They could burn the city in a night; and should they rise, they could before the blow was felt kill with their weapons many of the persons who keep and permit them to stay in their own houses, finding them asleep and unaware; and they know very well how to do it, to our cost and injury. But neither this injurious and painful experience, nor all the aforesaid dangers, are sufficient to check or remedy this grave evil. It is greed which is the road and means of perdition, and which destroys, corrupts, perverts, and hinders everything; this it is that jeopardizes and has, perhaps, embarrassed, checked, diminished, and restricted the service of God and of your Majesty, and the welfare, honor, and prosperity of your vassals in this land. Thereby have been retarded in this new world the good and fruitful spiritual and temporal results which would, perhaps, have been realized ere this, were the desire for money less, and the love, zeal, and desire for the service and glory of our Lord greater. There should be more interest in the common good and less self-interest, which is the loss, impediment, and ruin of everything. Indeed, this greed and covetousness is the knot, tie, and strong bond between us and this nation, so different, injurious, and contrary to our own, as experience and past events have shown. It is an expedient of the devil that this people shall obtain all or nearly all that they want. As their communication, presence, and trade is so prejudicial, and as from it and their interest and greed result so many common evils and great sins, abominations, and offenses to our Lord, it seems as if His Divine Majesty were taking a hand in this and punishing the offenses of those who are in this land, as also our neglect of correcting them, and our lack of zeal for His honor and service--both by our great loss of property, and by this nation, and the injuries that we have received from them, and our mishaps with them, since thus we lay ourselves open and deserve to be punished. It seems that He punishes them too with us, by the injuries, afflictions, and annoyances that they suffer. And thus His Divine Majesty is punishing both nations. For except for self-interest as a medium, we are mutually contrary and hateful. [The rest of the letter is badly torn, but a sufficient amount remains for the general meaning to be discovered. The writer calls for the expulsion of the Sangleys so far as this is possible. The city desires them to remain only from avarice, desiring the rents from their shops, and the profits arising from their business. The Sangleys have corrupted some of the most illustrious persons in the country. Severity is requisite.] June 28, 1597. _Luis Perez Dasmarinas_ _Notes regarding the Sangleys_