Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 02).djvu/225

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COPY OF A LETTER SENT FROM SEUILLA TO MIGUEL SALUADOR OF VALENCIA.

Printed in Barcelona, By Pau Cortey, 1566.

Of this discovery, two relations have come from China: namely, that on the seventeenth of November,[1] in the year one thousand five hundred and sixty-four, a fleet was made ready by order of his majesty in Puerto de le Natividad, (which is situated on the Southern Sea, one hundred leagues from Mexico), consisting of two ships and two pataches, in order to discover the spice islands, which are named Philippinas, after our king. This fleet, when ready for sailing, cost more than six hundred thousand pesos of Atipusque.[2]

  1. The actual date of departure was the twenty-first.
  2. See note 43, ante, as to the cost of the fleet. The reference in the text is apparently to some Mexican mint or mine.