gantas), and in those of the rich a hundred gantas of
this gold; and they store it up in order to trade with the Sangleys who
come there to trade, so that they may buy their property. And he said:
"At present you have no gold within your house to spend, and you have
no place whence to get it, and it would be much easier to go and get
it from that said place than to ask it from your vassals. It is true
that I have seen it; and now I have come to tell you this; and I do
not ask that you shall give me anything for going for it, but that
you should give me permission to go for it. I alone will find the
people, and spend what may be necessary to go and dig it. And this
year, when they have brought this gold, you can go to see the gold
which the captains and merchants have brought who come each year from
Luzon. In two years from now I will give you twice the gold and silver
that I have promised you, and with this you may be satisfied; and the
kingdom and the vassals will rejoice. This affair is serious and of
great importance." The king gave permission that this should be done,
and the eunuch named Cochay, with these mandarins, is accompanying
Tio Heng to Luzon to reach the mine of gold and see whether there is
or is not such a mine, when they will go back to the king and inform
him. From all provinces there came people to the king to tell him that
this kingdom of Luzon was as small as a cross-bow pellet; and that
they have never heard that there was gold there, as Tio Heng says,
but that he is lying. On this account the merchants of Hayten did
not go to seek permission, nor did they dare to go to Luzon; but the
judge of Chiochio ordered that they should fulfil their contracts with
the said Tio Heng, and see whether there was gold or not. This is all
their business, and therefore the governor of Luzon may rest secure,
and without apprehension or suspicion of evil. I am quite certain
that Tio Heng is lying, and command that they shall go immediately
to learn whether there is gold or not, and order that an interpreter
[_naguatato_] should go with them to see whether or not there is
gold. They say that they wish to hasten their departure, and that they
do not wish to stay in this land, giving occasion for complaints,
and, believe me, you cannot detain us. Dated the thirty-first year
of the reign of Landec, on the tenth of the fourth moon, which is
the present month of May according to their reckoning.

[At the beginning of the S