“ With the utmost courage, he went along as if nothing had happened, brandishing his naked sword—encouraging all; holding back the soldiers, so that they [282] should retreat gradually; with his face always to the enemy, sending the men down; and having our drums and trumpets sounded, until we reached the house which Adjutant Don Martin had fortified. When all were there, we saw on one side a great number of Moros coming down a defile to prevent our retreat to the camp. A few cannon-shots were fired at them, and they quickly hurried back to the hill. ”

“ Consequently, those islands are the bit that restrains the enemy, the obstacle that embarrasses them, the force that checks them, and the only care that causes them anxiety, so that they cannot attain their desires—an evident proof of the importance of those islands, and a fundamental reason for their conservation. ”

“ Many Moros were killed, not only by our shots, but by rushing down in a furious and headlong flight through a very narrow ravine which was at the entrance of this very stockade where they expected us—falling, by a just judgment of God, into the very snares which they had laid for us. ”

“ In the gulf of La Silanga we met with a very severe and dangerous tempest, of which we rid ourselves by exorcisms and sacred relics, as is our way in dealing with things evidently planned by the evil one. Here Nicolas Gonçalez waited with eight caracoas to tow the champans through La Silanga, which is a strait of the sea two leguas long, between the great island of Mindanao and another and small island. ”

“ It is a general decision of all who carry on commerce that, if something be not dispensed with in that direction, the trade and traffic cannot be maintained at all. Accordingly, collection is made on the bales by the packings of the cargoes, by the memoranda of the ships, and by the registers, without making any other moral efforts to ascertain whether more is being carried than is declared—punishing what is discovered, but not discovering the fourth of what is hidden. ”

“ Accordingly, it is proper that the islands should not continue to increase, but that they be allowed the commerce that is sufficient to maintain them; and that that of España should not be increased in that region, but that the trade of the islands be restricted in such manner that it shall be as little obstructed as possible. For, by each kingdom losing a part of its right, all will be maintained and conserved. ”

“ The maintenance of the Philippines will result in preserving the missionary conquests in the Far East, securing the safety of India, depriving the Dutch of their trade, relieving the expenses needed to preserve the American Spanish colonies, and maintaining the prestige of the Spanish crown. The royal treasury alone cannot meet all the expenses of the islands, nor is it wise to allow them too much commerce with Nueva España ”

“ Number and diversity of Indians in the islands
What most assures the provinces of the new world is the greater or less number of the natives. In that the Filipinas are eminent, for there are the indigenous Indians, who are tributarios; but these are not many, as not all of them are pacified. Of those who have been pacified some, the larger encomiendas, have been assigned to the royal crown. There are other foreign Indians whose number is great in Manila and its environs, and where there are Spaniards, to whose service the Indians engage themselves for their day’s wages. ”

“ Commerce is a natural law of nations, by which they make common to all provinces what each one produces, grows, or manufactures—now by selling, now by exchanging. Although commerce ought to be free, and was in the beginning, when kingdoms and seigniories were less powerful (for as they had narrower territories, so they had fewer matters to which to attend) , as the monarchies increased and extended it became necessary to limit the commerce in parts, prohibiting it with some, in order to oblige or cause it to be maintained or increased with others. ”

“ In short, the occasions that the inhabitants of Manila have for helping, and to which they respond as loyal vassals, are as many as will be seen in the future, and as one can imagine would be found in a post and frontier so infested by so many and so strong enemies—Dutch, Chinese, Japanese, Mindanaos, Terrenates, Zambales, and those of other nations, which keeps the inhabitants in arms continually. ”

“ And although it is always right (and today more than ever) to take care that since your revenue is not increased, it be not diminished, it is not a successful expedient to represent the saving of expense and the increase of income, if from what is gained on the one side, results on the other, either the loss of what it is advisable to defend, or the addition of heavier expenses for its defense. ”

