for the above works.  Therefore your Majesty must order the said Don Alonso Fajardo, governor and captain-general of the said islands, that in case galleons are to be built, it should not be in the islands—­on the one hand, on account of the short time that those woods last, and on the other because of the lack in that land of natives (occurring through the above-mentioned causes, and because those natives in the islands are serving in the fleets as common seamen and carpenters).

In order that, those islands might have and keep ships that last thirty years and cost the same as in Manila, or less, your Majesty must order the governor to order them built in Yndia in Cochim; for they can be built there very strong, and at less cost if the said governor sends men for it from Manila—­both masters and other persons, who know the art of having them built.  When built, they can bring a cargo of military supplies, lumber, and slaves from Cochin to Manila for the galleys of Manila, for the said slaves are valued at very little in Cochin.  As common seamen the men used in navigating in those regions will serve, namely, the Lascars; and a ship of six hundred toneladas does not carry sixteen Spanish sailors, but negroes and Lascars (who are a Mahometan race), with whom navigation is performed throughout those islands and kingdoms.

Those islands have so few natives, that if your Majesty does not expressly order no vessels to be constructed in them, not any of their people will be left, for as a result the events that have happened in those islands for the last eight years, both murders and captivities, many of those who have been left, who are constantly coming to Nueva Espana, every year as common seamen in the vessels that regularly sail, remain in Nueva Espana.  In the galleon “Espiritu Santo” which came last year, six hundred and eighteen, were seventy-five native Indians as common seamen, but not more than five of the entire number returned in the said galley.  If your Majesty does not have that corrected, the same thing will occur every year, and should your Majesty not correct it, the following things will occur.  The first is the great offense committed against our Lord, for many (indeed most) of those native Indians of the Filipinas Islands who come as common seamen are married in those said islands; and, inasmuch as they are unknown in Nueva Espana, they remarry here.  Another wrong follows which is very much to the disservice of your Majesty and your royal treasury, which is caused by the said Indian natives of the Filipinas Islands who come as common seamen and remain in Nueva Espana; and if it is not checked in time, it will cause considerable injury to these kingdoms.  This consists in the fact that there are in Nueva Espana so many of those Indians who come from the Filipinas Islands who have engaged in making palm wine along the other seacoast, that of the South Sea, and which they make with stills, as in Filipinas, that it will in time become a part