ch, new and very long and costly wars would be renewed which
would complete the exhaustion of the Filipinas, as has been done in
those of Terrenate. Then, too, we would not have greater advantages
in this war in the island of Hermosa than in those of Terrenate;
for it also is a war to be carried on with ships, and the Dutch have
their factories of Japon very near by. They are not inferior to us in
accommodations, although the island of Hermosa is near the Filipinas.

But if the Dutch were expelled from it, neither do I find any advantage
in the Spaniards having a fort and settlement in that island at
present, considering the condition of the Filipinas, unless it be
to prevent the return of the enemy to refortify it. For first we
must determine for that purpose, whether we can prevent that, by the
nature of the island and by other circumstances that would render it
very difficult--as was seen in Terrenate, when, although we had five
hundred or more Spaniards there, the Dutch built another fort almost
in sight of ours (which they still hold), as soon as we gained that
small island. Now, too, although the Dutch were fortified first in
the island of Hermosa, they have not prevented us from effecting a
settlement there. For among other things, for such purposes, more
men are necessary, and the cost of those men with whom a fortress in
a kingdom not one's own is generally maintained.

But, as this object is not involved in the other considerations which
present themselves to my mind for keeping up a Spanish settlement
in that island, I do not see that, for the present, the Spaniards
are obliged to do that. For that island is not of importance to us,
either for its own products or for the commerce of China--on the
former ground, because it is a poor and barren land, of which it is now
always said in the Filipinas that it only produces fruits and timber;
nor is it for the second, for if it be made a way-station, wherein
to invest in the silks of China, that means to add a new voyage from
the Filipinas, which on account of its expenses cannot make up for
the convenience of purchasing in Filipinas those same products, which
the Chinese carry to Manila. If one tries to say that, by this means,
the Chinese ships would not be stopped by the Dutch ships that await
them on the coasts of Filipinas; and that if that voyage be made from
the island of Hermosa in Spanish ships, they will sail more secure:
I answer that there is less dange