with their presidios and walls, or (to extend the hope farther) that they would not have need for more aid than what they could secure from Malaca with the galleons of that crown.  The aid that is not so pressingly needed, and which, it seems, must necessarily come from Espana—­such as infantry for the presidios—­is sent there with some difficulty, because of the long distance overland from Veracruz to the port of Acapulco, in a land so open that the companies necessarily lose some men.  But it would prove more costly should your Majesty, in order to avoid this, have to form a fleet on occasions when it would be necessary.  However, I have thought that an effort might be made, some time, to send the soldiers who must go to the islands in the trading fleet or galleons sailing to Puertobelo; [66] and to advise the president [of the Audiencia there], somewhat earlier, to have small boats provided to take the soldiers by river from Chagre to Cruces.  Since from that point to Panama it is only five leguas overland, the men might be taken there easily and at little expense.  The viceroy of Peru, having been notified beforehand, should, without any expense to your Majesty, have a vessel at Panama, where the soldiers could embark and go to Acapulco.  There they could change ships for those in the Philipinas line.  By this method some of the greatest inconveniences could be avoided.

And lastly, as the concluding argument of this discourse, I remind your Majesty that since the Philipinas Islands are surrounded by enemies so powerful as are Xapon and China—­one because of its strength and valor, and the other because of its incredible multitude of inhabitants—­with only the seven hundred Spaniards that the islands had, during my government of Nueva Espana, who could bear arms (a number now increased somewhat by the presidios of Terrenate and Thidore), they are preserved solely for this reason, that by their means the trade of those countries is opened to your Majesty’s kingdoms.  Thus said the emperor of Xapon, when he was advised to conquer Manila.  The Chinese king wrote the same words to Don Pedro de Acuna, when the latter suspected that the insurrection made in those islands by the Chinese king’s vassals had been made by his orders.  And it must be considered seriously that if the trade be carried on by way of the cape of Buena Esperanza, it would be quite possible that the Chinese—­who, in order to go to Manila, have to sail, both in the open and among islands, with some risk and danger because of the smallness of their craft—­after seeing that the Spanish ships had to make a way-station at Malaca or Xava, would go from the river of Canton, which is the gateway from which the Chinese ships set out, coasting from land to land along their own country, and would change the bulk of their trade to Portuguese ports, and thus deserting Manila.  If they did this, the principal support and defense of Manila would fail, and its enemies would change their opinion, since they would no longer enjoy the benefits that now attract them.