14. The said ships returning from Canton by way of this city, in order to pursue their voyage to Cadiz, could carry some products of the islands--such as very fine petates or mats, hats of the same kind, and cotton; tortoise-shell, palomaria; tamarinds, dragon's blood; manungal, [149] and jars of the same wood, which is very medicinal; various especial roots; gold; sibucao, which resembles brazil-wood, for dyeing; pepper, which yields very abundantly wherever it is cultivated; sugar, which does not cost here two cuartos a libra; dried candied fruits; and, finally, they would have the benefit of the cinnamon, with which our mountains abound from Samboanga to Caraga in the island of Mindanao; it would be the most valuable line of commerce. These mountains are in the same degree of north latitude as those of Ceylan, where the Dutch obtain all the cinnamon; and it is judged, on account of their location, that the quality of the cinnamon also is the very same. For in Ceylan likewise cinnamon grows that is thick and gummy, like that of Samboangan, and if the latter were cultivated like the former, it would be equally good. [150] The cinnamon of Mindanao will be as good as that of Ceylan if the king prohibits the latter in his dominions, and facilitates the consumption of the former; and if the Spaniards had begun to sell their cinnamon before the Dutch did so, ours would now be of better quality than theirs. 15. As soon as I arrived in these islands and had made myself somewhat acquainted with this subject, the inactivity and indolence of our people caused me much sorrow; for although we possessed this exceedingly rich treasure, there had been no one who devoted himself to its development. This I explained, among other things, to his Majesty in my report of June 5, 1760, showing what these islands could produce, the valuable products with which they abound, and the possibility of maintaining them without the situado which annually comes from Mexico. In the following year came Don Nicolas Norton Nicols, [151] who, it seems, proposed at the court the project for [developing] the cinnamon, and brought a royal order from his Majesty that he should be aided therein. I did so, with the utmost energy and readiness, and this famous and skilful Englishman began to make plantations in Caraga; people assure me that he would have carried this work to completion if God had not taken away his life, through the grief which he experienced at the attack on us by the English, from whom he expected no favor. It was necessary that a foreigner should accomplish what no Spaniard had done in some two hundred years; [152] he died on account of our misfortunes, and now there will be no one who will devote himself to the same enterprise; for these citizens have no thought of any further occupation than their everlasting laziness, nor have they the spirit to risk four reals, or any zeal for the nation.