to Espana is nothing but water, and consequently the said spices
can be conveyed thereby very easily and at little cost. This I think
is the shortest, safest, and least expensive method. Your Majesty
will order what is most fitting for your service.

The artillery, which your Majesty orders me to send to the viceroy
of Peru, I am preparing with promptness. Nevertheless, that which
your Majesty has here at present is necessary for this stronghold,
and for the other islands, where I have distributed a number of cannon
for their greater security and prosperity.

I send the relation of the islands and their villages, and of their
inhabitants and industries, which was forwarded to me to send you. I
would send a longer account if more time had elapsed since the receipt
of your Majesty's royal decree, which arrived the twenty-fifth of
the past month.

No papers whatever of Fray Martin de Rada [46] were left in this
country; nor have I been able to discover any, although most diligent
search has been made.

Among the other orders brought by this ship was one directing that
a considerable sum of money be paid to Doctor Francisco de Sande. He
says that this is due to him as salary; and for the payment of this
is designated the greater part of the villages which belong to the
royal crown of your Majesty. The fleets are maintained thereby, as
well as other expenses of your Majesty here. This order is received
with regret and sorrow, and the royal officials have sent a petition
to this effect; and I too beseech your Majesty to declare if it be
your royal pleasure that this man support himself at the expense of
the royal service. May it be provided that we be not constrained thus
in similar things.

In the ship that just arrived from Nueva Espana, there came eighteen
descalced friars, a class of people who do much good in this land,
on account of their mode of life and their poverty. Nevertheless,
they come so eager to pass on to China that it would not be right to
keep them here. Accordingly, in order to console them, I am now giving
permission to the commissary who accompanied them, and to four other
religious, both to go to Macau [Macao] to visit the house which they
have there, and to pass to the bordering kingdom of Cochinchin. News
is had that the king of the latter country asks for ministers to
teach him our holy faith. I hope to God that benefit may be derived
therefrom, for the salvation of those souls. I have also im