nd killed the snake.

There is great abundance of material products, and the country is very
fertile. The grain of these regions is rice, and as a rule each fanega
of grain sowed yields one hundred fanegas, and many yield two hundred
fanegas, especially if it is irrigated and transplanted. There are
oranges of many varieties, some of them resembling large melons. Honey
and wax is found in the trees, where the bees make it. The wax is worth
sixteen or twenty reals an arroba, and a jar of honey one real. I
saw a tree which had many honeycombs hanging on the branches. The
mountains are fuller of wild boars than are the commons of Espana
of swine and cattle in acorn time. One of those swine, if it is fat,
is worth two reals, but only one if not fat; and a deer is worth the
same sum. There are almost no fruits of Espana. There are melons,
cucumbers, pumpkins, and radishes of the country, and quantities of
cabbages and lettuce. There are many native fruits, some of which are
excellent, but they are not so many or so good as those of Espana,
while the food does not have the same nourishment as in Espana. The
swine here are excellent, and better and more healthful than those
of Espana; for they are eaten like mutton, and are given to the sick
as mutton is in Espana.

God is ever our physician and apothecary in sickness, and but few times
does one fall grievously sick when our Lord does not supply the lack
of medicines, without which [_MS. holed_: we?] get along very well,
and God helps [us]. Panbohen, July 6, 1629.

_Pedro de Prado_

We received a letter from Eastern India which gives very good news of
its condition; for the Dutch are now in small numbers and are very
much disaccredited, with both the Moros and the heathen, and these
have revolted against the Dutch and driven them from their lands and
from the houses of trade that they owned, because they have found
them false in their commerce and deceitful in their trading. Our men
went to help drive out the Dutch.

Good news comes from Zeilan and Tebet of the great conversion to
Christianity that is being effected there and in other regions,
and that the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ continues to increase.

Ruy Freire went to besiege Ormuz with some ships, and the viceroy told
him that he was going in person with [_MS. holed_] ships to capture it.

Father Geronimo Perez [61] had cut down, at a residence, a tree
which was called nino, in order to dispel the superstit