The country is everywhere fertile, and green and pleasant all the year round; and in some places wheat is sown and harvested. 31. In these islands grows much cotton, from which the people make Ylocan blankets, lampotes, white cloth, medriñaques, material for hose, and other useful fabrics. In many (indeed in most) islands are found amber and civet, and gold mines--these especially in the mountain ranges of Pangasinam and Paracali, and in Pampanga; consequently; there is hardly an Indian who does not possess chains and other articles of gold. Besides these products (which are peculiar to the country), others are brought to Manila from Great China, Xapon, and numberless other kingdoms and islands of this archipelago--wheat, iron, copper, some quicksilver, tin, and lead; cinnamon (from Zeilan), pepper, cloves, nutmeg, musk, and incense; silks (both raw and woven), and linens; Chinese earthenware, ivory, and ebony; diamonds, rubies, and other precious stones; valuable woods; and many uncommon and delicious fruits. In Manila, gunpowder is manufactured, and excellent artillery and bells are cast; and various articles are exquisitely wrought in filigree of gold and silver. All things necessary to human life [are found there] and even articles of superfluity, ostentation, pomp, and luxury. The city of Manila 32. This city was conquered and founded by its first governor on May 19, the day of St. Potenciana the virgin, in the year 1571. It was built on a site naturally strong on the shore of the sea, and at the mouth of a great river--which flows four leguas from the lake of Bay, and here loses itself [in the sea]--on a strip of land formed between the sea and the river. Thus half of the city, that on the north and west, is surrounded by water; and the other half, toward the east and south, by land and a ditch. It is entirely surrounded, almost in a circular form, by a rampart wall of stone; this is high and strong and so thick that in some parts it is more than three varas wide, and one can walk on top of it everywhere. It extends three-quarters of a legua, and is adorned and furnished with battlements and merlons in modern style; with towers, cavaliers, and Hankers at intervals; and with two castles and some bulwarks. It is furnished with excellent artillery, and a force of six hundred (sometimes more) Spanish soldiers--with their master-of-camp, sargento-mayor, captains, wardens, and other military officers. There are five gates and several posterns.