26.  Up to this point, this letter is a copy of the letter which I wrote to your Majesty by the ship “San Juan.”  What afterward occurred is, that the said ship left this port on the nineteenth of the present month.  May God grant the propitious voyage for which we hope.

27.  One of the two ships despatched from Nueva Espana has not yet arrived, nor do we know anything about it.  I have sent men to look for it in two different directions, with the oared boats of these natives.  It is thought that the vessel is detained on account of stormy weather, and that with the help of God it will soon be here.

28.  On the twenty-fourth of this month, there arrived at this city Captain Pedro de Chaves, who, when Captain Juan de Salcedo returned from the province of Los Camarines, had remained there with men to continue the exploration and pacification still remaining to be carried on.  When Captain Juan de Salcedo returned from that province the whole land was quiet and tranquil, and its natives, as well as those of the province of Albay, were reduced to the service of your Majesty.  He had also won over the island of Catanduanes five leagues from that coast The natives of that island were famous sea-pirates, who did much injury wherever they went.  The people of that region are well disposed, and possess gold, mines, and plenty of provisions.  Now, with God’s help, the whole land will be apportioned and distributed among the conquerors of these islands, according to your Majesty’s orders.  The mines of Paracali, which are a day’s journey from Bicor River, will be settled, for they are in a suitable place; and when they are given to the Spaniards and worked by them, the land will increase in population and its commerce will prosper.  I have faith in God that from this small beginning He will enlarge and increase the kingdoms and seigniories of your Majesty, and we shall be able to carry the true knowledge of the holy Catholic faith to so many barbarous and blinded men who are found in these regions, including the vast kingdom of China and many others.  Heaven has this good fortune in store for your Majesty, so that it may be fulfilled during these propitious times of your Majesty.

29.  Accompanying this letter, I send a map of the island of Lucon and of the coast of the mainland of China, from which it appears that, from the coast and great river of Cagayan at the northern extremity of this island to the nearest point of China, it is but a short distance by sea, a matter of forty leagues or thereabout.  By next year when we shall have seen and explored more of this land, I shall send your Majesty a fuller description of it than now.

30.  I am also sending your Majesty another paper which I received from the Chinese, upon which is printed a map of the whole land of China, with an explanation which I had some Chinese interpreters make, through the aid of an Augustinian religious who is acquainted with the elements of the Chinese language.  They have promised me to bring next year other maps drawn in more detail and with more precision; and, God willing, I shall send them to your Majesty.