The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume XX, 1621-1624 | Page 7

prisons [_MS. torn_] of religious and Christians: of the Order of St Francis there are five; of that of St. Dominic, three or four; of the Jesuits one, Father Carlos de Espinola. There were three, but one was burned alive for his faith; and the other, who was a Portuguese brother, [died] [3] with the hardships of the prison, and it is thought to be certain that [his death was hastened] by poison.
The Dutch and English seized, on board a Japanese ship which sailed from Manila for Japan, two religious--one a Dominican, and the other an Augustinian--who were identified by letters and papers that they had with them. [4] The letters [_MS. torn_] nevertheless, presented at court, for it was not considered wrong for them to have [_MS. torn_] a ship of Japanese, who extended them a kindly welcome to their kingdom. They jointly presented a petition, stating to the emperor that until [_MS. torn_] destroy Manila and Macan, there would be no lack of religious in his [empire]; and that they should deliver over to them in orderly manner two or three thousand Japanese, who [_MS. torn_] will destroy these two cities. This petition was not granted them; instead, decrees were issued in which the emperor ordered the governor of [Nan]gasaqui to notify the tonos of Firando and other places that under pain of [_MS. torn_] they should allow no Japanese to embark with the Dutch and English. [_MS. torn_] It was observed and carried out even against the wishes of the heretics, who wished to assist [_MS. torn_] of them against us.
On the twenty-sixth of July there arrived at the port of Firando, two Dutch [vessels] with some of their men wounded and their masts pierced by shots; [_MS. torn_] they had fought in the Philipinas with the ships that had come from Nueva Espa?a, and had sunk one of them. The truth of the affair was afterward found out, that [_MS. torn_] fought with ours, and it is presumed that one was sunk. [_MS. torn_] Not more than two arrived at Firando, to the great pleasure of the Christians of Japan when they heard the truth and the evil deed of the enemy.
A Dutch ship and patache sailed from Japan in February, 1620, with the intention of lying in wait for the Chinese ships that were going from Manila, laden with the silver which they had received for the goods which they had sold, but during a heavy storm the vessel with all its cargo was wrecked on Hermosa Island. Six of the Dutch were drowned. Those who escaped seized two boats that they found on the shore, and robbed three Chinese ships of more than three hundred thousand pesos. The patache was never seen again, and there is not much doubt that it was lost with all hands on board. They sent another large ship to Bantan, where they have a factory. This vessel, loaded with supplies, went ashore and was lost; and one hundred and twenty Japanese and three Dutchmen were drowned.
The English and Dutch being on the point of settling their quarrel by fighting a pitched battle off Bantan near China in which both parties must have been destroyed, chance would have it that two despatch-boats arrived, one from Ynglaterra and the other from Olanda, bringing the news of the confederation which had been formed between those two states, [5] so that their quarrel was converted to rejoicing and merriment. Then they sent off sixteen English vessels and ten Dutch ships. One English ship was lost on the coast of China, as a result of trying to capture a Portuguese vessel which was on its way from India to Macan. Nothing was ever heard of three of the Dutch ships; but the others came to lie in wait for the Portuguese galliots loaded with silks which the Portuguese import into Japan. They followed these as far as Nangasaqui without being able to chase one of them, because they were too light, whereupon the enemy took shelter in their port of Firando. The agreement of the confederation was as follows: In order to avoid dissensions on both sides, they were all to come into the English Company, and they should render accounts of what either side had lost in the wars that they had waged; and whatever was over and above, the other side was to pay. Item, that both parties could alike enter the regions conquered by them, with ships, men, and supplies; and that anything that they should acquire by conquest should remain in the form in which the said States [of Holland] and the English Company had there agreed. Item, that the spice trade should be equally divided, each loading as many ships as the other, and that they should go shares