received by the inhabitants there, because
of the harm that soldiers generally do. But our going there was soon
seen to have been a providence of God; for within one month the king
of Achen came to attack that city with a fleet of one hundred and
fifty sail and forty thousand men, and had not he found our galleys
there would surely have captured it. And further, according to rumors
(and as was shown in the result), he had agreed with the Dutch to join
them, since they came only twenty days apart, as I shall immediately
relate. In my opinion the same thing that had happened to the prophet
Abacuc [_i.e._, Habakkuk] happened to me. For he having prepared
the food for his reapers, the angel bore him by the hair to Babylon,
to relieve the necessity of Daniel, who had been locked in the den
of lions. I took that aid from Goa for Manila, and the Lord took us
to Malaca, and conveyed us as if by the hair, since we put in with
great repugnance; and at last all that reinforcement was consumed in
helping Malaca.

A squadron of galleys came ahead to reconnoiter. Finding our galleons
anchored, and taking note of the soldiers in them and in the city,
it went ahead to the strait to await (as was heard) the Dutch. Our
men feared lest they should attack the trading ships which generally
come at that time from China. Accordingly it was resolved that four
galleons, six galliots, and other oared craft should sail out to drive
the enemy from the coast. They engaged on the fifteenth of November,
and fought all that day, and the one following. The enemy's force
was large. They burned one galliot and forced the men to desert the
others and enter the galleons, which now were in need of men. The enemy
attacked our flagship and surrounded it with twelve large galleys. It
caught fire many times, but our men always extinguished the fire
and defended themselves valiantly. They attacked the galleon of Don
Juan de Silveyra, which was a fine vessel, and a fort of twenty-two
cannons. It caught fire and burned so furiously that the flames could
not be extinguished; and it was accordingly burned to ashes. The said
Don Juan de Silveyra and Antonio Rodriguez Gamboa--his brother-in-law,
and son of Juan Cayado de Gamboa, commandant of that fortress of
Malaca--leaped overboard. They and thirty or forty other Portuguese
were captured by the people of Achen and taken to their king, who
treated them courteously and gave them liberty. Those gentlemen
declared to m