Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 07).djvu/225

will always be some unruly ones, who, forgetting the good example which they ought to give these infidels, ill-treat them at times, I began on this account to protect and to assist the Chinese, reproaching those who maltreated them. I took care to have their grievances removed so as to give them freedom to attend to their mercantile interests, and to sell their goods. In this there has been very much abuse in this city by those who were under obligation to furnish a remedy for it. For this reason the Sangleys began to have much love for me, for they are the most grateful people I have ever seen. Gradually commerce has so increased, and so many are the Sangley ships which come to this city laden with goods—as all kinds of linen, and silks; ammunition; food supplies, as wheat, flour, sugar; and many kinds of fruit (although I have not seen the fruits common in Spaña)—and the city has been so embellished, that were it not for the fires and the calamities visited upon her by land and by sea, she would be the most prosperous and rich city of your Majesty's domains. As I have written to your Majesty in other letters, this city has the best possible location for both its temporal and spiritual welfare, and for all its interests, that could be desired. For on the east, although quite distant, yet not so far as to hinder a man from coming hither, with favorable voyage, lie Nueba España and Peru; to the north, about three hundred leagues, are the large islands of Japón; on the northwest lies the great and vast kingdom of China, which is so near this island that, starting early in the morning with reasonable weather, one would sight China on the next day; on the west lie Conchinchina, the kingdoms of Sián and Patany, Malaca, the great kingdom of Dacheu (the