Aid against the Dutch requested
Sire:
Hernando de los Rios Coronel, procurator-general of the Filipinas Islands and of all their estates, declares that he came the past year to inform your Majesty and your royal Council of the Indias, in the name of those islands, of the desperate condition to which the Dutch enemy have brought them. Desiring that your Majesty understand the importance of the matter, he gave you a long printed relation in which he discussed points important for their recovery from the enemy and the expulsion of the latter from that archipelago. Your Majesty, upon seeing it, ordered a fleet to be prepared; but that fleet was so unfortunate as to be lost before beginning its voyage. Although your Council of the Indias is discussing the formation of another fleet to sail by way of the Strait of Magallanes, or by the new strait [i.e., of Le Maire], it cannot, if it leaves here any time in July (which is the earliest time when it can be sent from España) possibly arrive [at Filipinas] until one and one-half years from now—or a little less, if it has no bad luck. Now considering the watchfulness of the enemy, and the forces that they are sending this year, namely, forty ships, which have left Olanda—whence can be inferred the importance to them of making themselves masters of those regions, since they are so persistent in their efforts, and incur so heavy expenses—he [i.e., Los Rios] advises you for the discharge of his conscience, and his obligation, and his duty as a good vassal of your Majesty, that there is urgent need that, notwithstanding the relief that your Council of the Indias is about to despatch by way of the straits, other help be furnished from Nueva España and Piru; of both men and money, and to employ this [aid from España] with as great care as the gravity of the matter requires, and to realize the fact that, were it lost, both Eastern and Western India would be endangered. They would be in great danger, as would also these kingdoms; for it would mean to permit the enemy to become so powerful and so rich as all know who are aware of the wealth of those regions. Besides, it would mean the extinction of whatever Christian element is there, and would shut the doors to the preaching of the gospel, which your Majesty and your ancestors have procured with so great glory and so many expenses. [That relief of Nueva España and Piru should be prepared] also, for if the relief [from España] should suffer an equal disaster with the last, and that country could not be succored, it would all be lost.
I petition your Majesty to order that this matter be considered, as a matter of so great importance; and that your president of the Indias call a conference of those most experienced in the Indias, so that they may discuss what measures can be taken most fitting for the relief of that country, and as speedily as possible, where he [i.e., Los Rios] will also declare the measures that occur to him.
[Endorsed: “To the president of the Indias. Examined, in the meeting of April 7, 620.”]
Treatise on the navigation of Filipinas, reduced to four chapters
Sire:
Your Majesty orders me to declare my opinion in regard to the navigation from España to the Philipinas and Malucas Islands, from them to España, the mutual navigation between those island groups; and the seasons suitable for such navigation. In obedience to your royal order, I declare, Sire, that the propositions cover four principal points, each of which I shall explain in order. [The original document contains a marginal abstract of each of the four points that follow; but these abstracts are here omitted.]
First point. This point contains in brief the substance of all the others. In explaining it, I declare that the navigations from these kingdoms to those islands are so worthy of consideration, and so important, that no others in the world at this time are equal to them. For the drugs, fragrant gums, spices, precious stones, and silks that the Dutch enemy and their allies bring thence—obtained partly by pillaging, and partly by trading in their forts and factories which they own throughout that archipelago—amount, as they do at present, to five millions [of pesos] annually. It has been stated how paramount is this undertaking to any others that can today be attempted; for besides the spiritual injury inflicted by those heretical pirates among all that multitude [of heathen peoples] (which I think the universal Master has delivered to your Majesty so that you may cultivate it and cleanse it for His celestial granaries), it is quite certain—since the enemy are collecting annually so large a mass of wealth; and since the sinews of war consist in that, both for attack and defense—that they are acquiring and will continue to acquire those riches daily, with greater forces. And, as they continue to increase in strength, their ambitious designs will also extend further. In the same degree as the enemy grows stronger, it is certain that our forces will continue to decrease—and so much that, if relief does not arrive there in time, the day will come in which not one of your Majesty’s vessels can be placed on the sea, because of the many that the enemy will have there. Inasmuch as there is no one in the world today who can oppose the enemy except your Majesty, they hate our interests with all their strength, and will attempt to destroy and ruin them by all possible methods.