9. In another decree, dated Madrid, January 30, 635, your Majesty commands that I continue in the efforts made by my predecessor, Don Juan Nino de Tabora, and the plans that he had formed to expel the Dutch enemy from the island of Hermosa, and to unite the forces of Yndia with those of these islands. This latter undertaking, Sire, is very difficult; and the former is no slight thing. For if the enemy were at that time commencing their fortifications, these are by this time completed and very well defended; and unless your Majesty send here a thousand Spanish soldiers, I have not the force in these islands to drive out the Dutch from Hermosa. The Portuguese of Macan desire that this be done, because the enemy inflicts damage on them in the voyage to Xapon. But the fact that the enemy maintain a post there does not at all embarrass or hinder the crown of Castilla; for the Chinese do not fail to come in twenty-four hours to the forts of your Majesty that are on this side the sea, bringing the necessary merchandise and supplies. That island, Sire, is of very little use to your Majesty, and it serves only to consume a large part of the revenues; for the Indians of the said island are [too] ferocious to be reduced to our holy Catholic faith, and it only serves to keep occupied there two hundred and twenty Spaniards, and a company of Indians from Nueva Segovia, and several vessels. But as it is so injurious to the reputation of honorable soldiers to abandon the posts which others will seize, I am--notwithstanding that, as a soldier, I have considered the little or no importance of that post--maintaining and aiding it with thirty thousand pesos a year, until your Majesty shall command what may please you. As for joining our forces with those of Yndia, Don Juan de Silva, in the time when he was governor, maintained the forces of these islands in a very flourishing condition; for he was able to build and assemble ten powerful galleons and two pataches, with which he undertook to join the viceroy of Yndia to destroy the Dutch and drive them from these seas. Although he set out, he did not find any preparation on the part of the said viceroy; and by waiting for it he lost an excellent opportunity when the enemy had left their station. It is said that he died from grief at having spent so much and achieved so little result; and that this was the cause for the islands having fallen into so great poverty, and for your Majesty's royal treasury being so embarrassed. For the governors to equip armed fleets is a very difficult enterprise; for from that time until the present people have been bewailing the heavy costs, and regretting the ruin of the Indians who perished in the shipyards. If this colony is preserved in its present condition, not displaying our weakness to the enemies, but rather giving them and all the neighboring peoples to understand, even with a few ships, that your Majesty is lord of these