The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803; explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commericial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the beginning of the nineteenth century; [Vol. 1, no. 36]

1649-1666] EVENTS IN MANILA, 1662-63

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a measure tending to the latter's prosperity; for all
those many people, finding themselves without land
or settled mode of life, crowded into the corsair's
service to spend their lives and to maintain themselves on the abundant booty offered to them by his
power as absolute master of the seas.
The intention of this barbarian [Cot-sen] was to
become the master of China, profiting by the hatred
of the Chinese to the Tartars, and on the present occasion by the fact of the king's death. But as Cot-sen
needed land whereon to maintain so many people,
he was minded to conquer Hermosa and these islands.
Accordingly, he landed [on Hermosa] first in April,
I660, with Ioo,ooo men, a hundred cannon for batteries, and a still larger number of field-pieces; the
cannons carried balls of forty to fifty libras. At first
the Dutch scoffed at their forces, calling them "men
of the paypay" -that is, "of the fan," which all of
that nation use, as if they were women. Confident in
the impregnable nature of their fortress (into which
they gathered the feeble garrison of the island), and
in the large and splendid force of men which defended it, more than two thousand in number, although they had nineteen ships, they did not take
these out of the river when they could; and the
Sangleys attacked them on the sea to great advantage
overcoming the Dutch with their champans, and
inflicting much injury on them - for these champans
are lighter vessels [than those of the Dutch], and
their people are very skilful in the management of
tion forbade any person to pass the bounds assigned, four leguas
distant from the seashore. With these precautions, if Kue-sing's
ships landed there, a great number of soldiers were quickly assembled to dispute his entrance into the country - thus keeping within
bounds Kue-sing, who now did not encounter sleeping men."