together with Captain Francisco Melendez Marques, who has been very well received and is much liked by the said Indians.  I ordered him that, through friendship, or in whatever way he could best do it, he should strive to win their good-will, so that they might not only consent to give us a place where fortifications might be built, which would be a sufficient foundation for greater works, but that they should also aid in that labor; and that he should use and take possession of the site as soon as it should be conceded to him, or as soon and as fully as possible.  Or having examined and chosen the spot, he should leave it until I should be able to send the troops and what was necessary therefor.  For the said purpose he took nearly a thousand pesos in money, or in stuffs and other articles which are most valued there.  I take it that this is a thing more than expedient; and, if I had been informed of it before, I would have tried to do this earlier.  I shall be glad if your Majesty is satisfied and pleased with it, as in all I desire to win your approval.

The chief captain of Ffernanbuc, [25] Martin Dessosa de San Pago, and his wife and three children, who were prisoners in the hands of the Dutch, I have had exchanged for prisoners whom I held here.  He and his household are going with their goods in the galliots which are now leaving this city for Yndia.

I also freed from the same captivity Captain Miguel de Sequeira Sanudo, who also has already set out for Yndia, by the “Aura” [i.e., “Breeze"], of Macan.  As for the stuffs and merchandise which remained to be got out of the ship called “Nuestra Senora de La Vida,” which was wrecked, a great deal more of its cargo has been unloaded than what I informed your Majesty of in the last despatch which I sent by way of Nueva Spana.  All the artillery that was in it was likewise taken out; and I have ordered it to be conveyed to a shipyard in this island, where two ships are being built, which were already necessary to supply the place of the old ones.  There is no anxiety about raising money for the future when the Indians are helping with a good will, as they are doing now; and this work is being paid for, as well as that on some galliots or little galleys, of seventeen benches each, which also I am having built, as I save in that way half the crew, and they are sufficient for this country and its coasts.  There are no other vessels belonging to the enemy that can secure any advantage over them, for our vessels, to aid in fighting, can carry very good artillery; and, as for going about where occasion arises to punish or intimidate the Indians, they are excellent—­although for attacking the vessels with which those called Mindanaos, Xoloans, and Camucones (who are bad neighbors of ours) usually sally out, we need other boats like theirs.  But if we had a fourth of their number, and a couple of these galliots, they would not dare to await attack, even though as many of their ships as could be found in their islands were assembled, as has lately been seen; for some of these tribes having recently been tardy [in their payment of tributes], when we sent a galley with four or five smaller boats from here we could find no more of them, although the sargento-mayor Don Fernando de Silva, who went out for this purpose, is even now in search of them.