Our flagship kept up the fight longer, but at last men were lacking; for, as the land was near, they tried to reach it in boats or by swimming. The commander Francisco de Miranda Enriquez was left with very few men; and they even, seeing that it was impossible to defend themselves, were forced to land, after having set fire to the galleon. It was a very fine and strong boat. It earned thirty-six cannon, and had so much ammunition that when the fire reached the powder magazine, the vessel blew up with so great a din, that it made the entire city and the island of Malaca shake, and the vessel was seen no more. This was different from the almiranta, which, when its powder had been spent, was two days in burning. The dead and wounded on our side number about one hundred. The enemy lost one of its vessels, but was at last victorious. Then they went to the strait to await the ships expected from China. In the city was little harmony, those of the fleet and those of the city accusing one another of the fault [of the defeat]. I reverenced the judgments of God, and considered that, although there was some excess on both sides, the chief cause of so great a loss was our sins. Quia peccavimus tibi Domini, etc.[17]
The largest fleet ever seen in these islands or perchance in the Indias was prepared that year of 1615 in the port of Cabite.[18] It seems a miraculous circumstance that so large a number of ships could be gathered together in a land so recently conquered and peopled with Spaniards, and the most remote and distant in all the Spanish monarchy. It was the peculiar offspring of the magnanimous courage, valor, and energy (never sufficiently praised) of Governor Don Juan de Silva. It consisted of ten galleons, four galleys, one patache, and other smaller craft: the flagship of the galleons, called “La Salvadora,” of two thousand tons burden; the almiranta, by name “San Marcos,” of one thousand seven hundred; “San Juan Bautista,” and the “Espiritu Santo,” of one thousand three hundred; “San Miguel” and “San Felipe,” of eight hundred; “Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe,” and “Santiago,” one hundred less; “San Andres,” five hundred; and “San Lorenco” (the smallest one), four hundred. The galleys were all under the advocacy and name of the Virgin Mary, our Lady. Those craft were armed and equipped with five thousand men, two thousand, or a few less, being Spaniards; three hundred pieces of artillery—the flagship alone carrying forty-six (the smallest of eighteen, while the majority of them were twenty-two libras’ caliber, and some were thirty), and all were bronze, and it carried nine hundred men; the almiranta seven hundred men, and thirty-two pieces; and the other vessels in proportion. Of powder, they carried four thousand five hundred arrobas; of biscuits, five thousand; of clean rice, three thousand fanegas; and so on, in all the other war-supplies, ammunition, and food. All this was at the king’s account, not to mention the private persons who embarked.
Among the other precautions that the governor took in order to accomplish a successful result was one, namely, to ask the provincials of the orders and their religious to aid—the one with their prayers and continual sacrifices in their convents; and the other by religious who were priests, to act as chaplains of the vessels. Six fell to the share of the Society, two of whom embarked in the flagship, in which were the chief Japanese of a company of that nation which had been raised to serve as volunteers on that expedition, through the vigilance of Father Garcia Garces,[19] a Castilian, one of the exiles, whom the governor esteemed highly. Accordingly, the latter ordered that the father should embark on the flagship, and with him another religious of the Japanese nation, a person respected because of his worth. In the galleon “San Juan Bautista” was Father Pedro Gomez, rector of Maluco. He had gone to India, and returned with the news of the four Portuguese galleons which were coming to unite with our ten. As his associate went Father Manuel Ribeyro of the province of Cochin and its subject. In the ship “San Felipe” was Father Miguel Ignacio, at present rector of the residence of Zebu, who, without urging the obligation of his office or the ill-health that he was enjoying [la poca salud, que gozaua], offered himself so fervently to the superiors for that perilous mission, that they had to yield to him. The commander of that ship has declared in his many letters the talent of the said father as a preacher, and his opinion of his sanctity; and how great was the esteem of the soldiers and sailors for the abundant fruit that he had gathered in Cabite by his apostolic preaching. His associate was Father Melchor de Vera,[20] who had been in the expedition and victory of the year 10. Of the other religious orders there were also some prominent members, divided among the other boats.
That noble fleet could not set sail until the last day of that year of 1615. It had been collected with the intention of going straightway in search of the enemy in their own forts and the chief stronghold of Malayo. But as the galleons from India did not arrive, which they had heard were wintering in Malaca; and knowing that at that time some ships were generally awaiting in its strait the trading-ships from China which pass that way, and that some good fortune could be secured from them: the governor considered it advisable to lay his course toward Malaca—whence he supposed that after the destruction of the enemy that he would cause there, and after having joined the Portuguese galleons, he would go straight to Malayo. It was a well founded idea, but founded on an uncertain end as are all human ideas and considerations. For besides that there were then no galleons in Malaca, because they had been burned in the manner above related, if the governor had not left these coasts, or at least had he sailed directly to those of Maluco, and even without leaving the bay of Manila, he would have had in a short time a victory equal to the past, and would have destroyed the help that came, because of his preparations, from Olanda by way of the coasts of Pirú and Nueva-España to these islands. For it happened that at the same time that Don Juan de Silva was going out by way of Miriveles with his fleet, one of the four governors of the state of Olanda was entering by way of Capulco [i.e., Capul] with four large ships—his flagship being one called “Sol de Olando” [i.e., “The sun of Holland”]—and two pataches. Those ships were coming straight to anchor at the same entrance of Mariveles, by which the fleet that we had fitted out had sailed one month previously.
