Consequently, not only for the said reasons, but because of the lack
of men among the natives in the said Filipinas Islands, it will
be highly important for the conservation of the islands for your
Majesty to order that no ships be built in them, since there are so
many places, so well provided in everything, as have been proposed,
to enable them to be built in Yndia.
On the route between Manila and the Malucas Islands is a port of the
above-mentioned island [i.e., Mindanao], called La Caldera. There the
boats put in to get water and wood. Formerly, before the alliance
between the natives there and the Dutch enemy, the vessels, ships,
and galleys put in there and went to get fresh supplies, both going
and coming. Now not only are they not permitted to obtain the said
supplies, but the vessel, galley, or patache, that puts in there
to get water, is surrounded by their caracoas, and its crew killed
and captured.
On the contrary, they give the Dutch enemy so friendly a reception that
the latter always keep their ships there, lying there in wait until
those of his Majesty, that carry the aid to the said Malucas, pass by.
In order to destroy that said island of Mindanao and its pirates,
without the necessity of spending for it anything from your Majesty's
royal treasury, it needs only your Majesty's orders to make slaves of
the said Mindanao natives of that island--since they are infidels;
and they have profaned the temples and committed many cruelties in
your Majesty's settlements along the coasts of those islands which
they have captured--and your Majesty's permission that all who desire
may take up arms against them, both the natives of the said islands,
and the Spaniards, at their own cost.
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