hogsheads. Together with this was the disorder among the soldiers of
Yndia, who surreptitiously took with them many servants of their own
and of other people, so that it was necessary to support these people
aboard the vessel. These afterward consumed the food, and then caught
and spread a pestilence. Although there were only one hundred and
ten soldiers in our galleon, there were about seven hundred persons,
mostly negroes and Cafres; of these many were free, although nominally
slaves, as Don Gonzalo de Silva, bishop of Malaca, who was aboard
the same galleon, testified. He declared that many lads were free,
even some whom they were taking as captives. This is a general sin,
wherefore some Portuguese authors say, with Father Hernando Rabelo,
that God is punishing Yndia and the Portuguese nation, which alone
has more slaves than any other nation of the world.

July 30 we met two Dutch ships, which were apparently going from
Palliacate [_i.e._, Palicat] to carry aid to Maluco. Our galleon fought
singlehanded with those two ships, because the other galleons were
far to leeward. The enemy had waited two days between us, without our
knowing it, in order to show themselves at a favorable opportunity. So
great is the confidence of the Portuguese that they did not fear
them. They said that they were ships from Cochin, and that, had they
known in time that they were enemies, they could have captured them
easily. In short they remained a cannon-shot from the flagship, and so
fought until night, when they made off badly battered--as we learned
later from the people of Achen, on whose coast one of the ships was
immediately wrecked, having sprung a leak through the effect of our
balls and their own firing. They only killed two of our men. After the
battle, our galleon ran aground on a shoal, on the eve of our Lady of
the Assumption, near Pulo Parcelar. At the first shock, the helm was
shifted seaward, and all that night we tossed up and down dreadfully
until, next morning, we miraculously got off the shoal. We reached
the strait of Sincapura on August 10, where, as the pilots said the
Manila monsoon was over, we determined to run to Malaca.

In Malaca the ships were very inhospitably received, for soldiers are
wont to commit depredations. But within a few days they were made to
see that the landing there of the galleons was for their relief and
the salvation of their city; for a month after their arrival the king
of Achen came wit