r for the ships as they sail now. For,
since the Chinese do not understand latitude and the directions of the
compass perfectly, they do not know enough to go [by direct routes]
to sight land in the Filipinas, thus making safe the coast where the
Dutch await them; [41] but in that case [i.e., if they go only to
Formosa] the Dutch, changing their position, would go to await the
Chinese and our ships near our port or the island of Hermosa. Since
those ships would have to sail so well equipped that they could defend
themselves, it would be so costly an undertaking that it could not be
maintained--especially at the present time, when the Filipinas are so
exhausted and so in need of men, by reason of the reenforcements to
Maluco, the entrances into Mindanao, and the insurrections in certain
provinces of the natives. Besides, there is the so great danger to
Manila from the swarms of abandoned heathen Sangleys who live there,
besides other Chinese residents who are married and Christians, but
lazy, and the great number of non-producing Japanese there also;
and for security and defense from all these, the Spaniards do not
even possess what is necessary.

Neither has that island of Hermosa such a location that it can be
desirable for the ships of Filipinas that sail both to Japon and to
Macan, to put in or to seek shelter there; and even less so for those
returning from a port where they have taken refuge when they sail to
Nueva Espana, or when, in sailing from Nueva Espana to Filipinas,
by arriving late, the vendavals overtake them; or for ships on any
other of the courses that we sail today.

But if one would say that it is a matter of importance for greater
attempts that could be offered in time, by reason of the entrance into
or conversion of China, that is not approved now. On the contrary,
I fear from the caution and mistrust of the Chinese, that if we
maintain a settlement in the island of Hermosa, and it is not clear
to them that it is strictly necessary for that conservation, [they
will act] without heeding other ends which they must obtain by way of
diverting the trade with the Filipinas (since we see that they forced
the Portuguese to tear down the fortification that they permitted
them to erect in Macan, in view of the risk of its being captured
by the Dutch in the year 622, who threatened to return to attempt
it with a greater fleet the following year, although they had not
returned up to the year 625). They are n