captured. He kept twenty-three of his galliots, with seven hundred
picked men, in order to go in pursuit of the Dutch.

He commenced at Humbe, thirty leguas from Malaca, where, the Dutch
have a factory for pepper. There were two Dutch ships at the bar [of
the river] which went out to meet him. The Portuguese attacked the
Dutch ship, which was a very handsome one, and had come from Holanda
the year before. They gave it a volley which fell into a quantity of
cartridges and powder, whereupon the ship blew up, although some of
the Dutch who fell into the water were picked up. Then the Portuguese
assailed the other ship, captured it, and sent it to Malaca. They
saw that there was another large ship in thus mouth of the river,
and attacked that one. The Dutch who were aboard deserted it. The
Portuguese captured the artillery, ammunition, and other things in
the ship, and set it afire.

Learning that there was another ship [up the] river, and that it was
lading pepper, the Portuguese determined to go to capture it. They
entered the river, attacked the ship, and, without their knowing how,
it blew up. As the ship sank, a powerful suction was formed, and drew
after it the Dutch [i.e., one of the captured ones] skiff in which
the commander, Nuño Alvarez Botello, was giving his orders. The brave
gentleman was drowned there, without any one being able to help him;
and with him were also drowned his good intentions, and all that that
fleet expected to do.

In consequence of the persecution of the king of Conchinchina against
the missionaries [9]--because the commerce of Macao had been lacking
for some time, and on account of the great drought that lasted for the
space of fourteen months--Governor Don Juan Niño de Tabora ordered an