n
that tribute. Having examined the matter in my royal Council of the
Indias, I have considered it expedient to order this my decree to
be issued. By it I order that for the first ten years after their
conversion the said Sangley Chinese pay no tribute, and that none
be collected from them, as I have commanded shall be done in regard
to the other pagan Indians who are converted. After the ten years,
the tribute shall be collected from them, as from the natives of
the said islands. I order my governor and captain-general of the
islands to see that the above is strictly obeyed and observed, and
not to allow their hair to be cut, in observance of the decree that
has been issued concerning this matter. Madrid, November 19, 1627.

_I The King_
By order of the king, our sovereign:
_Don Fernando Ruiz De Contreras_

INADVISABILITY OF A SPANISH POST ON THE ISLAND OF FORMOSA

I would consider it a very important fact that the Spaniards of
Filipinas have seized and fortified a site on the island of Hermosa,
if that would be the efficacious means of driving out the Dutch from
their fort and from that island by force of arms, but otherwise not.

In order to discuss this proposition reasonably, it will be necessary
first to investigate the objects that the Dutch may have had in order
to have fortified, as they have done for the last three or four years,
the island of Hermosa.

Some have thought that the purpose of the Dutch must be to destroy
commerce between China and Filipinas, by plundering more at their
ease the Chinese ships, because they are there near China, and in a
place where the fleets from Manila which have sometimes defeated them,
cannot attack them. But in my judgment, this is not their purpose,
although it is a fact that they are very near the coasts of China in
the island of Hermosa. For that reason, even the Chinese, before they
set sail, ascertain by means of oared craft whether Dutch vessels are
waiting in that place. Consequently, they either do not leave their
ports, or if they leave, accomplish their voyage, since they can do so
easily by sailing so as not to go within sight of the island. But it
is impossible to escape the Dutch ships when they await the Chinese
on the coasts of Filipinas, as they have done since the year 609,
when they began that practice, until that of 625. During that time
scarcely any ship escaped them; for the Dutch generally go to the
coasts of Filipinas when there is