Most potent lord: The archbishop of these Filipinas declares that, as such archbishop, he is under obligation to look after the condition of these islands and of the Christian religion in them; and, as a member of the Council of his Majesty, to protect the interests of his royal crown, and of this his dominion--all of which, according to the counsels of prudence, is at the present moment in great danger. This danger is one of the greatest that could be, for the powerful king of China has threatened us with an enormous fleet of ships, saying that there will be a thousand of them if we do not grant what he demands in regard to two things. One of these is clearly just; for it concerns a great quantity of property which was brought into this city by the Chinese merchants last year, six hundred and three, when the Sangleys rebelled against this city. Your governor commanded that the said property, as belonging to enemies (as those who brought it here were), should be kept, and taken into custody, and should be given back to them. A great part of this property was afterward sold among the Spaniards and more than thirty thousand pesos of the proceeds of the said goods came into the possession of Diego de Marquina, general depositary of this city, by whom it was all (or nearly all) turned over to your royal treasury. The rest of the Chinese property came into the possession of Captain Sebastian de Aguilar, and any other person who may have received into his keeping and custody other goods belonging to the said property. The other thing which the said king of China demands is, that certain Chinese (of whom there are not many) who remained alive after the war and were at that time taken prisoners, and are in the galleys, should be given their liberty that they may go back to their own country. This is a matter for your Highness to examine carefully, to ascertain whether this be a just demand, and whether it can be justly exacted. Even if it were clearly and evidently just that the said Chinese should remain as convicts in the said galleys, this demand requires much consideration, on account of the condition of the faith and of the realm, whether this commonwealth must be forced to break with so powerful an enemy and enemies as he would be. He brings forward his arguments with much reason and consideration; by one of his demands--which of itself is not very important, although more so when, arriving at the question of justice--he brings up another doubt as to whether it is just for the said Chinese to be condemned to the galleys. This is questionable, in the first place, because they are not vassals of his Majesty, and therefore were not traitors; and likewise whether they should, on account of the hostilities which the Chinese were generally committing, immediately be condemned, without recourse, to the galleys, without being heard individually or their exceptions being received--especially