opposition was from the mandarins alone, and that the common people offered no resistance and would receive them well. While all those in the islands, including myself, held this view, it pleased our Lord to reveal this deception and to deliver us from this error. It so happened that a ship left these islands for Mexico, and reached the coast of China in distress. At first the crew were somewhat ill-treated by the soldiers who guard the coast, because the latter had taken them for thieves or spies; but as soon as they were brought before the mandarin governor and it was learned that they had set out from the Lugones, as they call these islands, the governor treated them well, gave orders to return what the soldiers had taken from them, and punished those who had taken it. They sent the Spaniards in peace to Macan, whence they came to this city. The captain of the ship is living here at the present day, as well as two Augustinians who were on board; and they have told me all that happened to them. From this time I began to be undeceived, and to understand that the kingdom of China was not so inaccessible as the Portuguese had represented it. Then I wrote to your Majesty the aforesaid letter, asserting that the ill-report concerning the mandarins of China was rather an invention of the Portuguese than a true report. Later on, my belief in this truth was confirmed by certain persons, both religious and laymen, who have gone to China from these islands. When these persons arrived there the Chinese arrested them, in order to find out whence they came and what they were seeking; and when it was learned who they were, they were allowed to return in peace and were even given supplies for the journey. While writing this, I have met two Franciscan friars who tell me that, as soon as they reached China, they were arrested and taken, handcuffed, before the mandarin. When he learned who they were he gave orders to set them free, and to provide for their support until they could return here. What fully confirms me as to the truth of all this is the report which I received of the kind reception given in the province of Chincheo to a ship which the viceroy then governing Nueba España sent to Macan, and whose captain was Lope de Palacios, the brother of the auditor Palacios, auditor of Mexico. This ship was driven to Chincheo under stress of weather, and there everyone in her was well received, when the inhabitants of Chincheo learned that they were coming to trade in China. They persuaded them to go no farther, saying that they would give them a cargo there for their ship; but God, who had chosen to punish those who by that means sought to destroy this land against the wish of your Majesty, blinded them, so that they would not take the most salutary advice that could have been given them. The three Dominican religious who were on board the ship were well received and lovingly treated by the mandarin of that province. He took them to