[The letter of the Portuguese commander verifies the above letter, and asks for four hundred Spanish soldiers, under pretext of sending them “to drive the Javanese from those seas, whose friendship the Ternatans value more than ours.”  They at least will keep the English from Ternatan ports.  Fifteen fragatas and one galleon will be enough, and they are to be accompanied by Filipino pioneers.  He tries to persuade the governor to undertake the expedition.  Vera is anxious to do so, but is unable to attempt it at once.  Meanwhile Cachil Tulo dies, and the vigilance required in watching the Chinese and Japanese in the Philippines renders it impossible to send the expedition to Ternate.  “Each one of these expeditions made inroads on the treasury and forces of the province, to so great an extent that it was necessary to allow a breathing-space to each of them.”  It is thought that a joint expedition from Malaca and Manila will accomplish more, and this is made some years later, under Andres Furtado de Mendoza, of whose character and some of whose deeds there follows an account.  The island of Ceylon, its products and fauna are partially described, and some of its connection with the Portugese.  Returning to Philippine matters, the narrative continues:]

At this time Santiago de Vera was already dismissed from his governorship of the Filipinas.  After he had communicated with Andres Furtado, and received an answer from him, in which the latter coincided with his desire, fortune disturbed these beginnings, and Furtado became embroiled with those who did not love him, and Santiago de Vera was withdrawn from his office.  Gomez Perez de las Marinas, knight of the habit of Santiago, succeeded him.  He was a man of great reputation, a native of Betancos in the kingdom of Galicia.  He reached Filipinas in the year one thousand five hundred and ninety.  He brought his son Don Luis with him, a knight of the habit of Alcantara.  The new governor found Manila open to attack, without the form of a city, and without any money with which to improve it.  More than two hundred thousand pesos were needed for it.  However, by his plans and schemes, he completed the work without public or private loss.  He established a monopoly of playing cards, imposed fines for excessive play, punished illicit combinations and frauds among the provision-dealers and the shops of that class:  from all of which resulted the walls of Manila, which measured twelve thousand eight hundred and forty-nine geometric feet [i.e., Spanish feet], each foot being one tercia.  To this he added his own careful oversight, and the assistance of the inhabitants, who aided willingly because of the request and example of their chief.  The city had but one fort, and that badly constructed.  He built another at the entrance to the river, to which he gave the name of Santiago, and enclosed the old one.  He finished the cathedral, and, from the foundation, the church of Santa Potenciana, patroness of the island, as a