ght even carry them free for the concession of the register
or permission for the voyage. If they left in due season, nothing
would be lost, nor any soldier either, in the short passage which must
be made, in order to embark at Panama from Cruces, a distance of five
leguas. One can reach that place in boats by means of a river. In the
same way, all the things shipped here from Espana can be transported,
thus saving the vast sum generally incurred by the freight charges and
carriage of the goods in Nueva Espana. This expense is caused by the
long and dangerous road to Acapulco, and the rather long space of time
from the arrival of the trading fleet at the beginning of September
until the departure of our ships at the last of March--both in what
the infantry consume and waste, and in those men of it who are lost.

There will also be another advantage if your Majesty should be pleased
to locate there [_i.e._, at Panama] the reenforcements of money
and provisions for these forts. For if the ships from this country,
by any misfortune or other occasion for delay, should not arrive,
as many ships as were needed could be obtained there, ready, in which
to send the ordinary and even extraordinary succor that your Majesty
might despatch; while in Acapulco there would be no such facility,
or even possibility, in addition to the long and most costly voyage
of the ships despatched thence. And, according as the despatch from
Panama is considered and regarded, our ships, even if they should
arrived there one month later, would leave the port earlier, and much
earlier than from Acapulco, since the journey thence here is so safe
and short, as experience has already demonstrated.

By dividing this commerce, and by one ship going to Acapulco and
another to Panama, one would think that, if the vessels' were not
more nor larger, the export or sale of Spanish merchandise would not
be checked; for inasmuch as Mexico would be abandoned in order to
go to Panama, the former country would come to have need of Espana,
and would consume as much and perhaps even more than the amount that
was not used in Panama because of the departure of the ships of this
country. It is almost a certainty that no innovation would have to
be experienced because of the way in which, it may be understood,
the Mexican merchants have communication with those of Peru and all
the Indias--avoiding the royal duties on what is smuggled. If each
ship went publicly by permissi