Don Pedro de Quiroga adds that having learned that the governor of the Filipinas had given his word not to have any new vessels sail, in order to better carry out his Majesty's service, he had employed this expedient--namely, that if they entered the port that year, they would enjoy the benefit of the rules which had been made during that time; but that, if they came only the following year, they would not enjoy these, and that they would pay the king's duties in all strictness. That plainly showed that he was advised of the promise which the governor of the islands had given to the merchants of Mexico, to detain the vessels and the merchandise that ought to have been sent that year. The transaction was, in truth, greatly to the interest of the inhabitants of Mexico, and of the Spaniards who have encomiendas--although to the great prejudice of the islands, which cannot get along without the reënforcement which they ought to have annually from Mexico; and to the decrease of his Majesty's duties, which are an aid in the discharge of the expense for that succor. In fine, if the marqués de Cadereta had not reënforced the islands as powerfully as he did, they would have fallen into extreme need. It would be easy for me to show here other consequences of that delay of the vessels which Don Juan Cereço y Salamanca had prepared to sail that year, as is done every year; and it will not be more difficult for me to demonstrate the other damages that we suffer in that commerce. The inhabitants of the Manilas have nothing on those vessels; their cargoes belong entirely to the Chinese, to the Portuguese of Macao, or to the Mexican merchants. If the king does not put a stop to it, the Chinese will absorb all the riches of Peru, and the subjects of the king in those islands will be forced to abandon them. I will go on to represent to your Excellency the other disorders in the government of those islands, as far as I have been able to learn them in the short time that I have spent there.