We have had no news from the island of Hermosa, which keeps us in great anxiety, because more than two hundred thousand pesos were sent there from this city of Manila to be invested in Chinese silks. We do not know what has been done with it, or whether the money has been lost, an uncertainty which occasions anxiety to the merchants. In short, these Philipinas Islands are at present in a ruinous condition, with many powerful and triumphant enemies, our forces weakened, and our people in dread of other large fleets. May the Lord remedy all this, and assist with His divine favor, in the preservation of the faith in these lands. Manila, July 18, 1629.
[A document of this same collection (“Papeles de los Jesuítas”), with pressmark “Tomo 169 numero 2,” is identical with the above relation, except for slight verbal differences which do not change the sense in any way. But at the end occurs the following additional letter:]
Letter of Father Sebastian de Morais
Since the letters carried by the little ship from India are lost, the following was learned from another letter. On the octave of Espíritu Santo, a sudden attack was made from Fayal Island to Tercera Island, as a little ship from India, called “San Felipe,” was making port there. That ship left Cochin December 22, 1629, and reached Fayal seven days after Pentecost. There it was met by an English ship which mounted twenty-four pieces, many carrying balls of sixteen libras. It had sixty musketeers, while our ship had only thirty white men and twenty Indians, and mounted fourteen small pieces of artillery. However we cut down the yard of the pirate’s foremast with the first volley. They fought one day and night. They killed our master and two sailors, and our men killed the enemy’s captain and many of their men, while the ship was so hardly used that it would have sunk but for the calking. Our ship bore down upon it; but another pirate, of heavier burden, appeared within range. Consequently, our ship retired to Fayal, where some ships from the island of Terceras went to get it. They cast anchor at that point with great rejoicing, our ship being quite like a sieve because of the balls that remained sticking in its sides and upper works. Even that image of our patron saint, St. Philip, had in it eighteen balls. The ship carries three thousand five hundred quintals of pepper for the king, and a quantity of merchandise. The ships of General Roque Senteno were going for it [as convoy].
A fleet of forty sail had gone to Socotra against the enemy, with volunteer forces, who were encouraged by the sight of a crucifix which the enemy had insulted on a certain occasion. We had a glorious victory over many galleys of the [king] of Achen, although our craft were very inferior.
[1] Fabricio Serzale was born at Naples, April 2, 1568. He was admitted into the Society, December 10, 1586, became a teacher of grammar, and went to the Philippines in June, 1600. He was superior of Carigara; and his death occurred at Manila June 30, 1644. See Sommervogel’s Bibliothèque.
[2] This paragraph is written in the margin of the original document that we follow. The church here mentioned was that of the Dominicans.
[3] Father Fernando de Estrada, a native of Ecija, died at Manila in the year 1646, at the age of forty-five. He was a missionary in Naujan of Mindoro, in Ternate, and among the Bisayans and Tagáls. (Murillo Velarde’s Hist. de Philipinas, fol. 194.)
[4] This was Juan de Bueras, born in 1588; he arrived at Manila in 1622, and for four years was rector of the college there. He was provincial from 1626 until 1636; and in 1644 he went to Mexico as visitor of that province. See sketch of his life in Murillo Velarde’s Hist, de Philipinas, fol. 71, verso.