fully traced sketch of this to your Majesty with this letter. The reason why it is very necessary to occupy this port is for the safety of these islands; for it is known to a certainty that . . . that if a fort is built at . . . which is very . . . will be able to send it from there without great difficulty, and being installed there, would make us anxious at all times, and harry the land, without there being any help for it. For they are a warlike and numerous people. The other reason is because all the trading ships which sail for this city from China make land there, and will not dare sail from their own country. They are very much afraid of those people, and will cease their trade with this city, and thus that will be lost—even more than the great wealth which the ship "San Felipe"[1] carried, which arrived in their country in the past year, ninety-six. That wealth made them covetous of it; and perhaps their principal intention is to come here and attack these islands. It is not worthy of the Spanish reputation to allow this barbarian to use us thus, without experiencing our power through some injury. It would be a great loss to him to take that passage from him; and, for any purpose that your Majesty may desire, it will be a very important station; since, if your Majesty sends a large number of troops by way of Nueva España or of India, that is so difficult an undertaking, and entails so much expense and the death of so many.
It is of no less importance to give an account to
- ↑ This ship was wrecked on the coast of Japan, driven thither by tempests; and its rich cargo was seized by the Japanese. Detailed accounts of this event and its consequences are furnished by Morga in his Sucesos (Hakluyt Soc. trans.), pp. 75-79; Santa Inés, in the Crónica, ii, pp. 252-272; and La Concepcion, in Hist. de Philipinas, iii, pp. 106-119, 143-148.
