LUIS VAEZ DE TORRES. 41
Capitana, even to tools and medicines, and many other things which I do not mention, as there is no help for it; but, without them, God took care of us.
These Moors gave us news of the events at the Malucas, and told us of Dutch ships, though none of them came here, although they said that in all this land there was much gold and other good things, such as pepper and nutmegs. From hence to the Malucas it is all islands, and on the south side are many uniting with those of JBanda and Amboyna, where the Dutch carry on a trade. We came to the islands of Bachian, which are the first Malucas, where we found a Theatine, with about one hundred Christians in the country of a Mahometan king friendly to us, who begged me to subdue one of the Ternate islands inhabited by revolted Mahometans, to whom Don Pedro de Acunha had given pardon in Your Majesty's name, which I had maintained ; and I sent advice to the M. de Campo, Juan de Esquivel, who governed the islands of Ternate, of my arrival, and demanded if it was expedient to give this assistance to the king of Bachian, to which he [Juan de Esquivel] answered that it would be of great ser- vice to Your Majesty if I brought force for that purpose. On this, with forty Spaniards and fou.r hundred Moors of the king of Bachian, I made war, and in only four days I defeated them and took the fort, and put the king of Bachian in possession of it in Your Majesty's name, to whom we ad- ministered the usual oaths, stipulating with him that he should never go to war against Christians, and that he should ever be a faithful vassal to Your Majesty. I did not find these people of so intrepid a spirit as those we had left.
It must be ascribed to the Almighty that, in all these labours and victories, we lost only one Spaniard. I do not make a relation of them to Your Majesty, for I hope to give it at large.
The king being put in possession, I departed for Ternate, which was twelve leagues from this island, where Juan de
