Kitobni o'qish: «The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume 31, 1640», sahifa 5

Chapter XLVII
The wars which followed in the prosecution of this embassy

[By the sufferings and danger which we had passed through, the Lord had prepared us to endure those which were to follow. To protect the ship, some of the men had encamped on a little sand island in the middle of the river. On one bank was the town (i. e., Chordamuco) of the natives, near which there were about two thousand Chinese, some settled here, others who had recently come from China as traders, with their merchandise, in five large vessels, which they kept in the river near the town. They had controlled the natives, and resented the coming of the Spaniards, thinking that the latter had come to disturb or take away the superiority which they had. So they sought for an opportunity to quarrel with them, seeing that the Spaniards were few and that they were many. Whenever the men on the ship went to buy food on land, the Chinese tried their patience by annoying them without any reason. By orders of the captain, Blas Ruyz de Fernan Goncalez, they endured this annoyance, though sorely against their will. The captain sent a message to the king asking him to bring the Chinese to order. The king spoke fair words, but did nothing. Finally, the anger of our men got beyond their control. On the Sunday after Easter, when all had received communion, three or four were in the town with the captain’s permission. One of them came back with his sword drawn, saying that the Chinese had chased and abused them, and that they had not dared to violate the captain’s orders. The troops armed themselves, and, breaking away from all restraints, went to take vengeance on the Chinese. I went along to calm the Chinese, if I could, by speaking to them in their language, which I understood. They were all armed with their catanas (a sort of hanger), and languinatas, or long knives drawn to a point. I dared not put myself in their hands, because I was told that they would be better pleased to get me than anyone else. Soon after, sixty of our men in two companies, with some of our Japanese and Indians, came ashore and instantly attacked the Chinese. As our bullets took effect at such a distance that the latter could not attack our troops hand to hand, the Chinese were routed; and our men followed, killing them, until they had driven them out of the town. The natives of the country took no part in the conflict on either side. I saved as many lives as I could. The soldiers, seeing themselves masters of the field, pursued the Chinese to their ships, into which the Spaniards were able to shoot from the high banks. In this way they soon got control of the ships, which was necessary, because with these large ships they would easily have overcome our smaller vessel, and thus all hope to escape from the anger of the king would have been taken away from us. The king¹⁵ was in great wrath. To send a message to him, and to carry a statement of the case, the father provincial, Fray Alonso Ximenez, was chosen. He went accompanied by half of the forces, the rest of us remaining in the ships. Several days were passed in sending messages backwards and forwards, but the king would not receive the ambassadors in person. It was plain that the king was planning to take all our lives. The demands which he made would have put us entirely in his power; and, when the father provincial asked permission to return and discuss them with the rest of the forces, the king refused permission for anyone to return except the father provincial alone. The intention of the king was to wait for a rainy day, so that our powder should be moistened and we be unable to use our arquebuses. When the father provincial came back, he asked me if I would venture to go to the camp, confess the soldiers and encourage them, and carry to the king our response declining to follow his wishes. When I reached the forces near the palace of the king, we did not consider the question of taking any answer to him, but discussed two plans of escape. One was to withdraw in good order, defending ourselves on the way; the other to attack the palace of the king by night and strive to capture him, his son, or his wife, whom we might use as hostages. Captain Diego Velloso declared that if we should attack these Indians boldly they would retreat to the mountains, and leave the field to us; but that if we should retreat they would all attack us. He had had experience in this part of the world, and what he said was confirmed by others, so that his plan was accepted. That night I confessed the men and told them what under the circumstances it was lawful for them to do, enjoining them to commit no unnecessary violence, and to take no lives except in self-defense. The attack was planned carefully, the troops being divided into a front and a rear guard, and some of the soldiers being left with a barge in the river near where we were encamped, with orders to capture two Indian boats as soon as they should hear the noise of conflict, so that we could make use of them in our retreat. I should have been glad to remain with the barge in order to avoid being present at the conflict, which promised to be sanguinary.] However, it seemed necessary for me to accompany the rest, and, armed as they were, and wearing no part of my habit except my scapular, I accompanied the troops who advanced against the palace. We were immediately detected, but succeeded in reaching the royal dwelling – which was built of wood, like the other houses in the town, but was very large. We broke in the doors, but the people all escaped through other doors; and thus, though we gained control of the palace, it was empty and we had failed in our purpose. I restrained the troops from burning the palace; but we lighted some bonfires, so that we might see each other. One of these saved my life, for as an Indian on an elephant was