Most Excellent Sir:
Whenever I have been in this city at the departure of the ship, I have
sent your Excellency a report of matters in this country. I did so last
year by the ship “Trinidad” which left this port of Manilla. I
informed your Excellency of the trouble and the expense to my property
to build that ship and the other oared vessels which were built during
the two years that the shipyard was established there and I was
superintendent of it; and of the pay which Doctor Francisco de Sande
gave me for it. He not only did not reward me, but tried to undo me in
all possible ways. [He would have done that] if it had been possible,
but God has ever upheld me by His hand, so that no unfitting thing
could be done to me. When he saw that he could not harm me, he deceived
me with promises, all of which have turned out false. All this great
hatred that he has exercised toward me has been because of my having
gone to explore China by order of Guido de Laveçaris while he was
inside the islands. He would have liked that expedition to have been
carried on by his own order. Now God has been pleased to deliver us
from his wrath. May it please God that it be for the best. I shall tell
here in brief what I know about China and this land, as a man who has
seen it all and understands a part. [64] I petition your Excellency
most humbly to pardon my extreme boldness. It is a fact that neither
his Majesty in España nor your Excellency in that land are informed
truly of what is advisable for the prosecution of these conquests and
the increase of his royal crown. Consequently, just the reverse to what
is necessary here is enacted, and thus the money is wasted, and all the
men who are sent are exhausted. I have recognized this during the
present year more strongly than in former years. I would willingly be
more specific, but I am sharply warned by experience. Thus the letters
which I wrote to your Excellency last year which were carried by father
Fray Jeronimo Marin, [65] the latter wrote me were either lost or
stolen from him. Next year, if it please God to have Captain Pedro
Caraballo make the journey I shall dare to write your Excellency at
greater length. I beg your Excellency to make use of me as a servant
and to shield me with your protection. That is what sustains all of us
who are here; and I need it more today than any one else. For, since I
had the shipyards for two years in my villages [66] without receiving
any salary, and without anything needed for the construction of the
ships being furnished, or help being sent to those who were working
there, and since I was continually written by Dr. Sande and his
Majesty’s officials that the royal treasury was entirely empty, and
that I should advance money from my household: consequently, as I
attended to my obligations in his Majesty’s service, I spent all my
substance and have exhausted all my repartimiento. Therefore have I
become poor and have now so little relief from any reward unless your
Excellency concedes it from there by ordering it to be given me. May
our Lord preserve your Excellency’s person for many long and happy
years with the health and increasing prosperity that your Excellency
merits and that your Excellency’s servants desire. The city of
Manilla, June 15, 1580. Most excellent sir, your Excellency’s humble
servant kisses the very excellent hands of your Excellency.