coast is made of the skins of sea-wolves, which the Indians tan and dress very well. They have abundance of thread made from Castilian flax, hemp, and cotton. By these Indians and by many others whom the said Sebastian Vizcaino discovered along the coast in the more than eight hundred leguas of his voyage, he was everywhere informed that there were great settlements inland, and silver and gold. This is considered to be true, because veins of metals were discovered in some parts of the mountains of the mainland. If the seasons of the summer were known, one could enter the interior through this place and locate those metals, for it promises great wealth. Also the rest of the coast might be explored from that port, for it extends past the forty-second degree where the said Sebastian Vizcayno went, and which was named as his limit in his instructions. The coast extends even to Japon and the Chinese coast. He said that he could not enter the mouth of the [gulf of the] Californias, on his return and while passing, as I had sent him orders, because many of his crew had fallen ill and were dying rapidly, and because his provisions had suddenly become bad, which obliged him to hasten his return. After examination of this in my royal Council of the Indias, together with the surveys and relations that were sent with the description of each port, singly, of those discovered by the said Sebastian Vizcaino, and after having listened to the cosmographer Andres Garcia de Cespedes, they advised me; and after considering the great importance, for the safety and security of the ships coming from those islands--a navigation of more than two thousand leguas of open water--of their having a port on the voyage, wherein to be repaired and to take in water, wood, and provisions, and that the said port of Monterrei, lying on the thirty-seventh degree, will be a half-way station, and that it has all the good qualities that may be desired, I have deemed it advisable that all the vessels from those islands, since they approach that coast, shall enter that port, and there be repaired and reprovisioned. In order to initiate this and establish it as a fixed and well-known practice, I have ordered Marques de Montesclaros, [33] my present viceroy of the said provinces of Nueva Espana, by another decree of the date of this present, to have the said Sebastian Vizcaino, if now alive, sought with all care and diligence, since he has made the said exploration, and has coasted from Acapulco to Cape Mendocino; and, as soon as he shall have been found, to order him to go to those islands. Sebastian Vizcaino is to take with him his own chief pilot, or the chief pilot of the admiral; and in order that his voyage may have the effect intended, and be accomplished with all possible promptness, as is desirable, I have ordered the said marques to despatch the ships that are to sail to those islands in the coming year, 607. He shall despatch them in the