charging upon me and was already very close to me, so that I looked around at hearing the noise, the beast fled in alarm, being scared away by the fire. The Indians were not frightened by our daring, as we had falsely imagined that they would be, but gathered in a large square near the palace to face us. Everything, however, was noise and confusion among them, surprised as they were, and there was no less among us; for the number of our opponents was so much greater than theirs that, if darkness had not protected us, they could have buried us in handfuls of sand. [Like Joshua, I would have held back the dawn if I could. At daylight we were all in disorder. When the Indians could distinguish us from themselves and saw how few we were, they began to rain arrows upon us, several being wounded, Captain Diego Velloso having one leg pinned to another, so that he could not walk. Our troops were in entire confusion, some calling out that we ought to come to an understanding with the Indians, others finding fault with the plan that we had followed, until God was pleased to give me courage that I might give courage to the others, and I took upon myself the office of captain. Our last day, as we expected it to be, was bright and clear. A body of courageous Indians charged down the street at us, and their captain almost reached our line. I confess that I wished to leap out upon him, not that I might kill him, but that I might be the first to die, and not see the carnage which I feared – or the worse than carnage, if we were taken alive. But wisdom ruled me, and I ordered Captain Blas Ruiz to attack him with his halberd; with one blow he thrust the Indian through, shield and body. The death of their captain somewhat abated the courage of the rest. God was pleased that one of our bullets should strike the king, who was in the rear, unseen by us, animating his troops. We did not learn of this for some days afterward, but we could see that the Indians attacked us with less ardor. The Indians cut off our retreat to the barge, and we were obliged to leave the soldiers who were with it and to make our way, back by the road. As we marched along, we were obliged to defend ourselves on all sides, and especially against the crowd of Indians which followed in our rear. We could go but slowly, burdened as we were with our arms, and being obliged to carry our wounded.] Two arrows struck but did not wound me, one being caught by a coat of mail which I wore, and the other by my shield. We suffered greatly from hunger and thirst. When we came to some puddles with rain-water in them (which was more mud than water), all drank of them, and when I came there, though I was one of the last, I did the same; and though the best had already been drunk, and the rest was mixed with mud, it tasted better to me than any water that I ever drank in my life. Under all these circumstances, we marched on this day, which was the twelfth of May, four leguas by four o’clock in the afternoon, [when we were obliged to halt because we had reached the bank of a river. The Indians and we ourselves supposed that we should never be able to cross. Here some of our men urged that we ought to give ourselves up to the Indians as slaves for life; others declared that we ought to attack them, and force them to kill us. At nightfall, rain began; and the Indians, supposing that our powder would be moistened, prepared to attack us. I passed along the line, confessing some and encouraging all, though I must admit I was in great fear myself lest before midnight we should be cut into bits, that each one of our enemy might have his piece, as is the custom of Indians when they are victorious. The storm ceased before they dared to attack, but the river was still before us. There were two fords, one narrow and deep; the other, wide and shallow, and at about ten o’clock at night I decided that we ought to make the venture, and learn whether we were to live or die. We chose the longer and shallower ford, marching as quietly as we could, and leaving behind us a number of burning bits of the matches that we used for firing our guns, tied on the bushes, in order to make the Indians suppose that there was a large number of troops there. Our retreat was covered by six courageous men with two arquebuses each. When we entered the river, our vanguard, which was already in the middle, began to retreat upon us, fearing the people who were on the other bank, and their elephants, which they said they were driving into the water. I succeeded in reanimating them, and they fired a volley from the middle of the stream, where the water reached the beards of many of them. The enemy fled, and our passage was impeded only by the difficulty of dragging ourselves through the mud. We marched on for the rest of the night very slowly, with our clothes sticking to our bodies. On the morrow we found some fruit-trees and broke our fast of two nights and one day. We had great difficulty in carrying our wounded. One of the men being left behind by all, I had to carry him myself with his arms over my shoulders, for he was taller than I, until, after his wound began to grow feverish, he was able to walk a little himself. Not long before sunrise we reached the great river in which the ships were, but at a distance of two leguas from us. We put three of the wounded who were the hardest to carry into a little boat there, and ordered them to row down the river and carry the news of what had happened, and to direct the others to bring the ship near the bank where we were. In the meantime we cut some trees and made a breastwork; and when the Indians (who are not accustomed to attack by night) prepared to make their last rush and overwhelm us, our ship came up and, approaching the bank as closely as possible, played on the Indians with some artillery, and fired at them with arquebuses. Under this protection we succeeded in getting to the ship, being carried in two boat-loads.]

