Note 10 — AND ADVANTAGES WHICH THEY CAN YIELD TO HIS MAJESTY CARLOS III

I am known as a man who has accomplished much, who has traveled in many lands, and who has not passed through them heedlessly; nor have I stopped to consider the expenditure of money, or the risk to health, in order to satisfy my curiosity and obtain well grounded knowledge of all things wherever I have traveled. To the point: Samboanga, the capital of the island of Mindanao, is the place which could produce cinnamon as good as that of Ceylon, if our people knew how to cultivate it; I have already made the experiment, and it will yield the amount that I shall require. The Dutch are well aware of this, [as appears] by evidence which can be verified by me; for they, with their trained and accustomed cunning, placed in the said island a stone with the initial letters of [the name of] their company engraved on it, like those which they are wont to place in their bales of goods, etc., by way of manifesting that these belong to the said company. The said stone was brought to Manila while I was there, and was delivered to the Marques de Obando; and his Lordship, knowing that I understood the tricks and policy of those gentlemen, sent to call me, and, showing me the stone, he said, “What is the meaning of this stone, which they have brought to me under such-and-such circumstances?” I replied to his Lordship, “It is nothing; it is a mark which the Dutch are wont to set up in order to have a pretext, when opportunity offers, for laying claim to the lands in which they have placed the said stones.”10 No one, then, who understands that people—keen, mercenary, and always on the watch—will fail to agree with me, that they do not set up these stones in barren islands, unless it is evident that, on account of the location of these islands, it will not suit the Dutch to have [other people there as] close neighbors. When they abandoned the island of Maurisius, considering it uninhabitable on account of its sterility, they left no engraved stone in it. It is a circumstance which deserves attention, and is even worthy of coming to his Majesty’s knowledge; and likewise those who have or have had practical knowledge of these matters regard them in this way. Finally, I have compared the quality of the soil at Samboanga with that of Ceylon, also the leaves of the cinnamon tree; still more, I have gathered the bark of this tree at Samboanga and made certain experiments with it, and when I compared it with that from Ceylon they were of equal value. I consider, then, [from] the manner of making these experiments with the cultivation of the soil and the culture of the cinnamon, [that] it will prove to be equal [to that of Ceylon]. Finally, in commencing the experiments which I have made—with the greatest application and industry, and enormous expenses—they are quite sufficient to prove that it will be possible, in the term of five or six years, to produce a large part of the best cinnamon which comes to Europa. This I have learned from the experiment with a quantity of chocolate which I ordered to be made in my own house at Manila; this product has been greatly liked by the ladies, and by people of taste and understanding, in the said city.