But if the Dutch were expelled from it, neither do I find any advantage in the Spaniards having a fort and settlement in that island at present, considering the condition of the Filipinas, unless it be to prevent the return of the enemy to refortify it.  For first we must determine for that purpose, whether we can prevent that, by the nature of the island and by other circumstances that would render it very difficult—­as was seen in Terrenate, when, although we had five hundred or more Spaniards there, the Dutch built another fort almost in sight of ours (which they still hold), as soon as we gained that small island.  Now, too, although the Dutch were fortified first in the island of Hermosa, they have not prevented us from effecting a settlement there.  For among other things, for such purposes, more men are necessary, and the cost of those men with whom a fortress in a kingdom not one’s own is generally maintained.

But, as this object is not involved in the other considerations which present themselves to my mind for keeping up a Spanish settlement in that island, I do not see that, for the present, the Spaniards are obliged to do that.  For that island is not of importance to us, either for its own products or for the commerce of China—­on the former ground, because it is a poor and barren land, of which it is now always said in the Filipinas that it only produces fruits and timber; nor is it for the second, for if it be made a way-station, wherein to invest in the silks of China, that means to add a new voyage from the Filipinas, which on account of its expenses cannot make up for the convenience of purchasing in Filipinas those same products, which the Chinese carry to Manila.  If one tries to say that, by this means, the Chinese ships would not be stopped by the Dutch ships that await them on the coasts of Filipinas; and that if that voyage be made from the island of Hermosa in Spanish ships, they will sail more secure:  I answer that there is less danger for the ships as they sail now.  For, since the Chinese do not understand latitude and the directions of the compass perfectly, they do not know enough to go [by direct routes] to sight land in the Filipinas, thus making safe the coast where the Dutch await them; [41] but in that case [i.e., if they go only to Formosa] the Dutch, changing their position, would go to await the Chinese and our ships near our port or the island of Hermosa.  Since those ships would have to sail so well equipped that they could defend themselves, it would be so costly an undertaking that it could not be maintained—­especially at the present time, when the Filipinas are so exhausted and so in need of men, by reason of the reenforcements to Maluco, the entrances into Mindanao, and the insurrections in certain provinces of the natives.  Besides, there is the so great danger to Manila from the swarms of abandoned heathen Sangleys who live there, besides other Chinese residents who are married and Christians, but lazy, and the great number of non-producing Japanese there also; and for security and defense from all these, the Spaniards do not even possess what is necessary.