is a twenty-five days' journey, so that the latter city must lie in
more than fifty degrees of latitude. [115] The above-mentioned brother
comes down annually to collect the stipend given them by the people
here for their three houses. Now they are expecting a great friend of
theirs who is said to be the second person nearest to the king. One
can travel through all this land by water, and therefore it abounds
in everything, for articles are conveyed over the rivers and there
is no need of beasts of burden, which is its special greatness.

He who wishes to depict China without having seen the land, must draw
a country full of rivers and towns, and without a palmo of ground left
lying idle. I wish I had more time in which to describe some of the
things of China which I have observed and inquired about with special
care, and of which, if God please, I shall be the messenger. The
affairs of Camboja are in a good condition, and we shall arrive there
at a seasonable time, if it be our Lord's will that we leave this
place with good auspices. The king sent a ship to Manila at the end
of August to ask for assistance. I do not know whether it has arrived
or whether it returned to put in port, for it left very late. Bias
Ruis sent fifty picos [116] from Camanguian. According to report,
the king has apportioned and given him nine thousand vassals, and as
many more to Belloso.

At present we ourselves are enduring the necessity of which Don Juan
Camudio will inform you. I entreat your Grace to help us, since it
is of so great importance. I kiss many times the hand of my lady
Dona Joana. May our Lord preserve your Grace for many years in the
prosperity and tranquillity which we your servants desire. From the
port of El Pinal, frozen with cold, the twenty-third of December,
ninety-eight.