If an ordinary
amount of care were taken in negotiating with this king, he would,
as he is so well disposed to the Spaniards, be so devoted to your
Majesty that he would not allow the enemy to enter his port. Besides,
his friendship with them is already greatly strained; and there is
a great disposition among all that people to receive the gospel.

Seventh, as those islands have no posts where cloves may be laded,
the Dutch send their ships far from the artillery of their own
forts, which they cannot approach; and it will be easy to secure the
vessels, or not allow them to lade anything. Considering the calms
which prevail, even if there were many ships they could not aid one
another, whatever injury the galleys were inflicting upon them--the
least being to dismantle them, so that they cannot sail, for there
is nothing there with which to make a mast or rudder.

Eighth, as they have a number of posts where they only keep
twenty-five or thirty men with a squadron commander, and the forts
have no ditches or drinking-water, they could be deprived of these at
any time with ease. Galleons would be of no use in such engagements,
as they cannot vie with galleys, which can get under cover whenever
they wish. Likewise it must be understood, as their forts are in such
danger, they will need so many men to keep them from being taken,
and so much to maintain them, that their profit will be so small
that it will be gain for them to abandon it. This would indeed be
making a pretty game of war, and cutting their throats with a wooden
sword. And I assure your Majesty that this idea is not only my own,
but that of all experienced men in Maluco There resides at this court
Juan Gomez de Cardenas, who gained considerable experience in Japon
with a Dutch factor, who never thought that this man was a vassal of
your Majesty. The latter made known to him the said reason, and said
that they feared nothing until your Majesty should send there six or
more galleys.

It now remains to tell the ease and little cost with which your
Majesty could maintain these galleys and man them; and if this is
explained for one, it holds in regard to all. The hull of a galley
of twenty-four benches, put together and fitted for sailing, costs
in the Filipinas four thousand ducats. The gang to man it must be
secured in this manner. The governor of the Filipinas should send to
Mindanao three hundred soldiers, by whom--besides setting free more
than ten thousand