Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 04).djvu/195

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1576-1582]
ACCOUNT OF EXPEDITIONS
191

arated in crossing the wide expanses of water in your course, you shall give orders where it shall meet you, so that all may be kept in order. In case you have to fight, you shall put the ship from Castilla in the front, and the others shall aid it, and, being lighter, can be used better for pursuit.

You shall exercise great care in regard to the musketeers, and put them in charge of an experienced man, and let opportunity be given them to advance.

Item: You shall exercise care, so that, if the Bornean galleys take the lead, they shall not separate from the Castilian galley and the Neapolitan fragata; likewise that the latter does not separate from the Castilian galley.

Item: You shall see to it that the Spaniards do not kill or steal any cow (for there are but few), so that the king of Borney make no complaint.

There are cows in Borney and in Mohala, in the island of Bencoraco. Notice shall be given among your people, so that these beasts may be preserved; in the river of Tabaron, where I have said that you must go, the men may kill swine and deer, if necessity arise, for there are many of these animals there.

Item: You shall not allow any slave, male or female, to be taken. You shall exercise great care in this, imposing the penalty of death on whomsoever shall steal them; and even should the natives wish to sell slaves[1] the Spaniards shall not buy them, if

  1. In this connection may be cited Rajah James Brooke's statement, as given by Captain Henry Keppel in his Expedition to Borneo (American edition, New York, 1846), p. 305: "The most detestable part of this traffic is Seriff Houseman ["a half-bred Arab" pirate in Borneo] selling, in cold blood, such of these