Christianizing Cambodia

Ocuña Lacasamanà, the Moro Malay, eventually killed King Prauncar II.

Camboja then split into factions and suffered greater disturbances than before.

Some powerful mandarins in the kingdom decided to avenge the death of King Prauncar by force of arms.

So they turned against Ocuña Lacasamana and his Malays and routed them. He was forced to flee from Camboja into Champa.

He then made war on the usurper who held it and seized all that he could.

Finally, he was routed and killed by the usurper.

The mandarins of Camboja turned their eyes toward a brother of King Prauncar II to pacify Cambodia.

He was:

• captured the king of Siam during his war against Langara.
• being held in the city of Odia

They sent an embassy to Sian, asking him to come to reign, and asking the king of Sian, who held him captive, to allow him to go.

This new king of Camboja who, from being a captive of the king of Sian, came to the throne by such strange events.

He searched for Joan Diaz, a Castilian soldier, who survived from the company of Blas Ruyz de Hernan Gonçales.

Then he told him go to Manila and, in his behalf, tell the governor that:

• he was on the throne
• what had happened to the death of the Spaniards and of his nephew Prauncar, in which he [the new king] was not to blame.
• he recognized the friendship which they—Langara, his brother, and the latter’s son—received from the Spaniards during their troubles
• he wanted to continue this friendship and understanding.
• the governor could send him some religious and Castilians to reside at his court and to make Christians of those who wished to become so.

Acuña agreed to do what the king asked.

At the start of 1603, he sent a frigate to Camboja, with:

• 4 religious of the Order of St. Dominic with Fray Yñigo de Santa Maria, prior of Manila, at their head
• 5 soldiers to accompany them, among them Joan Diaz himself.

This frigate reached Camboja after a 10 days’ voyage with favoring winds.

The religious and the soldiers in their company ascended the river to Chordemuco, where the king received them with great satisfaction.

He immediately built them a church, and gave them rice for their support, and granted them liberty to preach and christianize.

They sent immediate word of their good reception and condition to Manila in the same frigate, after asking permission of the king that it might return.

The king granted it and gave them the necessary supplies for their voyage, and at the same time sent a servant of his with a present of ivory tusks, benzoin, and other curious things for the governor, with a letter thanking him for what he was doing and asking for more religious and Castilians.

Fray Yñigo de Santa Maria [163] with a companion embarked on this frigate, in order to come to give a better report of what he had found, but he sickened and died on the voyage.

His companion and those aboard the frigate reached Manila in May 1603 and gave an account of events in Camboja.

Reinforcing the Moluccas

At the end of May, there came to Manila 2 ships from Nueva España, in command of Don Diego de Camudio, with the regular reënforcements for the Philipinas.

It brought news that Fray Diego de Soria, [164] of the Order of St. Dominic, bishop of Cagayan, was in Mexico, and was bringing the bulls and pallium to the archbishop-elect of Manila, and Fray Baltasar de Cobarrubias, [165] of the Order of St. Augustine, appointed bishop of Camarines by the death of Fray Francisco de Ortega.

In the same ships came 2 auditors for the Audiencia of Manila, Licentiates Andres de Alcaraz, and Manuel de Madrid y Luna.

The captain and sargento-mayor, Joan Xuarez Gallinato, with the ship “Santa Potenciana” and the men whom he had taken in it to Maluco in aid of the Portuguese fleet which Andrea Furtado de Mendoça had brought to assault the fortress of Terrenate, found this fleet in the port of Talangame.

As soon as this help arrived, Andrea Furtado landed his men, Portuguese and Castilians, with six pieces of artillery, and marched with them along the shore, toward the fort, to plant the battery.

He took two days to reach the fort, passing through some narrow places and gullies which the enemy had fortified.

When he had reached the principal fort, he had all that he could do to plant the artillery, for the enemy sallied out frequently against the camp and hindered the work.

Once they reached the very gate of the quarters, and would have done a great deal of damage had not the Castilians nearest the entrance stopped them and pressed the Moros so hard that, leaving some dead, they turned and fled and shut themselves up in the fort. At the same time five pieces were placed within cannon-shot of it.

The enemy, who had sufficient men for their defense, with a great deal of artillery and ammunition, did much damage in the camp, whereas the pieces of the battery had no considerable effect, having but a short supply of powder and ammunition.

Consequently what Gallinato and his men had heard, when they joined the Portuguese fleet, of the scant supply and outfit which Andrea Furtado had brought for so great an enterprise, was seen and experienced very quickly.

That they might not all be killed, Andrea Furtado, having asked the opinion of all the officers of his camp and fleet, withdrew his pieces and camp to the port of Talangame. He embarked his men on his galleons and returned to the forts and islands of Amboino and Vanda, where he had first been, taking for the support of the fleet the supplies brought him by Gallinato, to whom he gave permission to return to Manila, with the Castilians.

The latter did so, in company with Ruy Gonçales de Sequeira, until recently chief captain of the fort of Tidore, who, with his household and merchandise, left that fortress in another ship, and they reached Manila at the beginning of the month of July of this year six hundred and three, bearing the following letter from Andrea Furtado de Mendoça to Governor Don Pedro de Acuña.