Chapter XLVIII
Our departure from the kingdom and the events which happened during our return to Manila

[On the same day on which we reached the ships, Captain Juan Xuarez Gallinato arrived. He was told of our experience with the Chinese and with the Cambodians, and of the good-will displayed in this kingdom for its conversion, and also for the temporal ends proposed in the service of his Majesty. Captain Gallinato showed that he disbelieved much of what was told him, and that what he did believe impressed him badly. In spite of all that was done to persuade him to wait a few days, he was resolved to depart immediately; so we sailed to Cochinchina for provisions. Here we were at first very well received. Then Gallinato sent Captain Gregorio de Vargas as ambassador to visit the king, and to ask him for the royal standard, the galley, and the artillery, and the other things which had been carried to that kingdom by the traitors who murdered Governor Gomez Perez das Mariñas. The king took this demand so ill that he tried to kill the ambassador, who barely escaped with his life. The king, partly because of his rage, and partly from fear that the news of his treatment of the ambassador would be carried back by the Spaniards, sent two fleets and a large land force to destroy us. We here got news of the death of the tyrant who had ruled over the kingdom of Camboja and of the plan of a number of loyal chiefs to reinstate the lawful king with the assistance of the Spaniards, to whom they meant to offer great rewards. The Spanish ships were just putting out to sea when the Indians reached the shore with the purpose of giving them this invitation. It was known that the kingdom of the Laos (to which the king of Camboja had withdrawn) was very near that of Cochinchina; and Captains Blas Ruyz and Diego Velloso asked permission to go by land and find the king. Gallinato permitted them to do so, and I accompanied them to the city of Sinoa, where a son of the king acted as viceroy. Some Augustinian friars who were in that country begged father Fray Alonso Ximenez to go with them and celebrate the feast of St. Augustine. During his absence, the rumor that the Indians intended to murder us treacherously kept increasing; so that we all went aboard, in order to be able to defend ourselves better. The time for sailing to Manila had come, of which we had to take advantage without waiting for either father Fray Alonso or the captain, because we should otherwise have been obliged to winter there. On the third of September, a multitude of people suddenly appeared on the hills, and a fleet came sailing up into the cove where we were. There were many galleys and small boats, and among them there were fifteen larger two-masted vessels, fastened together three by three, with no one on them but a steersman. These were loaded with wood and fagots, to set fire to us; while, if we took refuge in the water, the people in the small boats were ready to receive us. The men on the hills began to shoot at us with their arquebuses, which they used skilfully, aiming well, though they were slow in taking aim. The bullets, however, fell short. Our two smaller vessels set sail, and by the aid of a light breeze moved out into the middle of the bay. The ship in which I was was larger; and, though we tried to do as the other boats did, the wind was too light for us, and the fire-boats came upon us and gave us a great deal of trouble. They came so near that from the top of our poop we could see the steersmen, some of whom our men shot, while others took refuge in some little boats which they towed. When the fire-boats were left without anyone to steer them, they followed the current of the water, and left us in peace. At this point father Fray Alonso Ximenez reached the shore. They took off his habit and dragged him, with nothing on but his breeches, before the viceroy, who had come as general of this enterprise. He told him to put on his habit again, and talked of his ransom; but our captain was so angry at their treachery that he sent back a very wrathful answer. Thus father Fray Alonso Ximenez was left a prisoner, but was not ill treated. He received permission to live with the Augustinian fathers, and at last was permitted to go to Macan without being obliged to pay a ransom. From there he came back to this country at the end of a year and a half. On the next day we set sail for Manila. There are shoals in the midst of this gulf running for eighty leguas directly across the straight course for Manila; and to pass these shoals it was necessary to round one of the two ends of the chain – one in latitude nine, the other in latitude seventeen. The latter being nearer the direct line, we governed our course by it; and the flagship, sailing well against the wind, rounded it. The vessel in which I was, being a poor sailer, went by the other end, but got out of its course. We were becalmed one night, so near the coast of the Philippinas that the people were already beginning to prepare their clothes for going on shore. In the morning we found ourselves in the midst of reefs which were not on the charts. To make our way out from them, we were obliged to sail back on our course; and after we had made our way out the wind was against us, and we were obliged to sail toward the country which we had left. We decided to land at Malaca, that we might at least escape with our persons, for we cared little for anything else.] We reached an island named Pulotimon,¹⁶ which is forty leguas from Malaca. The Indians here told us that there were some pirates in that sea; that they were anchored about five leguas off, and that we should have to pass them. This news greatly disquieted us, because our vessel did not sail well or answer the helm well, which is the worst thing that can be in a sea-fight. But it was not possible to escape this danger, because there was greater danger in every other direction where we wished to go. So we continued our voyage and met with the pirates, as they had told us. They had five ships, four of them small, and one of them large, strong, and well equipped, and provided with nettings. On these boats there were many little flags, which, we were told, were tokens of the prizes that they had taken. They were of a tribe called China-patan, descendants of Chinese who have colonized the kingdom of Patan. They had learned this business [of piracy], because it is easier than others; and they had now sailed out to practice it. That we might not