In answer to the first, your Majesty expends much in the preservation of that country, it is true; but the objectors do not consider that those expenditures which are made are not for the purpose of preserving the Filipinas—­at least since Don Pedro de Acuna, your governor, won the islands of Maluco, where cloves are obtained; for since that time the expense has been to maintain the war against the Dutch, who have been fortifying and making themselves masters there, and because we did not understand here, in the beginning and later, how important it would be to spend what was necessary to drive them out once for all, and to secure those regions.  This has been the cause of spending so much in reenforcements, which have not served, and do not serve, more than to keep the forts which your Majesty holds in the islands of Terrenate and Tidore, and the friendship of the king of Tidore; and this is the cause of the expenses which your Majesty makes in the Filipinas, while the Dutch are taking away almost all the profits—­although it is true that, if your Majesty had had ministers there zealous in your service, you might have obtained profit enough to maintain those forts without drawing upon your royal exchequer.  The same thing could be done at any time when you wish, but the means for this are not at hand, and accordingly I defer them.  If your Majesty should wish to know them, I will inform you of them.  From this it may be concluded that the Filipinas are not the cause of these expenditures; and those which were made there before that time (as will be explained later, by themselves) exceeded the support with which your Majesty maintained the islands.  This was done by the kings, your Majesty’s father and grandfather, for two reasons:  in the first place, by their aiming at the glory of God and the spread of His holy gospel, since they enjoyed the title of patrons of the church, upon whom it would seem this obligation rests; in the second place, on account of the favorable situation of that post for obtaining from it more wealth than from all the rest of the Indias—­and if this has not hitherto been enjoyed the blame is not upon the country, but, for reasons which cannot be here set down, upon those who have governed it.

To the second reason—­that, as they say, much silver passes to the Filipinas and does not come to Espana—­it may be answered that the fact is that, to obviate this difficulty, your Majesty has ordered that the citizens of the Filipinas Islands, in order to support themselves, be permitted, in return for the merchandise which they send to Nueva Espana, to have sent back to them 500U [i.e., 500,000] pesos of eight reals; and in the course of this, it is said, a much greater quantity passes.  As it is an easy thing to increase the zeros in an account, in this manner they have increased it more than double and triple, basing their figures on what was written to this court by an auditor of the Filipinas, who was alleging services so that favors might be granted