That unlooked-for event caused great confusion in this city of Manila and the port of Cabite. Licentiate Andres de Alcaraz and the gentlemen of the royal Audiencia were governing. They put aside their togas and girded on their swords. They divided the most dangerous and important posts. One of them was charged with the fortification of Cabite, and the repair of three galleys and other boats that had been going to rack and ruin there; another with the casting of new pieces from the little metal remaining in the royal magazines, and he, because by its scarcity the sudden need for artillery could not be supplied, tried to use the waste left from former castings, by digging and sifting the earth around the ancient foundry. That was so excellent a scheme that three thousand arrobas of metal were collected in a few days. It is a cause for wonderment, and could not have been accomplished except by Spanish activity, stimulated by necessity and the energy of the Chinese, sharpened by the reward of three reals given them for each arroba. More than one thousand five hundred persons worked at the sifting, and at the casting of new pieces. As a result the necessary cannon for the defense of Cabite and Manila were manufactured in a short time.
To that and other temporal precautions and efforts, were added at the same time the spiritual—acts of prayer and supplications, the most holy host being exposed in the cathedral, the convents, and the parochial churches, with the effect and devotion that exigency and need are wont to stimulate. The image of our Lady of Guidance was carried in solemn and devout procession from her church (which is located in the suburbs of this city) to the cathedral, where it was visited continually by the inhabitants, who could not tear themselves from it. In our residence the most holy host was also exposed to all the town; with the solemnity of service and sermon on the day that belonged to it; while on all other days it was especially exposed by Ours at the hour of prayer and devotion. Each priest was ordered to say a novena of masses, and those who were not priests a novena of rosaries, penitences, and other devotions. Similar and even advantageous action was taken in the other convents, churches, and communities of the city and surrounding villages.
The Lord, whose providence is always most notable in the greatest exigencies, was pleased to hear the united voice of this community, and induced our enemy, after they had lain at anchor for a fortnight in the bay in sight of Manila, to hoist their sails; and without doing more than seize one champan and send two letters by a prisoner—one to the commander of their nation [i.e., van Caerden] who was a prisoner here, and the other to the royal Audiencia, asking for his ransom. But that could have no effect, for the miserable man had died a short time before in his perfidy, exchanging his temporal for the eternal prison. [After sending these letters] the enemy returned to Terrenate, ridding this city of its great anxiety. On that occasion the religious served not only with spiritual weapons, but also with what temporal arms they could use and those that they knew how to manage. Among others was one of our brethren, whom the royal Audiencia charged with the management of the artillery of the port of Cabite, because of his skill in the art and of his bravery, which the occasion required. Another religious, also ours, by his good management prevented the soldiers of Cabite from burning that settlement, for they had already commenced at one of the houses, where were collected the goods of the Portuguese commander, who had come from España the year before as commander of certain caravels with reenforcements from the kingdoms of España. They considered it less wrong for us to burn them ourselves than to let the enemy make use of them. But that religious with his arguments and good management hindered it, and inspired them all to extinguish the fire. That was a cause of rejoicing afterward, when they saw the enemy go away and leave us, without forcing us to so costly a precaution.
While the above was passing in Manila, our fleet reached Malaca, and entered the strait February twenty-five. The enemy had left it one week previous, fleeing with all sails set, because of the secret advice that they had received that our fleet was going in search of them. The day following the arrival of our galleons, the two Chinese trading-ships entered the same strait, bearing all the wealth of India It was a most fortunate event and was worthily celebrated by the public acclamations of the inhabitants of Malaca, who called Governor Don Juan de Silva their redeemer. They received him in their city under the pall, with demonstrations of joy and honors as if he were a viceroy, for as such did they regard him; and they assured themselves that with his valor and powerful fleet, they were to deliver India from the inopportune war and the continuous pillaging of the Dutch. But (O human misery!) fortune changed within a few days, and all those hopes were frustrated; it brought the governor to his bed with a mortal burning fever, which killed him in eleven days. During the course of those eleven days the city made a public procession from the cathedral church to the Misericordia, praying God for his health. On the day of his death—namely, April nineteen, 1616—there were general mourning and tears from men, women, and even children, as if each one of them had lost a father.
Recognizing the approach of death, he received the holy sacraments, and performed many acts of faith and penitence, protesting that he was dying in the service of his king, and, as he hoped, in that of God, for his intent had been none but the conservation and increase of the Catholic faith and the destruction of heresy in those districts. And he said that if the natives had been harassed any, those molestations had not been intended and were unavoidable, for war brings them. He ordered his body to be embalmed and carried to this city of Manila in the flagship galley. From here he ordered his body to be carried to Xerez de los Cavalleros, where he ordered a convent of discalced Carmelites to be founded; and that his remains should be deposited in the residences of the Society. Thus was it done in Malaca, and afterward here in Manila, where all that fleet arrived in the first part of June, on the eve of Corpus Christi, in the year of 1616. The mission and ministry of Ours and of the other religious who took part in the campaign had lasted for four months, in which they had a very abundant harvest of souls, discomforts and hardships; for they had been two months below the equator itself, where they suffered incomparable heat and drank poor water, which was the cause of the men catching the plague. And hence there was considerable to do, and in which to employ their fervor, particularly during Lent and Holy Week, which they spent at sea.[21]