have ever seen. Gradually commerce has so increased,
and so many are the Sangley ships which come to this city laden with
goods--as all kinds of linen, and silks; ammunition; food supplies,
as wheat, flour, sugar; and many kinds of fruit (although I have not
seen the fruits common in Spana)--and the city has been so embellished,
that were it not for the fires and the calamities visited upon her
by land and by sea, she would be the most prosperous and rich city
of your Majesty's domains. As I have written to your Majesty in
other letters, this city has the best possible location for both
its temporal and spiritual welfare, and for all its interests, that
could be desired. For on the east, although quite distant, yet not
so far as to hinder a man from coming hither, with favorable voyage,
lie Nueba Espana and Peru; to the north, about three hundred leagues,
are the large islands of Japon; on the northwest lies the great and
vast kingdom of China, which is so near this island that, starting
early in the morning with reasonable weather, one would sight China on
the next day; on the west lie Conchinchina, the kingdoms of Sian and
Patany, Malaca, the great kingdom of Dacheu (the ancient Trapobana),
and the two Xavas [Javas], the greater and the smaller; [35] and on
the south lie the islands of Maluco and Burney. From all these regions
people come to trade in this city; and from here we can go to them,
for they are near. As to spiritual advantages, if we had preachers
of the gospel to send thither, these regions all stand open to us,
and we could gain good results from it, because Franciscan religious
have gone to some of these places and have been well received, although
on account of many wars and the lack of interpreters they were forced
to return. It is not so certain that they would be received in China
as they are elsewhere; but up to this time no one of those who went
thither has been killed or thrown into prison.

When I came, all the Sangleys were almost forgotten, and relegated to
a corner. No thought was taken for their conversion, because no one
knew their language or undertook to learn it on account of its great
difficulty; and because the religious who lived here were too busy with
the natives of these islands. Although the Augustinian religious had
charge of the Sangleys of Tondo, they did not minister to or instruct
them in their own language, but in that of the natives of this land;
thus the Sangley Christian