I had lost more than six thousand pesos, I said that my house had been burned through the lack of people and the order to shut the gates of the city.  This coming to the ears of the governor, he became angry about this also, although he has never said anything to me about it; for the resolution which he adopted of locking the gates could only be based on the idea that the Chinese should not enter, lest they might possess themselves of the city.  This could have been guarded against by letting what seemed to be a safe number of Chinese enter—­as they never carry arms, and are a wretched and miserable people—­and by then shutting the gates of the city and having soldiers to guard the Sangleys who were going about on the inside; and so everything would have been provided against.  These occasions of annoyance to the governor might induce him, as he is somewhat hot-tempered, to write to your Majesty concerning me, seeking to discredit me—­which I do not deserve, considering the desire which I have to accomplish much in the service of your Majesty, whom I also beseech to be pleased to have me heard in regard to whatever is imputed to me.  May God protect your Majesty according to His power, with great increase of your kingdoms and seigniories.  Manila, in the Philipinas Islands, July 5, 1603.

The licentiate Hieronimo de Salazar y Salcedo

[Endorsed:  “Manila; to his Majesty, 1603.  The fiscal Hieronimo de Salazar; July 5.  Examined on the second of July, 1604.  No response to be given.”]

Copy of a letter which Chanchian, the chief mandarin of the three who came to this city of Manila from the kingdom of China in the month of June of the year one thousand six hundred and three, wrote in the Chinese characters and tongue to Don Pedro de Acuna, governor and captain-general of the Philipinas Islands for the king our lord, and his president in the royal Chancilleria thereof, four days before the said mandarins arrived in the said city; translated from the original of the said letter by a Dominican religious.

Chanchian, of the lineage of Au, who governs the warriors of the province of Hoquien, the envoy of the king of the realm of China, and servant of the eunuch of the lineage of Cou.  Because Tio Heng, who is considered a reputable man, has gone to the king of China [16] and told him that from this kingdom there could each year be taken for the king of China a hundred thousand taes of gold and three hundred thousand taes of silver at his expense, so that his vassals should not pay tribute or be molested, the king has sent a eunuch who is called Cochay to take charge of those who have said that there was gold.  This Tio Heng with five companions say that outside of the boundaries of Hayten in a place called Lician there is a mountain which is called Heyt Coavite, one lonely mountain in the midst of the wide-spread sea; and that there is no realm to which it belongs or to which the inhabitants