profit many merchants and other people from
Espana and this land are going to live in those islands, and continue
to settle there. Thus the country is made safe, because, when any
necessity arises, they take arms and incur the dangers of war, so
that the natives of the said islands and of those surrounding are
peaceable, and fear the Spaniards. If these and the trade that they now
maintain should fail, and if your Majesty should not supply as many
more men at his own cost, it is well-known that with the instability
and suspicious nature of those peoples, they would rebel, and recover
the liberty that they have lost. Worse than that, they would return to
the heresy or the heathenisms which they professed a little while ago.

Moreover, by this means the encomenderos and settlers of those islands
get a profit out of the customs, trade, and commerce, because from
their tributes and profits they derive a good income. Before they had
it, they were in need. From the said China they provide themselves
with biscuit, flour, meat, fruits, clothes, gunpowder, iron, and many
other things which they greatly need, and which the said islands
lack. If they had to bring those articles from this kingdom, they
might not have them on account of their dearness, and since they,
without their trade, are so poor. Accordingly, it not only does not
embarrass or hinder the settlement of the said islands; but rather
they find it very difficult to support themselves and achieve success
without the said trade and commerce. It will surely result in greater
cost to your Majesty, if the trade can[not] be conducted as heretofore;
and if provision must be made as on the frontiers of Oran, Tanger, or
Melilla. Even those who avoid sending their money to those districts,
send it to the islands. It is not in such a way as understood hitherto,
that the prompt despatch of the fleets is hindered; because, although
they do not send their money thither now, they will be able to send
it--namely, to Piru and Guatemala--and to employ it in other ways in
this land, without obliging them necessarily to send it to Espana, if
the gains that they attain are not so certain as they would have them.

Likewise it appears that, if the said trade should cease, the annual
departure of ships and people, as it is at present, would cease; and
that would be a greater incentive to the natives who are peaceful, and
those who until now have had no desire for peace, to rise and rebel,