The encomiendas are ruined. Formerly the king rewarded soldiers with them, and now the islanders, who were formerly assigned under those encomiendas, have become our enemies. There has been failure to instruct those innocent people in the Catholic faith, and that is the only title under which the king of España holds that country, which does not belong to his patrimony. Instead of making them our friends and brothers, we have made them our domestic enemies. We have received the Sangleys in their place, with whom the profit of the traffic always embroils us. Let one consider what damage has been committed since by the inhabitants of the island of Mindanao. They have overrun the shores of these islands with their caracoas or little boats, and the governor was forced to leave the city in the hands of the Sangleys, in order to leave the island and to go to make war on them, where he lost more than one hundred and thirty Spaniards, without being able to bring the war to a successful end. In this it cannot be said that he was not greatly to blame; for one of his officers named Nicolás Gonzales, at the first war cry, forced one of their best positions without the loss of a single man, whence the governor had been unable to drive them with all his forces. [17] We have also as enemies the people of Jolo and those of Terrenate, who are also more to be feared on account of the help that they get from the Dutch. They declare themselves neutral, but they help the Dutch underhandedly on all occasions. The chiefs of those Indians take the title of kings, but they are among the kings who go quite naked and who live by their labor. True, those of Macassar, of Cochinchina, and of Cambaya, are more powerful. But for all that, it would be enough for us, for the little help that we can get out of them, to become the arbitrator of their differences, and thus to keep them favorable to our side. But since they have seen that we have made this friendship with the Sangleys, with the inhabitants of Martavan, of Borneo, and other neighboring islands, they have broken off all trade with us, and have begun to take all the products of their country to the Dutch, so that they do nothing except at their orders. If for that reason also the king does not prevent the trade with the Sangleys, the Filipinas are lost. I come now to the remedy that can be applied to this disorder.