These are the chief instances of which our knowledge can make relation, and in which Manila and the islands have suffered misfortunes; and those disasters have been so many that of all the sixty-five years since its foundation only fifteen are free from loss and disaster; and some of those disasters are so great that the prosperity of other years was unable to make up for them. From all of them can easily be inferred the proof of the two propositions--namely, the services of their citizens, and the small profits in their commerce, if, as the former are qualified by valor, the latter are proportioned to the losses, risks, and hardships that they endure in order to maintain it. Number 94. Fifth point: in which is explained the commerce of the islands, according to its parts For the last justification and the final point, this commerce of the islands with Nueva España will be explained. It has two parts, one the coming with the merchandise, and the other the return voyage with the returns [from the merchandise] in silver. Regarding both will be stated what profits they produce, and whether it will be advisable to suppress or restrict the commerce, or how illegal acts can be prevented. Number 95. Trade of the islands necessary in Nueva España, because of their goods In regard to the first part, which pertains to the merchandise, the trade of the Filipinas is so necessary today in Nueva España, that the latter country finds it as difficult as do the islands to get along without that trade; and its lack cannot be supplied with merchandise from these kingdoms. The wares taken to Acapulco are plain and figured velvets, satins, and damasks; grograms, taffetas, and picotes; headdresses and stockings; silk, loose and twisted, in skeins, that reeled on spindles, and woven; thread; _tramas_, [60] plushes, and other silk stuffs and textiles. Of cotton, there are _sinavafas_, [61] fine glazed buckrams [_bocacies_], glazed linen [_olandilla_], fine muslins [_canequies_], and _semianas_; and of cotton and silk, beds, curtains, coverlets, quilts, and other pieces. [They also carry] civet, musk, and amber; gold and pearls; crockery-ware, cabinets, and articles made of wood, and other things; and the products of the islands themselves, of which mention has been made [_In the margin_: "In number 15"]. But the bulk of the commerce is reduced to the silk and cotton textiles; for there is but little else that is rare or elegant, or that has much export. From the skeined silk, and the silk thread, and trama are manufactured in Nueva España velvets, veils, headdresses, passementeries, and many taffetas, which were taken to Perú when there were ships that went to Callao, and to other parts of the Indias--where the black, brown, and silver-colored goods that are sent from Sevilla do not arrive in good shape, because the sea rots them. It is known that the skein silk of China is more even and elegant for delicate and smooth fabrics than is the Misteca [62] which