and believes that the Filipinas islands are within
his demarcation, for on the one hand he orders me
to come to them, and on the other not to infringe
the royal treaty of our kings and sovereigns.
And in this faith and belief I came and have remained
here in his royal name, and not with the intention
of injuring the most Christian king of Portugal or
harming any of his possessions, or in any way to transgress
the said treaty. And even though the lands belong
to his majesty, my will and intention has, up to the
present time, not been to settle in them or in any
others until I should have the authority of his majesty;
and the assurances and letters of protection which
have been given to the natives of this land were so
given, to the end and purpose that the warriors and
soldiers who go and come from one place to another
in search of provisions should not be harmed or injured
or robbed. In this, indeed—even though
the lands do belong to his highness, as is set forth
in the said summons—a service has been done
him; for all was done with the intention of protecting
and preserving the natives thereof. Moreover,
just as soon as I arrived at these islands I endeavored
to learn and ascertain if the Portuguese had come here,
and if they had any intercourse and commerce with the
natives; and if the said natives did them any service,
or paid them tribute, or if the Portuguese derived
any other advantage from them. And the said natives
assured me that this was not the case, and that they
neither knew them nor had ever seen them. This
assurance emboldened me in thinking myself the more
authorized to provide and supply myself from among
them, without harm to anyone. As regards the tributes
mentioned in the summons aforesaid, the fact is that
on a few occasions no supplies were to be bought;
and, in order not to make war upon the natives and
do them any injury, or to take the supplies from them
by force, we persuaded them to give us some provisions
by means of which our people might be maintained.
Some of them gave and have given, of their own free
will, a certain amount of rice and other food, but
nothing whatsoever through which his majesty has derived
any profit—on the contrary, a large amount
of gold has been paid out for the provisions aforesaid;
and this, moreover, the natives gave, when, and in
what manner, and in what quantity they themselves desired,
without suffering any violence or receiving any reward.
Everything which I have enumerated was to protect
and defend the natives aforesaid, without doing them
any harm or injury whatsoever. And as for what
his grace says in the summons aforesaid about sending
Antonio Runbo de Acosta and Baltesar de Soza to visit
me, and how they came in the month of July of the
past year to this camp, with letters from his grace
and other captains entreating me to go to their fleet
and fortress of Maluco with all my people, together
with other offers, I would say that they were received
in this camp with all peace and amity and good will,