advantage of the north winds. I shall attend to whatever shall be
necessary there, and get it all in order by the end of January or
the beginning of February. That is the season best suited for the
voyage to Maluco. It will then be most likely that we shall have
the benefit of the monsoon which is likely to blow with gentle and
favorable brisas. In this way I shall not be forced off my course
by vessels with a high freeboard; this accident happens very often,
because of the great number of currents among these islands. I have no
doubt that we shall encounter some vessels from Olanda and Gelanda,
and more this year than others, since this is the year of the clove
monsoon more than the two previous years; for in the third year the
clove-trees bear much more heavily. The fruit is like olives, and
the trees resemble olive-trees in their leaves and in their size,
as I am told. [5] I had further information from Enrique de Castro,
a Fleming, a native of Amberes [_i.e._, Anvers?], a man of good
reputation, able to speak several languages, and very sensible; he
told me that he came as a soldier in one of the companies brought by
the despatch-boat which reached here February 25. He said that he
had left Olanda fifteen months before, from the city of Nostradama
[_i.e._, Amsterdam]; and that there, and in another city in the
same country of Olanda, they were preparing twelve or thirteen large
vessels with the purpose of coming to the Yndias. He was told that
they were to seize Ambueno and the Maluca Islands, and that they were
carrying a large number of men, besides lime and cut stone in ballast,
to make a fortress. I am much afraid that this is true, because of
what I have previously written to your Majesty with reference to
the advices which I have received from the king of Tidore. He states
that the king of Terrenate had sent to invite the Dutch, offering to
permit them to build a fort and a factory in his country, in order
to make them willing to assist him against the said king of Tidore,