[34] I regard it as certain, that
in case that we wish to avail ourselves of the forces of the English,
if our own are insufficient to destroy these Dutchmen, they will
aid us in it very willingly, by short agreements that might be made
with them. I know that this cannot be a bad thing for his Majesty,
but very good. This English captain who is here has told me that if
we wish to bring this about, his nation will do it. I advise your
Lordship go that should necessity, perchance, compel us to undertake
this, you may know what we are doing here about it.
His Majesty's two fortresses in Gilolo, as your Lordship knows, serve
only as garrisons for eighty soldiers, sixty of them Spanish. They
are continually dying and falling sick, and because of our lack of
men in these forts, which are of importance, those men would prove
very advantageous here, while there they are of no use. Whenever the
enemy may attack them in force, they cannot be succored by either
sea or land. Consequently, I think, for these and other reasons,
that it would be wise to withdraw them before the enemy oblige us by
force to do so. Will your Lordship order this to be considered, and
ordain what is most advisable. At present the enemy have two ships,
as I wrote in my previous letters.
The surgeon sent by your Lordship for this hospital I am sending back,
as he is useless here--both because father Fray Juan de Santamaria, a
lay brother of St. Francis, is here, who attends to this with charity,
willingness, and great skill; and because the former has certain
defects or excesses that are not suitable for a country so short of
the sort of thing that he specially cares about, and of which even
the sick are in want.
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