The third, the great profits of that commerce; since for its maintenance alone the enemy employ and support so many fleets and presidios. And although the states of Olanda are so poor and of so little importance, when compared with the grandeur of the monarchy of España, they obtain [from that trade] with only good management and the freedom with which they conduct it, so large profits that with that gain they maintain so great a force on the sea; and their profits would be much greater, if the Dutch were not opposed by the force which your Majesty has in the Filipinas Islands. For it is affirmed that when two ships and one patache were coming laden from India to their country, and the ships were wrecked, and the patache saved, from that vessel alone they made up the loss, and had a considerable gain. That shows how advisable it is that the enemy do not increase and that the [colony in the] islands be permanent, and be protected, and its citizens succored. Number 37. [Fourth argument:] Commerce of China sustains the Filipinas, and how it is carried on. Returning to the commerce that the islands have and what they can have--namely, all the above and that of Japon and other kingdoms of those regions--the first and chief thing in which consists the preservation of the Filipinas is the Chinese trade. Although the commerce is shared by Portugal, it is with great peril and danger, as the Portuguese have to go through the strait of Sincapura, which is always occupied by the Dutch. It has this difference, that the Portuguese go to China itself to get the goods, where they have a settlement in the city of Macan; while the Castilians enjoy the trade in Manila, to whose port many ships come annually from China, laden with all the products, natural and artificial, that that great kingdom yields. Governor Don Francisco Tello granted permission to Don Juan Zamudio, in the year 1599, to go to China, and to establish the trade as the Portuguese have it. He went with a ship to the city of Canton, and although he experienced not a little opposition from them, he opened a port for the inhabitants of Filipinas. That of El Pinal was assigned them, and a house in Canton, together with chapas and passports, so that they might go to form a settlement there whenever they liked. Don Luis Perez Das Mariñas being wrecked afterward on the coast of China, the Chinese welcomed him, and the Spaniards entered that port. Although, as that was in violation of the royal decree of 593, a censure was sent to the Audiencia, yet the governor was charged by a secret letter of October 15, 603, to call a council to consider the advisability of continuing that enterprise. From that conference it appears that the royal decree of July 25, 609, resulted, by which that trade of China and Japon was permitted to the citizens of Manila. However, it is a fact that they do not avail themselves of it directly, but that they are content to await the Chinese who