Let us return to the island of Hermosa, whence a boat came on March 13, with the news that a great mandarin had come from China to our fort, to ascertain what people they had recently received as neighbors.  I will briefly state the reason for his coming.  A Chinaman bribed by the Dutch took certain memoranda to the mandarins, in which a thousand evil things were said of the Spaniards (namely, that they were certain robbers), while the Dutch were praised—­all with the object that trade be forbidden with Manila, and opened with the Dutch, which is the thing that they have always been trying to do, and to which the Chinese have always been opposed.  Another Chinaman was not wanting who took up the matter on his own account, and said:  “The Dutch who pillage those kingdoms, and are rebels to their king, are rather the robbers and pirates, and not the Spaniards, who are good men; with them we trade in Manila, and they do not constrain us except by many very good works.”  Upon seeing that, the viceroy of the maritime provinces sent the said mandarin to the new port which we had occupied in the island of Hermosa, to examine and investigate what kind of people we were, and what were our purposes in making a settlement so near China.  The mandarin was very cordially received by the commandant of the island of Hermosa, Antonio Carreno de Valdes, who regaled him and made much of him, and gave him a fine present at his departure.  He told the mandarin that our intentions were good, and that we did not intend to harm China, but rather to aid them by punishing the pirates who infested those seas.  The mandarin was despatched, but put back once and twice to the fort.  He was received well each time and well treated by the said commandant.  He put back the third time, and for shame refused to return to our fort, but anchored not far from it; there the natives cut his moorings one night, and, drawing the ship to land, entered it and pillaged whatever they wished, and treated the mandarin with contumely.  In the morning, when the commandant got wind of the affair, he sent a troop of soldiers.  Attacking the natives with orders not to kill them (for the soldiers shot their bullets into the sky), they captured some chiefs.  Thereupon, the chiefs restored to the Chinese mandarin what they had pillaged from him; and, in order to regain their liberty, handed over to us their sons as hostages, who are being reared in our fort.  Thereupon the mandarin was sent away, very thankful.  An account of all this affair was sent to Manila to the governor, who immediately despatched the father-provincial of St. Dominic—­who knows the Chinese language, and has tried by various ways and means for many years to enter China, but never has been able to succeed. [49] This despatch seemed now to be a good means to him—­I mean to the said father-provincial—­so that in company with the said commandant of the island of Hermosa, they might go to the viceroy of the maritime provinces with a very rich present of silver, cloth, and other things.  Those articles were sent for that purpose so that those provinces might make a treaty with our fort on the island of Hermosa, where the said father-provincial is preparing to go with the commandant on the embassy, the result of which I shall tell next year.