Note 6 — Some Things Worth Knowing About the Governors of the Filipinas Islands

Friendship and commerce have been maintained from the beginning of the conquest with Great China, and are still preserved. The emperor of China ordered a port to be assigned so that the people of Luzon could establish a city and factory under the same conditions as the Portuguese in Macao. His Majesty also ordered, by a decree of April 9, 1586, Doctor Francisco de Sande to sustain the friendship, and prohibited him from making war; for, as some authors say, Sande had the intention of conquering that empire.6 That does not seem to me so certain, Page 320for that empire had so many millions of men, with innumerable cities, forts, and walls, and fleets that guard the ports with great vigilance. Moreover at that time the soldiers in these islands did not number five hundred, and were scarcely sufficient to guard them; and it was very difficult to transport them from Nueva España and other kingdoms. Although it might be that that idea was simply speculative, the council prohibited it, and ordered them thenceforth to observe what was prescribed.