easily to make himself master of those lands. Your Majesty will see that this is so by the relations which the governor of these islands, and likewise Don Luis Perez de las Marinas, formerly governor of them, have sent you.
It is very necessary and expedient that several expeditions and conquests should be made in these parts for the service of your Majesty in view of the advantages that the Castilians would gain if they held a good post on the mainland—such as the kingdom of Sian, which is very rich and abounds in many things, and could be conquered and kept with a thousand men, according to everyone who has been there; or the kingdom of Canboxa, which is seeking our friendship, and offers to maintain troops at its own expense, and furnish them to us on occasions when aid may be necessary; or the kingdom of Chanpa, which could be conquered and maintained with three hundred men, and is the pass for this archipelago, and the key to Cochinchina, which is a very rich and fertile country, and could be conquered with a thousand or fifteen hundred men. The latter is more to the east than the said kingdoms between Chanpa and China, close to these islands, and with everyone . . . of them on account of the many wars and enmities, which exist among them, this . . . would be easy to spread the royal sovereignty of your Majesty with great . . . so that all would seek for our friendship and alliance; for . . . said, and with a little shrewdness and cunning a great deal of it might be gained . . . with our protection and oversight the ministers and preachers . . . could spread over all those parts in safety, to convert those souls and bring such a great multitude of
