nt on this island, they have come in greater
numbers each year, and with more ships; and they come earlier than
they used to, so that their trade is assured to us. Those that come
here are, like the people of this land, almost naked, on account of
the hot climate. They do not bring to sell the silks and beautiful
things that they take to Malaca. They say that, if there were any one
to buy them, they would bring all we wanted; and so, since trading with
the Spaniards, they bring each year better and much richer wares. If
merchants would come from Nueva Espana, they might enrich themselves,
and increase the royal customs in these parts--both through trade and
through the mines, the richness and number of which are well-known
to us.

Your Majesty knows how antagonistic the Portuguese are in everything
here. When they can do us no harm in their own persons, they try to
do so through others. Last year Chinese vessels came to this city
to trade and told us how the Portuguese haa asked them not to trade
with us, because we were robbers and came to steal and commit other
depredations, so that these people wonder not a little if this be
true. As the treatment accorded to the Chinese neutralizes these
reports, more vessels came this year than last, and each year more
will come. I advise your Majesty of this, because it is better to have
certain peace or open war with the Portuguese, and not to be uncertain,
and not to have them trying to harm us at a distance. Every year we
are disturbed by fears of their coming. This year I had news from
Moro merchants, who came from the island of Borney, that last year
their king had collected a large fleet to descend upon us. After
having embarked, he gave up for the time the voyage because of
the severe storms; but gave out that he would return this year and
bring the Portuguese with him. I exerted myself to get together the
Spaniards, who were pacifying these islands and had the island of
Borney reconnoitred in two parts, by oared vessels of the sort that
the natives use. I instructed them that if they could get any of
the Moros from Borney, they should bring them, in order to get at
the truth; and so they did. The people whom I sent for this purpose
arrived near Borney, and because they did not dare bring small boats
near the island itself, they halted about eight leagues from it,
and captured six Moros. By these I was informed that the coming of
the king of Borney was uncertain, and that