[22] and of Sunda (or Sabaon), to China and Japon. Number 19. Importance of the islands because they offer opposition to the Dutch From this so unusual location results the best proof of the importance of those islands--an importance well understood by the Dutch, who are striving, by means of immense military expenses, fleets, and numerous presidios, which they sustain in their seas and environs, as will be seen [_In the margin_: "In number 32."] to blockade, restrict, infest, and attack the islands, with no other end in view than their seizure. For they believe (and not without reason) that if they should attain this end, and remove that obstacle (which is the one that restricts the course of their fortunes in those regions), they would be absolute masters of all that extends on from the straits; and that they would cause from there so great anxiety and danger to India, that they would oblige its citizens to spend on its defense a greater sum than is now spent on the conservation of the Filipinas. And now, when the Dutch have been unable to gain a foothold in any of the islands because the arms of your Majesty sustain that country with the same reputation as in Flandes, the enemy maintain themselves by aggressive measures against the Spaniards--usually keeping for that purpose in the seas of those islands forty or fifty armed vessels, which are used to pillage whatever they can find, and to guard the presidios which they have established, and the commerce which they have introduced of the most precious drugs and commodities valued by Europa, whither they take them. However, that is done at a greater cost than they are willing to pay, because of the opposition made against them by the Filipinas. In order for the Dutch to overcome the Filipinas, it has not been sufficient for them to unite and ally themselves with the Moro and pagan kings of other islands and lands of Asia, persuading them that they should take arms against the vassals of España, whose defense lies in the Filipinas alone. And if the banners of your Majesty were driven from the islands, the power and arrogance of Olanda, which would dominate all the wealth of the kingdoms of the Orient, would greatly increase with the freedom and ease of commerce; while they would gain other and greater riches in Europa, and would so further their own advancement that more would be spent in this part of the world in restraining them than is spent in driving them away in those regions [_i.e._, the Orient]. Consequently, those islands are the bit that restrains the enemy, the obstacle that embarrasses them, the force that checks them, and the only care that causes them anxiety, so that they cannot attain their desires--an evident proof of the importance of those islands, and a fundamental reason for their conservation. Number 20. The foreign and general commerce of the islands makes them more valuable