Note 17 — Relation of the Western Islands Called Filipinas
Reading edition
If your Majesty prefers the spices, I think that it would be better to break the agreement, since it is for so small an amount, that three hundred and fifty Page 186thousand ducats17 would be gained in two ships going from Nueba España to those regions. When this is done, your Majesty's domains will extend as far as Maluco, according to what was told me by the Augustinian friar, by name Fray Martin de Herrada, a native of Navarra, who was prior at the time when I left the Western Islands. He is a great arithmetician, geometrician, and astrologer [—one of the very greatest in the world]. He has measured this, and told me so. He has also written a book on navigation and the measurement of the earth and the sea, east and west. I believe that he will send the book by Fray Diego de Herrera, prior of the aforesaid islands of your Majesty. Then we shall be able to trade in spices with the whole world; for as I have said before, cloves cannot be found save in the five islands of Maluco.