ve so few
Indians, and keep them so busy in all kinds of ways that we should be
thankful for what has been done. They must have harvested much rice
likewise in other parts, and therefore a considerable amount of that
to be sent from there [Manila] can be dispensed with. I have something
more than four hundred Indians, and two hundred and fifteen Spaniards,
counting soldiers, sailors, and gunners. Some of these are crippled and
maimed. The war of men continues. Although I understand that this will
be more costly to me than was the Terrenate war, two soldiers only have
been lost--one of them having his head carried away by a cannon-shot,
and the other one his bowels by an arquebus-shot. I sent asking your
Grace if you would have those conveyed back to Manila who are no longer
capable of service. It will be a gracious act to favor their cause.

In the last letter which I wrote to your Grace I gave an account of
the products of this land, so far as they were known up to that time;
and now I am doing the same with what has since been observed. In the
first place the country is healthful, as has been clearly shown; for
if the want, hardships, and privations which the troops have suffered
here in mid-winter had occurred in that city, not a man would have
lived through it. The climate is incomparably better than that of
that island [Luzon]; for in the whole year there are not six days
of extreme heat, and the evenings, nights, and mornings are usually
cool. Gold is found in all parts, although not in large quantities,
but it must exist where there are traces of it. Throughout the whole
island there is a great deal of wax and much tortoise-shell. Rice
is sowed in all parts, and in some places in great quantities. They
raise fowl, goats, and swine in all the villages, and wax they do
not save. There is a great quantity of wild game, which is excellent,
growing larger than in other places.

There are a great many nipa and other palms, although more than twenty
thousand palm-trees have been destroyed. The people of the tingues are
farmers and stock-raisers, and would plant a great deal if directed
to do so; accordingly, four hundred or five hundred Spaniards could
be very bountifully supplied here, and even more. They are in an
excellent position for trade, for they are at a very few days' journey
from all the islands of Maluco, Xlatheo [Matheo?], Borney, and Xaba,
and they lie on the route of the galleons which ply between Yndia,