hem to my plan that they were brought to my way of thinking. The
most convincing argument which I used was to persuade them that
the same reason did not hold there as in Nueva Espana and Piru,
for ill-treating the Indians; for there are so many Chinese who are
raising their hands to God to find something to work at--as many as
are necessary, as was well known by them. Thereupon they told me all
the information that they had for certain from various Indians--not
only from the Christians, some of whom had gone up peacefully to trade,
but likewise from those from above who came down to the province. The
bishop certified that there was the greatest wealth in the world;
and that they had brought him from one hill a little red earth, of
which the whole hill is composed, which was as much as they could
put upon a silver platter. They washed it, in his presence, and took
out seven taes of gold, which amount to forty-four castellanos. [50]
He asserted that in every part of the hill the earth was all of this
richness. With all this information I went to Don Juan de Silva and
told him what had happened, and how I had pacified the friars. He
agreed that we should go and discover it and said that he would go in
person when he finished that expedition. He was overtaken by death,
as has been said, and accordingly the matter has remained in this
condition. And even if there were not in these mountains the wealth of
which we are told, it seems that the obligation to pacify these Indians
exists, and that the holy gospel ought to be preached to them--in the
first place, because your Majesty has undertaken so just and holy an
enterprise; and second, because they are in the same island [with our
Spaniards]. It is a shame that, being in the neighborhood of Manila,
they do not enjoy the blessing that the others do. Beside this, there
is the fact that these as well as their neighbors will not allow other
people to trade in their territory; by the law of nations, therefore,
the Spaniards have a right of action.

The ease and little cost connected with this enterprise are such
that if the governor would send a single person suitable for it, with
two hundred soldiers from the garrison of Manila, and levy a thousand
Indians from the two provinces to help them and transport the supplies,
they would subdue those savages without difficulty, if the man who does
it is prudent and has ambition to make the enterprise a success. This
is not the place to d