, in order to make them willing to assist him against the said king of Tidore, against the Portuguese, and against us. Accordingly the forts there and in Ambueno are in danger. The one at Tidore is a matter for jest; and the commandants, as well as the commanders of galleons, think of nothing but merchandise and of making their fortunes. The same thing is true throughout the whole of Yndia. If this news should prove true, there would be much difficulty in this enterprise. May God turn all things well for His cause.
The forces of the regiment of the master-of-camp, Esquibel, have received their pay for a year in advance, as the viceroy informs me by his letter. At the present time more than half the year has passed, and by the time they leave Oton the whole year will have been completed. Inasmuch as in the order for this expedition which your Majesty commanded to be given, I noticed that the Marques de Montes Claros was directed, in case the forces should be retained in the service of your Majesty for a longer period than the said year, to send me money to pay them in case I advised him thereof, it seemed well to me to advise him of this matter immediately, and to tell him that during the coming year he should send me what is needed for a thousand men in addition to the sea force. It is plain that this will be necessary for by the time that the fleet leaves these islands the [soldiers’] year will be at an end. I therefore beseech your Majesty to be pleased to give him imperative commands to fulfil this requirement; since soldiers in a country of enemies, and so far from their own country, serve badly if they are in need. Thus many important opportunities might be lost, and even considerable disadvantages might be experienced without there being any possibility of remedying them. If the enterprise turns out prosperously—as by the grace of God I hope it will—I expect that it will provide the means for maintaining the conquest, for paying all the expenses which have been and shall be incurred, and for affording a large quantity of cash surplus in addition to the expenses, besides repairing the losses incident to this affair. In particular, I think that to drive the enemy from the Maluca Islands and from the inlands of Banda will be of great advantage for our affairs in Flandes, since the rebels of Olanda and Gelanda harvest the product of these islands and draw from them great wealth, by means of which they carry on war and become rich. I, therefore, again beseech you to be pleased to give commands that this expedition may be adequately provided with supplies. I also beg that what is necessary for the expenses of the fleet and for other requisite objects may likewise be sent. I further request that for the regular expenses of the government a liberal supply may be placed in the treasury of the islands on a separate account, since the treasury is so needy and so heavily burdened with obligations.
Weapons and gunpowder are always opportune, and generally the lack of these causes a great deal of trouble. I accordingly beg your Majesty to be pleased to command that as large an amount thereof as possible may be sent, and that the forces at Manila may also be supplied. I suggest that although what is now of most importance, and what must primarily be considered, is merely the regaining of the fort and island of Terrenate, still the care and attention which will be necessary to protect and sustain the conquest, at least for the first few years, will not be small. During that time it will be necessary for us to keep it under control with arms in our hands. We shall have contests every day with the natives of the country, and likewise with the Dutch, who will not at once be willing to abandon it without testing the defense which it can offer, for the reasons which they publish there and in the other Maluca Islands, and in the islands of Banda. With regard to this matter I have written to your Majesty. We must be on the watch everywhere, making Terrenate our center.
By the first section of the orders which your Majesty was pleased to command to have sent to me for this expedition, it appears that the captains who come on the expedition receive sixty ducados a month and the privates eight, whether they were recruited in Hespaña or in Nueva Hespaña. I was commanded that if this rate of payment for the soldiers might be moderated in view of what is paid the soldiers here who are of the same rank, I should reduce it, but with fairness. I have to state that the pay of a private in this garrison is six pesos a month. This is little, in view of the fact that the country is incomparably more expensive than when their rate of pay was fixed, as I have previously written your Majesty. The eight ducados which the soldiers of the expedition receive is high pay; and accordingly, in my judgment, it would be well to pay the infantry in both forces at the rate of eight pesos (of eight reals) a month, in addition to the thirty ducados of extra pay which are allowed every company in Hespaña and other regions. I should advise that the captains of both forces should be paid at the rate of fifty pesos, the ensigns at twenty pesos, and the sergeants at the rate of ten, as they are now paid here. The captains here receive only thirty-five pesos, while those of the expedition are paid sixty ducados, which amount to eighty-two pesos and six reals. Your Majesty will give such commands as you shall be pleased to issue. Until we receive the decision of your royal will in this matter, the accounts of the members of the expedition will not be closed. May our Lord keep the Catholic and royal person of your Majesty, as Christendom has need. Manila, July 1, 1605.
Don Pedro de Acuña
[Endorsed: “The requests in this letter were honored, in virtue of advice given to his Majesty by the council, August 5, 1606.”]