It is very necessary and expedient that several expeditions and conquests should be made in these parts for the service of your Majesty in view of the advantages that the Castilians would gain if they held a good post on the mainland—­such as the kingdom of Sian, which is very rich and abounds in many things, and could be conquered and kept with a thousand men, according to everyone who has been there; or the kingdom of Canboxa, which is seeking our friendship, and offers to maintain troops at its own expense, and furnish them to us on occasions when aid may be necessary; or the kingdom of Chanpa, which could be conquered and maintained with three hundred men, and is the pass for this archipelago, and the key to Cochinchina, which is a very rich and fertile country, and could be conquered with a thousand or fifteen hundred men.  The latter is more to the east than the said kingdoms between Chanpa and China, close to these islands, and with everyone ... of them on account of the many wars and enmities, which exist among them, this ... would be easy to spread the royal sovereignty of your Majesty with great ... so that all would seek for our friendship and alliance; for ... said, and with a little shrewdness and cunning a great deal of it might be gained ... with our protection and oversight the ministers and preachers ... could spread over all those parts in safety; to convert those souls and bring such a great multitude of heathen to the true knowledge of our Lord God.  It is no little shame to consider that among those peoples, by way of Burnei and other Mahometans the venom and poison of their false doctrine is being scattered—­although this is of so great importance, as your Majesty must see by the accounts which are sent you, and to which I refer.

But for the present the thing which appears very expedient and necessary, and should be attended to at once, is to take a port on the island of Hermosa, which lies distant from the farthest part of this island (which is the province of Cagaia), thirty-six leagues in a northwesterly direction.  In circumference it measures about two hundred leagues, and stretches in the same direction from the twenty-second to the twenty-fifth degree.  From there to the mainland of China is not more than twenty leagues. ... informed by a person who has been there that it is fertile and inhabited by a people similar to the natives of these islands, who rob and kill those who go there in vessels, as it is the necessary route from China to this city, from Japon here, and to other parts.  The country is well supplied with provisions.  It has few ports, but there is one which lies at the head of it, on the side which faces toward Japon, which is very well formed and strong.  It is named Keilang, and at present has no defense.  If three hundred men were placed there with a fort, all the power of those parts would not be sufficient to dislodge them; for the entrance is very narrow, and with artillery they could resist any efforts which were made against