Letters from Tavora to Felipe IV

News of the Japon fleet, and of the fortifications which were built on that occasion, without any expense to your Majesty.

Sire: 

I gave your Majesty an account in July of last year, 629, by way of Nueva Espana, of the condition in which were war affairs in these islands; and again in November, by way of Yndia, I added such new events as had occurred up to that time.  What there is to write now is that we were advised in March of this year, 630, from Macan by the ship “Trinidad,” which sailed thence, that the Japanese were still angry over the burning of their junk by our men in the port of the kingdom of Sian in the year 628, as I have written in other letters; and that they were constructing large fleets to avenge themselves on our port and fort in the island of Hermosa, and on the city and coasts of Manila.  It was asserted that the Japanese had forty thousand men in various ships of the Dutch and Portuguese which they had embargoed, and in a great number of their own vessels.  I thought it uncertain news, because of my knowledge of the nature of the Japanese; yet I resolved to make use of it to further the fortification of this city and its environs.  I suggested to the Chinese that they perform some service for his Majesty for the relief of that necessity, from their communal fund.  They gave four thousand pesos, with which, and by means of other efforts, I built two cavaliers and a bit of covered way with its ledge of stone, they being built of incorruptible wood, while other enclosures and preparations were erected in Cavite.  With them and with the fortifications which, as I wrote, were constructed last year on another similar occasion, this city remains well fortified.  And I trust, with God’s help, that when I leave here there will be much better fortifications, so that the city of Manila and the port of Cavite may be safer with few soldiers than they were before with many.  On account of the same news, the fortification of the island of Hermosa was also urged forward.  The commandant, Don Juan de Alcaraso, who has it in charge, writes me that he was in such condition that he did not fear the Japanese, even though they should come with as great a force as was reported.  The Dutch will be able to cause greater anxiety if they should return this year to the port of Tanchuy, as they did last.  I am preparing aid, not so much as our people there ask and need, but in accord with the little aid which has come to me from Nueva Espana.

It has been learned from a ship of Chinese which arrived here afterward, and which sailed by stealth from the kingdom of Japon, that the imprisoned Portuguese, the Dutch, and their stranded ships were still detained there, and that there was no movement of the fleet. [In the margin:  “Give him thanks for what he has done, and [tell him] that provision has been made in regard to the junk.”]