On the twelfth of the month, the galleons were converted into ashes, and the Maluco relief expedition was destroyed.  After the battle and disaster many quarrels arose among the nobles by land and sea, over the question who was to blame.  Each one blamed the other, attributing the loss to many excesses that they mentioned.  The truth is that such excesses existed, and they and our sins were the cause of so great a chastisement.

On February 25, Don Juan de Silva, governor and captain-general of the Filipinas, reached the strait with ten galleons, four galleys, and one patache.  The Dutch were informed of his coming, for having captured Juan Gallegos, a pilot who came from Macao in a patache, he told them the plans of the governor.  Thereupon the enemy took refuge a week beforehand.  They had been awaiting two vessels that were coming from China with all the wealth of Yndia; and the Portuguese considered it a foregone conclusion that these would fall into the hands of the enemy.  They had resolved to land on the island of Bintan or Pulo Timon and burn the galleons, so that the enemy should not benefit therefrom.  For that purpose they sent Captain Fernando Acosta to Malaca.  But at the news of the governor’s coming, the enemy abandoned their station and left a free passage to the ships, which arrived one day after the governor.  It is reported that the two vessels had ten days of contrary southeast winds which prevented them from reaching the strait sooner, where their danger was.  But God our Lord did better, and He deprived the enemy of the prize, which would have enriched them enormously, and allowed them to make war on Europe.

For that good result and benefit given to all Yndia by Don Juan de Silva, the Portuguese were extremely thankful, and accordingly received him in Malaca under a pall and with great acclamation.  On March 26 all confessed that God had delivered them from the Dutch by his means; and they hoped that he would drive the enemy from these seas later.  But death, which comes when God pleases, finished all their hopes; for it brought him to his bed, and from that to a grave on April 19, 1616, of a fever that carried him off in eleven days.  During the course of his sickness, the city made a procession from the asse or cathedral to [the church of] La Misericordia, [77] praying our Lord for his health.  At his death, they bewailed him with extreme sorrow.

Before dying he saw that his end was near, and accordingly prepared himself by acts of faith and penitence, receiving the sacraments.  He ordered his body to be embalmed, and taken on the royal galley to Manila, and thence to Jerez de los Caballeros, [78] where he founded a convent of discalced Carmelite nuns.  In the meanwhile the body should be deposited in the residence or houses of the Society of Jesus.  Accordingly, in the residence of Malaca they celebrated the church services for him.  At the end of nine days, the body was taken to the galleys anchored in the strait of Sincapura.  There it was received with a salute on May 2.  On the fourth, sail was set toward Manila.