_Copy of a letter which Chanchian, the chief mandarin of the three who came to this city of Manila from the kingdom of China in the month of June of the year one thousand six hundred and three, wrote in the Chinese characters and tongue to Don Pedro de Acuna, governor and captain-general of the Philipinas Islands for the king our lord, and his president in the royal Chancilleria thereof, four days before the said mandarins arrived in the said city; translated from the original of the said letter by a Dominican religious._ Chanchian, of the lineage of Au, who governs the warriors of the province of Hoquien, the envoy of the king of the realm of China, and servant of the eunuch of the lineage of Cou. Because Tio Heng, who is considered a reputable man, has gone to the king of China [16] and told him that from this kingdom there could each year be taken for the king of China a hundred thousand taes of gold and three hundred thousand taes of silver at his expense, so that his vassals should not pay tribute or be molested, the king has sent a eunuch who is called Cochay to take charge of those who have said that there was gold. This Tio Heng with five companions say that outside of the boundaries of Hayten in a place called Lician there is a mountain which is called Heyt Coavite, one lonely mountain in the midst of the wide-spread sea; and that there is no realm to which it belongs or to which the inhabitants pay tribute. In that place is collected much gold and silver. The vassals of that mountain spend gold as freely as if it were _garbanzos_ [17] and lentils. He has seen that the vassals of that mountain of Cavite dig and gather it from the earth, and in every house of Cavite he saw, if it were a poor one, a _medida_ (which is three gantas), and in those of the rich a hundred gantas of this gold; and they store it up in order to trade with the Sangleys who come there to trade, so that they may buy their property. And he said: "At present you have no gold within your house to spend, and you have no place whence to get it, and it would be much easier to go and get it from that said place than to ask it from your vassals. It is true that I have seen it; and now I have come to tell you this; and I do not ask that you shall give me anything for going for it, but that you should give me permission to go for it. I alone will find the people, and spend what may be necessary to go and dig it. And this year, when they have brought this gold, you can go to see the gold which the captains and merchants have brought who come each year from Luzon. In two years from now I will give you twice the gold and silver that I have promised you, and with this you may be satisfied; and the kingdom and the vassals will rejoice. This affair is serious and of great importance." The king gave permission that this should be done, and the eunuch named Cochay, with these mandarins, is accompanying Tio Heng to Luzon to reach the mine of gold and see whether there is