of your Majesty, for use in the art of navigation.  This I would send you this year, with an ample relation of various matters, if Don Francisco Tello, governor of these islands, had not occupied me in ridding them of a great number of Chinese and Japanese Sangleys, who, under pretense of being merchants, were seeking to remain in this country, and with whom there is no manner of safety.  They know how to set about so cunningly to gain the good-will of the citizens that it appears almost impossible, if your Majesty does not send and order a remedy, to better the matter here, although I have used all possible diligence in it.  The reason for this is that each particular citizen defends those whom he needs, as they are a people who are cunning at all crafts.  Accordingly they keep them in their houses, and hide them; so that they sleep inside the city at night, to the number of about two thousand.  There are more than five thousand who remain this year with the governor’s license in the service of the colony, for they tell the governor that this is exoedient.  It appears to me that three thousand is enough, and even with this number more care and precaution could be taken than is done here, and there should be no more of the infidels.  I give this account ... [42] as a person who has them in his charge, in other matters touching ... that which Don Luis Perez de las Marinas gives your Majesty ...  I have informed him so that, being so Christian and zealous a knight in the service of your Majesty, he will give a true and certain relation of all.

With this astrolabe, which, with the aid of God, I have discovered, can be found the altitude from the pole, and the latitude of any region whatsoever at any hour of the day, and at the same time it will tell the hour, in the same way that it gives directions at night by any known star more easily than the mariners usually take it at midday.  Besides this, it also serves like other astrolabes at midday, to indicate the various points of the compass, and show and verify with precision the deviations and deflection of the needle from the pole.  In this way it serves to give the longitude where one is sailing, on whatever parallel to the equinoctial.  Likewise it shows the position of the stars, even when all their latitudes [i.e., altitudes?] and declinations are unknown, so easily that even the most uninstructed can in a short time learn it.  It is of use in other curious, useful, and important ways, for the perfection of this art, which can by its aid be verified.  As it is an article so curious and useful, the said Luis Perez de las Marinas persuaded me to give an account of it to your Majesty, with a brief relation and discourse concerning the information which I have of these parts.

Although your Majesty has so little profit from these islands, we can see that it is a place of much importance for the service of your Majesty, and the spread of the most holy Catholic faith, since it has as neighbors, and surrounding it, many extremely rich and fertile countries.  The disposition of matters is ... that they are propitious for your Majesty easily to make himself master of those lands.  Your Majesty will see that this is so by the relations which the governor of these islands, and likewise Don Luis Perez de las Marinas, formerly governor of them, have sent you.