But Several Hundreds
Of The Spaniards Perished, Partly Slain In The Fight, And Partly Drowned
Or Knocked In The Head After The Battle Was Over.
But the Dutch lost
their pinnace, which was taken by the Spanish vice-admiral; and this was
not wonderful, considering that she had only twenty-five men to fight
against five hundred Spaniards and Indians.
After this action, Van Noort made sail for the island of Borneo, the
chief town of which island is in lat. 5 deg. N. while Manilla, the capital
of Lucon, is in lat. 15 deg. N. On the way to Borneo, they passed the island
of Bolutam, [Palawan or Paragua,] which is 180 miles in length from
N.E. to S.W. They came to Borneo on the 26th December, putting into a
great bay, three miles in compass, where there was good anchorage, and
abundance of fish in a neighbouring river, and the fishermen always
ready to barter their fish for linen. Van Noort sent a message to the
king, desiring leave to trade; but suspecting them to be Spaniards, he
would come to no terms till his officers had examined them with the
utmost attention, after which they had trade for pepper with a people
called Pattannees, of Chinese origin. Both these and the native
Borneans were fond of Chinese cotton cloth, but the linen from Holland
was a mere drug, and quite unsaleable. In the mean time, the Borneans
laid a plot to surprise the ship; for which purpose, on the 1st January,
1601, they came with at least an hundred praws full of men, pretending
to have brought presents from the king, and would have come on board the
ship; but the Dutch, suspecting their treachery, commanded them to keep
at a distance from the ship, or they would be obliged to make them do so
with their shot, on which the Borneans desisted.
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