nly, such
terror entered into them that they did not dare to attack again. They
skirted the island in their craft, entered the villages, burned,
wrecked, destroyed them, and killed a few people. They brought
back some captives with them whom the Joloans had taken from us. A
violent storm overtook them, which compelled them to weigh anchor,
and they retired stealthily. Thus so powerful a fleet as that was
lost. It was such a fleet that never has one like it been made for
the Yndias in these islands. The Joloan enemy were left triumphant,
and so insolent that we fear that they will make an end of the islands
of the Pintados--which are the nearest ones to them, and which they
infest and pillage with great facility.

"A greater force than ever attacked Malaca from Achen--two hundred
and twenty craft; and among them thirty-three were of stupendous size
and resembled galleys with topsails, while others were medium-sized
and smaller; and they carried a force of nineteen thousand men of
the best picked soldiers, who were all ordered not to return alive
without taking Malaca. They disembarked at a river one-half legua
from here. Then they began to march with great trenches, ramparts,
and other devices until they neared the walls. After taking the mount
of San Francisco, they fortified themselves on it, and for the space
of four months they continued to batter the walls of the city. Our
artillery harassed them from the ramparts also although the trenches
and terrepleins did not allow us to do them much harm. They destroyed
all the side of Yben, Bocachina, and San Lorenzo, and did not leave a
house, palm-tree, or church. Then they attempted to pass to the Malaca
side in order to destroy its suburbs, and to attack the walls on all
sides. In order to make use of all their men, they beached all their
ships in the mire of the river. That was their total destruction,
for the reenforcements arrived on October 21, from Yndia, with Nuno
Alvarez Botello--who succeeded in the government to the bishop who was
governing and died; he had thirty-three oared vessels and one thousand
Portuguese soldiers, the flower of the nobility and soldiery of
Yndia. Thereupon the enemy retired to the river where their fleet was
stationed. The governor, without disembarking, took his station in the
entrance, where he cannonaded them for forty-six days with all of his
artillery. He had some very heavy artillery which he had brought from
Yndia, which he fired f