your Majesty.  I have informed the governor of these islands, Don Francisco Tello, of this, so that he may write to your Majesty and make use of the opportunities which are offered him.  I know not what he will do.  May our Lord God, for whom we labor, protect your Majesty many years, according to the needs of Christendom, and augment your estate with greater lands and majesty, for His glory and the good of ... may it prosper.  Manila, June 27, 1597.

[Endorsed:  “Examined on the thirteenth of September of 1599.  As to what he says of the astrolabe, have a copy made and delivered to Cespedes, that he may examine it and give his opinion in regard to it.  As for the rest, join everything in regard to this matter, and have all the papers brought in a bundle.”]

[Memoranda at beginning of document:  “Memorial addressed to the king, dated at Manila on June 27, 1597, by Colonel Hernando de los Rios, which gives an account of a book which he is engaged in composing, concerning the approved usage and art of navigation, and of the importance of taking a port on the mainland of China, and particularly in the island of Hermosa, of which he gives a very circumstantial description, accompanying it with his map, and finally a very valuable discourse on the two routes which are the most expeditious and direct for navigation from Spana to those kingdoms, that can be found.  The first is through a channel or narrowing of the sea which enters Nuebo Mexico above Florida at forty-five degrees latitude, according to the information received from Father Federico of the Society of Jesus, and from a friar of the order of St. Augustine, who was very learned in cosmography, and who died in that city.  The other is through the strait called Anian.  There is inserted in the said memorial a relation which was left written by Fray Martin de Rada, of the order of St. Augustine.  It was received from a Vizcayan named Juanes de Rivas, a native of San Sevastian, wherein he sets forth that various Portuguese have passed by that way to Yndia and China, and by way of Ucheo returned to Lisboa in forty-five days of voyage.  He gives a condensed description of the ship’s courses, and the navigation which must be accomplished until they have arrived in the harbor, either here or in China, etc., etc.

Memorial directed to the king of Espana by Benito Escoto, a Genoese noble, in the year 1616, giving an account of a certain method which he had discovered of putting together certain tables of longitudes in maritime voyages and navigation, etc.; and to find that navigation which, up to that time, so many serious men and mariners had sought and had not found—­namely, the passage by the northern part of China, Japon, Malucas, and Philipinas, with a condensed discourse concerning the advantages which will accrue from the proposed action.  And in continuation a letter from the prior of the convent of Santa Maria, written to ... in recommendation of the good circumstances and worthy qualities both of the author and his work.”]