“ The islands especially protect the commerce of China and that in cloves, as they are now lords of the islands of Maluco—which they recovered after they had been lost, and which they preserve, although infested [by enemies] , at the cost of the blood and the possessions of their inhabitants. They are exposed always to the raids of powerful opponents, who in order not to lose what they have had the good fortune to acquire, the Oriental trade and that of Maluco (which is of the greatest value) , spend the most of what they gain in forts, presidios, and fleets, that they may resist the Filipinas. ”

“ And now, when the Dutch have been unable to gain a foothold in any of the islands because the arms of your Majesty sustain that country with the same reputation as in Flandes, the enemy maintain themselves by aggressive measures against the Spaniards—usually keeping for that purpose in the seas of those islands forty or fifty armed vessels, which are used to pillage whatever they can find, and to guard the presidios which they have established, and the commerce which they have introduced of the most precious drugs and commodities valued by Europa, whither they take them. ”

“ But if the work of the enemy was evident in our dangers, much more manifest and clear was the divine protection and that of our saint in these same perils—as when it saved us from some rocky shoals just off Manila, where we would inevitably have run aground; and from a champan which sprang a leak, from which, without knowing about the leak, we shifted our quarters a day before. There are many other instances which I will not mention, that your Reverence may not be wearied. ”

“ You shall always be regardful of what may be most to my service, and shall strive for the conservation of whatever belongs to us. You shall see that the enemy are checked, and that they do not become powerful with new forts. In my name, you shall give thanks to Sargento-mayor Juan Casares Melon for the good management displayed in what he has done; and tell him that account will be taken of his person in order to grant him reward. I have ordered my governor and captain-general of the Filipinas Islands to attend very particularly to all that concerns those forts. ”

“ Fourth effect of the conservation of the islands: the relief of the Indias
The fourth effect is the relief of the Western Indias; for with the diversion and expense that the enemy encounters in the Eastern Indias and the posts of Maluco, he is forced to pay less attention to the Western Indias, and to infest them with weaker forces—which would be greater if he could dispense with employing them in the Orient to counteract the forces of Filipinas; and the profits of commerce there increasing, he would, freed from the expense [of those armaments] , be at liberty to occupy himself in the West. ”

“ For some little time past the Portuguese of that city have begun going to Manila, or sending thither merchandise from China. That is a great damage to the citizens, for the Portuguese sell the goods dearer than do the Chinese. Formerly those Chinese goods were taken freely to Nueva España, Guatimala, and Panamá, and passed on to Perú; but on account of their cheapness and the extent to which they were consumed, and the profit made on their cost, they were a menace to those kingdoms, and the damage caused by them to the commerce of Sevilla was regretted. ”

“ Without exaggeration, there has been a decrease of the Indians of more than six millions. Although not all of them used Spanish commodities, they consumed many, and to so great an excess that it became advisable to prohibit this to them and order them to dress as did their ancestors. What is most to be regretted is the cessation of the service for the mines, the cultivation of the fields, the gross sum of the tributes, and the local commerce of many provinces. With fewer people and less wealth, there must be less consumption and smaller profits ”

“ The domestic, which is slight, consists in the fruits and commodities produced in their lands, which are cultivated by their inhabitants: rice in the husk, and cleaned; cotton, palm wine, salt, wax, palm oil, and fowls; lampotes, tablecloths, Ilocan blankets, and medriñaques. These are the products in which the Indians pay their tributes, and in nothing else— [81] except some who pay them in taes of gold, of eighteen carats, which is that obtained in those islands, and which is worth eight reals. ”

“ That year Governor Don Juan de Silva sailed with five ships and three galleys to attack four Dutch ships and one patache which had been before Manila for six months, pillaging all the vessels that entered and left, and holding the city almost besieged. He found only three of the ships, burned one, and captured the two others with a loss of many men; for those expeditions, although their outcome is favorable, are always a source of loss to the inhabitants, because of the many who are killed, and because of the expenses incurred in them. ”