Fifthly, that although it is true that it was decided to be advisable for your Majesty to send aid to this country, as I understand that it has been petitioned in the manner and form of reenforcement, I greatly doubt whether it is more suitable for your Majesty to send ships by way of the cape of Buena Esperanza; for the artillery founded here is the best in the world, as are the ships built here, as I have been well informed. Besides, the artillery and ships of the quality and size necessary here cannot be sent from that country, for it has been found that war is made more securely here and the enemy frightened more by the very large galleons (much larger than those sent from there), which will withstand heavy artillery, such as those built by Don Juan de Silva. Further, the woods [used here] resist the balls better; and the ships are built with special strength and by the best master in the world, as I have been told. With money and care, the rapidity with which those ships can be built is remarkable. Consequently, I think that if what is spent on the fleet be sent in money, and soldiers, and sailors, by way of Nueva España in trading fleets, and by way of India in the ships that sail from Lisboa, it would be more expedient--notwithstanding that it is said that the infantry that come by way of Nueva España desert at their arrival there; for with good judgment and care that difficulty would be remedied. Will your Majesty decide what is most advisable. Sixthly, that the fiscal of this Audiencia fills the office of protector of the Indian natives, and of the Chinese Sangleys who come from China to this country, for their advantage and trade, by virtue of a decree issued by your Majesty. Your Majesty assigns him no salary, for it seems to be your intention to have him attend to that duty with his salary as fiscal. The governors here, in order to control the fiscals, so that the latter may not oppose the things that the former wish when these are in violation of your Majesty's service, assign them an annual salary of eight hundred pesos at the cost of the Chinese Sangleys. For that purpose a communal fund has been established, and each Chinese is obliged to deposit, I believe, two reals apiece annually in that fund, and from that fund is assigned the salary of the fiscal as protector. As the Chinese are so numerous, the sum amounts to considerable, although it it not all paid to the fiscal. In the collection and method used, considerable annoyances are experienced. Besides, there is no authority to levy that money, for your Majesty has not assigned it, nor is the governor able to do it, although he give your Majesty a pretext for it. The worst thing is that that sum has never served, nor does it serve, other purpose than to flay the Sangleys, for besides that it seems incompatible for one to be a protector on the one hand, and one who seeks to act as prosecutor on the other, it seems that the true protector is the good