Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 04).djvu/149

1576-1582] supplies for Maluco, passed Borney. It is said that one hundred were Portuguese and Spaniards, and the rest mestizos and people from Yndia. According to a Cafre [heathen], their hulks were in very poor condition. He says they were going to Maluco to collect the tribute which was lost three years ago. I am sending the investigations and accounts of this and of everything to your Majesty's royal Council, and am writing more in detail. I beg your Majesty to be so good as to favor this other world by examining this letter. Because of your Majesty's stringent orders not to go to Maluco, we have not gone thither. However, the compact, as I have advised your Majesty is not well considered; and Maluco is not comprehended in it, and is in your Majesty's demarcation. Thirty vessels leaving and returning to Sevilla could load cargoes of spices—pepper, camphor, and other drugs and spices. In these vessels, people could be brought from España, and a few fleets would populate this land, and clearly we could take