him retire by force, because he had received a ball in his
body, and a nail from a swivel-gun in his throat, tore himself from
those who were carrying him, and returned to the fight, with the fury
with which a wounded boar turns to avenge itself. Our men continued
to decimate the enemy so thoroughly that they had scarcely five men
on deck alive or unwounded. The commander was one of the first to
be killed. The enemy, seeing themselves without any power to resist,
tried to burn the ship. And they would have done it, to the evident
loss of our men, but that was prevented by the master of the vessel,
who, as he declared later, had always been a Catholic. He advised the
Dutch not to do such a thing, for, although they had already lost
their substance, they should not lose their souls. At this advice
they surrendered with fair conditions. Of the Spanish captives [aboard
the enemy's ship], only the Augustinian religious Fray Pedro Montejo
[31] was killed, by a ball from our vessel. The others were safe and
sound. Francisco Aguirre lost a leg in the battle, and being condemned
to be shot as a traitor one day after the victory, he died that same
night. The same that I have related of our flagship occurred in our
almiranta. It grappled with another good vessel, and defeated it after
having fought with it with the same valor. The infantry captains,
Don Pedro de Almazan and Don Juan de la Vega, [32] distinguished
themselves greatly in the battle, showing great courage and valor,
although they were very young. The others can also be praised with
good reason, for they proved themselves valiant captains. Such were
Soriano, Rosa, Don Antonio de Leos, and Captain Madrid.

The third [Dutch] vessel was defeated by the two vessels "San
Yldefonso" and "San Pedro." However so complete a victory was not
obtained as with the others; for when it caught fire, they could not
extinguish the flames. Two excellent bronze pieces were melted by the
fire; and when the flames reached the powder, it blew up the men and
other things and set fire to the neighboring forests, where the fire
lasted for six days. However, they were able to take the artillery. Ten
Chinese vessels witnessed the battle. That was of no little importance,
because of the opinion that they formed of the Spaniards, and the
fear of our men that struck them, besides that which they have always
had. Three of those vessels had already been plundered, and the other
seven expected the sam