pay tribute.  In that place is collected much gold and silver.  The vassals of that mountain spend gold as freely as if it were garbanzos [17] and lentils.  He has seen that the vassals of that mountain of Cavite dig and gather it from the earth, and in every house of Cavite he saw, if it were a poor one, a medida (which is three gantas), and in those of the rich a hundred gantas of this gold; and they store it up in order to trade with the Sangleys who come there to trade, so that they may buy their property.  And he said:  “At present you have no gold within your house to spend, and you have no place whence to get it, and it would be much easier to go and get it from that said place than to ask it from your vassals.  It is true that I have seen it; and now I have come to tell you this; and I do not ask that you shall give me anything for going for it, but that you should give me permission to go for it.  I alone will find the people, and spend what may be necessary to go and dig it.  And this year, when they have brought this gold, you can go to see the gold which the captains and merchants have brought who come each year from Luzon.  In two years from now I will give you twice the gold and silver that I have promised you, and with this you may be satisfied; and the kingdom and the vassals will rejoice.  This affair is serious and of great importance.”  The king gave permission that this should be done, and the eunuch named Cochay, with these mandarins, is accompanying Tio Heng to Luzon to reach the mine of gold and see whether there is or is not such a mine, when they will go back to the king and inform him.  From all provinces there came people to the king to tell him that this kingdom of Luzon was as small as a cross-bow pellet; and that they have never heard that there was gold there, as Tio Heng says, but that he is lying.  On this account the merchants of Hayten did not go to seek permission, nor did they dare to go to Luzon; but the judge of Chiochio ordered that they should fulfil their contracts with the said Tio Heng, and see whether there was gold or not.  This is all their business, and therefore the governor of Luzon may rest secure, and without apprehension or suspicion of evil.  I am quite certain that Tio Heng is lying, and command that they shall go immediately to learn whether there is gold or not, and order that an interpreter [naguatato] should go with them to see whether or not there is gold.  They say that they wish to hasten their departure, and that they do not wish to stay in this land, giving occasion for complaints, and, believe me, you cannot detain us.  Dated the thirty-first year of the reign of Landec, on the tenth of the fourth moon, which is the present month of May according to their reckoning.

[At the beginning of the Spanish translation are the following sentences, apparently memoranda by some clerk or interpreter:]

Copy of the letter which the chief Chinese mandarin of the three who came to Manila wrote at sea to the president, governor and captain-general of the Filipinas.