In this your Majesty will save
a great sum of ducados, and the natives will be relieved of so much
hardship. For that a decree from your royal Council of Portugal is
needed, and it should be charged upon the governor of Filipinas to do
this with the mildness and prudence advisable. If it is desired it can
be easily effected, and it is of great importance. Of all this he has
more minutely treated in clause 7 (which corresponds to this clause)
in the memorial which he brings approved from Filipinas.
8. _Item_: He petitions your Majesty to do him the favor to order the
viceroy of Nueva Espana [91] not to allow a vessel to go thither from
Japon (which is a most serious evil), and to order that gate to be
closed; and, inasmuch as the Japanese do not know how to navigate
without a Spanish pilot and sailors, to have an edict published
forbidding such persons under severe penalties (which he [_i.e._,
Coronel] does not declare, because he is a priest) from sailing in
such ships to Nueva Espana. For that, in another guise, means to teach
a barbarous nation how to navigate, and is rash, and opens the gate
to many evils, for which afterward there will be no remedy. It will
even be advisable to order father Fray Luis Sotelo not to go to Japon,
for he was the one who began this, and it may be feared that he will
further it.
9. _Item_: There is no entrance to the city of Manila except by the
mouth of the bay, and the Dutch enemy is wont to seize that mouth,
and not allow any ship to enter or leave--as has happened thrice,
namely, the years of 10, 15, and 17--thereby placing the city in
great straits.
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