The first effect is the conservation of the Catholic faith, and the continuance of its promulgation, which has entered the rich and extensive regions of the Orient through the agency of both crowns of Castilla and Portugal. In that are seen so [41] miraculous advances that it would be for the kings of España to disregard the obligation that they so much value, in [not] giving them the protection possible--so that while the faith does not advance, it may not decrease, nor lose what has been planted in the vineyard of God our Lord. This will be attained (humanly speaking), as long as the two extremes on which this mean depends do not fail, those two extremes being the states maintained by the two crowns in the Orient: that of Portugal, in India; and that of Castilla, in Filipinas. As India is the gateway for all the kingdoms that belong to this part of the straits, so also are the islands for these kingdoms about them, such as Great China, Japon, the Javas, Nueva Guinea, and the islands of Salomon--for whose discovery three voyages had been made from Lima at great cost, but with little result, although they could be reached with greater ease by sailing from Manila. Number 41. Second effect of the conservation of the islands: the security of India The second effect will be to assure the safety of those states, of which as they are found today, one may understand that, if one be lost, the other will become endangered. India has declined in its commerce and wealth, and consequently, in its power, because of the relationship that there is between these two things; for when a kingdom loses its wealth, it loses its strength. Both have been usurped by the Dutch, as is proved; for they, commencing with the commerce, have appropriated it to themselves, as well as the strength that is annexed to commerce. Therefore India needs to avail itself of the Filipinas, and that not only for such special aid as was requested by the viceroy, Conde de Linares, in the year 631 (who was governing India with the care, prudence, and success that is known by the excellent results that he obtained, and by the great talent and valor of his person, experienced in that and in other charges), to whom Governor Don Juan Niño sent two galleons; but also so that the enemy, being diverted, may have less power. Thus was he [_i.e._, the governor of Filipinas] charged to do by decrees of April 4, 1581, and December 5, 1584. The same must also be understood of the islands, which although they do not now have less strength than for the last forty years, have more enemies and more to which to attend. If India should fail them, they would be maintained with greater difficulty. The Portuguese aided in the expedition made by Don Pedro de Acuña, and also in that of Don Juan de Silva, but not with equal success in both; and it is ordered that the two forces unite for the recovery of the island of Hermosa. The city of Macan, in China, is so far from India that it would be in