334 HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



and his men at once overpowered the latter by the mere force 

 of numbers. The Dutch retreated from the deck, and harassed 

 the Spaniards from their close quarters. The colors of the 

 Mauritius were struck, upon which the captain of the Concord, 

 thinking his superior had surrendered, endeavored to escape, 

 being closely pursued by the Spanish vice-admiral. 



The Dutch admiral, however, was not captured yet. The 

 Spaniards having remained masters of the open deck for six 

 hours, Van Noort told his men they must go up and expel the 

 enemy, or he would fire the magazine and blow up the ship. 

 The Spanish account says that they were at this moment them- 

 selves forced to disengage their ship and withdraw their men, as 

 the after-part of the Hollander had taken fire. At all events, 

 the two vessels were cleared and the engagement renewed with 

 cannon. The Spanish vessel took in water so fast that she went 

 down not long after. The Dutch rowed about in boats among 

 the struggling Spaniards, stabbing and knocking them on the 

 head. In retaliation for this, the officers and crew of the Con- 

 cord, which was easily taken by the Spanish vice-admiral, were 

 conveyed to Manilla and executed as pirates and rebels. In Van 

 Noort's ship only five men were killed, twenty-six being wounded 

 more or less severely. He continued on his way with one vessel 

 only, touching at Borneo, Java, and Mauritius. At the latter 

 place, where he found other vessels at anchor, his men met with 

 very pleasant entertainment, and on one occasion ten of them 

 dined in an inverted tortoise-shell, the first inhabitant having 

 withdrawn to furnish the new occupants with both soup and 

 sitting-room. 



Van Noort arrived at Rotterdam on the 26th of August, 1601, 

 where he was received with the utmost joy, having been absent 

 a fortnight short of three years. His was the first Dutch vessel 

 that circumnavigated the globe, and the only one of the nine 

 ships that sailed from Holland in 1598 in that design which 

 succeeded in fulfilling it. The voyage contributed nothing to 

 geography, but, in spite of the instates of barbarity with which 



