The people of the island of Tidore, who long have been our friends, and through whom we are able to maintain ourselves in the Malucas, broke the treaties which they had made with the Terrenatans. They are engaged in war, and every day there are deaths on one side or the other. These circumstances are very advantageous for us, because the Terrenatans are warm friends of the Dutch and enemies to us.
All the aid sent last year from this place reached Maluco, without suffering any loss on the way, either from the sea or from the enemy, as has usually been the case other years. To furnish this aid five ships went laden with supplies, and with fifteen thousand pesos to pay the infantry. Hence our forces there are, for the present, well and even abundantly supplied, although there is some lack of men, because many have died of bebes, which is a disease of the legs very common in those islands.[16]
In 1619, ships went to Olanda loaded with cloves and drugs and other things of various values; we fear, therefore, that the power of these Hollanders will increase in these parts, because what they carry enriches them and enables them to send large fleets here. The enemy, the Hollander, built another fortress besides the ones that he had in the islands of Ternate; and we also built another in Tidore, and are building still another. We may thus be able to inflict much injury upon our enemies.
In Nambrino it happened that in a drunken revel of the Hollanders the powder took fire, and a large part of the fortification was blown up; but they have already repaired it. They say that in this accident nearly two hundred men were burned. The inhabitants of the island of Vanda are much of the time at war with the Hollanders, of whom they have killed many—notable among them the commander-in-chief—by poisoning the water that they used. It is said that they do not like the Hollanders, but prefer the Portuguese, with whom they have been friendly for many years. A Portuguese just now arrived from Maluca, fleeing from the Hollanders who had held him prisoner more than three years, and with whom he had been in various places. People say that at present the Hollanders are on very bad terms with the nations where they have factories. It is also said that there have come to them from Olanda six ships and a new governor.
With oil of cloves and drugs people go to the Malucas from almost all over the world; it is therefore believed that in these seas there must be for a long time to come some of the hardest battles ever seen, and that many in attempting to trade in cloves will have to encounter iron.[17]
The French have a factory there.[18] Three of their ships came and fought with the Hollanders, who took away one; the other two were sent to France with cargoes. Some galleons have also come from the English, who, according to report, now have fourteen. It is said that they have had a fight with the Hollanders, from whom they took away two ships. These two nations are unfriendly because of the above-mentioned injury which the English received from the Hollanders, and also because they are rivals. It is said that the English have an order from their king to the effect that if the Hollanders should be stronger than themselves they must join with us and harass them on all sides.
The Hollanders have seen that in their battles with us they have received much damage from our galleys; therefore they built two vessels of this class to bring with their fleet to these islands. But our Lord was pleased so to order it that, when coming from Amb[o]ino to Ternate, one galley sank with all the people, and the other ran aground, although the people were saved.
Of the Philipinas Islands
On the eleventh of November, 1618, at three o’clock in the morning, a comet was seen from this city of Manila. It had a tail, was silver-colored, with a slightly ashen tinge, and had an extraordinary form. At first it was like a trumpet, and then like a catan (which is a weapon peculiar to Japon, resembling the cutlass), with the edge toward the southwest; and at the end it appeared palm-shaped. The declination[19] of the southwestern end was twenty degrees south. At first its length was equal to the whole of the sign of Libra, with which it rose. Eight days afterward, the declination of the southwestern end was twenty-four degrees and thirty minutes south. At this time the head was thirty-one degrees south, and the lower point, or end of the tail, eight degrees from the star called Spica Virginia. No star exhalation[20] was seen, although some say that they saw a very small one. On the twenty-fourth of November another tailed comet appeared, even more beautiful and resplendent than the first. At its head [al pie] was a burning star. It appeared in the east. It had a declination of eight degrees, and it pointed southwestward to the sign of the Scorpion, which is the sign of Manila. These two comets lasted some three months. They write from Japon, Maluco, and India that they were seen in those places.
The devotion of the Immaculate Conception of the Holy Virgin has been notable in this city. This year great eight-day fiestas, with masks and illuminations, have been celebrated with much solemnity in the cathedral church and in that of St. Francis. It is feared that there will be much hunger in the islands during the present year, because the locusts are so numerous that they cover the fields and destroy the grain. May God help us!