Item:  The province of Nueva Segovia, the most northern province of the island of Manila, which is very near China, is a very good and fertile land.  It is becoming entirely pacified and quieted.  There the Order of St. Dominic is in charge, and they are gathering much fruit.  It is the best land in the islands and the most fertile.  There, inasmuch as the climate is temperate, the products of this country can be produced, such as wheat, fruits, and other food.  It lies in an excellent region, and has there a Spanish city, called Nueva Segovia, which gives name to the said province.  It has but few inhabitants now, because the encomenderos of that district go to Manila and desert it.  Will your Highness be pleased to order the said encomenderos to live in the said city, and your governor to make efforts to settle it, especially with people who will cultivate and sow the land, so that that district may retain its excellence.  For that purpose it is very needful that the said governor appoint an alcalde-mayor for that district, who shall be a lieutenant-governor, and who shall keep his office for three-years; for [the usual] appointments as alcalde are for but one year, and one can learn to know the country but little in so short a time.  It is necessary that the judge that shall go there (and so that an influential and satisfactory man might be able to go there) be given a good salary; and that that province and that of Ylocos, which lies next to Nueva Segovia, be subject to him.  That is very necessary for the welfare of those two provinces, which are very far from Manila.

Item:  Will your Highness be pleased to give me a good master shipbuilder, or authority to look for one, and another intelligent person as shore-master, to assist in the despatch and repairs of ships.  He should be a Spaniard and not a foreigner, like the one there now; for in former times, when Doctor Antonio de Morga, your auditor, sailed out against a Dutchman who went to those islands, while two ships were being prepared to attack the Dutch, two holes were bored in one of them one night, and it began to sink, and the sails were taken out and hid in the woods.  It was not discovered who did it, nor was any investigation even made.  But one may readily presume that some enemy to us did it; and indeed we can not settle our suspicions on anyone.  In order to investigate these and many other actions worthy of punishment or correction which have occurred there in these matters, and in others—­for instance, that in other parts of those islands they gave that same Dutchman food, and there was some person who communicated with him; while it is even said that they showed him how to get out of a harbor that he had entered, and from which we considered it impossible for him to sail—­and finally there are many things to correct and reform, and burdens to be removed from the Indian natives:  for all these it is necessary for your Highness to appoint a person there to make official visits through