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Alphonso de Castro, the Viceroy of India, hastened however with a naval force far more powerful than the Dutch squadron to the relief of this important fortress; and after a hardly-fought but indecisive action Matelief raised the siege on August 17.
The Dutch power in the Moluccas was as follows: "We have three forts at Ternate: that of Malaia, or Orange, commenced by Admiral Matelief, where the king of Ternate lives; that of Toluco, or Hollande, lying at the east end of the island, on an elevation, one-half legua north of that of Malaia, built of stone; for fear lest the Spaniards occupy this post, and for the same reason to send there to live a portion of the superfluous men at Malaia.
After rounding the cape they besieged and took a Portuguese trading-post, after which they cruised past Goa, Calcutta, and other places, finally sighting Sumatra, January 5, 1607, and anchoring at Bantam, January 6. There they met the Matelief expedition. With a half-hearted following of Matelief's advice, van Caerden anchored at Amboina in March, whence on May 10, he started for Ternate.
On his way back in 1606 with his cargo of cloves, spices and other products of the far Orient, he encountered at Mauritius another westward-bound fleet of eleven ships under Cornelis Matelief. Matelief's first objective was the town of Malacca, held by the Portuguese and commanding the straits to which it gave its name.
Shortly after Admiral Matelief returned to Holland, where he anchored on September 2, 1608. Admiral Matelief drew up while on this expedition a good resume of Dutch aspirations in the East Indies that shows the compelling motive in their expeditions thither. This memorial is as follows. Memoir by Admiral C. Matelief, on the subject of the condition and the commerce of the Indies
The victories of Cornelis Matelief established that supremacy of the Dutch arms in these eastern waters which they were to maintain for many years.
Thence the vessels went in different directions and on different missions toward the Dutch base at Bantam. At Bantam Admiral Paul van Caerden anchored on January 5, 1608, to whom Matelief communicated the necessity of first attending to Molucca affairs, giving him also information and advice concerning those islands and the Dutch and Spaniards there.
Returning, however, about a month later, the Dutch admiral found that De Castro had sailed away, leaving only a detachment of ten vessels before Malacca. Matelief at once attacked this force, whose strength was about equal to his own, and with such success that he sank or burnt every single ship of the enemy with scarcely any loss, September 21, 1606.
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