LETTER FROM PORTUGAL TO FELIPE II
After the king, our lord, succeeded to the crown of Portugal, there began to open a new commerce between the Philipinas Islands and the western Yndias belonging to the domain of Castilla and China, Maluco, Amboino, Banda, and other parts of the Portuguese conquest. As soon as this was known in the eastern Yndias, the viceroys and governors thereof were continually writing to his Majesty, that from this new commerce many heavy injuries were sustained by his Majesty's service, in regard to the preservation and support of that state of eastern Yndia, and the quiet of its inhabitants.
His Majesty after reading their letters and going over truthful reports of the great injury that the continuation of this new trade might cause, both to the crown of Castilla and to that of Portugal, resolved to prohibit anyone from going from the western Yndias to China, Maluco, Amboino, and Banda, and other places belonging to the crown of Portugal; or from the Eastern to the Western Yndias. Decrees for this prohibition, signed by his Majesty and by the Portuguese ministers, were passed and sent to Yndia, where they were published and ordered to be observed under heavy penalties. The same was to be done by the ministers of the crown of Castilla and
