Fourth, the supplies will be taken away from their fortresses; for they have nothing wherewith to support themselves except it be brought from other islands. This would be very easily accomplished, and the enemy would have no means to remedy it. The natives who are devoted to them would be so terrorized that they would be obliged to come over to our side. If they accomplish that in this way and through the effective plans of whomsoever shall govern there, and the negotiations which he would conduct with them, it is quite certain that the enemy would be ruined, and could not maintain himself a year in his forts; for it is the natives who aid and sustain him, and furnish the cloves for his profit. Fifth, it would be easy to make an invasion with the galleys on all the factories where they have not fortresses--and especially in Bantan, which is in Greater Xava, whither they carry all the spices which are shipped to Holland--and then to gain them all and burn them. They have no port there for large vessels, but only a bay where vessels which anchor there are kept at a distance from the land in the mud, aground, so that they cannot make use of them when they wish. Accordingly the galleys could easily burn those which lie there. If Don Juan de Silva had adopted this measure, the enemy would already be subdued; and your Majesty would not have spent so great sums of money, and so exhausted the Filipinas Islands. Sixth, the forces which your Majesty possesses in Maluco would be maintained with much less cost than at present by means of these galleys. For as there are no supplies in those islands it is necessary to send them from the Filipinas, which entails three difficulties. The first is that prices are thus made higher in that country, and the natives thereof are oppressed; the second, that it costs your Majesty a great deal, with the ships and men that are needed to man them; and the third, that the enemy gets a great deal of the aid which is sent. All this would be obviated by keeping galleys there; for it must be understood that the island of Macacar is very large, rich, and abundantly supplied, and lies a two days' journey from Maluco. The king there is desirous of friendship with us, and has even sent to the governor of Terrenate to seek religious, as he says in the letter which is at the end of this relation. Last year he wrote a letter to the governor of the Filipinas, offering to furnish him all the supplies that he might need for the forces in Maluco; and saying that, if he had not the money to pay for them, he might have them on trust until the money came. Things are very cheap there, costing less than half as much as in the Filipinas, and the said galleys could transport them easily, without the danger which they now encounter of being taken by the enemy. Rather, on the other hand, those which the enemy carry from there could be taken away with ease, and they would be caused to perish with hunger. If an ordinary