tinent and islands, were not sufficient to keep up a few citadels, and to fit out the shipping necessary for the protection of trade."
Some gleams of valour blazed up now and then; Don Juan de Castro revived the spirit of the settlers for awhile; Ataida, and fresh troops from Portugal repelled the native powers, who, worn out with endurance of outrages and indignities, and alive to the growing effeminacy of their oppressors, rose against them on all hands. But these were only temporary displays. The island of Amboyna was the first to avenge itself; and the words addressed to them by one of its citizens are justly descriptive of their real character. A Portuguese had, at a public festival, seized upon a very beautiful woman, and regardless of all decency, had proceeded to the grossest of outrages. One of the islanders, named Genulio, armed his fellow-citizens; after which he called together the Portuguese, and addressed them in the following manner:—"To revenge affronts so cruel as those we have received from you, requires actions, not words; yet we will speak to you. You preach to us a Deity, who delights, you say, in generous actions; but theft, murder, obscenity, and drunkenness are your common practice: your hearts are inflamed with every vice. Our manners can never agree with yours. Nature foresaw this when she separated us by immense seas, and you have overleaped her barriers. This audacity, of which you are not ashamed to boast, is a proof of the corruption of your hearts. Take my advice; leave to their repose those nations that resemble you so little; go, fix your habitations amongst those who are as brutal as yourselves; an intercourse with you
