ana. We are, moreover,
obliged to keep the small vessels which can be manned, ready for war,
in order to compel the enemy not to divide their forces and thus
inflict the damage which, without this check, they would accomplish;
and in order to fight with them, offering them an opportunity to do
so even though they might obtain from us some advantage, which might
be made up by the gain [of keeping them in check]. As we had to attend
to this and then direct our efforts to fitting up the ships for Nueva
Spana--shutting up the gun-ports, and changing the vessels so that they
are suitable for merchant ships, and even at times enlarging them and
increasing the conveniences within, and waiting until the amount of the
merchandise has been completed, so that they may carry it--we could not
get them off so quickly as was wished, nor upon an appointed day as
before, when there was no war, and when at Christmas we used to have
thirty or forty ships from China. The viceroy can inform you of this,
for he too can ascertain this through the relations, as well as I.

As for the memorial which your Majesty orders me to send touching the
diminution of the quantity of silver which comes from Nueva Spana to
these islands, having looked into the matter it appears to me that
not only is this design a proper one, but that it is very necessary
to bring about this result; for I judge that only with the utmost
difficulty can the drain of so much silver every year from that
country and those mines be continued. They, too, are being exhausted
like those of other countries, and the natives are diminishing; so
that the silver is obtained in the most costly and scanty fashion,
to be carried hither and go away to lie in the treasure-house of the
king of China. I did not neglect to consider this when I proposed to
your Majesty that the trade of these islands with Nueva Spana should
be exclusive of silk and woven goods, except linen and other products
of this country, which are not of great importance; for although the
coming of silver from there would not thus be altogether stopped,
there is no doubt that it would be less, and we would avoid the
drain from Espana by the French, English, and Flemish, of what they
are accustomed to take away [in payment] for the linens which they
carry thither to sell, and this saving would pass to the Yndias, as
I have explained more at length in the letter which treats of this,
a copy of which accompanies the present. If