The Expedition Against the Dutch Corsair

Governor Don Francisco Tello presented an attestation of this event to the auditor, which is as follows.

Last year, October 1600, two armed Dutch war-vessels under command of Oliber del Nort reached these islands .

They made prizes and committing depredations, and at length stationed themselves off the entrance of the bay of the city of Manila, with the design of lying in wait for the merchant ships from China, and for the galleon “Santo Tomas,” expected from Nueva España with the silver of two years belonging to the merchants of this kingdom.

By a decision of the said royal Audiencia, on the thirty-first of October of the said year, Doctor Antonio de Morga, senior auditor of the said Audiencia, was commissioned and charged to go immediately to the port of Cabit, and place and hold it in a state of defense, and to prepare and equip a fleet to attack the corsair.

Morga busied himself in person. Having, with great assiduity and industry, fortified and put the said port in a state of defense.

He completed in the shipyard and then launched, a moderate-sized ship, armed and equipped another belonging to private persons then in the port, both of which he equipped with yards and rigging—all inside of forty days.

In order that the expedition might be made more quickly, and with a supply of soldiers and the most necessary equipment, inasmuch as affairs were such that it could be done by no one else, on December 1, I nominated and appointed Morga to sail as general of the fleet in pursuit of the enemy, and to fight him until destroying and driving him from these islands.

Morga performed and accomplished this in the following manner. On the twelfth of the said month of December, he sailed with the two ships of his fleet from the port of Cabit; on the fourteenth of the same month, at dawn, he sighted the corsair outside of the bay of this city, off the promontory of Baleitigui, with his two ships—flagship and almiranta.

He pursued the enemy until he came close to him; and both fleets having prepared for action, engaged one another.

The said auditor in his flagship attacked the corsair’s flagship with great gallantry and resolution, and grappled it.

The latter was a large and strong ship, carrying a quantity of artillery and many fighting men.

Morga immediately threw on board the enemy the infantry colors with 30 arquebusiers and a few volunteers and sailors, who captured the forecastle, after-cabin, and the colors of the vessel.

Our men retreated to our ship because of the violent fire at the enemy’s ship.

The fight continued more than 6 hours, during which the artillery, musketry, and arquebuses were repeatedly discharged in all quarters.

The enemy’s almiranta, commanded by Lamberto Viezman, was defeated and captured, with the crew, artillery and other things aboard it.

The 2 flagships having cast loose and separated on account of the fire which had broken out, and the quantity of water that poured in our bows, the enemy fled with only the foremast standing, with nearly all his men killed, and having lost his boat, the standard and the colors at his masthead and quarter.

Stripped of his yards, sails, and rigging, and the ship leaking in many places, the enemy ran before the wind.

We were told that:

• he passed Borneo with only 16 men alive, and most of them maimed and wounded
• a few days later, he was entirely wrecked not far from the Sunda. [143]

Several of our men of note died fighting.

The ship which was leaking at the bows because of being weak and not built for a war.

They were unable to stop or overcome the leak, foundered that same day, and part of the men on board were drowned on account of being wearied with fighting and not even yet having disarmed.

When the ship sunk, the said auditor, who would never leave or abandon it, took to the water with the rest of the men, and escaped by swimming, with some of the enemy’s colors about him, to an uninhabited islet, called Fortun, 2 leguas from the place where the fight had taken place.

The next day he took away the people from that place in several small boats which he found, and landed them in safety on this island.

In all the above, the said auditor acted with great diligence and valor, exposing himself to all the risks of the battle and afterward of the sea.

He did not receive any reward for his services, nor any salary, expenses, or any other recompense. On the contrary, he contributed and spent his own property to provide all the necessary equipment for the said expedition, and also assisted some volunteers who went with him.

Of the booty taken from the corsair’s almiranta, which was brought to this city, he refused to take nor did he take anything; on the contrary, the share which should have fallen to him, he ceded and passed over to the king, our sovereign, and to his royal exchequer.

We had accomplised our aim to destroy the said corsair.

DON FRANCISCO TELLO