Most potent lord: The licentiate Geronimo de Salazar y Salcedo, your fiscal in the royal Chancilleria of the Philipinas Islands, will relate this as best he can. On Friday, which I reckon to be the twenty-third of this present month of May, there entered into this city three infidel Sangleys, who came in the last-arrived ships from the kingdom of China; and they wear the garments and caps which are usually worn in that kingdom by the great mandarins--for it is thus they call those who serve their king in some high office of justice. They say that they came by his order to see if there is a hill of gold in the port of Cavite; for he has been informed that his Chinese vassals who trade and traffic in these said islands bring a quantity of gold on which they do not pay him duty; and, that they may pay it, he wishes to know the truth. The said three Sangleys, who claim to be mandarins, go out from their houses on their way to this city, seated in chairs upon the shoulders of four Sangleys; and, attached to their persons, on each side go six of their guards armed as archers. Before them walk two Sangleys who bear suspended from their shoulders a porcelain case in which it is said they carry their chapas which indicate that they are mandarins, which is the same that we here call "decrees" and "royal commissions." Behind them goes another Sangley on a horse, who is said to be the secretary of the three mandarins. Before them go in file six Sangleys with staves upon their shoulders, on the ends of which are white tablets with characters of gold, which is said to be the insignia of alguacils. Six other Sangleys carry little banners of different colors, with characters written upon them in the Chinese tongue, which are said to indicate the great authority and wide jurisdiction of the said mandarins. One Sangley, who they say is a minister of justice, bears a piece of cane as thick as one's arm, lacquered in black. Among these goes a Sangley with two small kettle-drums and four others with canfonias and other musical instruments which they use, all of them playing. Before all these people go six Sangleys, two of whom carry two iron chains, which are said to be to put on those whom they are ordered to arrest; two others carry two cords tied to sticks upon their shoulders, which are said to be to tie those whom they are ordered to flog; the other two, who are called _upos_, which is the same as executioners in Espana, bear two half-canes four dedos wide and a braza long, with which they flog the delinquents, whom if they wished they could kill with a few strokes. Between these go two Sangleys each one of whom cries out in his own language from time to time, with loud shouts; and it is said that they are calling out, "Make way, for the mandarins are coming," and as soon as they come out of their houses, and until they enter them again, these cries are kept up. When the Sangleys meet the mandarins, they flee from them and hide themselves; and if they cannot