Note 31 — Part II

14. The said ships returning from Canton by way of this city, in order to pursue their voyage to Cadiz, could carry some products of the islands—such as very fine petates or mats, hats of the same kind, and cotton; tortoise-shell, palomaria; tamarinds, dragon’s blood; manungal,31 and jars of the same wood, which is very medicinal; various especial roots; gold; sibucao, which resembles brazil-wood, for dyeing; pepper, which yields very abundantly wherever it is cultivated; sugar, which does not cost here two cuartos a libra; dried candied fruits; and, finally, they would have the benefit of the cinnamon, with which our mountains abound from Samboanga to Caraga in the island of Mindanao; it would be the most valuable line of commerce. These mountains are in the same degree of north latitude as those of Ceylan, where the Dutch obtain all the cinnamon; and it is judged, on account of their location, that the quality of the cinnamon also is the very same. For in Ceylan likewise cinnamon grows that is thick and gummy, like that of Samboangan, and if the latter were cultivated like the former, it would be equally good.32 The cinnamon of Mindanao will be as good as that of Ceylan if the king prohibits the latter in his dominions, and facilitates the consumption of the former; and if the Spaniards had begun to sell their cinnamon before the Dutch did so, ours would now be of better quality than theirs.