From this time I began to be undeceived, and to understand that the kingdom of China was not so inaccessible as the Portuguese had represented it.  Then I wrote to your Majesty the aforesaid letter, asserting that the ill-report concerning the mandarins of China was rather an invention of the Portuguese than a true report.  Later on, my belief in this truth was confirmed by certain persons, both religious and laymen, who have gone to China from these islands.  When these persons arrived there the Chinese arrested them, in order to find out whence they came and what they were seeking; and when it was learned who they were, they were allowed to return in peace and were even given supplies for the journey.  While writing this, I have met two Franciscan friars who tell me that, as soon as they reached China, they were arrested and taken, handcuffed, before the mandarin.  When he learned who they were he gave orders to set them free, and to provide for their support until they could return here.  What fully confirms me as to the truth of all this is the report which I received of the kind reception given in the province of Chincheo to a ship which the viceroy then governing Nueba Espana sent to Macan, and whose captain was Lope de Palacios, the brother of the auditor Palacios, auditor of Mexico.  This ship was driven to Chincheo under stress of weather, and there everyone in her was well received, when the inhabitants of Chincheo learned that they were coming to trade in China.  They persuaded them to go no farther, saying that they would give them a cargo there for their ship; but God, who had chosen to punish those who by that means sought to destroy this land against the wish of your Majesty, blinded them, so that they would not take the most salutary advice that could have been given them.  The three Dominican religious who were on board the ship were well received and lovingly treated by the mandarin of that province.  He took them to the city and lodged them in his own house, giving them an apartment where they could celebrate mass.  This they did with as much quiet and safety as if they had been at your court.  The mandarin kept them with him for one week, after which he allowed them to go to their ship and proceed to Macan.  I had this relation from the very religious who were there.  At present I am entertaining at my house a man who came from Mexico in that ship, and who, being an eyewitness, has told me of all the occurrence; but, since this account and other events which occurred were reported to your Majesty two years ago, and I am sure that the report reached its destination, I shall not detain you with a more detailed account of those matters.