cruel
enemies. Our general thereupon commanded his gunner to fire at the Tidor
gallies; yet they boarded the second Ternate coracora even under our
guns, and put all on board to the sword, except three; who saved
themselves by swimming, and were taken up by our boat.

Being determined to go to Tidor, the Dutchmen entreated our general not
to allow the King of Ternate and them to fall into the hands of their
enemies, from whom he had so lately delivered them; promising him
mountains of cloves and other commodities at Ternate and Makeu, but
performing mole-hills, verifying the proverb, "When the danger is over
the saint is deceived." One thing I may not forget: When the King of
Ternate came on board, he was trembling for fear; which the general
supposing to be from cold, put on his back a black damask gown laced
with gold, and lined with unshorn velvet; which he had not the manners
to restore at his departure, but kept it as his own.

When we arrived at the Portuguese town in Tidor, the governor of the
fort sent one Thomas de Torres on board with a letter, stating that the
King of Ternate and the Hollanders reported there was nothing but
treachery and villainy to be expected from us; but that he believed
better of us; considering their reports to be entirely malicious: Such
was our recompence from these ungrateful men. Not long afterwards, on
coming to the town of the King of Ternate, our general sent Mr Grave on
board the Dutch admiral, who gave him only cold entertainment, affirming
that we had assisted the Portuguese in the late wars against the King
of Ternate and them, with ordnance and ammunition; which our general
proved to be untrue by some Portuguese they had taken in that conflict,
on which, being ashamed of this slander, the Dutch general pretended he
had been so informed by a renegado Guzerate, but did not believe it to
be true.

Not long afterwards, when the King of Ternate seemed to affect our
nation, the Dutch threatened to forsake him, and to join with his deadly
enemy the King of Tidor, if he suffered the English to have a factory,
or allowed them any trade; affirming that the English were thieves and
robbers, and that the _King of Holland_, as they called their
stadtholder, was stronger at sea than all the other powers of
Christendom; a just consideration for all nations, to think what this
insolent frothy nation[154] will do, if they gain possession of the East
Indies. To these insolent speeches, ou