leet, he assigned Francisco de
Miranda Enriquez, a gentleman who has had good fortune in war; and,
as admiral, Alfonso Vaez Coutino.

We left Goa on the twelfth of May. We were one hundred and two days
on the voyage for the lack of good weather, and on account of the
poor route chosen by the pilot, who took us to the land of Achan; and
as its inhabitants are hostile to the Portuguese, the latter did not
dare land there. The men were dying with thirst, and had it not been
for some showers, and the final resolution to get water on a desert
island, we would have suffered even death. We had many _samatras_,
or hurricanes, on the coast of that great land, which broke topmasts,
tore sails, and broke moorings, causing us to lose anchors and other
necessary articles.

On July thirty, on the eve of our Father St. Ignatius, in the district
of Pulu Parcelar, our capitana galleon fought two Dutch vessels,
without the other galleons being able to render aid, as they were to
leeward. Our galleon made two vain attempts to grapple--one because
of too much wind, and the other for lack of wind--for the one was
a samatra or hurricane, and the other so great a calm, that neither
we nor the Dutch could manage our ships. But inasmuch as we remained
within cannon-shot of one another, we fought until night deepened,
and they fled battered to pieces; for our balls had gone clear through
them, while theirs made scarcely any impression on us. Accordingly
we only lost two men in the fight.

On the eve of the Assumption [87] we ran upon a shoal three brazas
under water, where the galleon remained all night, tossing up and down
frightfully. In the morning a boat came from one of our other ships
in response to the numerous pieces that we discharged, and helped us
get off the shoal; but we were in so bad condition that from then on
the boat made thirty palmos of water every twenty-four hours.

We finally reached Malaca August twenty-two. Although it was thought
that the monsoon or favorable wind was already ended, we attempted
to make the voyage to Manila. We passed the strait of Sincapura,
and on the fifth of September, because of the little progress that
we made, called a council, in which we all resolved to winter at
Malaca. However, on the next day, the commander attempted to continue
the voyage to Manila, until the soldiers and sailors mutinied and
forced him to put in at Malaca, on the nineteenth of the same month.

The fleet was very ill