Each one will cost
your Highness two hundred and fifty ducados to build; and will
with two-thirds as many or even fewer rowers, carry twice as
many soldiers as do the caracoas. The men are protected from sun
and shower in excellent quarters which neither the caracoas nor the
galleys have. They carry food for six months, a thing which those
other vessels cannot do. They are very swift sailers, so that there
is no ship that can pass them when there is not a contrary wind
that prohibits sailing. They respond so readily to the oar, that
while testing that ship before the governor and all Manila, against
the swiftest galley of all, I left the galley more than half-way
behind. They carry sufficient artillery to destroy the vessels of
all the enemies that we have there, except those of pirates when such
should go there. For the latter it is necessary to have large ships;
and it would be advisable to keep there a couple of fragatas like
those built in Habana by Pedro Melendes.
Those ships above mentioned are not only useful for war, but can
save your Highness many expenses in ships, in carrying food and the
tributes; for, in the time while I had it, about two months, until
after I had given it to the governor, it alone accomplished more than
did all the other vessels. Consequently, a vast sum can be saved,
and the soldiers will be more eager, if they find themselves in so
advantageous a vessel. Also the natives will be spared injuries;
and innumerable other benefits will follow, which, in order to avoid
prolixity, I shall refrain from mentioning.
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