was lost with a very great quantity of
Chinese stuffs and other goods. For this reason it has been impossible
to discharge this obligation in full at the present time. Let the
viceroy notice that this is and will be done because it is just, and
not because he has written that unless the people and the goods are
sent he will make war on Luzon; for I am sure that the king of China
and his ministers, being prudent, politic, and discreet persons,
will not wage war for causes so light. Still, if they desire to do
so, the Castilians are well able to defend their lands from all who
may attempt to take them away; and they even know how to attack their
enemies and to seek them out in their own dwelling-places, when their
opponents suppose that they have them conquered.

As regards the licenses for ships coming from China to trade with
Luzon, it is not so dangerous to grant such permissions that the king
[of China] or other persons there will consent to lose the great
advantage which they possess in the large quantity of silver which is
carried hence every year; for this remains in China, without a single
real leaving there, while the goods which they give us in exchange
are consumed and used up in a very short time. Hence we may say that
in this trade the Chinese have as great an interest as the Castilians
have, or even more.

Chinese Immigration Restricted

Sire:

By commission from the royal Audiencia, I have this year attended
to the investigation of the Chinese ships, and the Sangleys who have
come to this city. I myself went to examine them, in order to avert
the injuries which might be inflicted on them. Eighteen ships having
arrived, with merchandise and five thousand five hundred Chinese on
board, besides five hundred more who remained in this city from last
year, I ordered the cabildo and regimiento of the city, if Chinese
were necessary for the public service, to enter petition therefor
within four days, giving a memorandum of the number necessary and the
duties that they were to perform. As they did not do as I had ordered,
for a number of days, and as the ships wished to return to China, and I
to despatch in them all the infidel Chinese who were here, I reported
the case to the royal Audiencia here. Considering what great lack of
service there is in this city, and how necessary workmen are for its
restoration, as it has been ravaged by two fires--more than a hundred
of the houses formerly standing having