kingdom of Camboja, from my arrival until the captain withdrew the
fleet. These accounts will undoubtedly vary according to what each man
thought fit to say in order to gild his own affairs: some according to
their bent and opinion, and others according to their passion. Although
the matter has been witnessed and thoroughly known by many persons, I
am about to relate it as well as possible to your Grace, as to a person
who can weld all the facts together and give to each circumstance
the weight which it may possess and deserve. I shall also give an
account among other things of all that happened to Captain Diego
Belloso and myself on the journey to Lao, and the vicissitudes and
wars in this kingdom, from our arrival until the condition of affairs
now in force. Since Spaniards have taken part in all these events it
will please your Grace to know the manner and retirement with which
I have lived in this kingdom ever since my arrival here from Manila,
sustaining the soldiers and other men whom I brought in my ship at
my own expense, keeping them in a state of discipline and honor,
and never allowing them to abandon themselves to sensual pleasures;
although I had no credentials for this, for Gallinato had those which
the governor was to give me. I shall not discuss the why and wherefore
of most of the Chinese matters, because Fray Alonso Ximenez and Fray
Diego [97] witnessed some of the events and heard of others and will
have informed your Grace of everything, including the war against the
usurper, and Gallinato's abandonment of this kingdom when affairs had
practically been settled. Had he continued to follow up matters, half
of the kingdom would today justly belong to his Majesty, and the whole
of it would be in the power and under the rule of the Spaniards; and
perhaps the king himself with most of his people would have embraced
Christianity. As to Chinese matters which require most explanation I
only ask your Grace to consider the kingdom which we came to help,
that the Chinese had no more right there than we had, and that we
had to try to gain reputation, not to lose it. Since we came with
a warlike attitude, and it was the first time that an armed Spanish
force set foot on the mainland, was it right for us to endure insults,
abuse, contempt, and open affronts from a so vile race as they are,
and before all these pagans? [Was it right to endure] the further
action of their arguments before the usurping king, to induce him to
kill us; their many evil and infamous reports to him concerning us,
in order to induce him to grant their request; and above all their
impudence in killing and disarming Spaniards and going out in the
streets to spear them? All this I endured very patiently in order
not to disturb the land by breaking with them, until one day when
they actually tried to kill some of our men in their Parián, and the
numbers being very unequal, they had already wounded and maltreated
them. We came out at the noise and the Chinese drew up in battle
array, armed with many warlike instruments, challenging us to battle,
with insults and expressions of contempt. At this juncture, what would
have become of our reputation had we retired when the advantage was on
their side? Then, too, after attacking and killing many of them what
security had we in this tyrannical kingdom, which showed itself not
at all friendly to us, with only one ship, [98] which was at the time
aground, and with the artillery and provisions ashore; while they had
six ships and many rowboats all provided with one or two culverins
and many men, both in the ships and those living in the port? [99]
Would it have been right, after war had broken out, to have them
with all their resources while we had none? Had they taken our lives,
what reputation would the Spaniards have left in these kingdoms? For
this reason I thought it better for us to overpower them, rather
than to be at their mercy, or at that of the king. Accordingly, in
order to assure our lives we were obliged to seize their ships and
to strengthen ourselves by means of them, since the Chinese began
the war. After this, father Fray Alonso Ximenez and we thought that,
by making an embassy with presents to the king, and by exculpating
ourselves in this matter, before him, everything would turn out well;
and that if we had peace with him, and our persons in safety in a fort,
or under his word and safe-conduct, we would give the Chinese their
ship and property. All this was written out and signed by us. In order
to carry this out, a letter was written in the name of the governor of
that city [i.e., Manila], and we went to deliver it nine leguas away
at the residence of the king, leaving the vessels guarded. But when he
found us there, the king deprived us of the boats in which we had gone,
and refused to receive the letter, which went under form of embassy,
or to hear us unless we first restored the ships. Then he immediately
began to prepare arms and to assemble many men, with the intention,
unless we restored the ships, of killing us, or reducing us by force
to such straits as to compel us to restore them; and after their
restoration, of making an end of us all without trouble or risk to his
own men. For he trusted us in nothing, since we were going in search
of, and bringing help to, him whom he had dispossessed. All this was
told us by some Christians among them, especially by a young mestizo
from Malaca who lived among them and knew their language. Therefore
considering that we were already separated from our companions,
and that, if we restored the ships, they could easily take ours by
means of them and kill the men left in them, and then us who were in
that place; also that if we waited for them to collect and attack us,
they could very easily kill us: we decided to seek the remedy by first
attacking them instead of waiting to be attacked; and try to rejoin
our men and assure our lives or end them by fighting. Accordingly we
attacked them, and such was our good fortune that we killed the king
in the fight. Then we retired to our ships with great difficulty,
without the loss of a single Spaniard. We did not allow the king's
house to be sacked, so that it might not be said that we had done
this to rob him. At this juncture, the captain and sargento-mayor,
our leader, arrived. He belittled and censured what we had done, and
ridiculed our statement and that of some of the Cambodians, namely,
that we had killed the usurper. All that he did was simply to collect
whatever silver and gold certain soldiers seized during these troubles,
and everything valuable in the ships, and then to burn the latter. Then
he drew up a report against us and dispossessed us of our ships and
command, thus formulating suspicion and distrust. After that he gave
orders for the departure from the kingdom, paying no heed to many
Cambodians who came to speak to us when we went ashore, and told
us that we might build a fortress there, for they had a legitimate
king before, but that he who was their king lately had driven him
to Lao, and thus they had no king; that they would gather wherever
the most protection could be found; and that we should continue the
war. Nor did the captain accept any of our suggestions, when we told
him that the usurper had imprisoned a kinsman of the lawful king;
that we should go to his rescue; that the latter would raise men
in favor of the legitimate king; and that with his support we would
take possession of the kingdom, and then go to get the king. But he
was deaf to all this and accordingly abandoned the kingdom, and this
great opportunity was lost. The only thing that we could obtain from
him by great entreaty after putting to sea, was to go to Cochinchina
to inquire about the galley, since they had intended to send from
Manila for that purpose. I also offered to go to Lao by land at my
own expense, in search of the king of Camboja, for I knew that that
way led thither. Accordingly, as soon as we arrived in Cochinchina,
the captain sent Diego Belloso and myself to Lao, and Captain Gregorio
de Vargas to Tunquin. Meanwhile he held an auction among the soldiers
of everything valuable from the Chinese ships, and of what else he
had taken from the soldiers; but the men were all without a real,
and so he had everything bought for himself, at whatever price he was
pleased to give. The king of Sinoa, a province of Cochinchina, equipped
us for the voyage with a good outfit, by giving us an embassy for that
country, and men to accompany us on the road. Thus we made the entire
journey well provided and always highly honored and feared and much
looked at, as the like had never before been seen in those kingdoms.