m Tartaria. The events
of this war and the state of the kingdom of China will be set forth
in a petition, or memorial, which the mandarins presented to their
king. Our fathers of Macan sent it to us, saying that the Christians
of Paquin had sent it to them. The fathers put it into Portuguese;
translated into Spanish, it reads as follows:

_Memorial which the mandarins of Paquin sent to the king of China in
the year 1618, when the Tartars invaded that kingdom._

This year, 1618, in the sixth moon, which is the month of August,
the president of the council of war presented to the king a memorial
for the defense [of the kingdom] against the Tartars, who entered
by the north walls. He humbly begs of you, my king, that you give
attention to this matter, and quickly open your treasuries in support
of this war to raise soldiers and to collect supplies. The facts
of the situation are, as I just now heard from the mandarins who
are in the province of the north walls, that the Tartars assembled
with the determination to seize this country of China. They say that
on the day selected for battle they entered through the walls and
captured some people, whom they sacrificed and burned at two in the
morning before the pitched battle; and, while they were burning the
sacrifice, great bombs and ingenious fireworks were discharged. They
raised flags on the hills and proclaimed their own king as king of
Paquin. Of soldiers who bear arms and other people there are thousands
of thousands--they are indeed, innumerable. Each soldier carries
several weapons. They entered by force of arms through the walls
called Humbre. The mandarins entrusted with the defense of this part
of the walls collected two armies [_companias_], ninety-six captains,
and three hundred thousand men, and came to blows eleven times. In
the first encounter our captain-general and thirty-seven captains
ordinary were killed. Our captain called Chun entered valiantly on
horseback into the ranks of the Tartars, killed five of them, and
was then himself killed and mutilated on the spot. Countless numbers
of our men died in these actions; some thousands were captured; and,
in retreating from the battle, amid the confusion and tumult, more
than a thousand more were killed. The victorious Tartar raised his
flag aloft and his men cried out, "Our king of Paquin comes to take
possession of Great China, which dared to resist him." The Tartars,
following up the victory, killed in va