in.

The sixteenth is for an argument that, if the trade of the Portuguese
of Macan cease, the said [Chinese] will have to conduct the trade
as they did before in the said merchandise, because they will
have no other outlet for it, except in this city. This is proved
because in the revolts of the Sangleys here, in the first part of
October of the former year six hundred and two [_sic_], more than
twenty thousand Sangleys having been killed and their possessions
ruined--of which advices were taken to China by more than ten
of their ships which escaped and carried the news--nevertheless,
by May of the year following the same ships came to this city, in
the number and with the amounts of goods with which they had come
in the years preceding. They continued that in the following years,
as if the aforesaid punishment had been a benefit to them. They did
that for the reason above mentioned, of not having any other outlet
for the said merchandise in which they traded.

The seventeenth is that, as is well known, as soon as the Portuguese
of Macan knew of the post which we took in the island of Hermosa,
they tried to obstruct that trade, by sending a religious of their
nation to one of the commercial ports of China, in order that he
might direct those Chinese not to take any merchandise to the said
island. They have persisted and are still persisting in those efforts.

In regard to all the above, as a matter so important, and on which
depends the conservation of this community, and so that the citizens
of it may retrieve their losses, he petitions that discussion be
held, and that this proposition be set down in the record-book;
that a decision be reached, and a vote taken in regard to all that
ought to be petitioned; and that the royal decrees which treat of
all the said matter be observed. Having read and understood it _de
verbo ad verbum_, it was voted that the said proposition be enrolled
in the record-book of this cabildo, and that it should be discussed
and voted upon. That having been done, in consideration of the fact
that the arguments which it contains are so notorious and so well
known in this city and by its inhabitants, Manila unanimously and
as one man has resolved to inform his Lordship, the governor, of
the said proposition; that for its accomplishment all the steps that
shall seem to be advisable shall be taken, by writing, until the said
effect is obtained--with the consent and advice of the counselor of
th