The King: To Don Gonzalo Rronquillo de Peñalosa, my governor and captain-general of the Philipinas Islands; or, in your absence, the person or persons who may hold the reins of government. You understand, from what I have written you before and what I write now, the causes and reasons why there should be a close and friendly relation between you and your people dwelling in those islands and my viceroy of Eastern Yndia, and my governor and captain-general of Malaca with his Portuguese; and how well served I shall be if, since you are all on the same footing, and since you are all my vassals, you deal, communicate, and make friends with one another, and help one another whenever occasion and need shall arise. There was little necessity to remind you of this; yet, seeing that it is so important and so reasonable that things be so, I have decided to recommend the matter to you, assuring you that I shall be much pleased thereby. If at any time my viceroy of Yndia, or the governor and captain-general of Malaca, should write to you asking to send men to his aid, you will send him the men whom you can spare from those islands, in order that he may be secure; and do so with the precaution that you shall find needful. In either case, you will give orders as one who has the matter at heart, and knows what can and must be done. Since I trust in you and your prudence, and allow you to send some troops and captains under similar circumstances, you shall ask the same to obey and carry out whatever he whom they go to help may say and order, either in writing or orally, serving him with the good discipline and obedience to which that nation [the Portuguese] are accustomed, in the expeditions and military exploits which may take place. Lisboa, on the thirty-first day of March in the year one thousand five hundred and eighty-two. _I, The King_ By order of his Majesty: _Antonio de Erasso_