h sixty thousand men to besiege it. Information of
this number and of the other things that will be related, was given by
the Portuguese who were captives in Achen and returned to Malaca. They
had three hundred and fifty sail--among them sixty galleys, each with
three pieces in the bows; the piece in the midship gangway fired balls
of sixty libras, as we saw in those found in the galleons after the
war. Along the sides they carried five falcons, firing balls of six
libras. In the royal galley, called "Espanto del mundo" [_i.e._, Fear
of the world] by the people of Achen, were sixteen hundred soldiers
and one hundred and fifty falcons and half-sized falcons. That king of
Achen, the most powerful on the sea of all this Orient, had concerted
with the Dutch that both should take Malaca. Consequently they took a
few days in arriving. The king of Achen arrived first at the bay of
Malaca with a squadron of eighteen galleys, in order to reconnoiter
the place. Finding our four galleys anchored in the port, and learning
that they were war-vessels, they put to sea to await the Dutch. When
our men saw them depart and go toward the strait, where they might
capture the boats from China and unite with the Dutch, they resolved
to set sail and give battle. They did so with the four galleons and
six galliots--ten small vessels. They encountered the Achen boats on
November 15, and fought for two and one-half days. The enemy carried
a considerable force. They burned one galliot, so that the soldiers
abandoned it and went to the galleons. The flagship grappled eleven
galleys. Fire was set to it many times, but our men extinguished
it. The enemy grappled the galleon of Don Juan de Silveira, which
carried twenty-two pieces of artillery, and set fire to it. They were
unable to extinguish the fire, and so it was entirely burned.

Don Juan de Silvera and Antonio Rodriguez de Gamboa, son of the
commander-in-chief of that fortress of Malaca, and forty other
Portuguese, took to the water; but all were captured by the king
of Achen and placed aboard his galley. A fresh wind began to blow,
wherewith the vessels separated and the men of Achen went to their
country with something less than thirty craft, counting large and
small boats, and with two thousand men killed. Although we did them
damage, it was not so great as that which we received. Accordingly they
regarded it as a victory and entered their kingdom in triumph--where
they feasted the captains