condition, and where the foe never expect them--and with a port to
windward of the cape of Corrientes, which is the place where they may
be awaited; with that I trust, God helping, that they will be secure.

Eleven of the fourteen Dutch ships that passed [the strait] this
year went to Capulco; they were those which the pirate took from
Olanda. Seven of them were large ships, and four small; three of them
were captured in Pirú. They reached Terrenate with all of them, and
with eight hundred men aboard. Accordingly I believe that they will
come here in a few months; and as this state and its conservation
depends on maritime forces (as does that of all the islands of the
world); and as the building of three ships of the size of these
two (which, as it could not be avoided, are going to Nueva España)
resulted, I hope from the willingness with which the fathers of the
Society offer to make two ships for me in the province of Leyte
(where they have their missions), and the Franciscans another in
those of Camarines, that they will be provided for me. The condition
of the royal treasury and your Majesty's heavy expenses on the point
of Cavite require that very urgently.

Having found the magazines so empty of everything needed (which
supplies, it seems, have been stolen from them), I was accordingly
forced to send a ship to Japon with products that are esteemed there,
in order to exchange them for things needed here. [_In the margin_:
"Seen."]

Affairs in that kingdom are so bloody because of the matter of
religion, that it is a lamentable thing. Ships are sent with great
danger because of the close scrutiny that the Japanese make, in their
fear lest religious are conveyed in them. The embassy returned, after