show fear, but might excite fear in them, we passed close to their ships, with our flag flying and our drum beating. They failed to see that our invitation was feigned, accepted it, and, weighing their anchors, followed us all night, giving us chase till morning. The small vessels surrounded us, and with the large one attacked us. Their arms at close quarters were pikes and javelins with points hardened in the fire [tostadas]. The arms which they used at a distance were culverins and arquebuses. In using our arquebuses we did not waste a bullet, for there were many on whom to employ them. [We were alarmed by the explosion of a keg of powder, but fortunately only one man was killed. I was standing alone on the poop, watching for the result of the fight; and at first the enemy did not notice me, since the waist was full of their pikemen. At last, one of them perceived me and flung a pike at me, giving me a wound of three dedos in depth. I descended from the poop; but, before I reached the deck, one of the fire-hardened lances struck me in the right jaw, leaving its point and innumerable splinters in the flesh. With my two hands upon my two wounds I went to confess some wounded men who were in danger. At last when the enemies saw that their prize cost them much, they left us and went away without our being able to follow them, because our vessel was so unfit. We afterward learned in Malaca that out of two hundred pirates (which was their total number) more than half had been killed. Most of us were wounded, and two or three died – besides two others, who were shot by accident by their own friends. After we had escaped this danger we came, two days later, upon a surprise which was equally great. In the strait of Sincapura, by which we were obliged to pass, we found a fleet of eighty large galleys, with heavy artillery amidships and along the sides. This was the fleet of the king of Achen, who was going to do what injury he could to the king of Jor [i. e., Johor] to whom belongs the country of that strait. The latter had sixteen galleys for its defense, which were in the mouths of the rivers to prevent his enemy from entering them. Malaca is between these two kingdoms. There was at that time an agreement that neither of these kings should be assisted with men, but only with provisions and ammunition, one side receiving the one and the other the other, but neither receiving both. We passed ourselves off to them as Portuguese; and when they called upon us to enter their galleys we excused ourselves, because of the aforesaid agreement, and went on in peace to Malaca. I went to our convent, where the religious were surprised at my coming, partly because it was the middle of November, when they did not expect a vessel from any direction, and partly because they saw me in so coarse a habit, very different from that which they wore. Besides that, I was very dirty and very lean, and had my body and face all bound up because of my wounds. Although my appearance was so strange, they were so discreet (or I had better say so charitable) that, without asking any questions they arranged to take care of me, called in the surgeon, and brought me underwear and a habit after their fashion. After I was cared for and clothed, they asked me whence I came and how I had been brought there. I was charmed with the kindness which they had shown me, and told of my wanderings and of the sufferings which I had endured, by which they were greatly astonished. I remained there for six months. My cure took three months, and from the wound in my face every day two or three splinters were discharged, some larger and others smaller, until at least a hundred had come out. Though the wound closed, two remained within, which came out two years later, two dedos below the wound. I was much inconvenienced during those three months, because I could only open my mouth a little way; and hence it was very painful for me to eat until, by exercise, my jaw came back to its former usefulness. Of the soldiers who came with me, some went to India and twelve to Camboxa, supposing that the rightful king was now probably there. They found on the throne his son, who with a great army given him by the king of the Laos, and with the captains of whom I have spoken, had returned to his kingdom of Camboxa and pacified it. Here they remained for a considerable time, though they were disappointed in everything. I and the others returned to Manila. The voyage is one of five hundred leguas, and it took us fifty days because of the many calms.] One calm night, when there was no one at the helm, the binnacle, or three-wicked candle which lights up the compass, fell down from the quarterdeck; and the flame instantly burst out through a hatchway which was over it, frightening all of us – for there is nothing more dreadful at sea than fire, for everything in a ship is like tinder. In this ship, although it was small, there were more than three hundred slaves, men and women. All of them raised their cries to heaven. The captain, whose duty it was to encourage them, immediately fell on his knees to make his confession, as if things had already gone beyond remedy, but I pushed him away a pace and a half, saying that it was not time for that yet, and that he ought to look out for the fire first. I am almost certain that if he had been permitted to confess to me we should all have burned to death, because, however little our safety might have been delayed by confessions, there would have been no remedy afterwards. We put all the clothes there were there into the water, to soak them, and then threw them down the hatchway, one on top of another. In this way God was pleased that the fire should be put out; and we were left as much amazed by this sudden and dangerous accident as people are who are waked out of their sleep by a beam of light falling on them. We at last reached Manila by St. John’s day at the end of a year and a half of this tedious and painful journeying. Soon after, father Fray Alonso Ximenez arrived by way of Macan from Cochinchina, where he had remained a prisoner. After all our hardships, afflictions, dangers, and wounds, we brought back no other fruit but that of having suffered for the gospel. Our only intention was to go to preach in that kingdom, having been invited by its king, and influenced by his promises to that end. These were great, though he was unable to fulfil them, since he had been despoiled of his kingdom when we reached it, as has been said.