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]

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THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS

[Vol. 36

in the enemy's camp. They demolished the second
height of the wall, which had no terreplein; the
governor of the place was killed by a cannon-ball;
and every day the enemy came up to the walls to
drink the health of the Dutchmen and display other
soldierly civilities.
They had now demolished all of the wall that rose
above the terreplein, and talked of making a general
assault. The Dutch began to be disheartened by the
death of the governor and the loss of so many soldiers; and when they saw the preparations for the
assault they talked of negotiating for surrender, in
order that they might not be left exposed to the
enemy's cruelty - since for that arrogant tyrant it was
the same to slay five or six thousand men as one. He
therefore at once replaced twice the number in a
post [which had lost its defenders], as he was so near
to his island of Vicheu where he kept the main body
of his followers, from which they were continually
coming and going; and for every one who died a
thousand fresh men came to his camp. They now set
out to engage the Dutch with six hundred scalingladders, fourteen of their men being allotted to each
ladder; but the besieged hung out a white flag, and
came out to propose terms of surrender. This was
granted with the condition that only the property
of private persons should be removed, and that they
must surrender intact the property of the [East
India} Company, which was done. It is computed
according to the Company's books, that with the military supplies and the artillery of the fort, [this capture] had a value of five millions - an amount which
will not cause surprise to any one who knows that