from MSS. in the Archivo general de Indias, Sevilla;
the second, from the Ventura del Arco MSS. (Ayer library), vol. i,
pp. 523-545; the third and sixth, from the Archivo Historico Nacional,
Madrid; the fourth, from _Recopilacion de leyes de las Indias,_
lib. vi, tit. xviii.

_Translations_: These are all made by James A. Robertson, except the
third, by Arthur B. Myrick.

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE PHILIPPINES

Sire:

I, Martin Castano, procurator-general of the Filipinas, declare
that--having examined and carefully considered, in the course of so
long a period as I have spent here, the region of these islands,
their great importance, and the little energy displayed in coming
to their help while the enemies from Olanda are exerting themselves
so strenuously to gain possession of them--I am convinced that such
inaction can proceed only from a failure to estimate that country at
its proper value, imagining it to be of less importance than it is,
since it is regarded as being so far away [from Espana]. But those
islands are the most important part of your Majesty's dominion;
and from delay it results that the enemy is continually gaining, and
your Majesty losing, while recovery becomes more difficult. If they
should be lost, and the country given up to the natives, it would be,
even if the Hollanders had not gone thither, a loss of the magnitude
which will be made evident by this paper; but if your Majesty lose
them, and your greatest enemy gain them, the loss will be beyond all
exaggeration. Therefore, I have desired to advance four important
considerations regarding those islands: namely, the extension of
the faith, and the increase of your Majesty's dominion, glory, and
riches. And in case of any doubt as to the truth of my assertions,
I will prove them by trustworthy witnesses and authentic papers,
to your entire satisfaction.

As to the increase of the faith, it is quite well known that no other
gate in all the world has been opened through which so many souls
may come into the knowledge of it as in the Filipinas; for they are
situated amid so vast kingdoms, so densely inhabited, so ready to be
christianized, as has been proved in China and Japon. And had not the
Hollanders gained the friendship of the Japanese, the greater part
of that kingdom would have been converted, as things were going; for
at Nangasaqui, the port of entry for those going from the Filipinas,
there were so many Christians that they