The Master Of This Junk Told
Them There Were Then At Manilla Two Great Ships, That Come Every Year
From New Spain, And A Dutch Ship Also Which Had Been Brought From
Malacca.
He said also that the town of Manilla was walled round, having
two forts for protecting the ships, as there was a vast trade to that
place from China, not less than 400 junks coming every year from
Chincheo, with silk and other valuable commodities, between Easter and
December.
There were also two ships expected shortly from Japan, laden
with iron and other metals, and provisions. The 15th they took two
barks, laden with hens and hogs, being part of the tribute to the
Spaniards, but became food to the Dutch, who gave them a few bolts of
linen in return.
They passed the islands of Bankingle and Mindoro, right over against
which is the island of Lou-bou. at the distance of two miles, and
between both is another small island, beside which there is a safe
passage for ships. The island of Luzon is larger than England and
Scotland,[79] and has a numerous cluster of small islands round about
it; yet is more beholden to trade for its riches, than to the goodness
of its soil. While at anchor, in 15 deg. N. waiting for the ships said to be
coming from Japan, Van Noort took one of them on the 1st December, being
a vessel of fifty tons, which had been twenty-five days on her voyage.
Her form was very strange, her forepart being like a chimney, and her
furniture corresponding to her shape; as her sails were made of reeds,
her anchors of wood, and her cables of straw. Her Japanese mariners had
their heads all close shaven, except one tuft left long behind, which is
the general custom of that country. The 9th, they took two barks, one
laden with cocoa wine and arrack, and the other with hens and rice.
[Footnote 79: Luzon is certainly a large island, but by no means such as
represented in the text. - E.]
The 14th of December they met the two Spanish ships returning from
Manilla to New Spain, on which a very sharp engagement took place.
Overpowered by numbers, the Dutch in the ship of Van Noort were reduced
to the utmost extremity, being at one time boarded by the Spaniards, and
almost utterly conquered; when Van Noort, seeing all was lost without a
most resolute exertion, threatened to blow up his ship, unless his men
fought better and beat off the Spaniards. On this, the Dutch crew fought
with such desperate resolution, that they cleared their own ship, and
boarded the Spanish admiral, which at last they sunk outright. In this
action the Dutch admiral had five men slain, and twenty-six wounded, the
whole company being now reduced to thirty-five men. But several hundreds
of the Spaniards perished, partly slain in the fight, and partly drowned
or knocked in the head after the battle was over. But the Dutch lost
their pinnace, which was taken by the Spanish vice-admiral; and this was
not wonderful, considering that she had only twenty-five men to fight
against five hundred Spaniards and Indians.
After this action, Van Noort made sail for the island of Borneo, the
chief town of which island is in lat. 5 deg. N. while Manilla, the capital
of Lucon, is in lat. 15 deg. N. On the way to Borneo, they passed the island
of Bolutam, [Palawan or Paragua,] which is 180 miles in length from
N.E. to S.W. They came to Borneo on the 26th December, putting into a
great bay, three miles in compass, where there was good anchorage, and
abundance of fish in a neighbouring river, and the fishermen always
ready to barter their fish for linen. Van Noort sent a message to the
king, desiring leave to trade; but suspecting them to be Spaniards, he
would come to no terms till his officers had examined them with the
utmost attention, after which they had trade for pepper with a people
called Pattannees, of Chinese origin. Both these and the native
Borneans were fond of Chinese cotton cloth, but the linen from Holland
was a mere drug, and quite unsaleable. In the mean time, the Borneans
laid a plot to surprise the ship; for which purpose, on the 1st January,
1601, they came with at least an hundred praws full of men, pretending
to have brought presents from the king, and would have come on board the
ship; but the Dutch, suspecting their treachery, commanded them to keep
at a distance from the ship, or they would be obliged to make them do so
with their shot, on which the Borneans desisted.
Borneo is the largest of all the islands in the East-Indies; and its
capital, of the same name, contains about 300 houses, but is built in a
dirty marshy soil, or rather in the water, so that the inhabitants have
to go from one house to another in their praws. The inhabitants all go
constantly armed, from the noble down to the fisherman; and even the
women are of so martial a disposition, that on receiving an affront,
they instantly revenge it, either with a dagger or a javelin. This a
Dutchman had nearly proved to his cost; for having offended one of these
viragoes, she set upon him with a javelin, and had surely dispatched
him, if she had not been prevented by main force. They are Mahometans,
and so very superstitious, that they would rather die than eat of
swine's flesh, nor will they keep any of these animals about them. The
better sort have a cotton garment from the waist down, with a turban on
their heads; but the common people go entirely naked. They continually
chew betel and areka, which is also a common practice in many other
parts of India.
On the 4th January, four Borneans came to the ship, intending to have
cut the cables, that she might drive on shore and become their prey; but
the Dutch fortunately discovered them, and drove them away with shot,
when they left their praw behind, which the Dutch took, to serve instead
of their own boat, which they had lost at the Philippines.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 53 of 221
Words from 53043 to 54100
of 224764
