In the year 618, advice was received in España of the straitened condition in which the islands were, through so many disasters, losses, and foes; and it was determined to send them a goodly reënforcement by way of East India. The commander, Don Lorenço de Zuaçola, was given one thousand seven hundred soldiers with six huge ships, and two pataches, manned by seven hundred and thirty-two seamen and thirty religious. The fleet left Cadiz, and after sailing twelve days was, on December 26, 619 [sic], struck by so fierce a gale that the flagship and almiranta, besides three other large ships, were lost. The ship which was left, with the two battered pataches,[56] returned to España. Thus deprived of the greatest reënforcement that has ever been sent to the islands, and when there was most need of it, the islands were greatly afflicted by that loss; but it was supplied by the valor of their inhabitants, who maintained themselves with their usual reputation at the risk of their lives, at the cost of their possessions, and in spite of their enemies.
In the year 620, of the two ships that sailed under command of Don Fernando Centeno, the flagship was lost, thirty leguas from Manila, through the fault of the pilot, whom they hanged there, while the almiranta put back to Manila.
In the year 625, Governor Don Geronimo de Silva made an expedition, taking for it five galleons (two of which were of 1,400 toneladas), one patache, and two galleys. There were 2,269 soldiers, 152 pieces of artillery, and five champans, with food and ammunition in as great abundance as if they had sailed from Sevilla to Lisboa.
In the year 631, the ship “Santa Maria Madalena,” while already laden with its cargo in the port of Cavite, and about to sail, went to the bottom—drowning fourteen persons, and losing all the cargo aboard it, as it remained a fortnight under the water. The ship “Santa Margarita,” which was left alone, sailed out, but put back with the losses of other times.
In the year 634, the trade of the Filipinas with Japon was suppressed by the efforts of the Dutch. That was a great loss, and it is not known that it has been revived.
In the year 635, as the city of Manila was so ruined and poor, it had no wealth with which to lade the ships of their permission, and hence the ships did not sail to Nueva España.
These are the chief instances of which our knowledge can make relation, and in which Manila and the islands have suffered misfortunes; and those disasters have been so many that of all the sixty-five years since its foundation only fifteen are free from loss and disaster; and some of those disasters are so great that the prosperity of other years was unable to make up for them. From all of them can easily be inferred the proof of the two propositions—namely, the services of their citizens, and the small profits in their commerce, if, as the former are qualified by valor, the latter are proportioned to the losses, risks, and hardships that they endure in order to maintain it.
Number 94. Fifth point: in which is explained the commerce of the islands, according to its parts
For the last justification and the final point, this commerce of the islands with Nueva España will be explained. It has two parts, one the coming with the merchandise, and the other the return voyage with the returns [from the merchandise] in silver. Regarding both will be stated what profits they produce, and whether it will be advisable to suppress or restrict the commerce, or how illegal acts can be prevented.