was taken possession of and found filled with dead and dying.  The rest of the Spanish ships made their escape into the harbour of Malacca.  Matelieff stood off and on in the straits for a day or two, hesitating for fear of shallows to follow into the roadstead.  Before he could take a decision, he had the satisfaction of seeing the enemy, panic-struck, save him any further trouble.  Not waiting for another attack, the Spaniards set fire to every one of their ships, and retired into their fortress, while Matelieff and his men enjoyed the great conflagration as idle spectators.  Thus the enterprising Dutch admiral had destroyed ten great war-ships of the enemy, and, strange to relate, had scarcely lost one man of his whole squadron.  Rarely had a more complete triumph been achieved on the water than in this battle in the straits of Malacca.  Matelieff had gained much glory but very little booty.  He was also encumbered with a great number of prisoners.

These he sent to Don Alphonso, exchanging them for a very few Netherlanders then in Spanish hands, at the rate of two hundred Spaniards for ten Dutchmen—­thus showing that he held either the enemy very cheap, or his own countrymen very dear.  The captured ships he burned as useless to him, but retained twenty-four pieces of artillery.

It was known to Matelieff that the Spanish viceroy had received instructions to inflict chastisement on all the oriental potentates and their subjects who had presumed of late to trade and to form alliances with the Netherlanders.  Johore, Achem, Paham, Patane, Amboyna, and Bantam, were the most probable points of attack.  Johore had now been effectually defended, Achem had protected itself.  The Dutch fleet proceeded at first to Bantams for refreshment, and from this point Matelieff sent three of his ships back to Holland.  With the six remaining to him, he sailed for the Moluccas, having heard of various changes which had taken place in that important archipelago.  Pausing at the great emporium of nutmegs and all-spice, Amboyna, he took measures for strengthening the fortifications of the place, which was well governed by Frederick Houtman, and then proceeded to Ternate and Tidor.

During the absence of the Netherlanders, after the events on those islands recorded in a previous chapter, the Spaniards had swept down upon them from the Philippines with a fleet of thirty-seven ships, and had taken captive the Sultan of Ternate; while the potentate of Tidor, who had been left by Stephen van der Hagen in possession of his territories on condition of fidelity to the Dutch, was easily induced to throw aside the mask, and to renew his servitude to Spain.  Thus both the coveted clove-islands had relapsed into the control of the enemy.  Matelieff found it dangerous, on account of quicksands and shallows, to land on Tydore, but he took very energetic measures to recover possession of Ternate.  On the southern side of the island, the Spaniards had built a fort and a town.  The