At this time—­news from the chief captain of Malaca having reached the governor, to the effect that in the Sunda, [15] a hundred and fifty leagues from that port, there had been seen a number of English ships, whose designs were not known; and, a little later, word from the commander of the fort of Maluco that there were at Terrenate, within the port, two English ships with four hundred men and fifty pieces of artillery—­a council of war was held as to what was best to do.  The said council decided to withdraw the garrison from La Caldera to Zibu, so that the enemy should not take that place; and, if they should attempt to do damage to that province, they would find it in a state of defense.  Accordingly an order was sent to Captain Toribio de Miranda to withdraw with the troops, arms, artillery, and munitions, dismantling the fort; he was also told that he could return shortly to the island with more troops and arms, in order to assist in its defense.  On the ninth of September Captain Toribio de Miranda arrived at Zibu, with all the troops, artillery, arms, and munitions; and at the same time General Don Juan Tello arrived at Zibu with a hundred men, who came as reenforcement from the city of Manila.  Having spent six months there and commenced to build a fort of stone, the governor, as they had no more news of the English referred to, sent an order to the said Don Juan to come to the city of Manila—­which he did with the hundred men, leaving the province of Zibu in a prosperous condition, with the troops which are usually kept there, and those of the garrison of La Caldera, which in all amount to two hundred and fifty Spaniards.

After all this, in June of 1600 the governor received news, by way of Malaca, that the ships which had passed to the South Sea belonged to Dutch merchants, who had come to load with spices in the Maluco Islands.  Having transacted their business, they had returned to their own country by way of Yndia, without doing any damage to the islands of the west; it therefore seems that we are safe, notwithstanding the news received of those enemies.

Oliver van Noordt’s Attack on Luzon

Commission to Antonio de Morga

In the city of Manila, on the thirty-first of October of the year one thousand six hundred, the president and auditors of the royal Audiencia and Chancilleria of the Philipinas Islands having assembled, the president announced to the said auditors that news had been received that, on the sixteenth of the current month and year, two foreign ships had anchored in the bay of Albay, outside the mouth of the channel of these islands; whereupon he sent by land Captains Pedro de Arceo, Cobarrubias, and Christoval de Axqueta with seventy soldiers—­arquebusiers and musketeers—­to the place where said ships were stationed, in order to make the defense and resistance that occasion and opportunity might offer.  He also ordered several