Expeditions To The Moluccas
De Silva sent an unsuccessful expedition against the Dutch in the Moluccas in 1611, although the expedition did take Sabougo on Gilolo and establish a fort there. De Silva intended to secure Portuguese help to expel the Dutch from the area once and for all. To this end in 1612 he dispatched the former governor of Ternate, Cristobal de Azcueta to Portuguese India to make plans with the viceroy there for a joint assault. However Azcueta and the entire expedition were lost in a shipwreck between Manila and Macao.
De Silva tried again, this time sending two Jesuit emissaries to Goa. They arrived in 1615 and reached an agreement with the Portuguese viceroy that he would contribute four large galleons, to be sent to Malacca. This information was received in Manila, where a large Spanish fleet was already prepared, in July 1615. In order to obtain the artillery for this expedition de Silva had weakened the defenses of Manila, with grave risks in the event of an attack on the city by the Dutch.
There was no news of the arrival of the Portuguese galleons, but against the advice of many of his subordinates, Governor de Silva sailed for Malacca on February 9, 1616. He commanded ten galleons, four galleys and various smaller vessels. The flagship was the 1,700-ton San Marcos. The fleet carried 5,000 men, both soldiers and sailors, including nearly 2,000 Spaniards and a unit of Japanese infantry, which numbered at 500. It also carried 300 artillery pieces and 6 Jesuits. It was the largest European armada yet seen in the region.
The fleet sailed for the Strait of Malacca, with the intention of uniting with the expected Portuguese armada and then attacking the Dutch factory on Java and thereafter the Dutch bases on the islands of the Moluccas. But the Portuguese fleet had already been attacked by the Dutch near Malacca and completely destroyed. In order to avoid their capture, the Portuguese had burned their big galleons.
The Spanish fleet entered the Strait of Singapore on February 25, 1616. From there Governor de Silva sent Juan Gutierrez Paramo with part of the fleet to reinforce Ternate (in the Moluccas).
But the governor was in poor health. He had earlier asked several times to be relieved of office for health reasons. Now his health deteriorated further, and on April 19, 1616, he died in Malacca. The whole Spanish enterprise had to be abandoned, with nothing accomplished against the Dutch.
The armada returned to Manila on June 1, 1616, sin gente (without people). Although they had not faced combat, many men had died of fevers and other illnesses that struck the fleet in Malacca and the Strait of Singapore.
Critics of the governor, both among his contemporaries and later historians, have claimed that had he sailed directly to the Moluccas rather than to Malacca, he very possibly could have dislodged the undermanned Dutch from the archipelago.
Read more about this topic: Juan De Silva