n de Marquina_

[_Testimony_]

_Witness_: _Captain Poyatos_. On May twenty-seven, one thousand five
hundred and ninety-one, in the city of Manila, Melchor de Baeca,
attorney of this city, presented as witness in the name of the same,
Captain Hernando Munoz de Poyatos, a citizen of this city, from whom he
took oath, according to law, upon a sign of the cross, under obligation
of which he bound himself and promised to tell the truth. After having
been questioned according to the interrogatory presented by the said
Melchor de Baeca, he made the following declaration:

1. To the first question, the witness testified that the Portuguese
of the city of Macan trade and hold business communication with the
Spanish inhabitants of this city and of these islands; that much gain
and profit has come and comes to them, and that they have not met, and
never will meet any injury for coming to trade in these islands. The
witness knows this because he has been in the city of Macan, and has
seen that matters are as the question declares them to be. And he
believes that they will surely continue thus if the inhabitants of
Malaca and other regions of India will continue to trade in these
islands. This is his answer.

2. To the second question, the witness, who, as specified above, has
been in the city of Macan, testified that, although ships now go from
Goa, from these islands, and from many other parts in greater number
and with much more money to invest in Chinese goods than hitherto,
there are cloths and merchandise enough for all who go there, and
much is left over. This is what the witness answers, because he has
found it so in the said city of Macan.

3. To the third question, the witness testified that he was convinced
that if the Spaniards in these islands went to the city of Macan to
trade and traffic with its inhabitants, a great step would be made
toward the possibility of preaching the gospel among the Chinese,
a thing which would be of great service to God our Lord, and to his
Majesty. He does not know anything about what is asked of him in the
rest of the question. This is his answer.

4. To the fourth question, the witness testified that he has lived
in these islands more than sixteen years, and that in all this time
he has neither seen nor heard that any ship had been despatched from
these islands to Yndia for trading purposes; had it not been so, the
witness would have known of it; nor could it be otherwise, since