N. waiting for the ships said to be
coming from Japan, Van Noort took one of them on the
1st December, being
a vessel of fifty tons, which had been twenty-five days on her voyage.
Her form was very strange, her forepart being like a chimney, and her
furniture corresponding to her shape; as her sails were made of reeds,
her anchors of wood, and her cables of straw. Her Japanese mariners had
their heads all close shaven, except one tuft left long behind, which is
the general custom of that country. The 9th, they took two barks, one
laden with cocoa wine and arrack, and the other with hens and rice.
[Footnote 79: Luzon is certainly a large island, but by no means such as
represented in the text. - E.]
The 14th of December they met the two Spanish ships returning from
Manilla to New Spain, on which a very sharp engagement took place.
Overpowered by numbers, the Dutch in the ship of Van Noort were reduced
to the utmost extremity, being at one time boarded by the Spaniards, and
almost utterly conquered; when Van Noort, seeing all was lost without a
most resolute exertion, threatened to blow up his ship, unless his men
fought better and beat off the Spaniards. On this, the Dutch crew fought
with such desperate resolution, that they cleared their own ship, and
boarded the Spanish admiral, which at last they sunk outright. In this
action the Dutch admiral had five men slain, and twenty-six wounded, the
whole company being now reduced to thirty-five men.
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