Volume 34 — LETTER FROM MARTIN DE RADA TO THE MARQUIS DE FALÇES

Soldiers are not needed to conquer this land, for they do not consider the welfare of the land, but only how to amass wealth quick in order to return home. When they are unable to attain their desire, they destroy and lay waste the country. But colonists who intend to remain in the country must be sent. The people of these islands have no king or sovereign and are without any law. Most of them are heathens although some are Moros. They can be converted and adopt our faith easily; and are rather like monkeys very desirous of imitating us in dress, speech, and all other particulars. The fear with which God has inspired them is great, for no matter how large may be the village, when a dozen Spaniards go to it, the natives come out immediately with their hands tied and beg for peace, promising to give what tribute may be asked from them. Consequently, when any village was carried by peace, we had a great abundance whence to draw the necessary supplies. For more than two years at this point a loose rein has been given in robbing friend and foe, and we are now suffering extreme need. We have no place where we can get anything, and no boats to get what we need, for most of the villages in the entire radius of more than forty leguas are deserted and depopulated. Wherever the Spaniards go, the natives do not dare await them but all flee to the mountains with their goods. Consequently, I am certain as to our fate, for if God does not miraculously aid us, we shall all soon be lost. Our lack has always been that we have had no [adequate] leader, not because any harm has occurred by his command, but because he has passed it by. Consequently, dissimulation is no longer sufficient to remedy the matter. The vilest soldier of all dares to disobey his orders and to do only what he desires. He knows that after all the matter will be ended by detaining him in his quarters for a fortnight. Besides this the soldier is good for nothing, and there is no man in the camp who considers the common welfare but each looks after his own interests. I am writing this to your Excellency so that you may institute a reform in it, for I avow seasonably that unless we have a different harmony and another one to direct the crowd, the country will be worthless, the king will draw no profit therefrom, and the men will derive no advantage, but all of them will perish by an evil death in a short time, and all the land will he destroyed. This entire land is fertile and abounds with food, but we are all dying of hunger. There is considerable timber and it is quite easy to get at, but we have no boat, for we have on the contrary lost those boats that we brought. The land is all very thickly settled, but we have already caused the abandonment of many villages. Since the soldiers indeed have much wealth, but when they die nothing more is found than some old clothes, which arc good for nothing but to be thrown into the sea, therefore, we shall not have more but much less next year.

If his Majesty wishes to get hold of China, which we know to be a land that is very large and rich and of high civilization, with cities, forts, and walls much greater than those of Europa, he must first have a settlement in these islands: first, because we cannot pass safely among the so many islands and shoals that lie along the coast of China with ships of high freeboard, but must use oared vessels; secondly, also, because in order to conquer a country so large and that has so vast a population, one must have aid and refuge near at hand, for any contingency that might arise. However, as I have been informed both by Portuguese and by Indians who trade with the Chinese, as well as by a Chinese who was captured a while ago in a junk, the people of China are not at all warlike. They rely entirely on numbers and on the fortification of their walls. It would decapitate them, if any of their forts were taken. Consequently, I believe (God helping), that they can be subdued easily and with few forces.

I have wished to write this, for I trust in our Lord that this land may, through the medium of your Excellency, receive the faith, and that we shall have an entrance into China; but, on account of our great uncertainty and because we do not know whether his Majesty will order us to abandon this land, we have not dared to baptize. I believe that if we had put our hands to baptism, we would already have more than twenty thousand Christians. As soon as we know the king’s will they will all accept our faith easily. May our Lord, etc. Cebu, July eight 1569.